The Butcher

A Kosher Way of Life
Source: Saveur.com

As direct descendants of kosher butchers, we're well aware of the ethics issues involved in ritual slaughter. Recently, the Jewish community has begun to acknowledge the same. The immigration raid in May of 2008 on the meat plant Agriprocessors Inc. placed a national spotlight on kosher slaughterhouses, uncovering, among other things, the abusive treatment of underage, undocumented workers. As well, Jonathan Safer Foer's latest book, Eating Animals (Little, Brown, 2009), about the ethics behind diets that include meat, has put the dilemma of keeping kosher at the forefront for many religiously minded Jews.

The Jew and the Carrot, a wonderful website that we turn to for many of our Jewish holiday recipes, has recently focused on ethical kosher eating. Here, you can find sources for sustainable meat raised on local farms and slaughtered by a shochet, a ritual slaughterer who is ethically compelled to treat the animals with respect and compassion. The site also includes personal stories and detailed descriptions of slaughtering practices and kosher dictums. This is required reading for any of us who choose to eat meat, even if that meat is pork.

Jessica and Joshua Applestone are the founders and owners of Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, New York Read all posts from The Butcher

The Other Extreme!

Cows Work Overnight to Create Milk That May Help Insomniacs Sleep

A German Company Has Patented a New Milk Product With High Levels of Sleep-Regulating Hormone Melatonin

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By MARY PLUMMER

LONDON Oct. 26, 2010

German cows are working nights to help insomniacs.

A herd of 1,400 cows is being milked between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. under the theory that they will produce more sleep inducing melatonin in their milk at a time when they are usually lying down in the dark.

To further boost the melatonin production, the bovines are fed clover and soothed under warm red lights to lower stress levels while being milked. And during the day when the weather is good, the pampered animals are turned out in a pen with grass and deep, cozy sand, which the workers call "cow beach."

By giving the cows special treatment, the Milchkristalle company says it's getting special milk with 10 times more of the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin than normal milk.

The milk is freeze-dried and turned into a product known as Nightmilk Crystals, which can be mixed with regular milk or with yogurt and consumed before going to bed.

"It tastes like milk, maybe a little bit stronger," said Maike Schnittger, a Hamburg resident who uses Nightmilk Crystals.

Unsafe at Any Meal

This is an excerpt taken from the New York Times dated July, 2010

The enormous rise in imported food also exposes American consumers to food safety lapses overseas. In recent years, China has been responsible for food scandals that bring to mind the United States in the days of Upton Sinclair: Chinese companies have been caught adding lead-based whiteners to pasta and selling beverages made with industrial alcohol. Two years ago, almost 300,000 Chinese infants were sickened by baby formula that had been adulterated with melamine, a cheap but toxic chemical. The overuse of antibiotics and pesticides in Chinese agriculture is rampant.

Despite those food safety problems, China has become the largest exporter of food to the United States after Canada and Mexico. About 60 percent of the apple juice in America — like peanut butter, a product consumed largely by children — now comes from China. This is yet another reason that passage of the F.D.A. modernization act is so urgent; it would, for the first time, subject foods from overseas to the same standards as those produced in the United States.

Launching Urban Eaters Co-Op

This idea of starting a consumption food co-op first came to me in the shower about a month ago. My husband and I had just finished watching Food Inc, a movie I'd wanted to put off seeing indefinitely, knowing what horrors would haunt me until I acted.
I'm always amazed how quietly we slip into the comforts of complacency. We do what we're told, we pay whatever the bill is, we eat what's placed in front of us, etc.. all the while a disapproving murmur, but we still do it.
"We eat what's placed in front of us" is what I want to talk about.