I wanted to reply to this, and clarify about kosher meat.  Kosher meat is that
which comes from certain animals, mainly chicken, turkey, duck, lamb, cow, and
is killed in a prescribed way, by a rabbi, usually, trained in the method, and
then salted to remove the blood.  In addition, the shochet, which is the name
for the ritual slaughterer, does inspect the animal to make sure it has no
apparent illness, and from what I understand, the inspection can be more
exacting than that of the FDA inspectors.

As for the chemical and hormone business, I do know that Empire brand fowl,
chickens and turkeys, are advertised as hormone and antibiotic free, and
Empire is, I believe, the larges kosher fowl processor in the country.  They
have a website that goes into detail about this.

As for the cattle, I am not sure that all kosher beef is hormone or antibiotic
free.  I asked about this once, and was told that in my area, much of the
cattle slaughtered to be used for kosher meat came from smaller operations
that were prone to use a lot less of the hormones and antibiotics than the
larger, more factory-like feedlot operations.  But I don't know that there is
a strict requirement that the meat cannot have hormones or antibiotics in it.
So, I would check into the beef a bit more, but you can get the Empire kosher
chickens in many metro areas, frozen or fresh.

I am just a kosher consumer, and not "the last word" on this, but I hope this
helps.

Maurice

In a message dated 12/28/1998 12:02:02 PM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<
 When I explained that I needed "free range" chicken and beef (a term
 none of them had ever heard of) and then told him what the term meant,
 the manager said, "Oh, you need kosher meat."

 I had just assumed that "kosher" meant that the meat had been blessed by
 a rabbai or something, but the meat manager said that kosher meat had
 been raised without hormones or antibiotics and was really "pure" meat.

 I'll be going back to NM in a few weeks.  Anyone know the real deal on
 kosher? >>