The Environmental Ethicist-Round OneShalom and welcome to a special feature of Tikkun Tips. A few weeks ago I announced that I would be writing a column titled, “The Environmental Ethicist.” This week I will address one of the questions I received. Responses to other questions will appear in subsequent weeks. Feel free to send additional environmental queries my way, and from time to time, I will address them as well.
Betsy Teutsch writes…
How about researching the environmental subtleties of kosher chicken plants like Empire? A bunch of us are wondering about it from the point of tsar b'alei chaim, and also about the runoff et al.
This is an excellent question and one of serious debate within both Jewish environmental and animal rights circles. Your question addresses two distinct issues; animal cruelty and environmental impact, and while both are somewhat related, I believe they each need to be dealt with separately. It is also important to recognize that the enormity of this issue cannot be fully tackled within the context of this column. I will attempt to answer your questions, and raise some of my own, so that the dialogue can continue, not end. That said, let’s begin…
Growing up I was always taught that the Jewish slaughtering practices were the most humane manner of killing animals. The knife needs to be razor sharp with no glitches, and the throat is cut in a way to kill the animal instantly. Within the context of animal slaughter, this was explained as the most moral method.
Within the animal rights world it is not always seen this way. Modern methods such as stunning an animal before killing it, are thought to be less painful, but are forbidden by Jewish law, which demands that the animal be awake, healthy and moving. Furthermore, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 requires that no slaughtered animal may fall in the blood of a previously slaughtered animal. In order to comply with this regulation, while also working within the framework of Halacha, and maintaining an efficient (and therefore financially viable) operation, animals such as cattle are shackled and hoisted into the air prior to their slaughter. This method ensures that the animal does not come into contact with the blood of a previously slaughtered animal.
For the slaughtering of chickens, the practice is somewhat different, as chickens are much smaller and easier to handle. For chickens, the issue of tsar b'alei chaim may apply more to the process in which they are raised. Kashrut does not address this issue directly, with the exception of the injection of hormones. My understanding is that at the time of slaughter, an animal’s blood must be free of artificial additives such as hormones. Empire proudly states that their chickens are free of hormones, but when the issue was probed, it seems that the suppliers of their chicks may, in fact, use hormones. However, there is a window of time during which the hormones leave the bloodstream before the animal is killed.
On another note, Empire explains that they cannot let the chickens roam outside because, “Growing chicks cannot be exposed to litter, garbage, metals, or other substances found on ground outside the housing. Instead, all housing is completely sanitized between each flock, with birds free to roam inside the airy, spacious climate controlled housing.” While the chickens at Empire may be given room to wander (in stark contrast to the common practice of most factory farms which keeps chickens in small cages for the duration of their lives), they are kept indoors from the time of their arrival until their death. It is my belief that chickens like to spend some time outside, and the better question may be why can’t Empire create an outdoor space free of litter, garbage, metals or other hazardous material?
More generally, we would like to think that the laws of Kashrut being what they are, the supposed moral implications would stretch beyond the strict letter of the law, and be expanded to include raising animals in a moral and humane way. But this is not necessarily the case. One must keep in perspective that these laws were developed hundreds of years ago, well before the era of factory farms, hormone injections and processed and genetically modified feeds. One must wonder: if those practices had been prevalent at the time of the Talmud, would the rabbis have regulated them as well?
There is a movement of people who seek to expand the laws of Kashrut to address issues of tsar b'alei chaim, genetically modified foods and other environmentally troublesome practices. While certain methods of raising animals may be immoral, and even violate certain Jewish principles, it is important not to blur the lines between those principles and the explicit laws of Kashrut.
Addressing your environmental concerns is not much different from the environmental concerns around the non-kosher meat industry. While factory farms deplete the soil and create a tremendous amount of harmful runoff, that is only one side of the equation. I believe the bigger environmental impact stems from the flow of energy from the original producer, the plants, through the lines of consumers, in which humans stand at the end. According to the Audubon Society, roughly 70 percent of the grain grown and 50 percent of the water consumed in the United States are used by the meat industry. A Minority Staff of Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry report states the beef in just one Big Mac represents enough wheat to make five loaves of bread. (Source: Animal Waste Pollution in America: An Emerging National Problem, Minority Staff of Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, 104th Congress, Dec. 1997.)
In other words, the meat industry represents an extremely inefficient method of providing people with necessary nutrients. If the land used for raising meat was instead used to grow nutrient-rich and genetically-diverse crops, humans would be able to satisfy their needs with less land, water and soil, leaving more of these resources undisturbed in the present and available for future generations.
The environmental implications of eating meat go beyond the direct impact of the animals and farms on which they are raised. I believe that it is unethical to eat meat which is produced on large-scale factory farms, whether kosher or not. If we seek out meat that is naturally fed, allowed to range freely, and sustainably managed, then the issue becomes less of a global environmental concern, and more an individual decision centered around the moral implications of taking one life to sustain, or merely enhance, another.
The bottom line is that Empire, as are most meat companies, is in the business of providing hundreds of thousands of people with a product. It becomes crucial for them, as an industry competitor, to make wholesale supply efficient and financially viable. At this piont in time, there is no third-party verification of any of their claims, which means that there is still work to do for those who want to get at the truth. That said, perhaps the real issue is not whether kosher meat is held to higher moral and environmental standards than non-kosher meat, but whether we need to rethink our food distribution system altogether.
Signing off...Nati Passow
Teva Learning Center
307 7th Ave Suite #900
New York, NY 10001
teva@tevacenter.org
www.tevacenter.org
|
Kosher Alternatives
If you are interested in getting Kosher organic poultry, check out Wise Poultry
Like what you see here? Tikkun Tips is a project of the Teva Learning Center which relies on the support of individuals to bring our message to people throughout the country. Your help allows us to expand the scope of our programs and the numbers of people we reach. Please consider making a contribution to support our work. Support Teva
|
