Gregory Visnyai 
A Correspondent 

You can expect to pay more this Thanksgiving for food—turkey in particular—as the price for fresh, boneless, skinless turkey breast has risen from last year’s price of $3.16 per pound to $6.70 per pound this year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The price increase, according to fb.com, is due to the bird flu as well as inflation in general. Not only Turkey prices have risen, but other retail foods as well have seen an 11.4% increase in price in August.

Rising Prices

Bennett Sulen, a student at LCCC studying communications, said that he hasn’t noticed the higher price for turkey yet. “But I do know that like a lot of like goods around Thanksgiving are definitely inflated…I can imagine it’s probably gone up just based on how much everything else has,” said Sulen.

For himself, Sulen said the price increase won’t affect him; yet, he said, “If I was in a situation where I was like literally on my own, and not really celebrating with my family, or if I was in charge of like cooking for a large group of people, I would probably get a different type of bird.”

Money squeeze

Reegan Anthony, a student at LCCC pursuing an Associate of Arts degree with a focus on social work, said that she has heard about the increased price.

She too said that the higher price won’t affect her personally, but she said, “If it were me doing it, it probably would change things.”

When thinking about how it will affect other people, Anthony said, “I think it can make it harder for people who have to do more budgeting, as far as Thanksgiving, because if you’re spending more money on one thing, you know, you have less to spend on another.”

“More expensive this year”

“You can find a butterball turkey still at a reasonable, budget-friendly price…if you wanted to buy organic—you know, heirloom breeds—it’s going to be more expensive this year,” said Bradley Ball, culinary program chef at LCCC.

Every time Ball goes shopping for food, he has felt the effect of the higher prices and said, “I see it every day…and it’s more money.”

Bigger struggle

Yet, Ball said that his culinary experience has helped him absorb the price and make every dollar go further. For other people, Ball said that people “…that already struggle with food insecurity are going to have a harder time. Like, the people that have a hard time are going to have a harder time.”

Turkey alternatives that are still appropriate for Thanksgiving he suggested were Cornish hens, ham, and the vegetarian option of a stuffed, whole-roasted pumpkin. “Thanksgiving is really about the sides, so you can skip the turkey all together and just have more sides,” said Ball.

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