Intern Matt's trip to the lamb butcher

Last Tuesday morning my boss, Robert and I went to visit our lamb butcher in Newark, NJ. KOL Foods has to send its meat to be butchered in NJ because there is no USDA certified kosher butchers between Baltimore and Newark. Since KOL Foods’ products cross state lines, they need to be USDA certified. We were there because KOL Foods is start selling lamb by the cut for the first time and we wanted to learn by watching the process, while making sure the butcher understood what we wanted done.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this butcher after our visit to our chicken processing plant which was completely different than what I expected. Rolling up to the front door of the butcher shop was interesting. It’s in the back streets of Newark almost in a back alley. There wasn’t much of a store front but rather one small door on the corner of the street with little to no signs. Had I been by myself I would have just gone right past it without even thinking. Although all this made it seem like this shop would be somewhat small on the contrary it was very spacious. Walking in Robert and I were greeted by everyone in the office. All the workers were very friendly and professional and it was nice to actually converse with them throughout our stay there as we worked through our order. The head butcher, Irving, was an extremely nice guy. He was very knowledgeable about the business, worked through our order absolutely flawlessly cutting and packaging our lamb exactly as we wanted, and the best part was he was cracking jokes all along the way.  Everyone up in Newark at the shop was friendly and you can tell that they enjoy what they do. Our trip up there was a very pleasant experience and I have to say the lamb we have looks amazing. Both Irving and Robert think so, so I’m sure our customers will be very pleased with it.

Intern Matt's trip to the chicken producer

Paying a visit to the producer that processes and packages KOL Foods’ pastured chickens wasn’t what I expected at all. You walk in the front door and you’re greeted by a receptionist. Waxed tile floors, offices, desks, and the smell could only be described as clean. Heading in I was worried that the smell would be overpowering, or that perhaps the processing wing of the slaughter house would be dark and dirty. On the contrary it was extremely manageable. The workers were very nice and understanding, eager to help ensure our order was complete and correct. The process was very efficient. Workers took shected and kashered whole chickens and made the desired cuts and packaging needed to complete each individual product.

Our processing plant is one of the few kosher poultry processing plants in the country. For our customers, ensuring the poultry from KOL Foods is held to the highest standards of kosher is extremely important. I’m happy to say that as we watched the KOL Foods order being completed from start to finish I saw many Rabbis observing. Every single bag was clamped with a clasp that labels the product as kosher. These bags were then placed in bulk boxes, each of which is sealed extremely tight with plastic bands, bound together with a zip tie labeling each individual box as kosher. All this makes it impossible for their product to be tampered with from the production floor to the super market, or in our case when we ship you your KOL Foods order. 

Intern Matt's Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a look into food as we know it. He explores where the food we eat comes from and attempts to answer the age old question of what exactly should we eat? I particularly liked that the author doesn’t criticize what choices people make. The book is written in a way to inform the reader of what exactly goes into producing the food we consume. Pollan leaves it up to the reader to choose what is best for them. There are three main sections to The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Industrial, Pastoral, and Personal. Pollan illustrates each section with a meal or two - fast food eaten in a car (industrial); industrial organic TV dinners and beyond organic chicken and vegetables eaten with family (Pastoral); and a final meal that was hunted and gathered with friends (Personal).

Where exactly does our food comes from? For at least the 90% of food that has been industrialized over the years the answer is quite simple: corn. Unless it is 100% grassfed, the meat that we eat is corn raised; most of our drinks are sweetened with corn; as well as most of our fast food. Beef and lamb were not intended to be raised on corn, yet since we have an over abundance of corn, due to government subsidies and policy, it is much cheaper to have corn raised animals in feed lots. This leads to health issues for the animals, leading to a dependence on antibiotics in agribusiness. By simply raising our animals on grass we can avoid the unethical treatment of animals, creating nasty antibiotic resistant microbes, negative environmental impacts, and poor health for the omnivores who are eating the animals.

A society that is so heavily reliant on corn causes many problems. Americans consume more corn than any other country and also have an alarming obesity rate. Many experts believe this is no coincidence. In a Chicken McNugget from McDonald’s there are 38 ingredients, 13 of which are derived from corn. The burgers have added corn sweetener in them, and the cattle itself was raised on corn to reduce costs. Forty-five out of sixty of McDonald’s products contain corn derivatives. Environmentally, it’s important to know that corn uses more fertilizer than any other crop. At the end of World War 2 the U.S. government had a surplus of ammonium nitrate, previously used in explosives and nerve gas. Now those same nitrates are used as fertilizer and are poisoning the ground water.

Pollan also talks about the industrialization of organic food. Unfortunately, although the organic movement has gained a lot of steam, the producers have begun to adopt a lot of methods used in industrial agribusiness, losing sight of the organic food movement’s anti-industrial roots. I have to say however; with as much popularity as organic food has, it is quite hard to remain non-industrial. Pollan also visits local farms where the crops are harvested and grown non-industrially. These farms are slowly diminishing and it’s getting harder and harder to find food that isn’t industrially produced.

Lastly, the final chapter of Pollan’s book is about personally harvesting food for yourself. He attempts to prepare a meal using ingredients that only he has hunted, gathered, or grown. With some help, he hunts for feral pigs, searches for wild mushrooms and abalone, makes a salad from his garden, bakes bread completely and entirely from scratch, and even cooks desert. Obviously this route is completely impractical in today’s world, but reading about his adventure opened my eyes to exactly what it would take to cook a meal without any industry at all. It’s quite astonishing how much we rely on the industrial food system.

All in all The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a wonderful book that I would highly recommend. The information I gave in this review only touches the surface of how far Pollan goes to expose what exactly we as humans consume. It’s a fascinating read that should be considered required material for anyone interested in what exactly is on their plate.