A few years ago, I wrote a post to my student pulpit trying to explain the problems of Rubashkin meat and the AgriProcessors company in Postville, Iowa. I knew full well that, in my small congregation, probably only 3 or 4 families out of 45 kept kosher to any degree, but I wrote it anyways, thinking 'Hey, maybe people will think about what they're eating'.
I've been following the Rubashkin scandal for years now. Which one, you ask? The one where their shechita is cruel to animals? Their below industry standard pay and worker conditions? Their slow monopolization of the entire kosher meatpacking industry? Or their demolishing the way of life in a small Iowa town? Rubashkin is pretty much synonymous with all that is shonder. (Is that how it's spelled?)
Back then, in 2004, I suggested to my congregation to avoid eating Rubashkin beef, not knowing that Agriprocessors sold beef under the labels Aaron’s Best, Aaron’s Choice, European Glatt, Nevel, Shor Habor, Rubashkin’s, Supreme Kosher, and David’s (I've eaten 5 of those). I suggested for chicken they switch to Empire, which is still a good alternative, or Wise Organic. But for beef, the options are limited.
Hebrew National is a good option, yet a lot of observant Jews are unhappy with the standards kept by triangle-k. Responding to a student's claim that Hebrew National had switched from it's own hechsher to the triangle-k, one of my rabbaim once remarked 'Solving your kashrut problem with triangle-k is like solving your day-care problem with Michael Jackson'. I don't necessarily agree, but you gotta admit, that is pretty funny.
Regarding their monopolization and it's affect on the rest of the kosher world, the Forward reported
The company's business model has been economically successful. AgriProcessors is the only kosher slaughterhouse in America producing both beef and poultry. While AgriProcessors has been expanding steadily, its closest competitor in the poultry industry, Empire Kosher, recently fired employees and cut back operations. Union leaders at Empire Kosher said that the cutbacks were necessary because Empire pays its lowest-ranking unionized employees close to $3 more an hour from the outset than AgriProcessors' lowest employees, and provides full benefits.
So what's a kosher, social justice-y yid to do? I couldn't go vegetarian. That seems unfair. I grew up not keeping kosher. I've given up so much for this God of mine, but hamburgers too? No way. I suppose I could just start eating only chicken, but, man, that's a tough sacrifice too.
On the East Coast, it seems J.W. Treuth & sons provides kosher meat from their own packing facilities, certified by Star-K. Lastly, I looked on Wise Organic's website; they list under the Beef section the hopeful 'Coming soon'. Not soon enough for me.
BTW, big props to failed messiah and kol raash gadol for writing outstanding posts about Rubashkin abuses. Now if there were only alternatives so I could have some guilt-free brisket.
UPDATE- the Failed Messiah himself gave me two good alternates for kosher stuff:
http://www.premiumkoshermeats.com/
http://www.kosherbison.com/generic1.html;$sessionid$ZMFDKJAAABA4HTZENUGUTIWPERWRJPX0
Of course, the latter is for bison, if you're into that.
