Last night I listened to the Book of Lamentations/Eichah. Today I read the words of Barbara Kingsolver:

Set down a platter of country ham in front of a rabbi, an imam, and a Buddhist monk, and you may have just conjured three visions of damnation. Guests with high blood pressure may add a fourth. Is it such a stretch, then, to make moral choices about food based on the global consequences of of its production and transport?

As Naf posted earlier, the ritual of fasting on Tisha B’av and other major fast days presents an interesting question for those who already use their food choices to represent their values, Jewish and otherwise. While I have traditionally fasted on Tisha B’av, I felt that the fast would weaken me too much to be at my “fighting weight” for a full day of work as the Farm Bill moves to the House Floor this Thursday.

Making connections between the mourning of the destruction of the Temple and the idea of Tikkun Olam as a substitute for the rebuilding of the Temple that many in the post-Messianic diaspora age make, I’ve recently viewed Tisha B’av as a moment to take a look at what is falling apart around us, as Anna posted earlier today.

However, as my teacher in Mexico used to say, when you dream about the world you imagine is possible, you should wake up and live it the next morning. Since the world I want to live in would have a wholly different food system, I decided that whatever food I would eat today should be representative of that world, and fit into what I would call “ethical”–I only ate simple foods in small quantities that were just enough to keep me from being ravenous, that fit in with my own self-determined standards of “ethical” food.

The actual content was local blueberries and yogurt, and local, organic yellow pepper and cucumber cut up with some cubes of local Wallaby cheese, all purchased directly from a farmer-owned operation, except for the yogurt. Since my office regularly brews “Just Coffee” that a colleague had picked up somewhere, I was able to drink a small amount of coffee with ice cubes.

Although I generally try to incorporate ethics into much of what I buy, I always have a tendency towards pre-packaged convenience foods and luxuries that are not staples. So while this brief exercise was not entirely difficult, for me it represented something of the sprit of the holiday–

In reality, the day ended up being stressful and disheartening enough that there was little need for extra morning; the words of the Book of Lamentations did echo through my head as  I read through analyses of our current farm and food system, and the lack of change our lawmakers are choosing to bring about.  As much as I craved the frozen pineapple in the freezer or the cookies awaiting me at Au Bon Pain, cravings which I occasionally indulge, my version of fasting was to demonstrate to my body for one day, the ideal which my brain has in mind for it.

On my way home from work, I stopped at a farmers market and picked up a pint of yellow/orange grape tomatoes. I couldn’t help but munch many of them as I ambled home. I said to myself “Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the Fruit of the Vine. Borei P’ri Hagafen.” I knew this wasn’t the b’racha for tomatoes, but I was finally content, knowing that life continues beyond destruction and degradation.