World

Ecology And Spirituality

Jewish food activists slaughter their own meat.

Sue Fishkoff

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Falls Village, Conn.

I

t's 9 o'clock on a foggy morning in

late September and two dozen young
Jews have gathered in a field to
watch nine goats get shechted — slaugh-
tered according to Jewish law.
Most are fellows in the three-month
Adamah Jewish environmental leader-
ship training program at the Isabella
Freedman Jewish Retreat Center studying
the connections among Jewish values,
organic farming and sustainable living.
They line up quietly about 20 feet away
from a wooden bench where the goats
will be led out. One sprinkles hay under-
neath the bench to absorb the blood. He
will cover the spot with fresh hay after
each slaughter, in accordance with the
prohibition against animals seeing the
blood of those slaughtered before them.
"I've been a vegetarian for seven years,
but I'm not against people eating meat:'
says 24-year-old Ashley Greenspoon of
Toronto, who admits to being a "little
nervous" about watching the slaughter.
"It's a part of our reality, and I think it's
very important for us to face it. So long
as there is going to be meat-eating in the
world, we need to take responsibility and
do it in a respectful way that honors life."
At the heart of the Adamah program,
and of eco-kashrut in general, is an
emphasis on providing for one's own
food needs as a counterbalance to large-
scale industrial food production. That's
not too difficult with fruits and veg-
etables: All that's needed is a backyard
garden and a farmers market.

Different Approach
Providing kosher meat outside the slaugh-
terhouse system is much more compli-
cated. Few American Jews are willing and
able to kill their own animals.
In the past two years, however, a hand-
ful of young Jewish food activists have
been spurred to action by the eco-food
movement and the charges against
Agriprocessors, the company that runs
the nation's largest kosher slaughter-
house.
Agriprocessors faces charges of labor
violations at its plant in Postville, Iowa,

A40

October 23 • 2008

Aitan Mizrahi and goats from his flock.

and has been the subject of numerous
allegations of inhumane treatment of
animals.
Inspired by similar initiatives in the
non-kosher food world, activists have
begun organizing their own kosher meat
and poultry operations using humanely
raised and killed animals. They say it
feels right from the perspective of both
food ethics and Jewish values.
"I started to care a lot about where
my family's food came from," says Maya
Shetreat-Klein, a Bronx, N.Y., pediatric
neurologist who in August launched
Mitzvah Meat, a cooperative for grass-
fed, humanely raised and slaughtered
kosher lamb and beef.
"I would go to my GSA' — shorthand for
center for community supported agricul-
ture — "and I would see everyone picking
up their naturally raised, grain-fed meat,

and there was none for the kosher folks:'
she says. "So I said to a kosher friend of
mine, `Why can't we do that?'"
Shetreat-Klein's is the third such
operation in the United States. The larg-
est is Kol Foods, a kosher beef and lamb
business run by Devora Kimelman-Block
of Silver Spring, Md., which might soon
launch a West Coast affiliate. A much
smaller initiative, the Brooklyn-based
Kosher Conscience, provides kosher tur-
keys at Thanksgiving.
The goats slaughtered in Connecticut
in September came from the flock of
31-year-old Aitan Mizrahi, who has been
raising goats for meat and dairy at Isabella
Freedman since 2006. He provided three
goats that were slaughtered and cooked
at the Hazon Jewish food conference last
December, setting Jewish food blogs atwit-
ter with postings for and against.

Easy Assessment
For Mizrahi, there is no controversy.
"There's an excitement about eating
what you grow, realizing that you can live
a happy and healthy life by providing
the majority of your own food:' he says.
"Knowing the animal you are eating, you
tend to eat less. You eat slower. Being an
omnivore is your choice, and being able
to do that in a respectful and humane
way is valuable'
The goats that morning were all male
— the females are kept for milking. Six
were purchased by three young men from
New York — two Jewish food activists
and an Orthodox rabbinical student.
They took home the kosher forequarters,
about 20 pounds per animal. The hind-
quarters, traditionally not sold as kosher
because of forbidden fats and sinews,
were given to non-Jewish friends.