Kosher Higher-Welfare Poultry & Beef

Our Commitment

As we work towards a healthier and more sustainable food system where we will be able to meet all of our food values all the time, we are making a new, deeper commitment to foster growth and demand for the highest welfare kosher meat available.

Starting at the Hazon Food Conference in August 2018, Isabella Freedman has pledged to increase the heritage chicken (as defined by the American Poultry Association) that Hazon sources each year by at least 5% and we will no longer serve any conventionally bred turkey. Over the next 7-year period, we intend to incrementally move towards improving the welfare of the chickens that produce our meat and eggs, with a vision toward eliminating all conventionally bred chicken from our menu. Working with Grow & Behold and JIFA (Jewish Initiative for Animals) and other allies, we aim to shift the percentage of kosher chicken that is heritage, which is important for both public health, the long-term stability of the food supply, and animal welfare.

The initial heritage chickens will hatch from eggs laid at Frank Reese’s farm, Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch. Frank focuses on animal welfare, breed conservancy, and environmental stewardship. We are also pleased to be able to support the important work that Frank is doing to safeguard genetic diversity and to preserve ways to raise poultry outside the currently dominant factory farm system.

In addition to our commitment to serving heritage chicken, and in an attempt to reduce meat consumption overall, at Isabella Freedman we are developing new and creative plant-centered menus which can be augmented by flavorful preparations of meat. Some people are accustomed to always having meat at Shabbat or holiday meals. How do we take the Jewish sensibility of elevating holiday time with a particular food to enhance our understanding of, and commitment to, sustainability and gratitude? As we think about the food we use to sanctify our holiest of times, let’s make sure the food is a sanctification of life, the world, and all of our blessings. Using Michael Pollan’s approach of ‘The Third Plate’, we will be taking a ‘less meat, better meat’ approach to our meat consumption, including over Shabbat.

We will also continue to purchase our eggs from Oliver’s Organic Pastured Eggs, who maintain NOFA-NY certified organic, free-range hens. We have also connected Oliver’s with Red Barn Produce, a local wholesaler who has started selling their eggs and expanding the market for higher welfare eggs in the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires.

We encourage you to join us and help build the market for heritage poultry, higher welfare eggs, and less meat, better meat approaches to food purchasing.