Happy Food Politics Thanksgiving!

Six items to cheer your holiday (or not):

I.  The cost of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner (in Iowa, at least).

II.  But the pie will cost less, says USDA.

III.  How much of that cost does the farmer get?  Not much, alas.

IV.  Williams Sonoma’s guide to portion sizes.  A half to a whole bottle of wine, per person?

V.  The #FoodNotPhones Thanksgiving challenge.  No phones at the Thanksgiving table; research says 68% of Americans permit phones during dinner (thanks to Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru, for this one)

Join the #FoodNotPhones Thanksgiving Challenge to Put Down Your Phone During Mealtime

VI.  Thanksgiving by the numbers (I can’t vouch for these.  Here is one source, unverified).

• 40 million – The staggering number of whole turkeys that Americans gobble up on Thanksgiving day.
• 40% – The percentage of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup annual sales during Thanksgiving.
• $325 – The average American’s spending over the five-day Thanksgiving period. It’s a perfect time for gratitude and, of course, a little shopping too!
• 10 hours – The time an average male would need to spend on the treadmill to burn off the 4,500 calories consumed during a Thanksgiving meal.
• 4 – the number of small towns in the U.S. named Turkey: Turkey Creek, Louisiana, Turkey Creek, Arizona, Turkey, North Carolina, and Turkey, Texas.
• $150,000 – the price tag of the world’s most expensive Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant.

Enjoy your dinner!

Enjoy the holiday weekend.  FoodPolitics takes the day off tomorrow and I hope you get to take it off too.