Comments on: Rebbe Pollan vs. Rebbe Industry

By: invisible_hand

invisible_hand — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:54:44 +0000

the kosher industry is just that - an industry. it looks out for itself, in terms of how much money it can make, and how it can have the market serve its needs.
and i say this as an (admittedly cynical) strict observer of kashrut.

By: bsci

bsci — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:37:29 +0000

he issue here is that much of the Kashrut industry is predicated on the fact that foods are made from a staggering lit of chemicals each of which needs to have assurance of kashrut.

I think you have it exactly opposite. It’s the chemicals that are almost always kosher and require minimal supervision. Someone just needs to look at a list. It’s more basic foods animal based gelatin or lard that require supervision. If anything maintaining a list of chemicals is an added expense for the kashrut industry. The profit for these organizations is sending people to factories to make sure kosher and non-kosher products stay separate and that kosher products use the correct foods.

I get the point you are trying to make, but, in this case, your issue seems to be factory vs. home cooking and this has nothing to do with the ingredients in the factory produced food.

By: Ketzirah Carly

Ketzirah Carly — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:18:13 +0000

See my problem with the whole thing is that they certify foods with Hydrogenated Oils — still. Maybe they didn’t know better at first, but how can that be “pure?”

By: Rabbi Avi Finegold

Rabbi Avi Finegold — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:08:08 +0000

I was using emulsifiers as a rhetorical device. I agree with you that eggs et. al. bind our foods together, they are foods in and of themselves and are not manufactured in a food chemical lab. it is these powders and liquids and goops that I and many others have a problem with. The issue here is that much of the Kashrut industry is predicated on the fact that foods are made from a staggering lit of chemicals each of which needs to have assurance of kashrut. when your grandmother cooked, wherever she lived, or even when we cook from scratch, there is minimal intervention from the kashrut industry and much of what we use does NOT need a hechsher. The food industry is exactly the opposite.

By: Eric Schulmiller

Eric Schulmiller — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:48:07 +0000

Like the previous poster said, every cook uses emulsifiers (egg, mustard, etc). Otherwise, how would anything stick together??

This whole “only what grandma did” part of Pollen’s shtick is a little weak. My grandma wouldn’t have known a big bunch of kale from high-fructose corn syrup, and I don’t think she ever ate Ethiopian, Thai, or Moroccan food, either. She used shmaltz (chicken fat), and lots of it. That doesn’t mean that this will be the cornerstone of my cuisine, too.

By: bsci

bsci — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:23:24 +0000

According to Rebbe Michael Pollan, food is defined as something your grandmother would recognize. I would bet a big bunch of kale that your grandmother didn’t use emulsifiers to make sure her cake was delicious.

egg can be an emulsifier. Gelatin is an emulsifier (often the source of kashrut problems in emulsifiers). Even mustard in salad dressings can be an emulsifier. Just because grandma might not have used the word “emulsifier” doesn’t mean she wasn’t using them all the time.

I also don’t get the general point of the post. The eat local movement theoretically could be a big threat to Kashrut organizations, but it’s unlikely that will ever take a huge share of the market. The desire to only buy raw foods and cook everything from scratch is a big threat to the kashrut organizations. As long as food is produced in factories whether they use chemicals or purely “natural” ingredients, there is a profitable role for the kashrut organizations to play.