Kosher, sustainable meat
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.
KOL Foods: 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.
Providing: Lamb, beef and pastured poultry
KOL Foods is looking forward to distributing nation-wide by 2010. Until then, our distribution area is from as far North as Maine, to as far South as Georgia, and as far West as Indiana. See the KOL Foods website for additional updates.Contact: info@kolfoods.com 888-366-3565
Hekhsher: OU (glatt kosher)
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.
Provides: Beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, cheese (seasonal), honey (seasonal)
Available in:
- New York
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
Contact: Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein
Hekhsher: Rabbi Boruch Lesches (Lubavitch) (glatt kosher)
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. Participants help with the kashering process and in return have the right to purchase meat. The shechita has Orthodox-certified supervision. We will have a few more chickens available in August, so if you would like to participate or simply learn more about LoKo, please contact Marion Menzin .
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 painlessly) and providing Kosher, ethical meat.
Providing: Beef and Poultry
Available in:
- New York Metropolitan area
Contact: Simon Feil
Hekhsher: private Hashkacha from the shochet
The Green Taam: Taam means both “taste” and “meaning” in Hebrew. We endeavor to offer a new taste in kosher food: the taste of pasture-raised chicken, duck and turkey. We also seek to elucidate the meaning – the Taam - of the sun rather than petroleum; of local, ongoing relationships with farmers and workers, rather than distance and anonymity; of small scale rather than industrial production; and of sustainable foods in healing ourselves and our environment.
Providing: Poultry
Available in:
- Beachwood, Ohio (suburbs of Cleveland)
Contact: Amalia Haas, 216-255-1343 TheGreenTaam@gmail.com
Hekhsher: The kashrut will be overseen by Rabbi Elly Jacobs of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
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.
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
