We are what we eat

There is a lot going on in the world that I care deeply about. From gay marriage bills (nearly there now it seems!) to terror attacks and Islamaphobic retaliation (follow @TellMamaUK on twitter to keep up with what is happening to your Muslim neighbours). But I am also playing catch up, and wanted to post about something that appeared over a week ago and could be a cause to unify Jews and Muslim; Organic kosher and Hallal meat. I published this in the Jewish News on May 17th (scroll to page 17). Biblical Foods are attempting to raise independent funds via indiegogo to increase their production and availability of organic kosher and hallal meat. I have written about the importance of how our consuming affects the world many times here, and meat consumption and farming practices are a huge contributing factor to our own health and to the health of the planet. I won't repeat the article here as you can read it for yourself by clicking above, but we do have power to make a change - our power as consumers allows us to demand better. For me that will mean eating meat less often, but eating better and more mindfully.
Organic is not necessarily the answer to everything - it still allows us to distance ourselves from our food and feel we are doing well without actually taking responsibility for food miles, and animals lives. But organic meat farming allows us a little more control over the antibiotics we consume as well as other nasties, and is a choice that won't be widely available to Jews and Muslims who want to eat kosher and hallal meat unless we ask for it. If you feel able, you can donate to Biblical Foods, but also ask in your local kosher butcher and supermarket, so that they know it's in demand.