FOOD U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz, considering rights under the same act, ruled in favor of prisoners on May 2, 2015, and directed the Florida Department of Corrections to provide halal meals. Indeed, several jurisdictions have ruled in favor of Muslims. A reliable halal certification authority will make the procurement departments’ work much easier.
In 2013, the country’s estimated 5.7 million Muslims had $98 billion in spending power. The board hopes that some of that money is being spent on locally raised lamb. Every step in the company’s process is approved by the federal Safe and Humane Slaughter Act, which every slaughterhouse must follow, as well as a certifying board. Additionally, the plant is required to prevent
THE DEFINITION OF HALAL, WHICH USED TO BE RESTRICTED TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ONLY, HAS EXPANDED SO MUCH THAT IT HAS TRIGGERED INTRA-MUSLIM DELIBERATIONS FOCUSED ON WHAT IS DEFINITIVELY HALAL AND WHO MAKES THIS DETERMINATION. Honig noted, “With the Muslim population on pace to possibly become the second-largest religious group in the United States by 2040, the demand for halal meat and other foods is on the rise to the point that Nielsen reports U.S. sales increased 15 percent from 2012 to 2015. Some of the largest meat producers in the country — [the Green Bay, Wisconsin-headquartered] American Foods Group — are providing more that’s halal (in part to satisfy global, not domestic, demand). But industry experts say U.S. consumers may not be aware of it, because some large grocery chains choose not to label products halal.” “The reality of it is some [retailers] are actually concerned about the halal insignia,” Superior Farms’ vice president of sales Greg Ahart said, adding that large retailers generally don’t use the label in areas that have no large Muslim populations. Superior, one of the country’s largest lamb producers, sells to small ethnic grocery stores as well as retail giants. As demand rose, Superior Farms, which mostly handles lamb with some goat, became all-halal all the time. Luke Runyon noted on May 12, 2015, that “A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Research Center puts it bluntly: ‘The majority of U.S. residents do not consume any lamb’” (“Sheep Ranchers Count On American Muslims To Keep Lamb On Menu,” NPR, May 12, 2015). For the most part, the report notes, growing ethnic populations in the Northeast and on the West Coast have kept the American lamb industry afloat. After the market crash of 2012, the American Lamb Board sought to create new demand among Muslims and Latinos.
any contamination by non-halal foods, such as pork and alcohol, or use of antibiotics, which tend to contain pork byproducts. Rancher A. J. Nelson, who helps run Cactus Hill Ranch near Windsor, Colo., agrees. His family has been raising sheep since 1918. Nearly all the sheep in his feedlot end up in halal-certified processing plants and are bound for grocery stores in the Northeast and on the West Coast. “Marketing it towards the Muslim and Mexican communities, that’s definitely the way to do it if you’re gonna want to sell it in any real volume,” he says (“Sheep Ranchers”). Because the halal food industry requires a few extra steps from the market food processing, which means a higher product price, some in the food industry have resorted to dubious practices. A research report estimates that in 2016, the U.S. market value of halal food amounted to approximately $22.6 billion and was forecasted to increase to $26.8 billion (https:// www.statista.com/statistics/795365/halalfood-market-value-in-the-us). The global halal market’s numbers are tantalizing: $2.2 trillion in 2018 (https://crescentwealth. com.au/featured/state-of-the-global-islamic-economy-report-2019-2020). Another area is goat farming. Information Resources, Inc.’s 2017 data indicate that goatmilk cheese indexes the highest with millennials and households making more than $100,000 per year. The number of U.S. households buying goat-milk cheese increased 0.5 percent over the past year to 8.5 percent. While female goats can be used for their milk, male goats are fairly useless in this respect and thus are destroyed. Halal certification could do wonders for this segment
52 ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
and also please the farmers and organizations such as Farm Sanctuary, which estimated that 40,000 male goats are killed at birth in the U.K. (https://www.farmsanctuary.org/ goats) every year (https://www.vice.com). In turn, it can help expand the goat milk and cheese segment. Goats are popular in both Mediterranean and South Asian diets. This dramatic expansion of the halal food and beverages market can be seen from meat products, packaged and pre-prepared snacks and meals to a robust halal restaurant culture. Simply put, the global halal business runs into trillions of dollars. The halal industry produced an “Islamic” Barbie doll just by changing its name and adding a hijab and also created halal and wudu-compliant “breathable” nail polish. Such products translate Muslims’ piety into corporate profits. As a NAIT subsidiary and sister organization of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA; http://fiqhcouncil.org), AHI is working with Muslim American jurists and American halal certifying agencies to establish a first-ever “American Halal Standard.” “This is imperative and will be mutually beneficial for the entire supply chain of [the] halal industry,” said AHI executive director Salah Obeidallah. ih Shakeel Syed is a consultant with the American Halal Institute.
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