By KIKI SIDERIS and CALEIGH WELLS, Associated Press

A major highlight of Thanksgiving is the menu, but the big meal can come with a lot of wasted food. Experts say a pinch of extra planning can ensure more gets eaten.

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Roughly 320 million pounds (145 million kilograms) of food will be wasted at Thanksgiving this year, according to ReFED, a nonprofit that tracks food waste. ReFED says that’s largely because people prepare more food than is needed for the meal and then don’t finish the leftovers.

“That is essentially like five meals each for all of the food insecure people in the U.S.,” said Yvette Cabrera, food waste director at Natural Resources Defense Council.

It’s also a problem because most of that waste ends up in landfills, where it releases the potent planet-warming gas methane, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But a lot of those emissions are avoidable.

Here are some tips for a climate-smarter Thanksgiving meal without ditching tradition.

Curbing waste starts at the store

Chef and cookbook author Joel Gamoran, who focuses on cooking with food scraps, says the key to cutting Thanksgiving waste starts before you even turn on the oven.

FILE – Cans of cranberry sauce line a turkey display case at Bongi’s Turkey Roost in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Nov. 22, 2022, in Duxbury, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

He recommends a quarter pound of cooked turkey per person and about a fistful — or half a cup — of each side dish per person. Cabrera said the most wasted foods are typically turkey and dairy products such as milk or cream bought for recipes.

When you’re buying a whole bird, you should factor in the weight of the bones and giblets. The Natural Resources Defense council’s food estimation tool recommends 0.75 pounds per person.

Cabrera also recommends buying food in the grocery store that’s close to its expiration date, or produce that’s misshapen or unattractive, because those are more likely to go unsold and be discarded.

Cooking with common food scraps

Lots of food gets wasted because home cooks don’t think to use it.

“It’s OK to make the whole bird,” Gamoran said. “But have a plan for how you’re going to take advantage of that later on. What are you going to do with the carcass, all that extra meat?”

He likes to make turkey stock with the carcass by covering it in a pot with cold water, bringing it to a boil and then simmering it for two hours. You can fold that stock into mashed potatoes, use it to thicken soup, or freeze it for months.

Gamoran’s favorite trick for the rest of the scraps is to use them like ingredients, not trash.

“Carrot tops are like an herb,” he said. “You can treat it like basil or parsley and make a really beautiful pesto out of it, and then put them in ice cube trays to freeze them. Those go really nice in stir fries and salads and soups.”

He’ll also roast butternut squash shells, cover them with vinegar and strain them out after a day for a rich umami vinegar that can be used in cooking.

Potato skins can be tossed in oil and paprika, air fried and turned into potato chips or croutons.

Onion peels can be dried in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit (94 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes, then ground in the food processor for homemade onion powder. This method also works with garlic skins.

Getting creative with leftovers

For many, leftovers are one of the perks of hosting Thanksgiving. They can also be given a second life.

Gamoran says mashed potatoes can be transformed into breakfast foods like waffles and pancakes, or you can make potato bread by adding flour and yeast.

If you get sick of sliced turkey, Gamoran recommends using the leftover meat for meatballs or patties by chopping it in a food processor, adding an egg and then baking it.

If you want to get really creative, pumpkin pie can be made into a savory curry by adding sauteed onions and spices. And cranberry sauce can be added to smoothies, or even ketchup and mustard for a tangy twist.

If it sounds overwhelming to launch into new recipes just after the holiday, Cabrera recommends freezing leftovers. She said it’s important to create space in the freezer before Thanksgiving starts.

Home-cooked food doesn’t come with easy expiration dates. Cabrera said that’s what your senses are for.

“Smell it, look at it, inspect it, maybe taste a little bit to make sure it’s good to eat,” she said.

There are some scraps, such as eggshells, that just don’t have much culinary value. And if, despite all your best efforts, the green bean casserole in the back of the fridge goes bad, there’s still one final move to keep it out of the landfill: composting.

“Having a plan for what you’re going to do with anything that’s not able to be eaten is going to be really critical to reducing those kind of end-of-life emissions on food that you couldn’t eat,” she said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Writer

CHELSEA, Mich. (AP) — Old Brick Farm, where Larry Doll raises chickens, turkeys and ducks, was fortunate this Thanksgiving season.

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Doll’s small farm west of Detroit had no cases of bird flu, despite an ongoing outbreak that killed more than 2 million U.S. turkeys in the last three months alone. He also avoided another disease, avian metapneumovirus, which causes turkeys to lay fewer eggs.

“I try to keep the operation as clean as possible, and not bringing other animals in from other farms helps mitigate that risk as well,” said Doll, whose farm has been in his family for five generations.

But Doll still saw the impact as those diseases shrank the U.S. turkey flock to a 40-year low this year. The hatchery where he gets his turkey chicks had fewer available this year. He plans to order another 100 hatchlings soon, even though they won’t arrive until July.

“If you don’t get your order in early, you’re not going to get it,” he said.

Thanksgiving costs vary

The shrinking population is expected to cause wholesale turkey prices to rise 44% this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Despite the increase, many stores are offering discounted or even free turkeys to soften the potential blow to Thanksgiving meal budgets. But even if the bird is cheaper than last year, the ingredients to prepare the rest of the holiday feast may not be. Tariffs on imported steel, for example, have increased prices for canned goods.

How common Thanksgiving food items have changed in price since 2024. (AP Digital Embed)

As of Nov. 17, a basket of 11 Thanksgiving staples — including a 10-pound frozen turkey, 10 Russet potatoes, a box of stuffing and cans of corn, green beans and cranberry sauce – cost $58.81, or 4.1% more than last year, according to Datasembly, a market research company that surveys weekly prices at 150,000 U.S. stores. That’s higher than the average price increase for food eaten at home, which rose 2.7% in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Datasembly showed a 2% decline in the retail price of a 10-pound turkey as of Nov. 17. Pricing out Thanksgiving meals isn’t an exact science, and the firm’s tally differed from other estimates.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, which uses volunteer shoppers in all 50 states to survey prices, reported that Thanksgiving dinner for 10 would cost $55.16 this year, or 5% less than last year. The Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, using NielsenIQ data from September, estimated that feeding 10 people on Thursday using store-brand products would cost $80 this year, which is 2% to 3% lower than last year’s estimate.

Potatoes are on display at a Meijer store Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Canton Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

Tempting turkey prices

Grocery chains are also offering deals to attract shoppers. Discount grocer Aldi is advertising a $40 meal for 10 with 21 items. Kroger said shoppers could feed 10 people for under $50 with its menu of store-brand products.

Frozen turkeys are on display at a Meijer store Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Canton Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump touted Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal basket, which he said was 25% cheaper than last year. But that was because Walmart included a different assortment and fewer products overall this year.

“We’re seeing some promotions being implemented in an effort to draw customers into the store,” David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University, said.

That’s despite a sharp increase in wholesale turkey prices since August. In the second week of November, frozen 8-16 pound hens were averaging $1.77 per pound, up 81% from the same period last year, according to Mark Jordan, the executive director of Leap Market Analytics, which closely follows the poultry and livestock markets.

Avian viruses are the main culprit. But another reason for turkey’s higher wholesale prices has been an increase in consumer demand as other meats have gotten more expensive, Jordan said. Beef prices were up 14% in September compared to last year, for example.

“For a big chunk of the population, they look at steak cuts and say, ‘I can’t or I don’t want to pay $30 a pound,’” Jordan said.

That’s the case for Paul Nadeau, a retired consultant from Austin, Texas, who plans to smoke a turkey this week. Nadeau said he usually smokes a brisket over Thanksgiving weekend, but the beef brisket he buys would now cost more than $100. Turkey prices are also up at his local H-E-B supermarket, he said, but not by as much.

“I don’t know of anything that’s down in price since last year except for eggs,” Nadeau said.

Tariffs and weather

Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are also raising prices. Farok Contractor, a distinguished professor of management and global business at the Rutgers Business School, said customers are paying 10 cents to 40 cents more per can when companies pass on the full cost of tariffs.

Tariffs may be partly to blame for the increased cost of jellied cranberry sauce, which was up 38% from last year in Datasembly’s survey. But weather was also a factor. U.S. cranberry production is expected to be down 9% this year, hurt by drought conditions in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Illinois, where most of the country’s canning pumpkins are grown, dry weather actually helped pumpkins avoid diseases that are more prevalent in wet conditions, said Raghela Scavuzzo, an associate director of food systems development at the Illinois Farm Bureau and the executive director of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. Datasembly found that a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix cost 5% less than last year.

Farm to table

Back at Old Brick Farm, which has been in his family since 1864, Doll walked among his turkeys the week before Thanksgiving, patting their heads as they waddled between their warm barn and an open pasture. In a few days, he planned to deliver them to an Amish butcher.

Larry Doll interacts with turkeys on his farm Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Sylvan Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder) _

Doll sold all 92 turkeys he raised this year, with customers paying $6.50 per pound for what many tell him is the best turkey they’ve ever tasted. He enjoys a little profit, he said, and the good feeling of supplying a holiday meal.

“I just love it, to think that, you know, not only are we providing them food, but the centerpiece of their Thanksgiving dinner,” he said.

Associated Press Video Journalist Mike Householder contributed.

By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press

European officials welcomed Monday what they said were steps in the right direction at talks in Geneva on U.S. peace proposals seen as heavily favoring Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, but they offered few details and warned the discussions still have a long way to go.

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“The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on social platform X about Sunday’s meeting in Switzerland.

The talks went over a 28-point peace proposal presented last week by the United States that triggered alarm in Kyiv and European capitals by heavily favoring Moscow’s demands.

The plan pressed Ukraine to consent to handing over some of its territory to Moscow and slashing the size of its army, leaving it vulnerable. The proposal also sought Europe’s agreement that Ukraine will never be admitted into the NATO military alliance, though the alliance has previously said Ukraine is on an “irreversible path” to membership.

The surprise emergence of the peace plan coincided with a bleak period for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the war less than three months shy of its fourth anniversary.

It is under severe strain on the front line against Russia’s bigger army, it is short of money, and Zelenskyy is trying to defuse a major corruption scandal that has tainted his government.

Talks offer hope

The Geneva meeting offered some hope for Kyiv. “Diplomacy has been reinvigorated, and that’s good. Very good,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday.

It wasn’t clear whether the talks would continue on Monday.

Russian officials still haven’t seen the revised peace plan text since amendments were made over the weekend, a Kremlin spokesperson said Monday.

Dmitry Peskov added that there was currently no plan in place for U.S. and Russian delegations to meet this week, but that the Russian side remained “open for such contacts.”

German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who directed the talks in Switzerland, “made decisive positive contributions to ensuring that this plan can be accepted by both the European and Ukrainian sides.”

“I would like to say that all issues concerning Europe or NATO have been removed from this plan, which is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday,” he told public broadcaster Deutschlandradio.

Rubio said Sunday the talks were “very worthwhile” and constituted the most productive day in “a very long time.”

“I feel very optimistic that we can get something done,” Rubio said.

Turkey is also hoping to build bridges between Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin was to speak by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said.

Erdogan’s office said Sunday that the two leaders would discuss a deal from 2022, which allowed Ukraine to safely ship exports of grain via the Black Sea. Moscow refused to extend the deal a year later, saying agreements to ease Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.

Russian drones kill 4 in Ukraine

Meanwhile, the grim reality of war still cast a pall over Ukraine as Russian forces kept up their deadly and devastating strikes on civilian areas.

A man hugs his children as they react to the death of their mother killed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Russian drones hit residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city overnight, killing four people and wounding 13, including two children, authorities said.

Eight residential buildings, an educational facility and power lines were damaged in the attack, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office published photos showing homes on fire, rubble scattered across backyards and firefighters and war crimes prosecutors working on site.

Ukraine’s air force says Russia fired 162 strike and decoy drones over the country overnight.

Russia also resumed its nighttime drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilian and port infrastructure close to Romania’s border, the NATO member’s defense ministry said Monday.

Romania scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s in response to drones near its border, the ministry said.

Harriet Morris in Tallinn, Estonia; Gerald Imray in Johannesburg, South Africa; Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin; Sam McNeil in Brussels; and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

By REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is set to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday by designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization. But the entity that the U.S. government alleges is led by Maduro is not a cartel per se.

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The designation is the latest measure in the Trump administration’s escalating campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. In previewing the step about a week ago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, of being “responsible for terrorist violence” in the Western Hemisphere.

The move planned Monday comes as Trump evaluates whether to take military action against Venezuela, which Trump has not ruled out despite bringing up the possibility of talks with Maduro. Land strikes or other actions would be a major expansion of the monthslong operation that has included a massive military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and striking boats accused of trafficking drugs, killing more than 80 people.

Venezuelans began using the term Cartel de los Soles in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had grown rich from drug-running. As corruption later expanded nationwide, first under the late President Hugo Chávez and then under Maduro, its use loosely expanded to police and government officials as well as activities like illegal mining and fuel trafficking. The “suns” in the name refer to the epaulettes affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.

The umbrella term was elevated to a Maduro-led drug-trafficking organization in 2020, when the U.S. Justice Department in Trump’s first term announced the indictment of Venezuela’s leader and his inner circle on narcoterrorism and other charges.

“It is not a group,” said Adam Isaacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America organization. “It’s not like a group that people would ever identify themselves as members. They don’t have regular meetings. They don’t have a hierarchy.”

Trump’s expansion of terror label to cartels

Up until this year, the label of foreign terrorist organization had been reserved for groups like the Islamic State or al-Qaida that use violence for political ends. The Trump administration applied it in February to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and other activities.

The administration blames such designated groups for operating the boats it is striking but rarely identifies the organizations and has not provided any evidence. It says the attacks, which began off the coast of Venezuela and later expanded to the eastern Pacific Ocean, are meant to stop narcotics from flowing to American cities.

But many — including Maduro himself — see the military moves as an effort to end the ruling party’s 26-year hold on power.

Since the arrival of U.S. military vessels and troops to the Caribbean months ago, Venezuela’s U.S.-backed political opposition also has reignited its perennial promise of removing Maduro from office, fueling speculation over the purpose of what the Trump administration has called a counterdrug operation.

Trump, like his predecessor, does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president.

Maduro is on his third term in office after ruling-party loyalists declared him the winner of last year’s presidential election despite credible evidence that the opposition’s candidate defeated him by a more than 2-to-1 margin. He and senior officials have been repeatedly accused of human rights violations of real and perceived government opponents, including in the aftermath of the July 2024 election.

Maduro’s government in a statement Monday categorically denied the existence of the cartel, describing the Trump administration’s accusation as a “ridiculous fabrication” meant to “justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela.”

Hegseth says designation offers ‘new options’

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the upcoming designation of Cartel de los Soles will provide a “whole bunch of new options to the United States” for dealing with Maduro. But Hegseth, speaking in an interview with conservative news outlet OAN, did not provide details on what those options are and declined to say whether the U.S. military planned to strike land targets inside Venezuela.

“So nothing is off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table,” he said.

Trump administration officials have signaled that they find it difficult to see a situation in which Maduro remaining in power could be an acceptable end game. But as Trump considers an array of military and non-military options, including covert action by the CIA, for next steps, there is strong belief inside the administration that Maduro’s rule “is not sustainable,” according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter.

The official added that Trump has been keenly listening to his intelligence team, which has reported to him that chatter picked up inside Venezuela indicates growing anxiety from Maduro and other high-level Venezuelan officials as the U.S. strikes continue. Trump, the official said, is “very content and satisfied” for the moment with the strikes’ impact.

All the while, pleas from Maduro and others close to the Venezuelan leader to speak directly to the administration, relayed through various intermediaries and channels, seem to be more frantic, the official said. But Trump has not sanctioned any intermediaries to speak to Maduro on behalf of the U.S. administration.

Indictment alleges conspiracy to ‘flood’ US with drugs

The 2020 indictment accused Maduro, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, among others, of conspiring with Colombian rebels and members of the Venezuelan military for several years “to flood the United States with cocaine” and use the drug trade as a “weapon against America.” Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer.

Before laying down weapons as part of a 2016 peace deal, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, regularly used the porous border region with Venezuela as a safe haven and hub for U.S.-bound cocaine shipments — often with the support or at least consent of Venezuelan security forces. Dissidents continued the work. Colombia’s National Liberation Army guerrilla is also involved in the illegal trade.

Maduro has denied the charges. The U.S. Justice Department this year doubled to $50 million the reward for information that leads to Maduro’s arrest.

Maduro has insisted that the U.S. is building a false drug-trafficking narrative to try to force him from office. He and other government officials have repeatedly cited a United Nations report that they say shows traffickers attempt to move only 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia through Venezuela.

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Cartel de los Soles in July, saying Maduro and his top allies had bent the power of the Venezuelan government, military and intelligence services to assist the cartel in trafficking narcotics to the U.S.

U.S. authorities also alleged Maduro’s cartel gave material support to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa cartel, both of which were among the organizations that the U.S. designated as foreign terror organizations in February.

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.