It’s Saturday night and for those who haven’t read so, the goat shechting has come and gone which as Leah said was a truly amazing experience. I had the questionable honor of video taping the entire process — from braying to dinner plate — the initial details of which I’ll save for my fellow brave compatriots on this blog team.

But of all the parts of the goat shechting, this Friday at Hazon’s Food Conference, I was less moved by the shechting itself and much, much more so by the moshgiach and shochet, Rabbi Mendel and Rabbi Yehuda respectively.

The overseeing moshgiach was none other than the head of the Orthodox Union’s (OU) kosher products division, the honorable Rabbi Seth Mendel. Rabbi Mandel answered tough questions about kashrut and humane treatment for over three hours straight.

Listening to Rabbi Mandel, I realized I was hearing words and concepts I’d not heard since business school. Rabbi Mendel spoke less frequently about Hashem, Torah, and tradition and more about competitive advantage, market share and consumer price pressure. It suddenly made sense that there are two primary forces at play in modern kashrut: not just God’s word but Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand.

Rabbi Mendel was enthusiastically in favor of social justice certifications by Jews and Jewish organizations – but objected their being provided by a rabbinic authority and certainly not done by the OU, lest these rules become confused with “kosher.” Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with him, the business reality must be answered by the social justice hekhsher and eco-kashrut proponents:

Regarding competitive advantage, he said the Conservative movement’s rabbis are not experts on kashrut, meaning simply that the hundreds of kashrut authorities are entirely orthodox. Conservatives have nothing comparative upon which to draw kashrut experience. The tzedek hekhsher, he said, should stick to ethics which they may (and I believe he meant this seriously) be much more endowed to certify, leaving kosher meat to the orthodox. This is about competitive advantage, not God.

Regarding market share, Rabbi Mandel asked attendees what percentage of meat in America is kosher. 20? 10? The answer: 2%. No kosher market pressure, he effused, will be responsible for changing animal treatment standards of the meat industry. Frustrated advocates of the tzedek hekhsher insisted that something was better than nothing. He demurred. The majority of kosher industry is subsidized by the non-kosher industry in that kosher authorities can hekhsher a percentage of the output (very small) without having to own factories. Their small share is growing, but it still just a drop in the bucket of America’s food system.

Regarding consumer price pressure, he explained that major manufacturers, like Rubashkin’s, are not in the market for high-quality meat – such as implied by the tzedek hekhsher. “Cheap, kosher meat,” he said, “is what they produce. Cheap, kosher meat.” Few major kosher meat producers would invite further certification, he explained, if it meant an increase decrease in the bottom line. Some, maybe many, he speculated, would do it – those who market to a higher-purchasing and more discriminating consumer, but not “Shmuel from Ohio” who may or may not buy kosher meat depending on the price difference between kosher meat and its non-kosher equivalent.

This is not to say that the Conservative movement couldn’t train hundreds of Conservative shochetim (if indeed they wish to enter the kosher slaughter end of the business, or leave that to the orthodox). And it’s not to say that the struggle for tzedek hekhshers will make only a 2% impact on the total market. (PETA certainly seems to feel attacking kosher meat is worth concerted attention.) And it’s not to say that industries cannot be forced to raise their standards via public outrage. But I am indeed saying that these very practical questions must be answered before the rubber his the road, to make good intentions executable.

But there is always, “the other hand,” a favorite phrase of economists. Whereas Rabbi Mendel was ethically encouraging while simultaneously halakhically frustrating, our shochet, Rabbi Yehuda ben Chimoun, was phenomenal and his final advice to us spoke to our hopes to change the industry…

To be continued tomorrow in Part II.