We've seen clearly (eg., the footage in "Earthlings") that kosher slaughter doesn't happen.  Stop fooling yourself that there is any "humane" consumption of animal products.

It is gratifying that the Washington Post and Grist  reported the growing movement in the Jewish community for "eco-kosher" practice, taking ethical and environmental concerns into account in assessing what is proper to consume. ("Eco-Kosher Movement Aims To Heed Tradition, Conscience," WP July 7, 2007, Page A01).

But the word and  its practice, as it was defined by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in the mid-'70s and given much broader currency in the Jewish community by my book Down-to-Earth Judaism in 1995, was about issues of consumption far broader than the arena of food to which your report confined it.

The code of kosher food emerged in a pastoral-agrarian society, defining a sacred relationship with the earth through food.

So in a society that consumes coal, oil, uranium, and plastics, the sacred relationship with earth must be far broader:  Is electricity from a nuclear power plant eco-kosher? Is the use of a Hummer, spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of an already endangered planet, eco-kosher?

Seen this way, "eco-kosher" is an issue not for food alone, but for consumption generally, and not for Jews alone but for all religious and ethical communities.

Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director
The Shalom Center
 <http://www.shalomctr.org>