ThirstyFish

In the recent years, many New York City food cart vendors serve Halal food. Halal meat is slaughtered in a certain way and any cross contamination with other meats or alcohol is prevented. What you might not know is that beef served in many expensive restaurants across the U.S. is also halal.

Similarly many items we purchase off supermarket shelves are Kosher certified by a kosher certification agency. For most consumers who are not observant, it is the quality of the food that matters and not the specific religious standards by which the food is prepared. It sure looks like the picky and the persistent set the standards.

But I'm going to rephrase that as a question: Do the picky and the persistent really set the standards? Neither Kosher nor Halal have standards on - let's say - what animals to be butchered are fed. When Holy Books were written, there were no growth hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified animal feed. Beside the ritualistic aspects, both Kosher and Halal used to set (arguable) health standards. Take for example, pork consumption. It is forbidden both in Judaism and Islam and there may be good health reasons not to consume pork...

Despite huge technological advances, given the deterioration of standards in nearly everything we consume, from furniture to clothes to news to education, in an age where consumer products become obsolete in a blink of an eye, maybe it's "greed" that sets the standards, more than anything else?

More on this subject later.