WOW!!! What an Eye Opener!!!

So, I just spoke to a fellow over at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. For those who don't know, Agriprocessors produces Rubashkin meats and Aaron's Rubashkin meats (and poultry). We spoke for about twenty minutes about the cost of kosher meat and why it's so high. Now, I still don't agree that it should be that expensive, but it is, at least for the glatt.

Here are the stats he gave me: Agriprocessors slaughters about five hundred (500) head of cattle a day. Of those, only 25% are KOSHER, glatt and non-glatt included. That's about 125 head of actually kosher cattle. Of those, only about 30%, which is no more than about 40 heads of cattle, are glatt. Then, glatt or not, they have to get rid of the back end of the cow because for some idiotic reason, Ashkenazim don't "hold" from the Mesora of Traiboring the Gid HaNasheh.

So, in a month, only about 120 cows shechted are glatt, and only about 3750 cows total come out actually kosher.

Chicken, he said was another problem. They just can't get enough chickens, which explains why they are so expensive.

I did ask him why it's so hard to find the non-glatt meat. He said they do distribute it under the label of David's Meat, under the OK Hechsher. He gave the number of the distributor in my area, and if anyone is interested, I would suggest calling Agriprocessors at 563-864-7811 and finding out who the distributor is in your area and finding out where you can get it. As I understand it, Trader Joe's does carry it. Still quite curious why the kosher stores or mainstream supermarkets don't.

Now, here's the problem, as I've discussed before. The person to whom I spoke at Agriprocessors was in agreement with me that the system is very flawed and needs to change. He just didn't really have any idea how to go about doing that. Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Stop putting more than one hechsher on the meat. Obviously, when it comes to the glatt meat coming out of Agriprocessors, all the machshirim have the same standards. Otherwise, they would not give hechsherim to the same meat that other hechsherim deem kosher/glatt. It's time to put politics aside and make it a little easier for Jews to keep kosher.

2. Anshkenazim need to let go of their fear of traiboring and start making the back half of the cow available for consumptions. This would allow a lot more kosher meat on the market, and allow people to have better cuts of meat. Believe it or not, brisket is actually the crapiest cut of meat on the cow. The only time it tastes good is when its very well done and cooked for four or five hours. Also, imagine being allowed to eat T-Bone, Filet Mignon, and other back-half-of-the-cow meats!

3. The whole hashgacha industry needs reform (GASP!! THE "R" WORD!!!). Not only with food manufacturing and meat, but in stores and restaurants as well. There is a mitzvah in the Torah that states you must charge honest prices for goods. I believe this includes not paying for freaking much money to an industry that doesn't do a whole lot of good and is certainly not as effective as they think it is in enforcing kashrus in the stores to which they give hashgacha. Far too many "incidents" have occurred over the last 30 years that prove that if a person wants to get away with selling traif in a "kosher" establishment, they will find a way to do so.