GEN177 Concern for minimizing or avoiding pain to animals (tza’ar ba’aley hayim) underlies many regulations regarding kosher slaughtering.  This concern may lead some people to become vegetarians.  The book of Genesis suggests this in the Garden of Eden story, where Adam and Eve live in an ideal state as vegetarians.  Maimonides, the medieval commentator, made the same point but, recognizing the long history of eating meat embodies in the practice of kashrut embedded in the halakha, acknowledged that becoming vegetarian is out of the question for most people.  From this perspective the laws of kashrut, which permit meat to be eaten but only under specific conditions, represents a compromise.  That is why some commentators suggest that in messianic days everyone will be a vegetarian. Some contemporary Jews consciously elect vegetarianism as their form of kashrut.  This reflects a concern not only with tza’ar ba’aley hayim, but also with issues of consumption and concern for the environment (haganat hateva) since vegetarians use fewer natural resources.  The production of meat consumes many times more resources than the production of an equally nutritious amount of vegetarian food.  [A whole pound of tofu has the same environmental impact as just an ounce of beef! Greenhouse gas emission, water table depletion, pesticide use—all are markedly higher for the production of meat than for the production of dairy products (although the production of dairy and egg products, in turn, is still more environmentally damaging than the production of food for a vegan diet).] This is of particular concern since resources are so unevenly distributed in our world.  Vegetarians also have the advantage of needing only one set of dishes and cooking utensils.  Since poultry production is less than that of beef, pork or mutton, and since people have less empathy for non-mammals, some Jews compromise by limiting their meat consumption to kosher poultry, which is available in many supermarkets.  People with this concern also tend to buy products with a minimum of wasteful packaging (bal tash’hit) avoiding waste.  Attending to environmental concerns when deciding what to eat has become known as eco-kashrut, which adds the consideration of environmental damage, such as waste and pollution, to traditional concerns.  Some people add the working conditions of those involved in food production to the list of eco-kashrut concerns.  AGTJL 524-7