Will Kosher reindeer go mainstream?
December 9, 2022 by Avi Kumar
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This holiday season, like others prior, we see reindeer decorations everywhere. Virtually no one thinks of these gentle creatures as food.
Reindeer in Svalbard, Norway Photo: Jonathan Rutchik
Yet, there are places in the world – in the far north, where some cultures view them as meat, just like the rest of us would view chickens and cattle!
With the apparent uptake in exotic kosher meat interest, the question arises: will Jews find a way to somehow include reindeer on their plates? Reindeer is technically a kosher animal: it has split hooves and chews its cud. To be consumed by those who keep kosher, it needs to be slaughtered and processed according to Jewish law – it cannot be hunted. The resources to farm the animal, the availability of kosher supervisors, government restrictions, and the demand for such meat are predominantly why relatively few practising Jews eat this creature.
Reindeer live around the arctic circle in Alaska, the Canadian north, Russia and the Scandinavian nations Iceland, Greenland, Norway and Sweden.) It has also been introduced into Argentina in South America and reintroduced to Scotland, where it went extinct before.
In Norway, Sweden and Iceland, the laws state that an animal should be stunned or sedated first before being cut. This interferes with kosher status. Ervin Kohn, President of the Norwegian Jewish community, noted: “Since we can’t slaughter our own animals, meat comes from Hungary and France. I looked into the possibility of kosher reindeer a few years ago, and the largest kosher meat market is in the United States. And people in America will associate it with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, so that’s a no! Also, people tend to prefer what they’re already used to, like chicken or beef.”
The demand for such meat would probably come from Russia and Sweden, which have the most Jews around the Arctic circle. But, the Jewish populations in some nations are quite small and probably smaller is the number who keep kosher. Sweden has 20,000 Jews; Finland 2,000; Norway less than a thousand. Not big enough to sustain a niche market.
Rabbi Yosef Greenberg from Alaska said: “Gone are the days when every community slaughtered its own kosher meat – that was before communication was so advanced. Nowadays, it is shipped, air-flown or sent via road. You have to have a slaughterhouse and a rabbi who knows how to slaughter (schochet). That’s a big project in itself. And in communities with only a few thousand Jews, it is not possible.” He added: “Moose is also kosher, but it is not legal to farm it in some places; reindeer is kosher and can be farmed in Alaska, but low demand for kosher regardless ”.
Finland has, from time to time, produced kosher reindeer. Yaron Nadbornik, president of the Helsinki Jewish Community, said: “It’s very expensive to produce kosher and we never truly ‘exported’ reindeer meat – rather we sent it abroad like a “friendly gesture”. The last time we did this was around 2017, and we haven’t got around to it since.” Benny Rung from Kosherian, a kosher store in Stockholm, recalls seeing Finnish kosher reindeer in France around a decade ago.
Reindeer are the oldest domesticated deer species and some circumpolar cultures like the Scandinavian Saami and Russian Yakut people have farmed them for centuries. Russia, where reindeer is native, and Argentina, have two of the largest Jewish populations in the world. But there is no word yet whether there are kosher versions of reindeer available. They could technically also import reindeer and farm them in Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, which have substantial Jewish communities, if there was a demand.
So, while most people, including religious Jews, prefer to stick to more common meat items on a daily basis, we will probably see kosher reindeer hit the shelves only if the demand increases in future.
Avi Kumar is a Holocaust historian/ writer of Sri Lankan descent. He is a versatile writer who has covered a myriad of topics with a very unique writing style. Avi has lived in many countries and speaks 10 languages.
