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Whose Freedom? Ritual Slaughter, Regulation, and the Politics of Food Law

When: Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Where: G7, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

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Event description:

This talk examines the regulation of ritual slaughter and its relationship to broader practices in industrial meat production. It argues that regulatory and political attention directed at kosher and halal slaughter often obscures systemic issues in conventional slaughter practices, while simultaneously legitimising them by treating ritual slaughter as an exceptional ethical concern.

Drawing on original empirical analysis of Canadian Food Inspection Agency records obtained through Access to Information requests, the paper brings an evidence-based perspective to a debate often driven more by assumption than by data. It shows that only a small proportion of documented incidents of inhumane handling in Canada between 2017 and 2022 involved kosher or halal slaughter, and that these incidents largely mirrored problems common across the wider meat industry, including improper stunning, delayed loss of sensibility, equipment failures, and inconsistent employee training. When considered relative to production volume, ritual slaughter does not appear to generate higher rates of non-compliance than conventional slaughter.

Despite this, ritual slaughter continues to attract disproportionate regulatory scrutiny, both in Canada and in European jurisdictions. The talk situates these developments within a broader critique of how food law reflects and reinforces political priorities shaping markets, cultural identities, and access to food.

Speaker bio:

Sarah Berger Richardson is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section) of the University of Ottawa, where she teaches food law and administrative law. Her research focuses on the regulation of the agri-food sector, particularly animal agriculture and transitions towards sustainable food systems. She is Co-Director of the University of Ottawa’s Public Law Centre and a former President of the Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy.

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