Movement to expand kosher to include moral standards stirs controversy

[struggle4progress]

by The Associated Press
Thursday April 09, 2009, 9:08 PM

... "It's a way to think about the food that ends up on your plate," said Rabbi Steven Rubenstein, of Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Mich. "Who produced it? How is the worker treated? How is the animal treated? What happens to the soil?"

The new movement has drawn criticism from some in the Orthodox community, who say the reformers are improperly mixing Jewish law with modern social movements. But a range of leaders say the new effort is rooted in the original intent of kashruth, Jewish dietary law ...

Rubenstein supports Hekhsher Tzedek, the kosher justice certification. It started after Morris Allen, a Conservative rabbi in Minnesota, read in the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, about poor working conditions inside the largest kosher plant in the United States.

Hekhsher Tzedek calls for placing a new symbol on food products that are produced in accordance with certain moral standards ...

http://www.mlive.com/living/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/04/movement_to_expand_kosher_to_i.html

[Meshuga]

1. Good, I am glad there is a new certification

Logically, halakhah standards for workers must be considered when dealing with laws of kashrut. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of following Jewish Law. So I don't understand the orthodox resistance to such proposal other than politics to establish them as the only authority when it comes to kashrut certification.

It would be nice if they had the drive to follow ethical laws in the same way they have for ritual law.

[struggle4progress]

2. "They"? Who is "they"?

[Meshuga]

3. I'm sorry, I was referring to the orthodox...

...who show resistance to the new certification. I was writing in a rush and didn't check to see if the post made sense. It is too late to edit the post now.