Industrial Organic - Wise, Empire and all the rest.

Have you noticed that your kosher organic chicken tastes very similar to the same-old conventional bird that you always used to buy? That is because the ARE very similar!

It is time to clarify the distinction between industrial organic and sustainable (or non-industrial). In the kosher world, all certified organic meat and poultry (Wise, Empire, etc.) that you can find in the common marketplace is industrial organic (except for KOL Foods). The reason why I created KOL Foods was because I found industrial organic to be disappointingly only slightly better than conventional confinement meat and poultry.

Kosher USDA certified organic (read industrial) animals are raised in very similar confinement situations as conventional meat and poultry and they have the very similar waste & environmental problems. The big difference between industrial organic and plain industrial is that to be certified organic, an animal must only be fed organic feed and cannot be given antibiotics or hormones. Other than that, animal's feed can consist of exactly the same ingredients. For example, industrial organic cow would be fed an organic grain (corn) based diet in feedlots.

In terms of poultry, the regulations insist that they have "access" to the outdoors, particularly if they are to be labeled as free range. But all that means is that there needs to be an open door in the same-old industrial confinement house. Chickens (not your adventurous sort) never go through that door so it makes no difference that it is there at all.

As you can see, both "USDA Certified Organic" and "Free Range" are not what one would hope them to be. They are really just the same-old, same-old industrial with a twist.