In this country, protesters have a constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble. But people ought to pick their battles.
The contingent of animal rights activists who disrupted Urban Adamah’s Purim party last weekend provided a textbook example of misplaced anger. They not only ruined the event for one of the Bay Area’s most exemplary Jewish organizations, they did nothing to improve conditions for factory farm animals, sentient beings that could use strong advocates.
Calling themselves Jewish Animal Liberationists, the protesters slipped into the Purim party Saturday night at Urban Adamah’s Berkeley farm. There the organization raises egg-laying hens, providing them with excellent care over a period of years, and then slaughters them under the rules of kosher shechita when their egg production ceases. They make food from the chickens, which is donated to the hungry in the community.
This is not a black-or-white issue. There is no disputing the fact that factory farms are monstrously abusive to animals. Most chickens, pigs and cows live out their short lives in horrid overcrowded conditions, and die in fear and agony. That is a shanda, a shame, and should be loudly protested. It often is, leading in the best cases to changes in laws.
But we would ask these Jewish Animal Liberationists who were so exercised in Berkeley last weekend: Why picket Urban Adamah, which teaches reverence for nature from a Jewish perspective, and which raises only a few hens at a time?
Wouldn’t it be better to show up at the massive poultry farms up the road in Petaluma? Why not head down I-5 to Coalinga and protest at the Harris Ranch slaughterhouse, which kills thousands of cows every week?
Abuse of animals is indeed a violation of Jewish ethics. That is why Urban Adamah treats its hens well, giving them free run of the place for their lifespan. But vegetarianism is not a Jewish mandate. Most people eat meat, and that means killing animals.
Organizations like Urban Adamah, a pioneer in the growing field of sustainable farming, are dedicated to finding an ethical and logistical balance between the natural and human worlds. It’s a process that should be supported, not lambasted.
The solution is personal. Those moved to do so should speak out against animal abuse where it is a real problem. And they may choose vegetarianism, a laudable dietary practice.
But going after a soft target like Urban Adamah, which is laughably far from being an animal rights abuser, is not only a waste of energy — it’s wrong-headed.
I’m glad to see this issue discussed in the J! I have to strongly disagree, though. Just about every person who protested there has protested – repeatedly – at factory farm businesses, and I and others have been inside factory farms to expose and rescue animals from those hellholes.
The reason we protested at Urban Adamah is precisely because the idea it teaches, that animals are here as food machines, is the idea that underlies factory farming. Children at Urban Adamah do not realize that no bird lives a lives like those there; meanwhile, they’re taught that killing animals is good and well and put on the road to supporting cruelty their whole lives.
I’ve been to Petaluma, I’ve seen animal factories, and the reason those exist is to maximize profits off of animal machines. Having a central institution in the Jewish community train people to see animals as food machines gives those factories a leg up.
There is no dichotomy between “humane” slaughter and industrial slaughter. By definition, there is no humane way to kill someone, human or non, who wants to live.
I am sure JAL members demonstrate at industrial farms as well, but Urban Adamah is their community. From what I understand, they are progressive, justice-seeking Jews who live in Berkeley.
As well, CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) don’t claim to be bastions of social justice; Urban Adamah does.
Finally, there are myriad protein-rich, plant-based foods Urban Adamah could donate to the hungry in their community.
Everyone engaged in this issue, those who work and learn at Urban Adama, and those protesting in person and on the internet, care about this issue. You are all part of the community that by putting your Values in a visible place strive to be a Kehila Kedusha. I live in a community where this issue remains an unsolved issue, meaning that meat does continue to be served. The number of meals with meat has been reduced to less than a third. Vegans of course take offense at the dairy-ovo-vegetarian meals. The compromise: there are always vegan options when meat and dairy meals are served. There is Choice and as a pluralistic society allowing Choice while being tolerant of other opinions is critical for communal processes. I would hope that a. all of this community can discuss this issue – a yom iyun? b. information about this issue will be included program-atically in Urban Adama, as I assume that it already is during the adult, teen and youth education programs.
We were saved discussing this issue this past week as the wolves and foxes, who give birth in the spring and become adamant towards sourcing fresh meat, broke into our free range chicken enclosure and enjoyed the free take-away meals.
I think you are all correct in your opposing opinions – please show America how to debate with kavod.
B’shalom,
Alex Cicelsky, Center for Creative Ecology http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/ga
The claim that this farm does not commit animal rights abuse (describing the charge as laughably far from the truth) is patently false. Anyone who kills an animal (with rare exceptions as in self defence) is committing an animal rights abuse. This is not opinion or ambiguous semantics. This is fact. Animal rights is the philosophy that animals have a set of fundamental rights, including the right to live (without which any other rights would obviously be moot.) I believe the author means to say that the farm commits no infractions against the welfare of the animals (the philosophy that states animals are due certain moral considerations but no rights.) While opinions on how to define each of the philosophies vary to some degree, there is a clear distinction between animal welfare, under which it is permissible to use and kill animals provided certain conditions are met, and animal rights, under which it is not permissible to even consider animals property let alone purpose breed and kill them.
It is not the protesters who deserve criticism, but the vast majority of rabbis and other Jewish leaders who are ignoring that animal-based agriculture and diets are seriously violating Jewish teachings on preserving human health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
I wonder what the Jewish News of Northern California is doing in this regard.