Is Magen Tzedek's Vision For Ethical Kosher Viable?

“It’s very difficult for movements to impose value systems to consumer at the marketplace. You can say, ‘Listen, don’t buy Chinese goods,’ and people go ahead and buy Chinese goods because they need a sweater.”

A Market For Ethical Kosher?
Groceries like this one may soon carry foods with the Hekhsher Tzedek label.
by Julie Wiener • NY Jewish Week

Saying its certification will be “a preventative to the unethical practices that have sadly seeped into the kosher food industry,” the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek Commission has published a wide-ranging list of its standards to assess kosher products. 

The guidelines will look at everything from a manufacturer’s family-leave policies to its recycling programs.

But two years into the process of developing a standard for kosher products that not only meets ritual requirements  but adheres to “social justice” as well — an effort spurred by concerns about unethical and illegal employment practices at the Agriprocessors kosher meat-packing plant in Iowa— it’s unclear whether there is actually a viable market for it.

Also up for debate is whether the struggling Conservative movement — which is hemorrhaging member synagogues, battling a $1.3 million deficit and planning major budget cuts and layoffs — is capable of moving such an ambitious project forward.

The newly released Magen Tzedek (shield of justice) Service Mark standards — still subject to vetting and intended as a supplement to rather than replacement for traditional kosher certifications —represent the first attempt by a religious organization to certify food products on the basis of “social justice,” rather than ritual practice.

After a three-month review process, the standards will be revised and tested over several months, with Heksher Tzedek officials then hoping to recruit food companies and start making Magen Tzedek products available on supermarket shelves. 

Does Hekhsher Tzedek have the potential, as its advocates argue, to revitalize the Conservative movement and even create a sort of kosher renaissance among liberal Jews?

“The Conservative movement sees [HekhsherTzedek] as a chance to frame itself in a new way,” said Joe Regenstein, a professor of food science at Cornell University’s Kosher and Halal Food Initiative, who drafted the new standards.

Himself a member of a Conservative congregation, Regenstein said that through Magen Tzedek, the Conservative movement — whose centrist positions often generate criticism that it lacks vision and stands for nothing — is uniquely positioned to merge Orthodox concerns about kashrut with Reform concerns about social justice. 

Regenstein said the Conservative movement — still considerably larger than Orthodox Judaism — represents “a credible piece of the [kosher] market.” Encouraging kosher companies to adhere to good business practices “will increase the clout of kosher,” he said, while renewing liberal Jews’ enthusiasm for keeping kosher.

“This is the opportunity to really be pro-kashrut and pro-ethics,”  said Rabbi Morris Allen, spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in suburban Minneapolis [sic] and the director of Hekhsher Tzedek, which he founded in 2007.

Rabbi Allen noted that the Reform movement endorsed Hekhsher Tzedek’s efforts last year “not because their community is buying kosher food but because they thought this was a way to honor the social justice work in American food production.”  He told The Jewish Week the new certification program will encourage more Jews to buy kosher products.

“While I might buy the food because it’s kosher and certified by Hekhsher Tzedek, others because it’s kosher, and others because it’s [certified by] Hekhsher Tzedek, the end result is more people buying kosher food,” he said. Rabbi Allen added that “we will have restored a culture of kashrut” with more Jews understanding the centrality of kashrut to our lives.”

So far, the Hekhsher Tzedek commission has done no market research to assess the level of demand for the certification. And while the group says several kosher companies have been consulted in the development of guidelines and have expressed serious interest in obtaining Magen Tzedek certification, it declined to name any.

Asked about market research, Rabbi Allen said the group plans to do it in the coming months.
“Companies have been in contact with us and that’s the first question they ask: ‘Will this increase my sales?’ We need to show it on paper to the CEO of a company.”

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism recently pledged $50,000 to help pay for market research, Rabbi Allen said, and members of the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly are also raising money for this effort.

“The Magen Tzedek folks will need to demonstrate to potential clients of their symbol that, just like kosher food certification, this will generate business,” said Elie Rosenfeld, chief operating officer of Joseph Jacobs Advertising, a marketing firm that specializes in advertising to Jewish consumers and whose clients include Manischewitz, Empire and the Shop-Rite supermarket chain.

But making a business pitch for Magen Tzedek “may be an uphill battle,” Rosenfeld said, because “the basis of consumers buying kosher products for religious reasons is the Orthodox market, not the Conservative consumer.”

The National Jewish Population Study of 2000 found that 26 percent of Conservative Jews keep kosher homes.

While many Orthodox consumers “care a lot” about social justice issues, Rosenfeld said, “they may not feel the Conservative movement should be the one determining the standards. Their standards of observance are not the same, so ... if one wouldn’t trust them [when it comes to] kashrus, what would make them trust [the Conservative movement] for business ethics?”

Menachem Lubinsky, founder of the Kosherfest kosher trade show and editor of Kosher Today, an industry trade publication, is hardly a dispassionate observer. Like many in the largely Orthodox kosher industry, he vocally opposed Hekhsher Tzedek when the idea was first introduced two years ago, and last year, at the height of the Agriprocessors scandal, Lubinsky served as that company’s spokesman. 

Nonetheless, he is widely considered an expert on the dramatically growing kosher market — and his skepticism about Hekhsher Tzedek raises red flags about the effort’s viability.

Lubinsky said he is constantly asking kosher food retailers all over the country if their customers are demanding some sort of ethical certification and “the answer I overwhelmingly get is [customers] are interested in two things: the product and the price.”

Kosher consumers are “not going to pick up a product and say, ‘Does this plant actually treat their workers properly?’ That’s not what people do when they’re in the supermarket.”

“In general,” Lubinsky continued, “it’s very difficult for movements to impose value systems to consumer at the marketplace. You can say, ‘Listen, don’t buy Chinese goods,’ and people go ahead and buy Chinese goods because they need a sweater.”

Ideologically driven consumer efforts do exist in the U.S., and some have been quite successful.

In recent years, numerous faith-based groups have created “socially responsible” investment funds or have urged boycotts of companies whose practices they deem offensive. A variety of entities, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, certify organic food, and since 1999, the nonprofit TransFair USA has certified Fair Trade coffee, available from such mainstream vendors as Starbucks. (Fair Trade evaluates companies based on environmental sustainability and treatment of farmers.) 

But with its focus on five areas of “social justice” — employee wages and benefits; health, safety and training; humane treatment of animals; the company’s environmental impact; corporate transparency — Magen Tzedek is arguably the most ambitious effort any U.S. group has applied to food, even as it is limiting its scope to kosher products.

The issues that Magen Tzedek highlights — particularly the humane treatment of animals and respect for the environment — are ones that have a growing following among American Jews. Thirty-two Jewish community-supported agriculture groups (programs in which people buy organic produce directly from local farmers) have been launched throughout North America since 2003 under the auspices of the New York-based environmental group Hazon, with over 2,500 families participating. Hazon has also drawn hundreds of people in recent years to its annual food conferences, which “explore the intersection of Jewish life and contemporary food issues” and attracted 100,000 viewers to a blog on Jewish ethical eating called “The Jew and the Carrot.”

Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox group, recently began certifying New York-area kosher restaurants based on their adherence to labor practices, with 15 restaurants and grocery stores earning its “Tav HaYosher” label so far. 

In any event, Hekhsher Tzedek is enjoying the support of the top echelons of the Conservative movement, even as that movement — once the largest stream of Judaism in America, but now second to Reform — cuts other programs and faces criticism from the grass roots.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, praised the project, calling it a “catalyst for a changed consciousness about the relationship between ritual observance and the ethical underpinnings of Jewish law.”

Adds Rabbi Steven Wernik, the new executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, “Everyone eagerly awaits the opportunity to purchase products with this seal and raise the awareness that ethics cannot be separated from the ritual aspect of kashrut.”

Comments

[harold]

I don't think that the symbol will have any impact at all since.

(1) The only ones that care about kashrus symbols are primarily the orthodox and to quote the article "... the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek Commission ...".

(2) One of the reasons why kosher food is so expensive is the cost of getting a hecher so adding another hecher will only add more costs to an already high cost item.

(3)Forget about your example of You can say, ‘Listen, don’t buy Chinese goods,’ and people go ahead and buy Chinese goods because they need a sweater.”. Replace that don't buy Chinese with "Buy American" and you will see that most people unfortunately don't care especially if the cost difference is large - reality check here.

[Shmarya]

The question, Harold, should be, What if that sweater was a tallis?

If rabbinic leaders said don't buy Chinese-made tallesim, would frum Jews listen?

Or would they buy the cheaper Chinese slave-labor-made tallis to save money?

When kosher-keeping consumers go to shop for food, they select that food based on hechshers.

They most often won't buy un-hechshered food (even if perfectly kosher), and very often they choose between hechshers – not brands – when choice is available.

If ethically treating the workers that produce kosher food is important, if it is halakhicly necessary to do so, then certifying that treatment should be welcome.

That it is not welcome to many haredim (like you. 'harold'), haredim whose food companies have some of the worst track records in the country for treatment of workers, speaks volumes about haredi society. And those volumes, 'harold,' are not flattering.

If the Conservative Movement had put Magen Tzedek into operation last year, instead of taking an inordinately long time to draft standards, etc., it would have changed the kosher food business in America.

Whether that impact will be as large now, almost a year and a half after the Agriprocessors raid, is an open question.

But given the choice, I think most consumers who intentionally buy kosher food will welcome the chance to buy food that does not come from working undocumented 13 year old Guatemalans 17 hours per day without required breaks and overtime. And that is because most consumers who intentionally buy kosher food are not haredim.

[harold]

If rabbinic leaders said don't buy Chinese-made tallesim, would frum Jews listen?
Only if they gave a reason why.

When kosher-keeping consumers go to shop for food, they select that food based on hechshers
No, a hecher is the beginning process, it is a gateway that allows the kosher consumer to consider the product for purchase, after that the kosher consumer is like any other consumer and then considers price, quality, taste etc.

If the Conservative Movement had put Magen Tzedek into operation last year, instead of taking an inordinately long time to draft standards, etc., it would have changed the kosher food business in America
I doubt it.

But given the choice, I think most consumers who intentionally buy kosher food will welcome the chance to buy food that does not come from working undocumented 13 year old Guatemalans 17 hours per day without required breaks and overtime. And that is because most consumers who intentionally buy kosher food are not haredim
Why focus on only the kosher consumer is there such a movement in the general US consumer population?

This whole analysis of the consumer checking up on the farm/factory to store shelf chain is silly and bogus. There is something called delegation. When I buy a product I assume that it was produced legally and if not then someone along the chain did not do their job and it is their responsibility. If an item was produced in China in an illegal manner then the government agency in charge of imports should be held accountable for allowing the item in. Leave the poor grandmother who wants to buy a sweater for her grandchild alone by berating her for not checking up on the company who produced the sweater to make sure that they treat their workers properly or that the company responsible for shipping the sweaters treat their dock workers in a responsible manner or that the truckers that deliver the products to the store is being paid a fair wage.

As to kashrus, B”H where I live there are major all kosher supermarkets (Brachs, Supersol, Gourmet Glatt) that rival is size and scope the non-kosher majors where ALL items in the store are kosher and certified by the local Vad. I haven’t looked at the label of a product for its hasgacha in years and I don’t plan on starting.

[anycomment]

1. I agree that the overwhelming majority of those that buy food and other products -- whether they are Jewish or not -- strongly prefer that those employed in the process not be "undocumented 13 year old Guatemalans [working] 17 hours per day without required breaks and overtime." The question is who should monitor this. The vast majority of consumers rely on the US and other governments to enact and enforce employment rules since they have the wherewithall to do so and the rules apply to all, resulting in a level playing field.

2. MT's guidelines go well beyond what you described, and in fact exceed US labor law requirements. They are certainly welcome to pursue this and don't need the O to do so since as the article {questionably] notes that Conservatives are "still considerably larger than Orthodox Judaism." So MT can have C Jews as its base, and overwhelm the O certifiication agencies. MT does not need O support so long as C leaders can get its adherents to follow C precepts, which includes keeping kosher.

3. One significant obstacle here is that many kosher foods purchased by the MO are made by large conglomerates (Unilever, etc.) that purchase a hechsher based on a cost/benefit analysis. Even if the analysis includes a "developing goodwill" component, as the cost of the cetification rises, many companies will drop it. This would make keeping kosher for the MO that much more difficult. And the issue is not the "undocumented 13 yr old Guatemalens" but rather a level of pay and benefits beyond those required by US and EU rules, in many cases.

4. As to uniquely kosher items such as chicken and meat, those are prepared in the US and the government muat apply to those producers the laws that apply to everyone else. Both kosher and non-kosher meat and poultry producers have had labor law violations and the gov't should be diligent to stop them. There is no need to layer on MT on the government enforcement. It's highly unlikely that MT will be more effective than the USG.

5. To those that don't keep kosher but advocate changes that will affect the MO community adversely, I paraphrase our former Secty of Agriculture: "he no playa the game, he no maka the rules." Seculars should devote their energy to the Chinese sweaters and food that Seculars purchase (Swift, Tyson, etc.) that have the same or greater problems than those identified in the kosher realm. This doesn't mean that the kosher industry doesnt need to be cleaned up, but it's curious that Seculars are focused on an area that affects others rather than one that affects themselves.

6. I defer to Harold to discuss the Chareidi view. I just found out from Shmarya's biography of Harold that he is chareidi (Shmarya didn't indicate whether chasidish or yeshivish). I'm not close enough to it to comment.

[Shmarya]

No, a hecher is the beginning process, it is a gateway that allows the kosher consumer to consider the product for purchase, after that the kosher consumer is like any other consumer and then considers price, quality, taste etc.

False.

The first and most important thing is the hechsher. Haredim regularly buy only or primarily haimishe hechshers, even when cheaper and better OU, OK, etc., food exisits.

f rabbinic leaders said don't buy Chinese-made tallesim, would frum Jews listen?
Only if they gave a reason why.

Slave labor, Harold.

Why focus on only the kosher consumer is there such a movement in the general US consumer population?

Yes. It's called Fair Trade. And Whole Foods, Organic, co-ops, etc., and it's a growing and important segment of the market.

This whole analysis of the consumer checking up on the farm/factory to store shelf chain is silly and bogus. There is something called delegation. When I buy a product I assume that it was produced legally and if not then someone along the chain did not do their job and it is their responsibility.

We used to do that with kosher, 'harold,' – don't you remember?

We ate lots of food without hechshers.

But then haredim said that wasn't good enough.

Did you call that "silly and bogus"?

[Shmarya]

anycomment –

1. If so, then why not rely on the US government ot monitor the ingredients used in your food? If you do, most hechshers are unnecessary.

2 - 4. MT's guidelines go well beyond what you described, and in fact exceed US labor law requirements.

MT base pay is less than the average paid by major food manufacturers.

The problem arises when you get to haredi food producers.

Empire and Aurora – not haredi – pay more than the MT minimum.

Alle, the late-Agriprocessors, Agri Star, etc., all pay less than the MT minimum.

And the US government since 2001 has been terrible at enforcing labor law, animal handling and slaughter law, and lots more – like SEC regulations.

Past that, if you won't rely on the US government for the ingredients in your kosher food, then why rely on it for how workers are treated?

And exactly where does is say that the US government baseline meets the Torah's requirements?

5. Your tallis and your glatt kosher steak are all specifically JEWISH products.

Why you and so many others think it is somehow okay to ignore how these specifically Jewish products are produced is beyond me.

[anycomment]

Shmarya

1. **why not rely on the US government ot monitor the ingredients used in your food**

I do rely on the USG to certify milk. Other than that USG does not have regulations on kashrus (if they had them they'd be un-Constitutional).

2. For me US labor laws need to be the standard; otherwise ther's no level playing field, u have every producer and independently determining what's "fair", not a workable system. Those companies wishing to make a business decision to exceed legal standards may do so. BTW, there are legitimate policy considerations (e.g., will ppl be employed if the min cost exceeds a certain amt) that go into determining the USG standards.

3. I'm not ignoring how my steak was produced (I generally eat chicken). I rely on the USG to set and enforce labor and other religious neutral laws (that apply to all producers) and rely on a certification agency that I accept to determine if it meets my religious requirements.

[Shmarya]

1. 35 years ago (even 25 years ago) most food purchased by kosher consumers did not have a hechsher.

Reading ingredient labels was enough.

But haredim rejected that. Today, bottle water has a hechsher.

2. For me US labor laws need to be the standard; otherwise ther's no level playing field, u have every producer and independently determining what's "fair", not a workable system.

So what should be done to food producers who do not currently have hechshered food? They get away without paying a hechsher fee! Should the government fine them?

3. I'm not ignoring how my steak was produced (I generally eat chicken). I rely on the USG to set and enforce labor and other religious neutral laws (that apply to all producers) and rely on a certification agency that I accept to determine if it meets my religious requirements.

a. It has clearly and repeatedly been proven that you cannot rely on the government to enforce those laws.

b. The position of Orthodox kashrut hechshers is that "we rely on the government" to deal with labor issues and animal handling issues.

In other words, you are relying on something that doesn't work, and another thing that doesn't exist.

[harold]

I just found out from Shmarya's biography of Harold that he is chareidi

Don't believe everything you read. I am not chareidi. I am at most MO, if you must know. Scott loves to label people as he sees them.

[Todriss]

How many product have the "Magen Tzedek" Hechsher? What are they? Why these numbers?

[Shmarya]

Todriss –

No one has it yet. As the article says, it's almost ready to go.

Harold –

You can fudge all you want. You're Orthodox with strong haredi connections.

[anycomment]

1. Uniquely kosher items (meat, etc.) always needed and had hashgacha. The ingredient method was far from ideal -- it didn't consider keilim issues or that not all ingredients need to be listed (and bitul doesn't solve all those issues). I commend the ou for advancing kashrus to a much higher level by convincing large food producers to have hashgacha. Those that wish to rely on ingredients may continue to do so while those, like me, who want actual supervision have that option.

2. don't understand ure #2.

3. The USG has the resources and leverage to enforce kosher - neutral rules and it is preferable to make efforts to have the USG be more effective rather than make a substantial investment in a new system that will likely be even less effective than the current one.

[Shmarya]

1. In other words, we should pay for YOUR humra? And we should do so happily? But we should not push for Magen Tzedek because that would be unfair? Please.

2. The producer of non-hechshered but still kosher food produces it at a lower cost that the producer of identical food that is hechshered. You want a level playing field? What should be done to drive up the cost of non-hechshered but still kosher food so the playing field is level?

3. Obama is trying to fix the damage Bush did. But that will take years, and even when it is fixed, it won't necessarily meet the Torah's requirements.

But that's perfectly fine with Orthodoxy, now isn't it?

[anycomment]

1&2. I'm not asking Seculars to pay for anything. Companies choose to have hashgacha based on many factors. If you find a lower cost equivalent non-certified product or otherwise want to show you're opposed to products being certified, don't buy (or continue not buying) certified products. That's ure leverage and that of your fellow Seculars. So far it's not working as the # of kosher certified products is increasing.

3. Don't want to extend the discussion to politics. Again, my view is that the USG is the most efficient and effective alternative for implementing and enforcing religious neutral rules. Time will tell whether the view of Seculars that MT will be more effective than the USG in causing all producers of kosher products to adopt their elevated standards is correct. I'd bet against it even if I was a Secular.

[Todriss]

oooops!
9about the article, and oops that it's over two years and they're only "almost ready....)

[itchiemayer]

Since Shmarya brought up Obama, we all know how he is tight with ACORN, and how he and Rahm(bo) wanted ACORN to oversee the census.
Obama is crooked, and not qualified to fix anything. I don't know why so many of you, otherwise decent people, cannot see how corrupt our President is. My gosh, what will it take for you to acknowledge that there are things about him which are incredibly troubling?

[yidandahalf]

The question is simple, Do we Jews really need ANOTHER hechsher? That is all there is to it. Oh, I guess you could also ask will ONE MORE hechsher be of any benefit ( to anyone except the hechsher mill )? And you could also ask, Will this hechsher MAKE A DIFFERENCE? And I guess you have any modicum of common sense, the answers to all would be the same, NO.
The only people that benefit from hechsherization are the religious bureaucrats that sell the stamps.

[David]

Those who argue that it's only Orthodox Jews that care about the hechsher don't know what the hell they're talking about.

For example: Fresh kosher meat flies off the shelves of Trader Joes in many cities, and the buyers are not Orthodox. And when the Agriprocessors scandals started hitting (beginning with the PETA video), you should ask them how many complaints they got requesting TJ's to return to Empire and ditch Rubashkin's.

[harold]

Harold –

You can fudge all you want. You're Orthodox with strong haredi connections.

You're Orthodox
Guilty as charged.

with strong haredi connections
I have no idea what you are talking about- what connections?

[anycomment]

This is not directly related to the topic, but how do you get script in a comment to be in italics or bold?

[state of the Jews]

David is correct:
The majority of purchasers of kosher poultry in this country are conservative Jews and non-Jewish consumers. If you want to know why, check out any major foodie magazine that regularly rates the best tasting poultry. Invariably the number one pick is a kosher bird (usually Empire).

[harold]

anycomment, lets see how this comes out.

italics (without the spaces)
bold (again, without the spaces)

[AncientGreek]

So, is Empire kosher or not? Are any meats reliably kosher at this point?

Sherryll--Portland, Oregon