The Eco-Kosher Movement Has a Conscience?

If you’re already annoyed for any reason, I advise not reading "Eco-Kosher Movement Aims to Heed Tradition, Conscience," by Alan Cooperman in today’s Washington Post. Net message: a kosher vegetarian woman, Devora Kimelman-Block, is "leading this meat thing," which is kosher happy meat.

Let’s deconstruct:

• Eco-kosher "combines traditional Jewish dietary laws with new concerns about industrial agriculture, global warming and fair treatment of workers." This is all fascinating considering we now know that the most effective way to curb global warming, combat unfair treatment of workers in slaughterhouses, and tackle concerns about industrial agriculture is to be a vegan. Going vegan deals with all of their problems simply. Easily. Effectively. And it doesn’t just make them a little better. It makes them disappear. Ec0-kosher, therefore, is nothing but a way to make money off of people’s ignorance about food, animal agriculture, global warming, and treatment of workers.
• I’d be remiss, and I’m sure you’d be disappointed, if I didn’t mention the reality that religious traditions, including the kosher kitchen, are nothing but superstition. The article even says that Jews "have a long tradition of investing food with religious meaning." They invest the food with the meaning; it isn’t really there. The same with how it is produced or prepared; there’s nothing inherently religious about it.
• Nigel S. Savage, who keeps kosher and whose website is devoted to "the new Jewish food movement," says: "I would no sooner bring eggs from caged, battery-farmed hens into my home than I would shrimp or pork." Now, remember that you’ve been thinking about this topic and learning about this topic and DOING SOMETHING about this topic for far longer than he has (I hope). Perhaps you could compose a very kind, very informative e-mail to him to alert him of the reality that there is no such thing as a humanely-produced egg. Not to mention that the idea that shrimp or pork are any different than cows or chickens is irrational. But I don’t think I’d raise that topic.
• Finally, we return to the vegetarian who’s leading this movement.

Since many eco-kosher Jews are reducing or eliminating meat from their diet, Kimelman-Block is faintly embarrassed to be moving in the other direction. But after 14 years of mostly vegetarian eating, with occasional fish for protein, she is excited about consuming small quantities of beef and chicken — as long as she knows its origin.

This reminds me that not everyone is a vegetarian because they don’t think we should eat animals or because they want to reduce suffering. For Kimelman-Block, the environment is the primary issue. But if it is, and she really wanted to do something about it, the answer is far simpler than starting a new business to promote a product that people were eliminating from their diets. She should be promoting veganism. I can come to no other conclusion.

UPDATE: I submitted the following comment at  Jcarrot.org, the website devoted to the eco-kosher effort, where they posted the article I refer to. (The comment could be gone by the time you get there, though it is in no way inappropriate or offensive.)

The best way to combat global warming, unfair treatment of workers in animal agriculture, and inhumane treatment of animals is to do what many Jews are already doing: eliminating animal products from their diets. There is no such thing as a humanely-produced egg. The idea that people can eat animal products and not feel like they are harming the environment, workers, animals or themselves, is an illusion. And the more people become convinced that that illusion is reality, the more the planet, the workers, the animals, and the people themselves, will suffer.

Leave a kind, diplomatic comment, perhaps with some references or stats or links to pages that might help educate the Jcarrot folks about the real deal regarding happy meat. They’re clearly setting out to do what they think is the right thing, but they’re not making all the connections or looking behind the labels. Remember your own new welfare days, if you had any, and how you thought what you were doing was best.