Federal Reserve Nudges Americans To Swap Turkey For Soy At Thanksgiving

In a bizarre tweet, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis suggested that soy is a more economically efficient Thanksgiving meal option than turkey.

“A Thanksgiving dinner serving of poultry costs $1.42,” said a tweet discussing a Federal Reserve Economic Data blog post. “A soybean-based dinner serving with the same amount of calories costs 66 cents and provides almost twice as much protein.”

The blog post likewise emphasizes the nutritional benefits of soy:

Now for the main course: turkey (i.e., poultry) or tofurkey (i.e., soybeans)? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, roasted turkey has almost 3 times the caloric value and 1.5 times the protein value of an equivalent serving of fried tofu by weight. Between 1990 and the time of this writing, the average global price of poultry has been 6 times higher than the price of soybeans.

As of the third quarter of 2021, a hearty Thanksgiving dinner serving of turkey costs $1.42. A tofurkey (soybean) dinner serving with the same amount of calories costs $0.66 and provides almost twice as much protein. Keep in mind that this plant-based meal would be almost 3 times larger by weight than the poultry-based meal and may either keep you at the dinner table longer or provide you with more leftovers. Of course, our calculations here don’t include the time value, energy costs, and additional ingredients required to cook the meals.

Conservatives on social media were not enthused by the Fed’s tweet. – READ MORE