Kosher, sustainable meat
This page is current as of September 2010
Kosher Meat Resources
Jews have been wrestling with how to eat meat in an ethical and holy way since the beginning of our history. From our shepherding forefathers to animal sacrifice in the Holy Temples, to the dominance of “glatt kosher,” and worker abuse at Agriprocessors, the issues abound.
What should “Kosher Meat” mean in the 21st century? Where is the intersection between kashrut laws, Jewish business ethics, and our modern, Jewish, environmental values? These pages are meant to be a starting point for the discussion about how Jews today are observing kashrut, sometimes challenging the mainstream Kosher meat industry as they bring together their ancient traditions and modern environmental sensibilities.
This homepage for the conversation about kosher meat is a collection of many of the resources that exist related to the contemporary issues. For some Jews, eating meat that has been slaughtered according halachic laws of kashrut is a necessary, but not always sufficient criteria for eating. There are other concerns halachic and otherwise that people consider when making the choice to eat meat.
Thinking about these issues? Want to continue the conversation and share your thoughts by writing a guest post? Contact editor@jcarrot.org.
Resources for finding ethical kosher meat
Past posts from The Jew & The Carrot
Texts on meat from Food for Thought
Resources for finding ethical kosher meat:
There is a growing demand for meat that is local, kosher, humanely raised and ethically slaughtered. Here are resources for you to make your search and your decision to eat meat in accordance with all of these values a little bit easier. There are always new findings and developments in this area – if you know of something not already listed please contact editor [at] jcarrot dot org and we will add it.
Green Pastures Poultry offers kosher pastured chicken, duck and turkey and free-range eggs. Pastured Poultry live outdoors, eating lush grasses and clover,exercising in the warm sun and resting at night. The birds are locally raised and gently nourised by fresh air and sunshine. This poultry is environmentally beneficial.The poultry is fresh and lean, bursting with delicious flavor and juices, vitamins and minerals. Available at CSAs and other locations in Northeast Ohio. Visit www.GreenPasturesPoultry.com.
Hekhsher: Kashrut overseen by Rabbi Elly Jacobs of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Products: Chicken, Duck, Turkey and Free-Range Eggs
Distribution: Northeast Ohio
Contact: Ariella Reback, GreenPasturesPoultry@gmail.com, 216-255-1343.
Grow & Behold Foods brings you delicious pastured meats raised on small farms nestled in the rolling hills of the Northeast. Our meats are produced in limited quantities to ensure that we adhere to the strictest standards of kashrut, animal welfare, worker treatment, and sustainable agriculture.
We do it right, so you can enjoy every bite.
Hechsher: Chicken produced under OU certification. Red-meat will be glatt kosher, hechsher TBD
Products: Poultry is available now! Beef, Lamb and Veal coming soon.
Available in: NY/NJ Metro Area, soon to be shipping nationwide
Contact: info@growandbehold.com; 888-790-5781
KOL Foods puts kosher meat and ethics on the same plate so you can feel good about the meat you eat. Everyday we work to create a new food system that supports sustainable animal production, treats farmers and workers fairly, and improves the health of families and communities. Online ordering of grassfed lamb and beef and pastured poultry available with shipment to your home.
Hekhsher: OU (glatt kosher)
Products: Lamb, beef and pastured poultry (chicken, turkey, duck)
Distribution: nation-wide.
Contact: info@kolfoods.com 888-366-3565
Kosher Conscience: The founding philosophy of Kosher Conscience is the humane treatment of the animal at every stage of life (free- or pasture-raised and grass fed; safely transported; slaughtered humanely) and providing Kosher, ethical meat. They also produce non-kosher meat under the name Moral Meat.
Hekhsher: private Hashgacha from the shochet
Products: Beef, lamb and poultry
Distribution:New York Metropolitan area including White Plains, Long Island, Teaneck, Manhattan and Brooklyn
Contact: Simon Feil
Kosherorganics.com: The mission of KosherOrganics.com is to contribute to this movement, not just in our kosher certification and advocacy of green products and organic and natural food for kosher consumers, but to be a source of information, education and support for the social, agricultural and business communities on a local and global scale. At Kosher Organics we support environmentally responsible initiatives to protect the earth and its inhabitants, and we donate funds to worthwhile organizations that benefit you, the place you live, and the environmental future for tomorrow. View their meat listings here.
LoKo is a new organization dedicated to providing Boston-area Jews with kosher, local, free-range, humanely raised chicken and meat. Our goal is to provide a more nutritious and humane source of kosher meat than is currently commercially available, and to educate Jews about where their meat comes from and how it is processed. The shechita has Orthodox-certified supervision. Please visit us at www.lokomeat.com to find out more.
Mitzvah Meat/Mindful Meat: Providing grass-fed and finished, naturally-raised, humanely-slaughtered meat to kosher (and halal/unkosher) consumers from local Hudson Valley farmers.
Hekhsher: Rabbi Boruch Lesches (Lubavitch) (glatt kosher)
Products: Beef, lamb, chicken, honey (seasonal)
Distribution: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachussets, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire
Contact: Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein
Red Heifer Farm: Red Heifer’s meats are produced on a beautiful 265 acre farm located on the South Bay of Lake Champlain in the Village of Whitehall, New York in bucolic Washington County. Our animals are raised by Rick Wilkins. Through Rick’s meticulous care of the animals we are able to offer the best tasting, sustainably-raised Kosher meat available in the New York City Area. We raise our animals the way the way they are supposed to live—eating grass, breathing fresh outdoor air and getting plenty of sunshine. Our stock is bred to taste the best on grass. Nothing can compare to our small-production, artisanal beef, chicken, lamb, goat and veal.
Hechsher: Rabbi Zvi Ashkenazi and Rabbi Pinkhas Iliasov
Products: Beef
Distribution: Available at the NYC Greenmarket at 97th Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam)—Fridays 8-1. Deliveries available in Manhattan during the week.
Contact: info@RedHeiferFarm.com | 866-476-6543
Past Posts from The Jew & The Carrot
We have gathered some personal stories about the process of slaughtering an animal with intention and in accordance with Jewish law.
Andrew Kastner – Thoughts on becoming a shochet
Roger Studley – Talking Turkey (Interview)
Anna Stevenson – Thoughts on the Turkey Shechting
Meat at the Hazon Food Conference
An immigration raid on the Agriprocessors Kosher slaughterhouses, operated by the Rubashkin family in Postville, Iowa spurred a boycott of Kosher meat and a broader conversation in the Jewish community about worker rights, industrial meat production and the definition of kosher (fit-to-eat) meat.
- Uri L’Tzedek is an Orthodox social justice organization guided by Torah values and dedicated to combating suffering and oppression. They took a lead role in the Agriprocessors boycott. For more information on their defense of workers rights in the slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa see this link.
- Magen Tzedek is the new ethical certification seal that will be introduced to the kosher food industry in the coming months by Hekhsher Tzedek a project of the Conservative movement to bringing Jewish values of fairness, compassion and justice in food production front and center to any consumer of kosher products. The beginnings of the Hekhsher Tzedek originated with Allen’s first trip to the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, IA.
- News and Views on Agriprocessors from the JCarrot archive.
Meat Resources and Texts from Food for Thought
Food For Thought on Kosher Slaughter
Food For Thought on Eating or Not Eating Meat
Kosher Meat in the News
Kosher Wars – New York Times, October 9, 2008
Making kosher food more sustainable, December 27, 2008
