Milk may be the single most historically important food to human health. Not just any milk, mind you, but raw milk from healthy, free-to-roam, grass-fed cows. The difference between the milk you buy in the store, and the milk your great-great grandparents enjoyed is, unfortunately, enormous. If we lived in a country where raw milk from healthy, pastured cows were still a legal product and available as readily as, say, soda or a handgun, we’d all be taller and healthier, and I’d see fewer elderly patients with hunched backs and broken hips. If you’re lucky enough to live in a state where raw milk is available in stores and you don’t buy it, you are passing up a huge opportunity to improve your health immediately. If you have kids, raw milk will not only help them grow, but will also boost their immune systems so they get sick less often. And, since the cream in raw milk is an important source of brain-building fats, whole milk and other raw dairy products will also help them to learn.
My kids and I had so much fun at Oxbow farm on Sunday I have to tell you about it. First off the farmer Adam is one of the most kind, generous and energetic people I know. I didn’t know him before introducing myself to him a couple of weeks ago at the Ballard farmer’s market, but now I feel like he’s a friend. After spending four hours at the farm learning about it from Adam, weeding the beets and cucumbers with Michele and my two sons, and eating produce right from the field – this is now my farm. I’m hooked.
For months now, I’ve been getting emails from food sustainability organizations with subject lines like “Kiss Your Organics Goodbye!” and “48 Hours to Stop Monsanto’s GM Alfalfa!” They’re in reference to a genetically modified strain of alfalfa that is in testing for public use by the United States Department of Agriculture.
What’s wrong with the alfalfa? Well, for one thing, it’s made by Monsanto, a corporation with a reputation for lawsuit slinging and questionable ethics. It’s also “roundup ready,” meaning it’s engineered to withstand applications of Monsanto’s herbicide “roundup,” so farmers can slather on the weed killer without worrying about damaging their crop. But plenty of sustainability advocates would simply tell you that what’s wrong with the alfalfa is that it’s a GMO–that is, a genetically modified organism produced through human engineering.
Last month in a post on PursueAction.org, I puzzled out the fierce public interest in healthy food that even a tragic oil spill and a coalmine disaster could not distract attention from. The grassroots groundswell for healthier food in the D.C. area included the passage of a sales tax on soft drinks. Similar bills recently emerged in many parts of the country. In this post, I take a closer look at “soda tax” campaigns and what they can teach us:
One such recent measure to apply a penny-per-ounce soda tax in New York State failed. New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis pinned it to a winning anti-tax campaign. She compared two ads focused on Governor David Paterson’s proposed cost jump, one aimed at promoting it, the other aimed at defeating it:
Last Sunday, July 25, 15 people gathered at Oregon’s Museum of Science and Industry for Portland Tuv Ha’Aretz’s 2nd annual Jewish edible garden bike tour. Portland is laid out in grids, like Washington, D.C. Last year’s tour covered NE Portland; this year we set off to explore neighborhoods in SE.
Our ride leader, Tuv member Beth Hamon, is an old-school bike geek. Last year she created spoke cards for our ride (when you do something for the first time, it’s an innovation; twice is minhag) So of course she made a new one for this year’s ride. Here’s a picture:
Tuv Ha’aretz Reflections on Parshat Ekev, by Rabbi Marc Soloway
The intuition to make some kind of blessing or prayer before eating, either traditional or spontaneous, transcends religions and cultures. Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and probably every religion has its version of making a spiritual connection to the food we are about to eat, whether an established formula or a moment of meditation. The Talmud has a strong statement that anyone enjoying the physical pleasures of this world without first saying a bracha, is like someone who steals from the Temple! (Berachot 35a).
Hazon is now accepting applications from communities looking to start a CSA for the 2011 season. Hazon’s Community-Supported Agriculture Project is a great way to bring your community together: fresh, local, organic food delivered to your synagogue or community center every week; potluck dinners and thoughtful programming to explore the connections between being Jewish, the food we eat, and the world we live in.
A new film is being produced on Haiti’s crisis, its roots and its future. Hands That Feed has made a short intro video about their project in order to try to raise the necessary funding for the film’s production. The film will explore questions about what the real problems facing Haiti are, and from the video it’s clear that the recent earthquake was simply an exacerbation of pre-existing problems.
In response to the economic upheaval caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, AmpleHarvest.org Inc. has announced that the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign will be focusing its outreach efforts in the Gulf States region for the immediate future.
Since its introduction in May of 2009, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign, enabling more than 40 million Americans who grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and nuts in home gardens to quickly find a local food pantry eager for their excess garden produce, has rolled out nationwide without any specific geographic focus.
You can even come for the whole weekend and enjoy a relaxing Shabbat on the farm. Food is glatt kosher, and much of it is grown organically right at the Adamah farm!
Growing up in Florida, I took the beach for granted. I lived less than 20 minutes away from the Atlantic Ocean and when people asked if I was near a beach, I said no. Like old men in shorts wearing knee-high dress socks and dinner that starts at four in the afternoon, people think and act differently in Florida.
Hello, my name is Adam, and I’m about to hit you with some contradictions, so please bear with me. I recently finished building a website as part of the New Jewish Filmmaking Project. However, there was no film involved. The website is about Judaism and environmentalism. It’s also about zombies. Like I said, please bear with me.
My interview from earlier this month was featured on Our Hen House‘s podcast this weekend. We talked about Torah teachings about compassion for animals, how well Judaism and vegetarianism mesh together, kosher slaughter, the new Jewish food movement, and vegan versions of traditional Jewish foods.
Have you ever heard anyone say that all you have to do to have a more nutritious diet is to stop eating white flour and sugar? That seems pretty radical to most people. What’s the point? What’s wrong with white flour and sugar? And what would such a change accomplish? Simply put, why?
By now, if you’ve been following the blog regularly, you probably know me well enough to know that I’m not going to say you can never eat white flour and sugar. I’ll never say never — moderation is my motto. I think that most people can tolerate a little bit of most things now and then. But that’s not what’s happening. Let’s look at what the standard American day looks like, food-wise.
