9/15/2008 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:

1. Addressing Rabbis and Others Re Global Warming and Dietary Connections

2. Time Magazine Article Connects Meat Eating to Global Warming

3. U.N. Climate Change Panel Encourages Vegetarianism

4. A Jury Decides that Global Warming Justifies Breaking the Law/JVNA Response

5. World Vegetarian Month in October

6. Video Shows Harm Done by Western Ranching

7. Imprisoned Austrian Animal Rights Activists Freed

8. What a Vegan World Would Look Like

9. Update on Agriprocessors' Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa

10. Challenging the Media on Lack of Coverage of Agriprocessors Abuses of Animals

11. Group Certifies That Animals Are Raised Humanely/Connect to Hechsher Tzedek?

12. Greenpeace Activists Protest at Coal-Burning Plant in Ashkelon, Israel

13. Ecological Program in Israel Announced

14. Group Promotes Healthy Lunches in Schools

15. Rabbi Reassesses 'What is Kosher' in View of Agriprocessors Controversies

16. Video Has D'var Torah Based on Torah Teachings

17. Jewish Groups Express Concerns re Agriprocessors Charges

18. Action Alert: Chance to Sign a Petition to the UN Urging End of Animal-Based Agriculture to Reduce World Hunger

19. Horrible Abuses of Animals in Greece

20. Marvelous Video Shows Mistreatment of Farmed Animals

Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard

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1. Addressing Rabbis and Others Re Global Warming and Dietary Connections

As I write this, television news is filled with pictures of the devastating effects of Hurricane Ike. Israel is now suffering from the worst drought in its history, and many other countries are also suffering from severe droughts, in what some are calling “the century of drought.” And the recent severe flooding in Iowa and other US Midwestern states and the widespread wildfires in California are still relatively fresh in our minds. These are all factors that have been related to global climate change, and projections are for far worse. For example, a 2007 report from the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUD; Adam Teva v'Din) projects that, unless major changes soon occur, Israel will experience major heat waves, droughts, storms and flooding from a rising Mediterranean Sea.

Hence, it is essential that we respectfully address rabbis and other leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish, and respectfully urge them to address the impending crises and especially consider the need for a major shift toward vegetarianism as part of efforts to respond effectively to global warming. Please consider meeting with your local rabbis, educators, reporters and editors, environmentalists, politicians and other influential people. Of course, please consider using any of my over 130 articles at JewishVeg.com/Schwartz and other material at the JVNA website www.JewishVeg.com. Please also let people know that they can see the entire documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD at ASacredDuty.com, and that they can also get further information about the documentary and order a complimentary copy there. Please let us know of actions that you are taking and any responses. Many thanks.

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2. Time Magazine Article Connects Meat Eating to Global Warming

Meat: Making Global Warming Worse
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html?cnn=yes

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3. U.N. Climate Change Panel Encourages Vegetarianism

Thanks to vegetarian and Earthsave activist Jeff Tucker for the material below:

Other big news this week comes from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It has called for a worldside move toward a vegetarian diet, to combat climate change. Last year, the Panel earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Price. It's chairman, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, is recommending that people have at least one vegetarian meal a week. He's not alone. The WorldWatch Institute, the Food Climate Research Network and the Sierra Club and others also echo this recommendation.

This week, news stories on this subject have been appearing all over the world. The United Kingdom's Observer (Guardian) offers the most informative article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink

You can also find a list of media coverage on this subject on this Google page:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1243234597

Thank you to Karen Dawn of DawnWatch for bringing our attention to this coverage! Read her alerts and check out her website at http://www.dawnwatch.com

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4. A Jury Decides that Global Warming Justifies Breaking the Law/JVNA Response

Forwarded message:

Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law
The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage - such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cleared-jury-decides-that-threat-of-global-warming-justifies-breaking-the-law-925561.html

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JVNA response to the Jury's decision:

This message above is really incredible!

I do not support vandalism, except perhaps under very extraordinary immediate circumstances, but in view of the unprecedented catastrophe the world is rapidly approaching from global warming and other environmental threats, perhaps it is time for a reassessment of tactics, and a consideration of civil disobedience and other more aggressive tactics, within the law.

I think it is essential that the veggie/animal rights and other groups do more to wake people up to the imminent dangers and the need for changes very soon.

Let us hope that Hurricane Ike will be a wake-up call.

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5. World Vegetarian Month in October

Forwarded message from John Davis, International Vegetarian Union Secretary:

The month from October 1 to November 1 is variously known as WORLD VEGETARIAN/VEGAN MONTH, REVERENCE FOR ALL LIFE MONTH, WORLD VEGETARIAN AWARENESS MONTH, starting with World Vegetarian day on Oct 1 - and culminating in World Vegan Day on Nov 1. For more details of events that are happening around the world see http://www.ivu.org/vegmonth - and let me know if you have anything to add! John Davis davis_manager@ivu.org http://www.ivu.org

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6. Video Shows Harm Done by Western Ranching

Forwarded message from author and vegetarian activist Mike Hudek:

Now on the Internet--one of my presentations from last month's national animal rights conference turned into a QuickTime video. See the many harms inflicted by Western ranching on dozens of wildlife species. Here's the link: http://mikehudak.com/Presentations.

Technical problems viewing the video? Please email me. Thanks.--Mike

--

Mike Hudak, PhD
Chair, Sierra Club National Grazing Committee
Director, Public Lands Without Livestock
Author, Western Turf Wars

Binghamton, NY 13904-1516

Personal website: http://mikehudak.com
Biome Books: http://biomebooks.com
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/plwl
Facebook: http://facebook.com Mike Hudak (Binghamton, NY)

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7. Imprisoned Austrian Animal Rights Activists Freed

Thanks to JVNA advisor Ron Landskroner for alerting us to this information:

http://ga0.org/indefenseofanimals/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=15000059

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8. What a Vegan World Would Look Like

Forwarded message from www. All-creatures.org (Frank and Mary Hoffman):

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF OUR CHURCHES AND GOVERNMENT PROMOTED VEGANISM?

http://www.all-creatures.org/gcm/articles-whatwould.html

Factory farming would disappear and the economy would keep going!
We would have more food for the poor.
We would have cleaner water.
We would be healthier.
We would have a more balanced eco-system.
We would allow 3rd world countries to keep their habitat.
We would be teaching peaceful living to our kids.
We would be better stewards of God's animals used in research, and in the clothing and food industry.
We would have a closer relationship with God.
We would reflect more of God's image - compassionate, kind, peaceful and loving.
We would be letting everything that has breath praise the Lord. (Psalm 150:6)
We would be merciful, and would obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7

+++ Animals are part of the economy, the environment, our health, the poor in our world, our relationship with God, and world peace. +++
Billions of animals suffer needlessly for us every day. Let's stop the suffering, one choice at a time - and allow everything that has breath to praise the Lord!

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9. Update on Agriprocessors' Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa

September 11, 2008
Meatpacker May Lose Kosher Certification
By JULIA PRESTON

[*** Note that there have been many recent media article re Agriprocessors. For greater coverage, please do an Internet search or go to www.failedmessiah.com. Since this issue first broke, following an underground video showing mistreatment of animals in the slaughtering process, JVNA has sent many letters and press releases to the media. We have generally stressed that the many alleged abuses of animal and people should be wakeup calls to the many abuses of animal-based diets and how they violate at k]least 6 basic Jewish teachings.]

The leading Jewish authority in charge of certifying kosher food has threatened to withdraw its certification from the products of Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher meatpacker, after criminal charges for more than 9,000 child labor violations were brought against the company and its owners in Iowa this week.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, who is in charge of kosher supervision for the Orthodox Union, the major kosher certifying organization in the United States, said he had set a deadline of “several weeks” for Agriprocessors to name a new chief executive, or the group would suspend supervision of kosher production at its plants.

“Because of the new charges in the state of Iowa, we believe it is in the best interest of the kosher consuming public to have new management with a new C.E.O., that will give people a new sense of confidence that all laws and regulations are being completely complied with,” Rabbi Genack said in an interview on Wednesday.

Losing the kosher certification of the Orthodox Union would be a potentially crippling blow to Agriprocessors, whose meat and poultry - sold as Aaron's Best and Rubashkin's, among other brands - are staples in Jewish households nationwide that observe kosher practices. The company is by far the largest producer of kosher meat, with annual kosher sales estimated at $80 million. Although other groups provide certification, they are less widely known, and the loss of the familiar circled-U seal on the company's products could drive away many customers.

Agriprocessors has been struggling to maintain its production since 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained at its plant in Postville, Iowa, in a raid on May 12. On Tuesday, Iowa's attorney general brought 9,311 criminal misdemeanor charges that accused the company of employing 32 workers under the legal age of 18 in Postville. Many of the youths worked night shifts in dangerous jobs that exposed them to hazardous chemicals, according to the charges.

Aaron Rubashkin, the Agriprocessors owner, who is a Hasidic Jew, and his son Sholom, the former chief executive of the Postville operation, were named as defendants in the criminal cases.

The Orthodox Union's ultimatum was first reported on Tuesday by JTA, the Jewish news agency. The agency also reported that a second kosher certifier working in the Postville plant said that he would not withdraw.

Rabbi Menachem Weissmandl, the other certifier, said he would remove his seal of approval only if the company failed to follow strict procedures for slaughter and packing mandated by Jewish dietary ritual laws, JTA reported.

Rabbi Genack said he had told the Rubashkins after the raid that he expected them to seek new leadership for the company. Shortly after, Aaron Rubashkin announced that he had fired Sholom Rubashkin as chief executive, and was seeking to replace him, but no new executive has been named.

Agriprocessors has already met another condition laid down by the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Genack said, by hiring James Martin, a former United States attorney from Missouri, as a compliance officer to enforce labor and safety standards.

For the top manager, Rabbi Genack said, “We want to see a new face, somebody independent who can give new direction to the company.”

The pressure from the Orthodox Union added to criticism of Agriprocessors from a movement led by Conservative Jews that is seeking to create an additional seal for kosher food to show it was produced according to ethical standards for wages and worker safety. The movement, Hekhsher Tzedek, praised the Orthodox Union's “no-nonsense action,” saying it showed that the concept of ethical standards in kosher food “transcends denominational boundaries.”

Late Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Iowa announced the arrests on immigration harboring charges of two human resources managers at the Postville plant, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund, who were also named in the state criminal charges.

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10. Challenging the Media on Lack of Coverage of Agriprocessors Abuses of Animals

Forwarded message from JVNA activist Laura Slitt:

Hello Everyone!
As I drove to work this morning, Jennifer Ludden, an NPR correspondent, was reporting on the so called "Kosher" slaughter plant in Iowa now under scrutiny again for violating child labor laws. Before it was immigration laws.

The absence of full coverage regarding the HEINOUS and speakable torture the owners and workers inflicted upon cows, was predictably left out.

We in the animal rights movement are not surprised that people whose business it is to use huge chain saws and carving tools to dismember sentient beings, can also treat human workers with cruel abuses and reckless policies, at ANY age. The links below are first, the NPR stories about this plant, and secondly, the equally important news listeners are spared from hearing, about the grotesque abominable and sick treatment of cows in this concentration camp.
HOW DARE any Jews participate in this perversion of the essence of religious teachings, kindness and mercy to animals. How DARE a news avenue that touts being unbiased in telling the entire story and informing the public, leave out the facts about macabre animal abuse. Please tell them there IS a fundamental connection between violence against humans and animals.
morning@npr.org jludden@npr.org or go to www.npr.org click on contact us, choose Morning Edition, and tell them to tell the ENTIRE story.
THANKS...
Laura Slitt
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94449437
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/agriprocessors_investigation_2008

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11. Group Certifies That Animals Are Raised Humanely/Connect to Hechsher Tzedek?

Forwarded message from JVNA advisor Steve Schuster:

Hi Richard,

Are you familiar with this?

http://www.certifiedhumane.com/

What do you think about us advocating making this the new standard for kosher meat?

[It would be great if perhaps this group worked with the group “Hechsher Tzedek” in seeing that conditions at slaughterhouses and other food-related facilities met both humane and Jewish standards. We are currently looking into the possibility of facilitating this connection. Suggestions welcome. Thanks.]

Best regards,

Steve

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12. Greenpeace Activists Protest at Coal-Burning Plant in Ashkelon, Israel

'Rainbow Warriors' Arrested
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

Police arrested fourteen activists from the Greenpeace organization at the Ashkelon harbor, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on Monday after their ship, the Rainbow Warrior, docked in a prohibited area and the activists proceeded to vandalize another ship at the port. Those arrested include Israelis and foreign nationals.

The Israeli Coast Guard was alerted and sped to Ashkelon when the Rainbow Warrior entered a restricted area of the city's port. Police boarded the vessel and arrested the Greenpeace activists. In addition to entering an area prohibited to general civilian traffic, the activists spray-painted the words "Quit Coal" on the side of a ship that was unloading coal. The vandals also apparently planned to launch small boats or dinghies from the Rainbow Warrior towards a power station operating at the Ashkelon harbor.

The Greenpeace activists undertook Monday's actions in protest against the use of coal for energy production at the Ashkelon power plant. The Israeli government has plans to build a second electric power plant, also to be fueled by coal, alongside the existing one.
The Rainbow Warrior docked at Haifa Bay on Saturday on the open and legal leg of its visit to Israel. The crew opened the ship to Israelis and set up exhibits on board explaining their views on climate change and coal fuel. It may have been at this stage that the ship picked up Israeli Greenpeace activists for the next, illicit leg of the ship's voyage.

This is far from the first visit of the Rainbow Warrior to Israel. It is not even the first attention-grabbing "direct action" executed by Greenpeace activists in Israel this year. In May, three Greenpeace activists repelled from the roof of the National Infrastructure Ministry in Jerusalem. They draped a huge banner across the front of the building with a message in Hebrew, "In one week, Fuad will kill Ashkelon," followed by the words, "COAL KILLS!" in English. "Fuad" refers to National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who was set to approve the second coal-based power station in Ashkelon at the time.

As the banner-hangers jumped, Greenpeace activists blocked the entrance to the Ministry with ten kilograms of coal with two protruding dummy legs, "intended to represent the fact that Fuad's head is buried deep inside the coal industry," Greenpeace activists explained on an enviromentalist website.

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13. Ecological Program in Israel Announced

Forwarded message:

Explore the connections between new forms of ecological identity and stewardship, social justice and community in Israel. Work alongside Palestinian-Arab, Bedouin and Jewish Israelis who are striving for a just and lasting peace. Gain hands-on experience in ecological design, green building and sustainable agriculture and put permaculture into action in a Bedouin Village in the Negev Desert.

Through engagement with a holistic approach to world issues that encompasses inner, cultural, and outer processes, you will broaden and deepen your understanding of sustainability and ecology. Hands-on experience with habitat restoration, local organic food production, teaching in village schools, working with village action groups and more, help build a growing theoretical understanding of issues relating to global sustainability.

Learn from experts about cutting-edge ecological building techniques such as adobe, straw bale, and geodesic domes, as well as permaculture design.

Engage in peace dialogues with marginalized groups around their experience and ideas for creating peace and justice in the region. This program emphasizes critical thinking, open-mindedness, consensus decision-making, community living and non-violent communication in order to explore sensitive international, community and personal dynamics.

Highlights

Gain hands-on experience with organic gardening, adobe brick and straw bale = construction, building with recycled materials and more at the Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan.

Experience environmental justice issues first-hand in the Negev Desert with Bustan L'Shalom, a local environmental justice organization.

Live in a mixed Arab and Jewish community in the center of Israel, meet with municipal representatives and community groups, and experience Arab culture.

Visit old and new Jerusalem, tour the separation barrier, and float in the
Dead Sea.

Put permaculture into action working on a community project in a Bedouin
village in the Negev Desert.

Experience the School for Peace's unique approach to dialogue between groups in conflict at Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam.

http://livingroutes.org/programs/p_lotan.htm

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14. Group Promotes Healthy Lunches in Schools

From Barbara Gates, Director of Lean and Green Schools (formerly Project Healthy Beginnings),

...advocating for healthy veg school lunches that will give ALL kids and their planet a brighter future!

Lean and Green Schools passed the first state resolution calling for veg school lunches... now 4 states have!

The cause needs just 3 minutes of your time...

ACTION ALERT: With the link below, it will take JUST 3 minutes to send the USDA your written comments calling for an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act that would include plant-based school lunches. The CNA is coming up for re-authorization in 2009 and taking comments from the public is part of that process, but only until October 15th, 2008. The CNA directly impacts the National School Lunch Program and what is served at school. This is our chance to join together and raise our voices for children, the animals, and the environment.

At the last re-authorization the USDA made amendments calling for more fruits and veggies and also - finally - made soymilk a part of the National School Lunch Program. We can make a difference!

Please send in your comments of support for "plant based school lunch entrees" to this USDA web page formatted to take comments:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=09000064805f47dd

Tell them that you are tired of your tax dollars being thrown into the garbage when kids throw away the healthy fruits and vegetables because those healthy foods can't compete with pizza, burgers, and chocolate milk. And let them know that its time for the USDA to create school lunches that nourish ALL children and do not exclude families who avoid eating animal foods for health or ethical reasons. Please mention the FOUR STATE RESOLUTIONS which now call for alternative plant-based lunches.

If you live near Chicago or Denver - we have a chance to make our case for veg school lunches powerfully - in person - this week, as the USDA holds their final 2 listening sessions (out of 7 held around the US) on the CNA Re-authorization. I went to the San Francisco session and it was an awesome experience. Another Lean and Green Mom was heard powerfully and in person in Georgia - she made the news! Please make arrangements to go and speak if you live near one of these cities!! I can email you a script. Just go to the USDA website linked from the LnG's website and call to register.

And please check out the new LeanandGreenSchools.com website. I'm especially proud of the home page and its message about why veg lunches needs to be a major area of environmental focus!! Please let me know what you think :) I welcome constructive criticism and the chance to get to know you better.

below is an alternative route - really simple:

Go to:

www.fns.usda.gov/cga/Sessions/default.htm ... then click on the link in the text that reads:

"regulations.gov" ... and you're there.

If you are still having problems (you shouldn't, I have checked it several times) you can simply email your comments to:

CNDproposal@fns.usda.gov

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15. Rabbi Reassesses 'What is Kosher' in View of Agriprocessors Controversies

http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=144166&page=7

Ask Rabbi Ari
Send your questions anonymously to Rabbi Ari Vernon, Click here.

Agriprocessors: What's "Kosher?" What's Not?

http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=144166&page=7

Dear Rabbi Ari,

I'm hearing all the stories about Agriprocessors, the kosher meat processing plant in Iowa - raided for hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants, accused of breaking child labor laws, inhumane treatment of workers, etc. As a Jew, I'm embarrassed and angry. We tell the world "kosher" standards are set by "a higher authority." Yet look what this plant has been accused of. Shouldn't Jews let the world know we are outraged and that this is not acceptable?

Sincerely,

Concerned About Kosher

Dear Concerned,

I too am dismayed about the same concerns you have about Agriprocessors, and I have several thoughts on the subject. The first is to be wary of what is reported in the news media. There are multiple sides to every story. Our free press, which usually reports the truth, is not immune to embellishing and exaggerating the headlines to sell papers, magazines, subscriptions, and advertising. Because I am entirely dependent on the media for details, I'm going to withhold specific criticism about Agriprocessors. They are obligated, like any company, to follow the law. If it turns out they violated the law, they should be prosecuted and punished.

Your deeper question about the intersection between Jewish law and ethics has been an ongoing "conversation" for some time. It is a theological debate over the definition of ethics. Can a person act "more ethically" by following the laws that God commands? In the last few centuries, several groups have emerged out of the traditional community in response to a sentiment -- there is more to ethics that
just following Jewish law. The Hasidic movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, and the Mussar movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Salanter, were both efforts to reform the traditional world and re-invigorate Jewish ritual observance with a greater sense of ethical obligation.

Unfortunately, there are still many Jews who carefully adhere to the letter and spirit of the law and even go beyond it when it comes to ritual practice, but who push Jewish law to its limits when conducting their business.

When we think of kashrut, we often think of higher moral and ethical standards for the production of our food products and, in the case of meat, the treatment of the animals as well. In reality, however, the measure of the kashrut of meat is based entirely on the health of the animal and the way it was killed. Meat products may be kosher for eating regardless of the working conditions of employees, the
manufacturer's hiring or business practices, or most of the conditions in which the animals are kept. That is why liberal Jewish movements have been working on a certification system that would recognize producers of kosher products for not only fulfilling the letter of the law but for going beyond it as well.

Finally, there is the question of eating meat altogether. We have the ability to choose what we eat, and while our American diet would seem to imply otherwise, there is no physical need to eat meat. In fact, it is far healthier for us and far better for the environment for us to abstain from meat.

According to traditional interpretation of the Torah, humans were originally intended to be vegetarian and were only later permitted to eat animals. In Temple times, we were only supposed to eat the leftovers from animals that were sacrificed to God. Throughout most of history, the value of livestock and the relative cost of eating them made it an extreme delicacy that was reserved for Shabbat and
Holidays, and even then we usually ate the more readily available and less costly chicken. Only in modern times - with our efficient methods of raising, slaughtering, processing and distributing meat that have distanced the average consumer from everything but consumption - has meat become so regular a staple.

So, considering the health and environmental impact of eating meat as well as the treatment of the animals we eat, the question really isn't whether we should boycott one particular slaughtering and processing company but whether we should even eat meat at all.

Keep the Faith,

Rabbi Ari Vernon is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Rabbi of Shir Hadash Reconstructionist Community, and has served as the Director of Secondary Education at CAJE and Director of the St. Louis Jewish Community High School working with teen and youth workers to improve the quality and number of opportunities for local Jewish teens to explore and connect with Judaism. He is the proud father of Lev and Eiden and is married to Rabbi Annie Belford of Congregation Shaare Emeth. He enjoys playing guitar, reading sci-fi novels, and spending time with his family and their dog, Kaylee.

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16. Video Has D'var Torah Based on Torah Teachings

Hi Richard,

I thought you'd appreciate this seven minute video dvar-Torah I recorded on this week's parsha called "Kindness to animals in this week's Torah portion [Ki Teitze]."

I hope you enjoy.

Kol tuv,

Adam Leventhal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wo71pJX_Qo

[I found the 7 minute video very interesting and instructive.]

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17. Jewish Groups Express Concerns re Agriprocessors Charges

August 8, 2008

Jewish groups add voices to green concerns

Ed Stoddard

Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2008/08/08/jewish-groups-add-voices-to-green-concerns/

Published: 09/09/2008

Following the filing of criminal charges against Agriprocessors, the Orthodox Union may withdraw its kosher certification of the company.

On Tuesday, the O.U. announced it would withdraw certification from the kosher meat company, the nation's largest, unless new management is hired.

The announcement came just hours after Iowa's attorney general filed criminal charges against Agriprocessors and its owner, Aaron Rubashkin, for child-labor violations.

"Within the coming days, or lets say a week or two, we will suspend our supervision unless there's new management in place," said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the O.U.'s head of kosher supervision.

On Tuesday, the attorney general's office charged Rubashkin, his son Sholom, and three human resources employees with more than 9,000 violations of Iowa's Child Labor law, according to a statement from the attorney general's office.

Former workers had alleged child labor violations at Agriprocessors almost immediately after a massive immigration raid at the plant in Postville, Iowa, the country's largest kosher meatpacking plant. The company has denied having knowingly hired underage workers.

“All of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens," said the affidavit filed Tuesday in Allamakee County District Court. "It was likewise shared knowledge among the defendants that many of those workers were minors. The company's hiring practices encouraged job applicants to submit identification documents which were forgeries, and known to contain false information as to resident alien status, age and identity.”

The alleged violations, which date back to September 2007, are each punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of between $65 and $625, the attorney general's office said. An initial court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 17.

Agriprocessors has been under the gun since a raid on May 12 resulted in the arrest of nearly 400 employees on illegal immigration charges. Following the raid, employees alleged they were shorted on pay, forced to work long hours and were the targets of sustained sexual harassment.

In May, the company announced that the Postville plant's manager, Sholom Rubashkin, would be replaced. Months later, Rubashkin is still a regular presence at the plant and no replacement has been named.

The attorney general's complaint represents the first criminal charges to be brought against the company's owner and senior management.

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18. Action Alert: Chance to Sign a Petition to the UN Urging End of Animal-Based Agriculture to Reduce World Hunger

Forwarded message from the European Vegetarian Union (EVU)

Please sign the petition here:

http://www.evana.org/UN/sign.php?lang=en

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~------------------

Petition Text:

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

In 1996, the "Rome Declaration of World Food Security" reaffirmed "the right= of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food". The signatories also pledged their political will "to eradicate hunger in all countries."

In 2008, malnutrition and starvation in many parts of the world are not only increasing but are set to reach new peaks of suffering. Dwindling and wasted crops, soaring prices, unsustainable farming practices are just some of the factors which combine to put vulnerable people at life-threatening risks.

It is not acceptable that even in a grim situation with hunger and malnutrition killing nearly six million children each year, huge percentages of available crops are still being fed to farm animals.

In the name of humanity, a responsible global community can no longer afford to invest 7-16 kg of grain or soya beans, up to 15,500 liters of water, and 323 m2 of grazing land in the production of just one kilo of beef for those with the means to pay for it. More accessible and sustainable avenues to secure food for all are desperately needed.

Unfortunately, even though the experts of the FAO consider 'Livestock a major threat to environment', they merely recommend different farming techniques, some of which entail the risk of damaging an already vulnerable environment even more, perhaps beyond repair.

All hungry people, many million of vegetarians and those looking for wholesome alternatives to destructive traditions have the right to expect from decision makers, governments and international bodies a scientific investigation of all available options, including vegetarianism. This resource- and life-saving lifestyle is worthy of unbiased research and promotional effort, not last because of its potential to decide the raging battle of 'food vs feed' in favour of humanity.

For this reason, we appeal to the United Nations and its agencies to stop ignoring vegetarianism and instead study its multi-faceted benefits, with the aim of incorporating them into future strategies for a world without hunger.

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19. Horrible Abuses of Animals in Greece

Thanks to JVNA advisor Rn Landskroner for forwarding the following to us:

This article contains incredibly shocking and sad (what an insufficient word in this case) photos and description of animal cruelty in Greece. But people need to know.

http://www.abolitionist-online.com/interview-issue05_street.animals.greece.marijo.g.shtml

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20. Marvelous Video Shows Mistreatment of Farmed Animals

http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp?gclid=CJ2MkIWB1JUCFQZqswod-31sig

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** Fair Use Notice **

The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.7.

9/8/2008 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:

1. Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism

2. Vegetarianism, Animal Issues, Environmentalism and the 2008 Presidential Election

3. Head of UN Climate Panel Connects Meat Consumption to Global Climate Change

4. International Vegetarian Union (IVU) Issues Statement Relating Meat Consumption to Global Warming

5. Threatened Small Islands Appeal to the UN re Global Warming

6. Reform Rabbis Embrace Ethical Kashrut/JVNA Press Release in Response

7. Seeking Statistics on the Meat/Global Warming Connection

8. “In Defense of Animals” Challenges Al Gore on the Dietary/Global Warming Connection

9. Ice Continuing to Melt Due to Global Warming

10. Update on the Humane Society of the US's “All Creatures Great and Small” Campaign

11. Major Article Sent Out by Religious News Service and Published in USA Today Mentions JVNA and A SACRED DUTY

12. Supreme Master TV Has Second Anniversary Show

13. National Teach-In on Global Warming Planned

14. Austin, Texas Contact Sought for a Local Vegetarian Article

15. Destroying the World with Our Forks

16. Re Agriprocessors


Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard

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1. Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism

a. I have been informed that my article on Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism will be in the Rosh Hashanah supplement of the Jerusalem Post. The article can be found, along with similar articles about Yom Kippur and Sukkot, in the festivals section at JewishVeg.com. Please consider sending a letter to the editor once the article is published. I plan to let you know. Thanks.

b. My one-page dvar Torah submitted to Shma magazine, in response to their request for entries

RENEWING CREATION AT ROSH HASHANAH
Richard H. Schwartz

Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the creation of the world, is a good time to assess how we are doing in fulfilling our mandated role of being co-workers with God in preserving the environment.

When God created the world, He was able to say, "It is very good." (Genesis 1:31) Everything was in harmony as God had planned, the waters were clean, and the air was pure. But what must God think about the world today?

What must God think when the rain He provided to nourish our crops is often acid rain, due to the many chemicals emitted into the air by industries and automobiles; when the ozone layer He provided to separate the heavens from the earth to protect all life on earth from the sun's radiation is being depleted; when the abundant fertile soil He provided is quickly being depleted and eroded; when the climatic conditions that He designed to meet our needs are threatened by global warming?

At this time, when almost daily reports of severe heat waves, storms, floods, droughts, wild fires and melting ice seem to indicate that the world is rapidly approaching an unprecedented catastrophe, it is essential that tikkun olam (the repair and healing of the world) become a central focus on Jewish life today. We must apply Jewish values to help shift our greatly imperiled world to a sustainable path.

Suggestions welcome.

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2. Vegetarianism, Animal Issues, Environmentalism and the 2008 Presidential Election

As you know, the 2008 presidential election is of great significance. As a non-profit, tax exempt group, JVNA cannot endorse any candidates.

However, we can provide information about the issues that we are concerned about to possibly help readers make voting decisions. With that in mind, I am planning a special JVNA newsletter that will provide background articles and other material re the positions of the major presidential and vice presidential candidates on vegetarian-related issues. Please send me material that you think is appropriate, along with the source and a URL, if possible. I also plan to have a second special issue, in which additional material and responses to material in the first newsletter will be included.

Many thanks.

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3. Head of UN Climate Panel Connects Meat Consumption to Global Climate Change

Gent, Belgium. On Saturday, Rachendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Peace prize winner, lectured at length about the effects of meat consumption on climate change.

Dr. Pachauri was invited by the Belgian vegetarian organisation EVA and addressed more than 600 people at the University of Ghent. The event was called "Less Meat, Less Heat" and was organized together with Greenpeace Belgium and WWF Belgium.

Dr Pachauri said that in order to counter climate change, lifestyle changes are very important. One of the potentially most beneficial lifestyle changes, according to the IPCC president, would be the switch to a diet with less meat and more vegetarian meals.

Addressing his Belgian audience, Dr. Pachauri made the following comparison: if during one year, all Belgians would just have one meatless day a week, this would have the same beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emission as taking almost one million cars off the Belgian roads for an entire year.

Dr. Pachauri said meat production is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to emission of methane from ruminants (= cows, sheep and goats), emissions from manure, and the effects of deforestation for cattle grazing and animal feed. He also pointed out that producing a kilogram of beef requires about 15.000 liters of water.

Dr. Pachauri ended his talk by a quote from Gandhi: 'be the change you want to see in the world'. He said we each need to take our responsibility and can create a big effect by individual actions, decreasing our meat intake being one of them.

After the talk, Tobias Leenaert of vegetarian organisation EVA presented five policy recommendations for meat reduction, signed by about 20 environmental and other organizations. Leenaert: "A lower meat intake would be beneficial on so many levels, not just on climate change and other environmental problems, but also on public health, animal welfare, and the world hunger problem. Still, government and politicians are not taking this issue seriously."

The policy recommendations include setting a good example by offering sustainable vegetarian food in government funded restaurants, focusing more on sustainable food in school lunch programmes and education in general, a government campaign about the benefits of eating less meat, and making the production and sale of sustainable food products more profitable.

Source: www.vegetarisme.be/pachauri

Contact:
EVA
Tobias Leenaert

tobias@vegetarisme.be

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Eat less meat to fight climate change: UN expert

Sep 6, 2006

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told The Observer that people should start by having one meat-free day per week then cut back further.

The 68-year-old Indian economist, who is a vegetarian, said diet change was important in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental problems associated with rearing cattle and other animals.....
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=37095&lang=en

Petition 'FOOD vs FEED' to the UN
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=36475

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4. International Vegetarian Union (IVU) Issues Statement Relating Meat Consumption to Global Warming

The following statement is from the IVU council. Please distribute widely through your own networks, email groups, journals etc. Careful translations into your own language where appropriate would be very much appreciated.

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The International Council of the International Vegetarian Union wishes to bring to the attention of member societies and other interested parties the growing awareness deserved by the connection between, on one hand, the production of meat and other animal-based products and, on the other hand, environmental destruction. While this connection has long been known, recent reports, such as the FAO's [2006 report] "Livestock's Long Shadow", have strengthened the case and increased public consciousness of the fact that vegetarianism is an eco-friendly choice, due to the link between livestock farming and climate change and to links between livestock farming and deforestation and habitat destruction, water and energy resource depletion, and food conversion inefficiency and waste.

The IVU website offers one place to learn more about why vegetarianism is an= eco-friendly choice and about how to inform the public about this. For instance, at http://www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html resources can be found on animal-based food's contribution to global warming. The environment, like all issues, is a complex one. It is suggested that member societies and other interested parties endeavour to stay up-to-date, to rely on reputable information sources, to avoid exaggeration and to share resources with other green groups, including fellow vegetarian organisations. The IVU website and various IVU internet lists offer avenues for this sharing of resources.
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END

John Davis
manager@ivu.org
http://www.ivu.org

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5. Threatened Small Islands Appeal to the UN re Global Warming

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6. Reform Rabbis Embrace Ethical Kashrut/JVNA Press Release in Response

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7. Seeking Statistics on the Meat/Global Warming Connection

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8. “In Defense of Animals” Challenges Al Gore on the Dietary/Global Warming Connection

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9. Ice Continuing to Melt Due to Global Warming

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10. Update on the Humane Society of the US's “All Creatures Great and Small” Campaign

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11. Major Article Sent Out by Religious News Service and Published in USA Today Mentions JVNA and A SACRED DUTY

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12. Supreme Master TV Has Second Anniversary Show

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13. National Teach-In on Global Warming Planned

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14. Austin, Texas Contact Sought for a Local Vegetarian Article

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15. Destroying the World with Our Forks

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16. Re Agriprocessors

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** Fair Use Notice **

The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.

9/1/2008 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:

1. A SACRED DUTY Wins Award at International Festival

2. Helping Promote A SACRED DUTY

3. Rabbi Urges Consumption of Less Meat for Environmental Reasons

4. Reducing Your Carbon Footprint by Going Veggie

5. California Jewish Vegetarian Group Plans “Vegan” Tashlich
Get Together

6. Global Warming Creating Many Global Change “Hotspots”

7. Conservative Movement Launches “Green Initiative”/My Letter in Response

8. My Message to Hazon Blog Based on Their Not Adequately Considering Vegetarianism

9. Shalom Institute Statement on “What is Kosher?”

10. Responsible Policies for Animals Initiative

11. Rabbis Urge that Jews Apply Jewish Values to Current Issues/My Response

12. Some Responses To Consider Re the Kapparot Ritual

13. Article Discusses UN Connection of “Livestock' Industry to Global Warming/Mentions A SACRED DUTY

14. Update on Israeli “Eco-Activist “ Group

15. Campaign To Urge Congress to Put a “Sin Tax” On Meat Initiated

16. IPCC Chairman: Less Meat, Less Heat

Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard

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1. A SACRED DUTY Wins Award at International Festival

Press release:

Contact: Neal Turnage/Susan Tellem
Tellem Worldwide, Inc.
310-479-6111
neal@tellem.com
stellem@tellem.com

Documentary “A Sacred Duty” Wins Silver Chris at Columbus Film Festival

Staten Island, NY - August 28, 2008 - “A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal The World,” a documentary underwritten by the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), has been awarded a Silver Chris in the Religion Division of the Chris Awards at the Columbus International Film+Video Festival. The film is now in contention for The Best of the Festival Award.

Produced by Emmy-winning producer/director Lionel Friedberg, “A Sacred Duty” documents the compelling evidence on how meat consumption is far more damaging to the planet than transportation and other factors usually associated with global warming. The film is narrated by acclaimed Broadway and film star Theodore Bikel and imparts the message that religious response can get the planet back on track through a shift toward a plant-based diet.

“It is extremely rewarding to be recognized by a Festival known for running one of the most prestigious documentary and educational competitions in the U.S.,” said JVNA president, Richard Schwartz. “We're confident this will open the door for a wide release and help people realize the importance of treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment and conserving our resources so hungry people can be fed.”

Friedberg added that the film appeals to anyone interested in taking care of the environment. “We have interviews with leading scholars and environmental experts from Israel and the U.S. Bikel's narration runs throughout and points to specific Biblical passages that emphasize the film's message.”

The Best of the Festival Award will be handed out at the Festival's close, November 16th. For more information on the Columbus International Film+Video Festival, visit www.chrisawards.com.

For more information on the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, visit www.JewishVeg.com. A free DVD copy of “A Sacred Duty,” is available by sending a name and mailing address to mail@jewishveg.com. More than one DVD can be requested by submitting a plan of action to reach broader audiences.

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2. Helping Promote A SACRED DUTY

The many recent reports re Hurricane Gustave and other major storms, severe droughts in Israel, much of the U.S. South and other areas, California wild fires and much more and increasingly ominous projections and warnings re global climate change make the urgency of responses very apparent. One of our main tools is our widely acclaimed documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD. Please order a complimentary DVD if you have not already done so at ASacredDuty.com and please share it with others. Please help spread the word about the movie to media people, religious leaders and others. Please let others know that the entire film can be seen at ASacredDuty.com, and that there is also much background information about it there. Many thanks.

Suggestions re getting the movie more widely seen and reviewed are very welcome.

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3. Rabbi Urges Consumption of Less Meat for Environmental Reasons

SACRIFICING A SACRED COW:

THE NEW JEWISH DIETARY IMPERATIVE

Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz


“The term sacred cow has passed into the English language to mean an object or practice which is considered immune from criticism.” (Wikipedia)

“Can you imagine a supermarket allowing 'Attention, Planet-Destroying Carnivores' on the in-store radio?” (Hank Stewart, Green Team Advertising)

“We do not find lecturing people about personal consumption choices to be effective.” (Carl Pope, Sierra Club)

Greetings to all you planet-destroying carnivores… and now that I have your attention, thank you for this opportunity to lecture. The subject of dictating to people what they should eat is one of the last great taboos in our society. Our diet is, ironically enough, a sacred cow. People positively bristle at criticism of their consumption.

Meat eaters resent vegetarians. Vegetarians look down upon meat eaters.

Junk food consumers resent health nuts. Organic types look down upon fast food addicts.

Kosher observers resent treif eaters. Non-kosher Jews look askance at their dietary challenged fellows.

The sacrifice of a sacred cow is always a messy affair. People take it way too personally. In light of all these sensitivities, since I'm talking about food and what you should eat, permit me to present at the outset what this brief essay is, and is not.

2. This essay is a call for new Jewish dietary imperative. It is not a call for vegetarianism, but is a call for a significantly reduced meat diet.

This essay is an examination of environmental ethics. It is not judgment on the personal ethics of meat eating, or the personal health implications of dietary choice, but is a critique of the global consequences of such consumption.

My two-fold thesis is simple: We should eat less meat to save the planet, and eating less meat may be (surprisingly) the single most important thing you can personally do to reduce global warming.

I don't think you will hear a single major environmental organization say that. Nor will you hear a single major Jewish organization say that. The freedom of dietary choice is a sacred cow. The sacrifice of this sacred cow for the welfare of our planet is the reason I am writing this article.

Even Al Gore won't talk about it. When pressed, he declines comment. Gore's press secretary says only that a suggestion to “modify your diet to include less meat” appears on page 317 of Mr. Gore's book version of “An Inconvenient Truth.”

More importantly, a landmark study on the subject was released by the United Nations two years ago. The study has been essentially ignored both in the environmental world and the Jewish community.

Do you call yourself an environmentalist? I will argue that to do so with integrity means modifying your current diet in favor of a more eco-tolerable one.

Do you call yourself a Jewish environmentalist? I will argue that to do so means re-reading the Torah with a planetary kavannah (intentionality).

Do you “keep kosher”? I will argue that whether you are glatt kosher or eco-kosher, or anything in between, you need to eat lower on the food chain.

3. Every society, and every religion, has its sacred cows. Yet Judaism has historically shown no reserve to both prescribe and proscribe what we eat. On the other hand, the culture around is much more inhibited. What we eat is our personal business. That is the ethic most Jews buy into. The problem is the planet. We are now discovering that what we eat is also the planet's business. Our meat guzzling diets are affecting global pollution, and therefore global warming, like never before. The inconvenient truth is that what we put in our mouths may have more effect on our planet than anything else we do.

Given our dietary heritage, the link Judaism has always drawn between food and faith, consideration of modifying our diet should be considered a religious duty. Given our emerging planetary consciousness, such a duty becomes an ecological imperative as well. As Jews and as world citizens we should longer be worshipping the sacred cow of unbridled dietary indulgence. This is one cow that needs to be sacrificed. No one can stop us from our destructive idolatry except ourselves. A new voluntary Jewish dietary ethic, like most self-imposed disciplines (especially diets), is neither easy nor reliable. But that is where we must start.

4. “Kavod Kal Habriyot”: A Jewish planetary ethic.

In “Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws,” esteemed scholar Jacob Milgrom posits that the basic tenets of biblical kashrut (the prohibition against ingesting blood, the severe limitation on permitted species, and the prescribed method of slaughter) “can only be explained by an ethical hypothesis.” (1) Milgrom identifies that hypothesis as “reverence for life.” He notes that the three fundamental restrictions on how we eat all teach reverence by acknowledging that “bringing death to living things is a concession of God's grace and not a privilege of human whim.” Like ancient and contemporary thinkers before him, Milgrom understands the Torah to be deeply concerned that the carnivorous desires of the human species can easily desensitize us at best, dehumanize us at worst.

What the Torah and its commentators could not imagine is that our carnivorous inclination could threaten not only ourselves, but our planet. If we accept that contention (see part two of this article), then it seems to me that contemporary Judaism is in need of a new, even broader ethical hypothesis. I will call that principle “kavod kal habriyot -reverence for all creation.” The expression “kavod habriyot” is most often used as a technical term in rabbinic literature for “human dignity.” I propose an expansion of the term, linguistically and spiritually, to embrace the planet as a whole. The dignity and basic well being of the entire earth is what is at stake here.

In the same way that “reverence for life” led to biblically imposed limitations on what and how we eat, so “reverence for all creation” should lead to new self-imposed restrictions on what we ingest.

The Torah's ethical hypothesis in no way challenged the radical monotheism of the Bible. In fact, it only affirmed it by insisting that the daily act of feeding ourselves must always be an acknowledgment of God's grace. Likewise, our new Jewish ethical hypothesis in no way challenges Judaism's traditional teaching, but extends it. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.” Reverence for the earth is not worship of the planet any more than reverence for life is worship of the human being or animals. Rather, it is an affirmation of God as creator and sustainer by insisting that even our daily act of eating must bring minimal harm to our world.

5. Meat and the Planet

In November of 2006 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a groundbreaking report entitled “Livestock's Long Shadow.” (2) The 390 page study, by six leading researchers and scores of contributors, aimed to assess the full global impact of the livestock industry on the environment. The executive summary concluded that “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Among the more startling findings of the report:

a. Air pollution: Livestock agriculture emits more greenhouse gases than all the world's transportation sources combined (18 percent vs. 13.5%).

b. Deforestation: Livestock production accounts for 70% of all agricultural land and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. This production is arguably the leading cause of global deforestation today. In the Amazon alone, 70% of previous forested land is occupied by pastures, with feed crops covering a large part of the remainder.

c. Water pollution: In the United States, livestock is responsible for 55% of soil erosion and sediment buildup, 37% of pesticide use, and 33% of nitrogen and phosphorous contamination of freshwater. By 2025 2/3 of the world's population will live in water-stressed areas.

The UN Report notes that per capita consumption of meat has doubled worldwide since 1961. The rate is twice that in the developing world during the last twenty years. Global production of meat (already 40% of the world's agricultural gross domestic product) is projected to double again by 2050. The Report warns that “the environmental impact per unit of livestock production must be cut by half, just to avoid increasing the level of damage beyond its present level.” About the only optimistic note of the Report is the conclusion us that while livestock's contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale, so too its potential contributions to their solution is equally large. The proposed policy changes detailed in the study could result in major reductions in impact at “reasonable” costs.

6. Add to the UN's global wake-up call these other astonishing figures (3):

a. Some 800 million people on the planet still suffer from hunger or malnutrition. Yet the vast majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds livestock, not humans. Yet it takes two to five times more grain to raise livestock than feed people directly. That ratio rises to ten times more in the case of America's favorite: grain-fed beef.

b. Beef meals can often use 15-20 times the amount of fossil fuel energy in their preparation as vegetarian meals.

c. Americans eat close to 200 pounds of meat per capita per year, an increase of 50 pounds per person from 50 years ago. We each consume about 110 grams of protein (most from animals) a day, twice the government's recommended allowance. Many dietary experts say we would do fine with 30 grams a day.

Geophysicist Gidon Eshel of the Bard Center has calculated that the reduction of our collective meat consumption by just 20% would be comparable to every American driving an ultra-efficient Prius instead of a standard sedan. Aware of the science that suggests that we can cut our meat consumption in half and still meet the government's generous protein guidelines, Professor Eshel maintains that “The good of people's bodies and the good of the planet are more or less perfectly aligned.” So too, the UN report states: “There are reasons for optimism that the conflicting demands for animal products and environmental services can be reconciled. Both demands are exerted by the same group of people…the relatively affluent, middle-to-high-income class, which is no longer confined to industrialized countries….This group of consumers is probably ready to use its growing voice to exert pressure for change and may be willing to absorb the inevitable price increases.”

7. A Challenge to the Jewish Community

My congregation recently passed a resolution pledging to lower its carbon footprint. We worked to calculate our synagogue's environmental impact, and sponsored a workshop to measure our personal footprint as well. The personal exercise was an eye-opener for all involved. Worldwide there are 4.7 biologically productive acres available per person to sustain the world's population (excluding the needs of the rest of the animal and plant kingdom). My lifestyle resulted in a need for 28 acres; even higher than the United Sates average of 24 acres (the most inflated in the world). (4)

Not unexpectedly, the greatest culprits in the calculation were the size (energy use) of my house, and the amount of my family's travel. Close behind was food. In fact, for many people in the exercise food was #2 or even #1 in terms of ecological impact. This fact was the most disconcerting of the day for almost every participant.

Few people can change their home, especially during child rearing years, or change their work, which accounts for most travel. But we can change what we eat. Many Americans have grown accustomed to eating meat three times a day. As noted previously, we ply our bodies with twice the protein we need. The choice of meat-like substitutes is greater than ever (and the taste is getting better and better).

This essay is a call for the institutions of American Judaism to take the lead in recognizing the dietary impact of excessive meat consumption on global warming and pollution.

Can the American Jewish community be in the vanguard of diet based ecological change? The sacrifice of a sacred cow is involved. Our diets should not be immune to criticism. We come from an ancient tradition that eschews idolatry, promulgates dietary restrictions, and reveres life. The foundation is there, but the will to make it happen is up to us.
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NOTES

1. Jacob Milgrim, “Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws,” Bible Review (December, 1992) pp.5,10.

2. H. Steinfeld, P. Gerber, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, M. Rosales, C. de Haan, Livestock's Long Shadow (New York: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2006).

3. Mark Bittman, Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler,” New York Times (January 27, 2008).

4. Calculation from worksheet at www.sustainenergy.org. Resolution can be viewed at www.morshalom.org.

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My letter in response sent to a blog that had the article:

Nice thoughtful article. But, there are some essential issues that JVNA has been respectfully trying to get onto the Jewish agenda for many years, and they still have not been addressed.
These include:

* animal-based diets and agriculture violate Jewish mandates to preserve our health, treat animals compassionately, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people and pursue peace.

* animal-based diets are contributing to heart disease, several types of cancer and many other chronic, degenerative disease;

* animal-based agriculture is substantially contributing to global warming and many other environmental threats that have the potential of resulting in an unprecedented catastrophe.

As people who are to be rachmanim b'nei rachmanim (compassionate children of compassionate ancestors), how can we ignore the horrendous treatment of animals on factory farms?

Why does the Jewish community seem unwilling to address the question "Should Jews Be Vegetarians?

Further information at JewishVeg.com/schwartz and ASacredDuty.com, where our one-hour documentary can be seen.

Best wishes,

Richard (Schwartz)
President, JVNA

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4. Reducing Your Carbon Footprint by Going Veggie

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080826/sc_afp/lifestylegermanyclimateagriculture

Going veggie can slash your carbon footprint: study
Tue Aug 26, 11:19 AM ET

Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, a German study said on Tuesday.

A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometres (2,956 miles), the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said.

But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2,427 kilometres, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.

The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of farmland.

Going vegan -- giving up meat and dairy products -- would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629 kilometres, it said.

And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a meat-eater -- the equivalent of driving 281 kilometres.

Beef is particularly environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a kilo (2.2 pounds) the same as driving 71 kilometres compared with 26 kilometres for pork.

Switching to organic farming can cut emissions dramatically, "but what counts is the way we feed ourselves ... production and consumption first and foremost of beef and milk must be cut drastically," the study said.

Copyright © 2008 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.

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5. California Jewish Vegetarian Group Plans “Vegan” Tashlich Get Together

Thanks to Vegetarian Activist Janine Laura Bronson for forwarding this message. I hope others will come up with events that are consistent with Judaism and Jewish events and vegetarianism.

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In your current newsletter, I was looking through all of the points you mentioned, trying to find something on the "Tashlich tradition!"

Perhaps we can also relate "Tashlich" tradition to veganism?

Here's how we could do it: Get Jewish groups to come together doing "T'shuva through Tashlich" which would include a picturesque description of the practice, for instance of throwing breadcrumbs into a gorgeous waterfall, seeing a bird feed on the crumbs and make a vow never to eat fowl again, upon seeing how majestic it is, affirming what a wonderful creature G-d had created and repenting for ever having consumed such an amazing beautiful bird (or any other living creature for that matter!)

Our group Leh keeroov is having such an event on Sunday October 5th at 10:00 A.M., at Temescal Canyon, Los Angeles, California, which will be preceded by a hike in nature! [see picture above! Isn't it beautiful?]

We will hike up the beautiful trail to the waterfall, (about a mile and a half up hill, on trail, from the parking lot).

Due to our current drought, the waterfall will be more of a trickle, but it will still be beautiful and will certainly serve our tashlich purposes.
We will symbolically toss the crumbs from our pockets, cleansing ourselves for the new year.

We will recite the traditional verses together.

Of course, we will also enjoy the beauty of this wonderful oasis. Then, we will hike back down to the parking lot.

We will retrieve the potluck foods from our cars, (along with our own washable, reusable plates, cups, utensils, and napkins that we are each to be sure to bring).

Then we will picnic on the grass adjacent to the parking lot.

Please be sure that the food you bring for our potluck picnic is strictly vegan, (no animal products whatsoever - no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no honey, no bone-char processed white sugar, etc.) - also, it would be nice if you would bring a notecard listing the ingredients of your picnic contribution, enabling those with special allergies and/or food preferences to be careful as they choose/need.

Feel free to bring picnic blankets, beach chairs, etc., to make you comfortable.

Also, feel free to bring musical instruments to entertain us as we picnic lunch together.

What a wonderful way for us to enter the new year together.

RSVP (310) 358-9941

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6. Global Warming Creating Many Global Change “Hotspots”

Joint study identifies humanitarian hotspots and warns of dire consequences unless world leaders act now.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/217440/88e8cca17126483fe145d4690d48fd67.htm

22 Aug 2008 09:05:39 GMT
Source: CARE International - UK

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia are among the pivotal states identified as climate change “hotspots”-- countries particularly vulnerable to the increase in extreme drought, flooding, and cyclones expected in the coming decades-according to a new report commissioned by humanitarian relief agency CARE International and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"Leaders and communities in these pivotal states and in other States at risk in the Sahel, Horn of Africa and in South East Asia are already facing enormous political, social, demographic, economic and security challenges. Climate change will greatly complicate and could undermine efforts to manage these challenges," said Dr. Charles Ehrhart, Climate Change Coordinator for CARE International and one of the report's authors.

"Over the last few months, we have witnessed harrowing images of people struck by natural hazards in the most disparate parts of the world, including Hurricane Ivan in Madagascar, severe drought in parts of South and East Asia, and most recently Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar," said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency relief Coordinator.

The study looks at the most likely humanitarian consequences of climate change over the next 20 to 30 years. The authors map specific hazards associated with climate change, focusing on floods, cyclones and droughts.

"The likelihood of floods, violent storms and droughts resulting in disasters is determined by a number of factors, including timely access to proper equipment, information, and the capacity to exert political influence, explained Dr. Ehrhart. "The striking lack of these explains why poor people-especially those in marginalized social groups like pastoralists in Africa, women and children-constitute the vast majority of disaster victims," he added.

The study says that we will witness, and may already be experiencing, an increase in the intensity, frequency, duration and extent of many weather-related hazards. "However, these hazards will not necessarily cause a corresponding rise in disasters if world leaders act now," said Dr. Ehrhart.

The most effective interventions to reduce human vulnerability include: 1) strengthening the response capacity of local actors and government institutions at all levels; 2) empowering local populations to have a strong role and voice in disaster preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation, and 3) providing essential services and long-term social protection systems for the most vulnerable populations.

According to the authors, the purpose of mapping these 'hotspots' is to help policymakers grasp the extent of challenge the world faces, and encourage humanitarian actors to adapt their response strategies to the realities of the increased and, in some cases, novel risks emanating from climate change.

"Climate change is a wake up call for all of us," says Dr. Robert Glasser, CARE International's Secretary General. "We must avoid relying exclusively on quick fixes like food aid that are necessary but do not address the underlying causes of the emergency and, most importantly, we ought to help people get back on their feet as soon as possible after the disaster has been tackled."

The launch of this study coincides with the start of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting that is being held in Accra, Ghana from 21-27 August. Participants attending the International Disaster and Risk Conference in Davos, Switzerland during the last week of this month will also appreciate the findings of the joint CARE International and UNOCHA report.

Media Contacts:

OCHA Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, Information Officer/Spokesperson, Tel: + 41 22 917 26 53; Mob: + 41 (O) 79 473 45 70; E-mail address: byrs@un.org

CARE:
Beatrice M. Spadacini, Nairobi, Tel. +254 (0) 725 22 10 36; email: spadacini@ci.or.ke

Amber Meikle, London, Tel. +44 207 934 9348, meikle@careinternational.org

Reuters Foundation

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7. Conservative Movement Launches “Green Initiative”/My Letter in Response

JTA Breaking News

Conservatives launch green initiative

Published: 08/26/2008

The Conservative movement launched a greening initiative in North America and Israel.

A project of the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs, the initiative kicks off with a solar Ner Tamid, or eternal light, for synagogues, and soy-based Shabbat eco-candles for home use. The candles have lead-free wicks and recyclable tins.

A third prong is encouraging community support for carbon offset programs in North America and Israel. The programs involve planting trees, cleaning rivers and performing other environmentally sustainable actions.

The fourth component is using biodegradable building and food service supplies. A joint purchasing agreement is in place to help Conservative institutions buy such products in bulk instead of non-reusable plates, cups and utensils.

"Being green is a Jewish imperative," said Rabbi Charles Simon, the executive director of the men's club federation. "Our goal is to reduce synagogue, and congregant and community energy usage, and promote the use of sustainable energy."

Ten pilot congregations signed on to the effort July 1. More information is at www.solarcombo.com.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/110098.html

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My letter in response:

As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I commend the Conservative movement for its ambitious new green initiative (http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/110098.html). At a time when the world is arguably approaching an unprecedented catastrophe from global warming and other environmental threats, their initiative is very important and deserves much praise. I hope it will serve as a model for similar campaigns by other Jewish denominations and groups.

However, as praiseworthy as their initiative is, I respectfully believe that they are ignoring a major contributor to current environmental threats: animal-based agriculture, which involves the raising of 60 billion farmed animals for slaughter annually.

According to a 2006 UN report, livestock agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) than all the cars and other means of transportation worldwide combined (18 percent vs. 13.5 percent). It also contributes significantly to widening water and energy scarcities, rapid species extinction, soil erosion and depletion, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habits, and many more environmental problems. Making the situation more serious, the consumption of animal products is projected to double in 50 years. If this happens, it will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to reduce greenhouse emissions enough to avoid very severe effects from global climate change.

It is essential that our rabbis and other Jewish leaders recognize that a major shift toward plant-based diets is essential to avoid the unparalleled disaster that the world is rapidly approaching and to move our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path.

[*** Some or all of the material below may be omitted for space considerations:]

It is urgent that tikkun olam-the healing and repair of the world -- be a central issue in synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish institutions. Judaism has splendid teachings on environmental conservation and sustainability, and it is essential that they be applied to respond to the many current environmental threats.

JVNA would very much welcome respectful dialogues/debates with Conservative rabbis and, indeed, all rabbis and other Jewish leaders on “Should Jews be Vegetarians?” Such discussions would constitute a kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G-d's Name) because it would show the applicability of eternal Jewish teachings to dietary issues.

Further information about these issues can be found at the JVNA web site JewishVeg.com. We will provide complimentary copies of its new documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD to rabbis and other Jewish leaders who will contact us (president@JewishVeg.com) and indicate how they might use them to involve their congregations on the issues. The entire movie can be seen and further information about it can be found at ASacredDuty.com.

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8. My Message to Hazon Blog Based on Their Not Adequately Considering Vegetarianism

As Al Gore quips, "Denial is not just a river in Egypt."

With the world heading toward an unprecedented catastrophe, with Israel facing its worst drought in 80 years, with projections of far worse for Israel and the world, why is Hazon and generally the entire Jewish community so afraid to consider "Should Jews be Vegetarians?" Jews do have dietary choices, but shouldn't they be made after considering the realities of animal-based diets and agriculture?

What happened to the prophetic voice in Judaism?

What happened to Jews as rachmanim b'nei rachmanim, as Hashem's witnesses, as b'nei nevi'im?

Kol tuv,

Richard

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9. Shalom Institute Statement on “What is Kosher?”

A Prophetic Voice in Jewish, Multireligious, and American Life

From Deuteronomy to Postville:
Our Generation Reexamines what is "Kosher"

This week's [parsha Re'eh] regular Torah reading includes a summary of the biblical definitions of "kosher" food -- what can and cannot be eaten (Deut. 14: 3-20). The rabbinic definition includes much more than the Bible said. And we are right now in the midst of reconsideration by many Jews of how our generation should think about kosher food.

So at many levels, this seems a good moment to address a number of requests for explanations of how the traditional Jewish code of kosher food operates, how it fits with Jewish and universal ethical obligations, and how the Jewish and general-American communities should deal with revelations and allegations of unethical behavior by owners of the allegedly kosher meat-packing plant in Postville, Iowa.

For more details and depth than is possible on this Shalom Report, see my book DOWN-TO-EARTH JUDAISM: FOOD, MONEY, SEX, & THE REST OF LIFE (Morrow, 1995; available from The Shalom Center by sending a check for $14.95 earmarked "Down-to-Earth" to The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119) and the sections on Environmental Justice and Sacred Food on our Website. See http://www.shalomctr.org/taxonomy_menu/1/124/161 and http://www.shalomctr.org/taxonomy_menu/1/128/4/36

Besides this, there are four sections to this post:

(1) Basic comments on the meaning of traditional and newly emerging standards of "kosher," "eco-kosher," and "ethical kosher" food.

(2) A call for action that has recently come from the Boards of OHALAH (Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal), ALEPH (Alliance for Jewish Renewal) and the Rabbinic Pastors Association (affiliated with Ohalah). It focuses on withdrawing use and support from unethically produced meat.

[*** One could argue that all factory farmed meat, at least, is unethically produced.]

(3) A proposal from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. It focuses on creating ethical alternatives -- new transdenominational collectives for actually providing kosher meat - and has an especially interesting proposal for cooperation with Muslims in providing halal meat.

(4) A reminder that The Shalom Center believes all these approaches are useful but insufficient -- too narrow to meet the needs of our society.

1. Traditional kosher practice (called "kashrut"; certification of kashrut is called a "hekhsher," from the same root) addressed five major items: prohibition on eating specific non-kosher meats (shellfish, pig-meat, insects); the slaughter of permitted animals (sheep, goats, cows) in a ritual fashion intended to be painless and to minimize the presence of blood in the resulting meat; prohibition on eating certain parts of even permitted animals (hind-quarters of sheep, goats, and cows); the elimination of as much blood as possible from the resulting meats; the separation of dairy foods from meat in preparation as well as in eating;.

IN ADDITION, there are Jewish laws for the ethical treatment of the earth, workers, and immigrants. These laws apply in general, regarding food preparation and all other aspects of life.

But traditionally, the violation of this second set of laws in the preparation of food did not make the food unkosher. That is, the food could be eaten, as long as the kosher laws were obeyed, even if the preparation violated other laws. The two sets of laws were parallel but not synthesized.

What has happened in the last generation, beginning with efforts in the early 1970s to persuade Jews not to eat non-union grapes whose harvesting violated laws against oppression of labor and continuing with the articulation since the 1970s of "eco-kosher" precepts and "ethical kosher" precepts and the appearance in the last three years or so of some meats that are organic, free-range, AND traditionally kosher, are increasing attempts to MERGE the laws against oppression of labor and maltreatment of animals and the earth INTO the laws of kashrut, thus forbidding the consumption of foods prepared unethically.

This has been spurred a great deal by the Postville revelations of violations of BOTH traditional kashrut (by painful slaughter) AND of laws governing the just treatment of workers, immigrants, and the earth.

In the denomination of Conservative Judaism, this process is being codified (not yet fully) by the emergence of "Hekhsher Tzedek" (that is, the certification of food as both traditionally kosher AND prepared by ethically just practices.)

In the Orthodox and Renewal communities, there have been some ad hoc efforts to boycott some meats on the grounds they are unethically prepared (especially the Postville meats). The ALEPH-related Renewal institutions have just formally called for a boycott of the Postville meats. (See below) In the Renewal communities, "eco-kosher" as a concept is intended to apply not only to food but to other consumables - coal, oil, paper, plastics, etc.

So far as I know, the Reform and Reconstructionist denominations have not formally or institutionally acted on these questions. A number of Jewish social-justice organizations, mostly secular, have called for boycotts of Postville meats without addressing the broader questions of kashrut or eco-kashrut.

In addition, ALEPH, The Shalom Center and some other groups have worked with Muslim and Christian groups toward an interfaith definition of sacred foods. In addition to our own "Sacred Food" links, see also - https://www.aleph.org/sacredfoods.htm
[*** A positive step, but vegetarianism is generally not being considered.]

2. The three ALEPH- related Jewish-renewal boards adopted the following resolution, including a call to boycott the Postville meats, that will appear at http://www.ohalah.org/tikkunolam.htm.

They are inviting colleagues, congregants and other members of the Jewish community in the US and around the world to add their names as well.

To sign on, please send your title, name, city and state or country to Rabbi Pam Frydman Baugh at pbfrydman@yahoo.com and mention the Kosher Meat Resolution.

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. Justice, justice pursue. Deuteronomy 16:20

KOSHER MEAT BY UNKOSHER MEANS

Traditional Jewish Law prescribes precise actions and conditions required in order for food to bear a "Kosher" label. Likewise, Jewish Law has precise guidelines for allowed and forbidden actions and conditions for the treatment of workers, including immigrant workers. In situations where Jewish Law regarding the treatment of workers has been violated in the process of their preparing of food for "Kosher" certification, we believe that food must be denied "Kosher" certification.

In a biography of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the book's author, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, relates that Rabbi Salanter advised his students that when they were preparing matzot for Passover, they should not overwork themselves or make excessive demands of the female workers who were kneading the dough and otherwise preparing for the matzah baking. That same account appears in a Hebrew volume titled Bikkurei Shai, written by a modern Israeli rabbi who has served as Chief Rabbi of Givatayim, Israel.

If Chassidim making matzot for their own use and the use of the community must pay attention to worker rights, it is also incumbent upon us to treat immigrants the same under the Torah-based halachah of treating the stranger as the home-born.

Reports arising from the May 12, 2008, Department of Homeland Security raid at the AgriProcessors Kosher Meat Packing Plant in Postville, Iowa, establish that there are credible allegations that the owners and management of AgriProcessors committed serious violations of Jewish Law against scores of immigrant workers at the plant including sexual assault and harassment, rape, abuse, and use of child labor.

Under these circumstances and credible allegations, we call upon our fellow clergy who provide Kashruth certification to suspend the certification of "Kosher" meat from AgriProcessors until the truthfulness of these allegations are determined in a proper legal forum where the workers, and the owners and management, have a hearing that complies with the requirements of due process of civil and Jewish laws.

We also call upon our fellow Jews to boycott meat from AgriProcessors until this determination. If these allegations are determined to be true, the "Kosher" decertification and boycott should continue until full t'shuva and tikkun is done by the owners and management of AgriProcessors, including apologies to the workers, full compensation for their injuries, and the implementation of procedures and systems with effective monitoring to ensure that abuse of AgriProcessors workers never occurs again.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3. Here is Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's comment and proposal:

It is very painful to read about a plant that was supposed to be Glatt kosher and manages this by squeaking by the narrowest definition of kosher that could be construed by Halakha [Jewish law]. They ignored many of the issues that had to do with Tza'ar Ba'aley Chayyim [giving pain to animals] and unfair treatment of laborers, as well as knowingly breaking immigration hiring laws.

In the meantime I have received a request from concerned people who would like to be able to engage a Shochet [ritual slaughterer] and find a way to address the needs to get their meat from free-range animals that were not fed hormones and grazed on land that was not polluted by herbicides.

It occurred to me that it is time for another way to approach this. It would be to create a cooperative of all those who require kosher meat.

While there may be some efforts already on the part of denominational movements it became clear to me that it is imperative not to do this on the turf of any particular denominational group. I'm concerned that if a non-Orthodox group were to sponsor such a Heksher or cooperative they we would not be able to get the necessary Shochtim and Mashgichim [experts in ritual-slaughtering and in certifying kashrut]. I can very well imagine that some overzealous people would declare the meat non-kosher.

Moreover, since Jews cannot make use of the hind-quarters, it would be good if we could enter into a coalition with Muslims who require Hallal meat. They would be quite happy with those special cuts of meat that they could have. It would also be a very important ecumenical bridge.

I'm sharing this with you. If there would be a good way to organize such a co-op or hekhsher under neutral auspices in which all those groups that are interested in the meat that would be really Glatt kosher without the taint of Tza'ar Ba'aley Chayyim and will offer decent and fair treatment treatment to the religious functionaries and the laborers this would become a true Kiddush Hashem [affirming the holiness of God and Torah].

Many Brakhot in Gashmiyut and Ruchniyut
[Many blessings in the material and spiritual worlds]
Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

[Editor's note to these proposals: if you choose to boycott Postville meats, the brand names are "Aaron's Best," "Supreme Kosher," and "Rubashkin." If you seek free-range organically raised kosher chicken, turkey, or beef, check -- http://www.wiseorganicpastures.com/catalog/ : There are also already emerging local groups that have arranged for lamb or beef, that is free-range, organically raised, and kosher. We will try to gather a list of contacts and post them. If you know of such groups, please write me at Awaskow@shalomctr.org.]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(4) The Shalom Center believes we should be looking far more deeply into the entire system that is creating these violations of both ritual and ethical law, Jewish and general.

[*** JVNA certainly agrees, and we wish to go far further than the Shalom Institute.]

(a) Achieving ecological respect and sanity through reducing the amount of meat we eat. -- We have been reawakened to the first two factors of three aspects of eco-sanity: how animals are killed, and how they live their lives (so eco-kashrut must forbid factory farming, etc). Still deeper: It is all too clear that the obsession of many people with eating a great deal of meat is a twin to our addiction to oil and coal as a way to poison the planet. Huge farms of cows and pigs pour methane -- an even more dangerous global-scorching agent than CO2 -- into the atmosphere. And the obsession with meat forces us into factory farming, to meet the demand. To heal our earth as well as our own bodies, we must return to our forebears' diet of eating meat no more than once or twice a week.
(See also http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1444)

(b) Repairing an unjust "justice system" in which the wealthy are not required to obey the law, while the poor, the powerless, and the desperate are sent to prison for minor offenses, without the opportunity to defend themselves. All Jewish wisdom and all Jewish history teaches: Do not shrug off a system of injustice! In this case: why have the owners not been charged with numerous violations of labor law and immigration law, while desperate workers are sent to prison?

(c) Facing the truth that immigration is not a narrowly "domestic" issue. So long as poverty, powerlessness, and environmental destruction in Mexico and Central America drive people to despair, there will be greater numbers of immigrants to the USA than our laws, our economy, and our culture can compassionately sustain. The pressure is a set-up for driving unemployed white and Black Americans into hostility against Hispanic Americans, while the rich and powerful chortle. We must use trade agreements and all other negotiating frameworks to insist on high wages, health and safety standards, and environmental protections for ALL OF US in Anglo and Latino-America, and we must support transnational pressure to those ends by unions, environmentalists, religious communities, and others.

We believe that EVERYONE, not only Jews or the explicitly religious, must face these basic questions.

Shalom, salaam, peace -
Arthur

To donate to the Shalom Center, click on our logo!

The Shalom Center | 6711 Lincoln Drive | Philadelphia, PA 19119
| office@shalomctr.org | 215.844.8494

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10. Responsible Policies for Animals Initiative

Forwarded message from RPA Director David Cantor:

RPA Initiative

Share freely.

Responsible Policies Members & Friends!

It began with a phone call from All-American Publishers in Boise, Idaho asking of Responsible Policies for Animals would like to advertise on nearby Jenkintown High School's athletic-schedule poster. The price was good, but what would we say when we don't have a local storefront like the restaurants and boutiques that advertise? We got creative and thought of something....

Then came the 2008 Olympics and the 12,000-daily-calories Michael Phelps' diet including thousands of calories from animals. Not much from mass media about the top athletes who eat plants only, what happens to athletes on the standard American diet (SAD) when the differences between youthful sports-fitness and long-term health kick in, or harm to

Now Responsible Policies for Animals has launched www.EatForSports.org! Check it out when you have a moment.

EatForSports.org speaks to ordinary folks like me about the foods that are best for optimal athletic performance and longevity of athletic activity. The site refers visitors to food literature by trained experts. But since we're on our own to learn what's best for us and our families and friends with the food industry serving its own interests and schools, government & media ensuring people won't learn the truth about food, EatForSports.org spotlights two ordinary people making superhuman contributions toward food education.

The sports chapter from Rex Bowlby's amazing book Plant Roots: 101 Reasons Why the Human Diet Is Rooted Exclusively in Plants is provided. And Dr. Barbara Ann Ellicott, whom I met at Vegetarian Summerfest 2008 and who gave me her compelling book Discovered Secrets: A Self-Metamorphosis -- Inspiration for Self-Healing, is profiled.

Rex, with a master's degree in management, took a couple of years providing an inestimable public service by helping readers separate crucial food facts from popular food fictions, including references to 1,001 published sources, many of them in nutrition-science and biomedical journals.

From significantly overweight and ill in middle age, Barb has gained excellent health and become a runner of marathons, half-marathons, and triathlons as a senior, while also doing more-than-full-time work lecturing, teaching swimming, and practicing speech-language pathology -- largely by moving to plants-only eating.

See what you think -- at www.EatForSports.org! Share it with friends who want to achieve their potential in any area of life and to see their kids do the same. Report back! Depending on response to www.EatForSports.org, RPA might promote it beyond the Jenkintown High School athletic-schedule poster. You can help expand and improve the site! And maybe you'll have ideas for promoting it in your community!

Thanks and best!

David

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11. Rabbis Urge that Jews Apply Jewish Values to Current Issues/My Response

http://www.northjersey.com/news/religion/27584964.html?c=y&page=2

My Letter in Response:

Kudos to Rabbi Yosef Carmel and other rabbis who are helping Jews apply Jewish values to current issues (“Helping Jews Live by Torah.” August 28 issue). However, I wonder respectfully why the rabbis are generally not applying Jewish teachings to the many moral issues related to animal-based diets and the fact that the world seems to be rapidly approaching an unprecedented catastrophe from global warming and other environmental threats.

With almost daily reports of major, often unparalleled, heat waves, storms, floods, droughts, glacier and ice meltings, wild fires and other indicators of global warming, and with some climate scientists warning that global warming may reach a tipping point and spiral out of control unless major changes do not soon occur, it is essential that religious communities and others address this issue.

Also, religious values should be applied to our diets, since the production and consumption of animal-products violate basic religious mandates to preserve our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources and help hungry people.

I hope that rabbis and other religious leaders will consider these issues in order to shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path.

Further information can be found at JewishVeg.com and our one-hour documentary “A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values To Help Heal the World” can be seen at ASacredDuty.com.

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12. Some Responses To Consider Re the Kapparot Ritual


[As indicated, JVNA believes the kapparot ritual should be carried out with money rather than chickens, and that there should be adequate supervision when chickens are used. However, perhaps some of the approaches below might be valuable supplements.]

I wonder if, instead of kapparot, since it is minhag and not fully halakhic, if a ritual of spending some time and energy on "tsa'ar baalei khayim," with a prayer. yikhudin or bakasha that the kindness I have shown to animals mitigate the severity
of my transgressions during this time of tshuvah. One might volunteer. at a nature center, animal rescue or through some other nonviolent means of making kaparah.

Golem
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Your recent email reminds me of things I've learned from my daughter. You many appreciate this.

One year she learned in school that it was traditional to put the head of a fish on the holiday table. Since she could not tolerate the death of an innocent animal, she decided we should go to the pet store and get a live tropical fish to put on the table.

Later when she was away at school, they did kaparot by putting money in a rubber chicken. Good, thought provoking programming for young adults.

Dr. Joel Etra, SLP.D
Speech-Language Pathologist
Norwich, CT 06360
joeletra@aol.com

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13. Article Discusses UN Connection of “Livestock' Industry to Global Warming/Mentions A SACRED DUTY

United Nations report: Livestock industry No. 1 cause of global warming
August 29, 2008 Sun Times News Group

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/hinsdale/lifestyles/currents/1135253,do-webspotveg-082908-s3.article

By AMY DEIS

Many organizations are now stating that the No. 1 cause for global warming isn't people, pollution or car emissions -- it's the livestock industry.
Reports from the University of Chicago and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization published in 2006 cite this information, and many have lambasted former Vice President Al Gore for not including this fact in his award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth."

"It makes you have a whole other perspective on things," Western Springs resident Arthur Poletti said.

The UN report explains how livestock use water, land and resources such as corn and other grains given to cattle as food. In Poletti's short work of fiction, God Does Not Eat Meat, he writes about a futuristic scenario where meat has been removed from the food chain.

Poletti has been a vegan for three years and a vegetarian since 1990, and his daughter and wife are vegetarians. He also supports and promotes the documentary "A Sacred Duty," produced by the Jewish Vegetarians of North America. That film describes how greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide emitting from livestock cause a bigger greenhouse effect than all the other causes of global warming combined, but the main focus is what religious leaders are doing to address the issue.

Jill Ovnik, a former La Grange resident and a vegan educator who has spent years researching veganism for her seminars, said many people don't realize the livestock industry's impact on our lives. Because of the amount of resources needed to keep cattle alive, Ovnik said that it takes about 2,500 gallons of water to make one pound of beef.

"If you skipped eating a burger, you would save more water than if you didn't shower in one year," she said.

Poletti said he sees himself as a purveyor of this information and thinks people with power such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is a vegan along with wife Elizabeth, can make change happen. Poletti said he only gets upset when people have the facts but do nothing to change their lifestyle or habits after seeing there is a clear link between human health and the livestock industry.
"People are aware of the subject, but they don't do anything," he said. "So many things are obvious about the livestock industry, and there are more diseases, more heart disease and more diabetes."

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14. Update on Israeli “Eco-Activist “ Group

Forwarded message:

Shalom to all friends and alumnae of Eco-Activist Beit Midrash@ Simchat Shlomo!

In this coming year we want the EABM to grow both in the number of people we reach and in the level of experience we provide. For those of you who participated in our first year, we think you'll be very impressed by how far we've come - maybe you want to come back this January for a 10-week program including a week hiking trails and a week working the land on an organic farm? We are working towards receiving university accreditation for our course-work, and there is a developing chance to begin our own perma-culture project in the middle of Nachlaot! We are proud of what we are doing, believe in the experience and opportunity it opens for our participants and are excited about being a larger player in the Jewish environmental world in Israel and globally.

We are also committed to continuing what we are building and keeping it accessible to the people who apply- this means our affordable tuitions, which are increasingly falling short in meeting the costs for the advances in our programming. While we are working on a number of fundraising avenues to keep this program running and growing we are turning first to those that know us and what we are about. Following are several ways that you can help us and/or get involved:

SNIP

You can help out Team Simchat Shlomo by:

A. Signing up to participate in the IsraelRide this November and join us touring Israel's landscape and learning about environmental issues in Israel. Or…

B. If you can't make it, you can pledge support for one of our riders in their fundraising campaigns.

C. Donations can also be made via the Simchat Shlomo Pay Pal account, which will go directly into new EABM programming and scholarship funds. Please note on your donation whether it is for the ride or if should go directly to the Ecology Program.

With continued support from our community, we are hoping to provide bigger and better programming for our upcoming sessions, and to keep the love and connection for Torah and Ecology alive and flourishing. Many of our participants expressed interest in helping the program grow- passing this appeal on to friends and family or helping us to connect with people/ organizations that you think might support the program is a crucial step for us.

Stay in touch by joining our Facebook Group or by visiting the new website (www.shlomoyeshiva.org/eco) for the latest updates and upcoming events. While there won't be full programs running this fall, we will be getting into the fields, deserts, and texts on Shabbatonim and hikes! The next EABM sessions are slated to be held in December and January.

Thank you in advance for all the support!

Shaul Judelman, EABM Director
Sholom Brodt, Dean of Simchat Shlomo
Sasha Perry, EABM IsraelRide Team Manager

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15. Campaign To Urge Congress to Put a “Sin Tax” On Meat Initiated

PETA has just launched a campaign to urge Congress to support a "sin" tax on meat. Visit TaxMeat.com to find out more about why PETA wants a 10-cent tax on every pound of chicken, turkey, pig, fish, and cow flesh sold in grocery stores and restaurants.

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/tax_meat?rk=T7LsHeMqeBtbW

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16. IPCC Chairman: Less Meat, Less Heat

Forwarded message:

IPCC chairman insists on eating less meat

August 31

Gent, Belgium. On Saturday, Rachendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Peace prize winner, lectured at length about the effects of meat consumption on climate change. Dr. Pachauri was invited by the Belgian vegetarian organisation EVA and addressed more than 600 people at the University of Ghent. The event was called "Less Meat, Less Heat" and was organized together with Greenpeace Belgium and WWF Belgium.

Dr Pachauri said that in order to counter climate change, lifestyle changes are very important. One of the potentially most beneficial lifestyle changes, according to the IPCC president, would be the switch to a diet with less meat and more vegetarian meals.

Addressing his Belgian audience, Dr. Pachauri made the following comparison: if during one year, all Belgians would just have one meatless day a week, this would have the same beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emission as taking almost one million cars off the Belgian roads for an entire year.

Dr. Pachauri said meat production is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to emission of methane from ruminants (cows, sheep and goats), emissions from manure, and the effects of deforestation for cattle grazing and animal feed. He also pointed out that producing a kilogram of beef requires about 15.000 liters of water.

Dr. Pachauri ended his talk by a quote from Gandhi: 'be the change you want to see in the world'. He said we each need to take our responsibility and can create a big effect by individual actions, decreasing our meat intake being one of them.

After the talk, Tobias Leenaert of vegetarian organisation EVA presented five policy recommendations for meat reduction, signed by about 20 environmental and other organizations. Leenaert: "A lower meat intake would be beneficial on so many levels, not just on climate change and other environmental problems, but also on public health, animal welfare, and the world hunger problem. Still, government and politicians are not taking this issue seriously."

The policy recommendations include setting a good example by offering sustainable vegetarian food in government funded restaurants, focusing more on sustainable food in school lunch programmes and education in general, a government campaign about the benefits of eating less meat, and making the production and sale of sustainable food products more profitable.

Source: www.vegetarisme.be/pachauri

Tobias Leenaert, EVA

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