Humane Slaughter and the Enduring Crisis of Kosher Beef since the 1970s

• In Event: Ethical Standards and the Kosher Meat Industry

Abstract

Since the mid-20th century U.S. kosher beef production has steadily declined as a proportion of total cattle slaughter. It has become a marginal product in the American economy, and often produced in small slaughterhouses with backward technology, sometimes not in compliance with humane slaughter standards. This paper will argue that these developments are intimately related – the decline and marginalization of kosher meat production has made it difficult to follow humane slaughter standards.

The first phase of kosher meat’s crisis was the gradual elimination of kosher meat production by the major packing firms; this process was largely complete by 1985. Distributors and communities seeking to obtain kosher meat had to rely on secondary meatpacking operations, often reliant on shackle and hoist methods. Successful efforts by Temple Grandin to persuade firms to invest in humane kosher slaughter technology had some success, but proved transitory in the larger firms as many closed during the turbulence that swept America’s meatpacking industry.

The second phase of kosher meat’s marginalization took place after 1985, when Jewish companies entered the business with the especially difficult challenge of producing GLATT kosher beef. As most of the meat they produced actually had to be sold in the non-kosher market, these companies were at a competitive disadvantage to the large firms that produced meat with lower costs. Hence these Jewish companies faced relentless pressure to reduce costs below those of their American competitors, either paying American workers less than already-low industry standards (Agriprocessor), or outsourcing production to other countries (Alle Processing), and also eschewing expensive investment in the humane slaughter technology.

The only kosher meat operation able to consistently achieve humane standards had a substantial non-Jewish market – the ConAgra slaughterhouses that provided beef for Hebrew National hot dogs. The economics were more favorable, the consumers less likely to be observant – and thus investment in the Grandin humane slaughter technology more feasible and desirable. Ironically, this meat ostensibly produced to a “higher standard” remained unacceptable to the mainstream Orthodox organization’s certifying kosher food, and thus an outlier to kosher food itself.

author

• Roger Horowitz, Hagley Museum and Library