In his recent blog post
the honorable Rabbi David Rosen, a man I greatly admire, asks a
provocative question, “Is any meat today kosher?” While never fully
addressing the question posed in the article’s title he answers by
advocating for Jews to eat more plants and fewer animal products. He
also encourages Rabbinic figures to speak out about the abuses of the
factory farm system and to advocate for plant-based diets. The Rabbi’s
description of factory farming is disturbing, accurate, and astute. What
Rabbi Rosen fails to do is present a path to resist the cruelty of
factory farming while continuing to eat meat—and it is on this point
that I wish to respectfully challenge him.
Rabbi
Rosen and I agree that there can be no doubt about the cruel and
immoral nature of the factory farm system. Through my own experiences
growing up on an Israeli factory farm, working as a shochet (kosher
slaughterer) in an industrial beef plant in the midwest, and now working
as an animal welfare advocate at the Jewish Initiative For Animals (JIFA),
I have come to know the factory farmed industry first hand. My
colleagues and I at JIFA are all staunchly opposed to factory farming
regardless of the kosher status of the meat it produces, which is not an
issue we feel qualified to comment upon.
That said, I question why the only alternative
to factory farming that Rabbi Rosen embraces is a move towards
plant-based diets. The easiest way to avoid factory farming while
keeping kosher may be to choose plant-based, but it is not the only way.
For example, the Rabbi failed to mention a
once-common kosher meat product that just became available again for the
first time in over 50 years, American Poultry Association
(APA)-certified heritage chicken. In his post the Rabbi correctly states
that “Chickens in today’s factory farms grow three times as fast as
they did fifty years ago as a result of selective breeding programs and
the use of antibiotics” and that “This leads to crippling bone disorders
and spinal defects causing acute pain and difficulty in moving.” This
cruel and commonplace practice of breeding chickens and turkeys to grow at an abnormal
rate is of great concern to us at JIFA and addressing this problem was
our first priority when founding the organization a little over a year
ago.
Since then, we’ve worked with two kosher meat distributors, KOL Foods and Grow and Behold, to help bring to market the first commercial run of certified heritage and certified kosher chicken in decades. These APA certified heritage breed birds are raised under robust animal welfare standards and
come from genetic lines that can be traced back to before the advent of
factory farming. They grow at a healthy and natural rate, reaching a
normal slaughter weight of 5 pounds after a minimum of 112 days of
growth. This is in contrast to the industrial Cornish Cross chicken,
which typically takes only 42 days to get the same weight and, as a
result, suffers from unnecessary and painful problems with skeletal
development, organ function, obesity, and more.
There are also other higher welfare products
that the Rabbi failed to mention. For example, KOL Foods deserves
special recognition for being the only national purveyor of domestically
farmed 100% grass-fed kosher beef.
Grass-fed cattle take longer to raise but are able to live healthy and
natural lives, totally removed from the factory farmed system. The fact
that KOL is the only distributor of this product shows that this is a
sector of the industry that needs more caring kosher consumers on its
side.
Perhaps Rabbi Rosen’s most controversial
statement is that“responsible rabbinic leadership should be advocating a
plant based diet as much as possible, as the most kosher diet available
for most people today.” I fear that this suggestion forgets the
realities of the worldwide Jewish community. Many of us, myself
included, feel that animal products make up an important part of our
diets and is crucial for our health. To propose that Rabbinic
authorities advocate for a plant based diet as the only alternative to
factory farming and not mentioning any higher welfare options leaves the
vast majority of the kosher-keeping population feeling as if they have
little to do but continue purchasing factory farmed products.
I also believe that Rabbi Rosen doesn’t go
nearly far enough in advocating for institutional-level change in buying
practices. If the membership of a Jewish institution finds factory
farming to be cruel and immoral then their concerns can be turned into
action by applying those concerns to an institutional food policy that
takes these serious matters into account. This is why the Jewish
Initiative for Animals has made it a top priority to work with Jewish institutions to create ethical food buying policies that address animal welfare.
If you keep kosher and are concerned about the
conditions described in the Rabbi’s article than there are many
concrete steps you can take to fight factory farming. Here are a few
suggestions:
- Eat fewer animals, or none at all.
- If you buy chicken, buy certified heritage kosher chicken.
- If you buy beef, buy 100% Grass-fed Kosher Beef.
- Join the movement to eat certified higher welfare eggs, or try an egg alternative.
- If in Israel you can purchase Hai Bari certified products.
- But more than all the things mentioned above, the way to supersize your impact on the kosher meat industry is to work with your local Jewish institution to create a simple and effective food buying policy that takes animal welfare into account.
Advocating for plant-based diets as the only
alternative to the factory farm system is not the way to most
successfully fight its extreme cruelty. Even the great Rabbi Avraham
Isaac Kook, mentioned at the end of Rabbi Rosen’s article, was known to
eat some meat on Shabbat and holidays. If that great Rabbi, who
advocated for a vegetarian diet, couldn’t make a full transition we
certainly cannot expect the millions of everyday Jews throughout the
world to become vegan overnight.
I believe that we can all play a vital role in
the fight against factory farming. I invite Rabbi Rosen to join me and
the diverse group of caring individuals that make up the Jewish
Initiative For Animals in widening the tent and offering a path for each
and every individual that wishes to make this world a more humane place
for all of God’s creations.
Yadidya Greenberg
Yadidya Greenberg serves as the Kosher Meat & Animal
Welfare Specialist at the Jewish Initiative for Animals, where he works
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