Update: Arsenic In Kosher Chicken, Etc.

Empire tells us whether or not is uses arsenic-based drugs and Naftali Hanau of Grow and Behold Foods wants his previous remarks clarified.

Chicken Updates:

Empire Kosher Poultry

It took three weeks, several exchanged emails and a scheduled phone call from Empire's spokesman that never happened, but Empire Kosher Poultry finally emailed me late this afternoon with a definitive answer about use of arsenic-based drugs in chicken and other poultry:

Empire Kosher: Empire Kosher does not use any arsenic-based drugs in its poultry feed.

FailedMessiah.com: Does it use those arsenic-based drugs in any other manner?

Empire Kosher: No.

Grow and Behold Foods

Naftali Hanau of Grow and Behold Foods now insists that the reason he did not answer my questions regarding worker pay, their health care coverage and its copay cost per worker immediately when I asked them almost two years ago was that he wanted to be "exact."

"I always prefer to wait until exact information is available when someone who is a journalist is looking for information," Hanau wrote me yesterday.

But Hanau's answer when he gave it a day after being asked was both incomplete and telling. He said the workers were unionized and they made $14 per hour. He did not answer the question about health insurance copays.

But he could have easily immediately answered that the workers are unionized, given a ballpark figure for hourly wages and health insurance, and gotten back to me the next day with the details.

I believe he did not do this because he did not know the information.

And that is damning because Grow and Behold was started in part as a response to the Rubashkin scandals, and these are details anyone concerned with treatment of workers would have known without having to ask plant management.

Hanau also insisted that he looked at the emails we exchanged two years ago and based on them I never asked him about the insurance copays. I had the emails open in front of me and I clearly and explicitly asked him about those copays.

He also kept claiming that I had misrepresented his position on all this, because – even though he said nothing about this at the time – when he did not answer immediately, all he was doing was trying to get me the "exact information."

I pointed out that if he misspoke then, or if he was imprecise, or failed to frame his actions in way that would make them appear better for his business, the onus is on him, not on me. Nothing I reported was false or out of context or misleading.

Hanau did not seem to understand my point, although he did write that he wasn't blaming me for the 'misrepresentation.'

I think that since Grow and Behold markets itself as a kinder, gentler, more natural and healthier alternative to other kosher meat companies, it should get third party unannounced audits to confirm all its claims about how its cattle and poultry are raised and slaughtered and should make those audits publicly available to all.

Without doing that, it is hard for me view Grow and Behold as any better than David Elliot or Wise, both of which are easier to acquire and cheaper than Grow and Behold. (Grow and Behold's poultry slaughter is done at David Elliot's slaughterhouse.)

For those interested, its been pointed out in the comments to my previous post that KOL Foods animals are raised at a higher level of natural and grass fed than Grow and Behold's are.

Agri Star

It's been almost three weeks, and Agri Star still hasn't answered any of the questions regarding arsenic-based drug use that I asked.

Related Post: Is Your Kosher Chicken Safe To Eat?

Related articles

Is Your Kosher Chicken Safe To Eat? Probably Not

Rumble At Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse Leaves At least One Person Stabbed

Agri Star Donates More Than $50,000 Worth Of Meat Products To Oklahoma Tornado Relief

Empire Kosher Fined Almost $100,000 For Repeat Environmental Violations

Hebrew National Contractor Sued In Haredi Beit Din For Alleged Kosher Fraud

Comments

[Yochanan Lavie]

If there's arsenic in the chicken, what about old lace?

[Gevezener Chusid]

the old lace had to be sold to a merchant of antique textiles to cover the insurance co-pays.

[S M L]

Speaking a little off-topic of Jewish agribusiness now the Satmar factions have moved their rivalry into brand-new territory a long way from NY. On one hand these people play fast and loose with their children's health by not immunizing them while on the other they go to absurd lengths over the purity of wheat to be made into matzoh. This is excerpted from a piece in the Times today:

"Arizona Is Fertile Ground for New York Matzo

YUMA, Ariz. — Here, on a Christian farmer’s land five miles from the Mexican border, lies the holiest of fields for some of New York’s most observant Orthodox Jewish communities. Wheat harvested on these 40 acres is destined to become matzo, the unleavened bread eaten by Jews during the eight days of Passover. The harvest in progress. Ultra-Orthodox Jews start guarding the grains before the wheat is harvested to ensure they are not overripe or wet from rainfall.....

Five years ago, another Satmar group began shifting its wheat-growing operation here, where rain is rare at this time of year. That opened a new frontline in the competition for the most rigorous standards in the production of matzo. (In a taste test, though, Vos Iz Neias?, a Jewish blog, chose neither, picking instead matzo made by the Pupa and Zehlem Matzoh Bakery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is run by Hasidic Jews of the Puppa sect. It is said that they, too, have used Yuma wheat.)

Samuel Heilman, a professor of sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York, whose research focuses on the social ethnography of Jewish Orthodox movements, said the competition between the two Satmar groups — each led by one of two brothers — was about one-upmanship.

“One is always looking to be more authoritative than the other,” Professor Heilman said, “and one of the ways they’re making this happen is over matzo — our matzo is more kosher than yours, we’re more scrupulous and careful over matzo baking than you are.”"

[Account Deleted]

“One is always looking to be more authoritative than the other,” Professor Heilman said, “and one of the ways they’re making this happen is over matzo — our matzo is more kosher than yours, we’re more scrupulous and careful over matzo baking than you are.”"

Smh. You can't make this stuff up.

[Ifti99]

Hey Shamarya, I know you probably consider yourself some muckracking reporter and all but with all due respect, why should these people answer any of your questions?

You're not a government regulator or a cop. You run some shady blog. If I were them, I wouldn't answer your questions either.

[Max Ponzi (the one from Cedarhurst)]

Hey lfti99, if you are stupid enough not to answer to FM (Shmarya), your end is that you won't answer to God either. You must be honest and open. Now toddle off you little tiny piss-ass, troll.

---------------------------
Written on my iO-U approved kosher phone. It is expensive, smells like fish and tastes just like chicken.
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[Ifti99]

Hey Max, if you consider fat shamarya your god, so be it. I would feel sorry for you, but I'm laughing so hard, I can't write any more!

[Voice of Truth]

It's not like you actually buy or eat their chickens. The only reason you ask is that you can have who and what to piss and moan about in some future post of yours so why on earth would they answer you. And that aside who are you that they need to answer to you

[Jeff]

Vegetarianism, people.

"Hey Max, if you consider fat shamarya your god, so be it. I would feel sorry for you, but I'm laughing so hard, I can't write any more!"

I'm sure you enjoy the perch on your self-erected pedestal of imagined superiority, but you're really just the most recent example of a genre we've come to know well - the pitiable frum troll.

Keep telling yourself how laughable we are. It will help you to stave off for a little while longer the nagging doubts about your belief system that threaten constantly to overtake you.

[Jeff]

It's not like you actually buy or eat their chickens. The only reason you ask is that you can have who and what to piss and moan about in some future post of yours so why on earth would they answer you. And that aside who are you that they need to answer to you

Posted by: Voice of Truth | June 30, 2013 at 05:56 AM
___________________________________________

Because he's a journalist. I realize you don't understand this, because in your world, a "journalist" is someone who begins an article with, "Der Rebbe zogt... ".

[Voice of Truth]

Journalism = unbiased reporting.
He's as much a journalist as he is a neurosurgeon

[Jeff]

Again, in your world, "unbiased reporting" means "repeating verbatim what the gedoylim say".

You shouldn't be allowed to use the screen name "Voice of Truth". You wouldn't recognize objective reality if it walked up to you and introduced itself.

[Voice of Truth]

@Jeff
No like I said but as is usually needed with FM readers ill repeat. Journalism = unbiased reporting
A rebbe can say what ever he chooses to say and those that follow him are fully within their rights to do so, as can SR say and write what ever he likes and again those that choose to listen may. The difference is rebbes claim to be rebbes not journalists......

[Ifti99]

Jeff "Because he's a journalist: "

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

Are you freaking serious?????

He's only a journalist in your warped little mind because you hate Judaism more than he does!

Now go toddle off.

[Ifti99]

It's kind of like woolsilkcotton calling himself an international superstar of some such crap. You know anyone who resorts to this is a complete loser.

[Jeff]

"You know anyone who resorts to this is a complete loser."

I've always found that to be an accurate description of trolls who haunt blogs on which they aren't wanted, indulging in the overuse of terms such as "LOL!" and "HAHAHA!".

You're a little man terrified of the dark. You'd be deserving of compassion if you weren't also a worthless piece of manure.

[Voice of Truth]

@ Jeff
"I've always found that to be an accurate description of trolls who haunt blogs on which they aren't wanted"
So let me get this straight a "journalist " that only reports on a select group of people's activities all if which are negative reports, reporting to a select group of people who are "wanted " ( in terms or readership) and that's journalism to you?
And you tell me I make no sense!!

[Jeff]

Your upbringing has rendered you incomprehensible.

[Voice of Truth]

I think the simple issue is Jeff that you're simply not capable of comprehending anything above your 5th grade level of intellect proven by your childish insults.

[Brazilian5]

I appreciate that you are exposing meat fraud. This is important and a service to us all. To add to this I would like to offer a few tips for anyone looking to buy 100% grass-fed kosher beef from a purveyor that values transparency in the way the animals are raised and brought to market.

1. The easiest and most common mistake is to equate “pastured” with “grass-fed”. In your posting of June 26 you say about the company Grow and Behold “Apparently for Hanau, that the beef was grass-fed beef …” Grow and Behold’s beef is NOT grass fed. In fact their home page says “Grow and Behold Foods brings you delicious OU Glatt Kosher pastured meats…”, and their FAQ page says, “During their last few months, a limited amount of grain is gradually added to our cattle's diet …” This is called “finishing.” Feeding cattle on pasture & then finishing them on grain means their beef is conventionally-raised. They are careful to call it "pastured" which, unlike “grass-fed” is not a regulated term. The definition of grass-fed is “Animals must eat only forage grasses...they may never be fed any grain or grain products.” Below are links with more information about the difference between pastured and grass-fed, and when the term “grass-fed” can be used.

2. Another comment mentioned KOL Foods () as the only supplier of 100% grass-fed kosher beef. A quick look on the KOL Foods website produced the a list of certifications below. Not copied is the list of “Green Memberships and Information”.
USDA Government Certifications

• Glatt Kosher
• 100% Grass-fed certified (Beef and Lamb)
• 100% Pastured (all)
• No added antibiotics
• No added growth hormones*
• No confinement
• Fed all vegetarian Diet
• No added nitrites or nitrates

I would think that if Grow and Behold’s products were produced to the same standards it would be reflected on their website as well.