Rabbi Menachem Meir Weissmandle of the Nitra Kehilla in Monsey, who serves as one of the kashruth supervisors at Agri, said the charges concerning drug production or that workers had been abused were "categorically false."-
"It's a lie,"- he said.
Agri's chief kashruth supervision is under the Orthodox Union. The OU's rabbinic administrator, Rabbi Menachem Genack, who heads the organization's kosher supervision department, said it would be "foolish"- for Agri to be involved in something like the production of illegal drugs, "which would only hurt them and their business."-
Business Practices
But business practices geared towards improving the bottom line are another matter, he said.
Rabbi Seth Mandel, who serves as the rav hamachshir for the OU at the plant, acknowledged that Agri has made some mistakes. The company, he said, "does not try to cut corners as far as kashrus goes, but does go as far as its rabbinic certification says it can."-
Most companies, he said, do this, and Agri, he said, "is no worse than other large meatpackers."-
To those who argue that a Jewish kosher business should be better than comparable non-kosher ones, he said that might be possible only if kosher consumers were prepared to spend more for the products.
"Cattle growers and meat packers would be very happy to institute higher humane standards, but consumers must vote with their wallet. Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural, or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea. The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would have no problem paying higher wages and make working conditions better, if the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed,"- he said.
Similarly, he said, most of the employees at all meatpacking plants in the US are immigrants, "because almost no native-born Americans are willing to work for the low pay that makes inexpensive meat possible."-
Is It True?
He pointed out that if the government simply wanted to arrest illegal immigrants, its agents could go to any large meatpacker. The incident at Agri, he said, took place because the government believes the plant's management was involved in knowingly hiring illegal aliens or helping them obtain fraudulent documentation.
Asked if they believed the allegations, Rabbis Genack and Mandel demurred.
Rabbi Mandel explained that "there are no beatings or sexual mistreatment of workers or drug facilities in the operating room of the plant,"- but, he said, he, like all the kosher workers, does not venture into the isolated warehouses, "which are the only possible places to produce illicit materials."-
Further, he said, he had never seen workers who look underage.
"I go all over the plant when I visit, but only into areas where meat is processed,"- he said.
