• Price of a Farm Aid Ticket: $52 (+ ticketmaster fees)

• Price of Fung Wah bus from Boston: $15

Standing among a crowd of New Yorkers, surrounded by equal parts marijuana haze, “Stop Factory Farms” t-shirts and average New Yorkers here to see Dave, Neil & the Allman brothers, listening to a Hasidic reggae artist talking about the taste of an unbelievable tomato and getting one’s hands back into the dirt to refresh the connection between humans and the earth: PRICELESS

For me, that was one of several exciting moments during yesterday’s Farm Aid concert, which, as the NYTimes noted, was u.nique in its ability to draw in average-Joe New Yorkers, just in it for the music, organic junkies, and farmers from across the country. Another was actually taking a photo with my co-workers in our new matching “Farmers Kick [Donkey]” t- shirts.

As a representative of a group who spent much of the concert inviting concert-goers to sign up for email action alerts about the Farm Bill, I think this was an amazing opportunity for the burgeoning food movement to move beyond its original supporters. What I told Max Fraser of The Nation yesterday, was that I hoped all of the excitement and publicity around Farm Aid would get concertgoers and other citizens more engaged with food policy i.e. the Farm Bill. My only wish is that I hadn’t seen the box of Sysco potatoes used to make the french fries I bought from one of the “all local, sustainable, organic” food vendors.

Update 09/19/07: Apparently Alice Waters also noticed the Sysco products (as well as the Silk, Chipotle and Horizon booths), and this yielded a panoply of comments on the NYTimes Diner’s Journal article on Farm Aid. Tuesday, Alice responded that she wasn’t intending to diss Farm Aid, but only to dream of how things could be in an “edible utopia.”

Leadership of the JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs) will be participating in the now-famous Food Stamp Challenge during the Days of Awe period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Sept. 14th-21st).

Executive Director Rabbi Steve Gutow and JCPA Chair Lois Frank will stick to the $1 per meal or $21/week budget of an average food stamp recipient, as part of the organization’s new Anti-Poverty Campaign, to highlight the connections between Jewish teachings surrounding poverty and the current Food Stamp reauthorization component of the Farm Bill.

JCRC leadership and Jewish communities around the country are being encouraged to also ”Take the Challenge,” coinciding with the Locavores’ September Local Food Challenge. Do any of us dare to take the double challenge? I think this would result in nearly an 11-day long Yom Kippur fast, or perhaps subsistance only on apples, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and the remains of nectarines and melon.

Ideally, an organized Jewish participation in the Food Stamp Challenge, including Rabbis and other national Jewish leaders, could have an impact on federal legislation, if it is publicized appropriately for advocacy. Hopefully, continued action surrounding Food Stamps will have an impact on the Farm Bill, which has yet to pass out of the Senate Agriculture Committee (expected in mid-October).

Get out your sustainable, local, affordable healthy food calendars, folks….

Because Farm Aid has released its lineup of HOMEGROWN Happenings surrounding Sun Sept 9th’s Farm Aid Concert on Randall’s Island in NY. The events, in partnership with many other local food and agriculture organizations, include a festival at Union Square from 10-4 on Sept 8th, and a week of farmfresh menu options at several NYC restaurants.

While the Farm Aid concert, for which tickets are still available, is the real peak of the homegrown happenings, don’t think it’s all over when the leaves drop from the trees- the festival will be culmniating with the theatrical debut of KING CORN, an amazing documentary about two twenty-somethings from Boston who decide to drive to Iowa and grow 1 acre of corn for 1 year, looking at the complexities of our food system in a nuanced and witty manner all the while their crop is growing. The film screening opens at Cinema Village on October 7 and runs for nearly 2 months.

Full Farm Aid NYC Calendar available here.

Hasidic reggae master  Matisyahu will be among the excellent line-up at the upcoming Farm Aid 2007 concert and festival at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island on Sunday Sept. 9th… and they say Jews don’t farm…

In addition to music, the actual Farm Aid festival will include fresh examples of New York’s sustainable & organic bounty, which will be collected on a caravan around the state leading up to the concert, as well as opportunities for education and action to improve our food system.

This year’s Farm Aid will be focusing on the New York City food system and the connections between urban and rural with a series of community and policy events leading up to the concert throughout New York City. Stay tuned for more specific information on this exciting series.

Watch the Farm Bill now on CSPAN or at:http://www.cspan.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

The Democratic Leadership seems to have made enough deals and bought off enough interests to think they have the votes to pass this bill; nobody thought this was possible as late as yesterday. As Chairman Peterson is saying as I type, “There’s something in this bill for everyone to like. There’s probably also something in this bill for everyone not to like.” Although we haven’t seen the reform needed to create a better food system, we have seen the advancement of good proposals pushed by many disparate groups: mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, needed changes to food stamps (though not for immigrants), Pigford claims redress, new money for organics and obesity research and many others; but no reform for our corn, soy, cotton, peanut and sugar addictions.

As a newbie to the Capitol Hill bubble, I sort of feel like this moment is like the High Holidays of farm policy… Peterson put on his good pin-striped suit, everyone’s gathered round (ok, so only a few rows are full), they’ll be stuck in a room together for hours….

If so, then who’s G-d? Nancy Pelosi? If it actually passes, maybe we’ll find out if the Senate gets a bill to their chamber in September… around the time of Yom Kippur, if they ever hope to make it out of conference by the end of FY ‘07.

And then there’s always the veto threat…

Borrowing a page from Jewschool’s “Motzash Mishegaas,” I’m starting a new weekly post “rounding-up” relevant news from the past week called “Ready for a Roundup?” because the world is NOT ready for any more Roundup Ready crops.

This week’s version focuses on the confluence of religion, sustainable agriculture projects and farm policy.

• Last Wednesday, an “interfaith” group released a letter to Speaker Pelosi demanding Farm Bill reform. Noticeably absent: all non-Christian/Catholic faiths, with the exception of Sojourners which is truly interfaith.

With Jspot’s recent post on Jews and the environmental movement and recent efforts by large Jewish institutions and demoninations to begin working on the environmental issue, can we do more than hope that the good work of Hazon, Mazon and others is finally recognized within the larger Jewish community?

• While doing some research at work, I recently came across this Eco-Halal Project organized by a group called Faith in Place in Chicago. While the concept of Eco-Halal now seems completely obvious, it had never occurred to me as a parallel movement to eco-Kashrut, proabably partially because the number of certified Halal products  is far fewer than those that are Kosher.

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, Read more »

Chairman Peterson and the Ag Committee passed a Farm Bill at 10 PM last night, after 2.5 days of discussion.

The Farm Bill, which included significant new money for specialty crops (fruits and vegetables) and made some of the necessary changes to the food stamp program, did not contain meaningful reform in the Commodity title. While much of the press,  Speaker Pelosi & Majority Leader Hoyer seem to have drunk Chairman Peterson’s Kool-Aid about commodity reform, the total savings from the minor payment limitations only amounts to $50 million a year, a drop in the bucket compared with the $226 billion total spending in the House Committee bill.

Here’s how other healthy food priorities fared:

•    Community Food Projects: CFP was included in the mark at $30 million in annual discretionary funds (need to be fought for every year) and no amendment was offered to change the funding to mandatory (funds that are included in the Farm Bill and don’t need to be appropriated each year) because of lack of new mandatory funds in the Committee.

•    Geographic Preference/Local Procurement: An amendment, offered by Steve Kagen (D-WI) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), to  allow schools to use Geographic Preference to request local foods for all child nutrition programs covered by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 was adopted by the Committee on a voice vote.
•    Healthy Food Enterprise Development (HFED): An amendment, offered by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), to include a local preference for loans and loan guarantees under the Rural Development Business and Industry Loan Program, was adopted by the Committee on a voice vote. Read more »

In the recent Hazon e-newsletter from earlier this week, Nigel Savage refers to Isaiah’s prophecy read in the Haftarah this coming Shabbat:

Every head is ailing
Every heart is sick…
Your land is a waste,
Your cities burnt down…
The yield of your soil is consumed by strangers…

For me all of this hits home as a prophecy for modern times, but the final verse in that section is particularly useful, as I spend my days working on increasing access to local food for the most vulnerable communities through Farm Bill legislation.

Fortunately, a very important amendment to allow school food service directors to use Geographic Preference in their bidding in order to request local foods, was unanimously accepted by the Agriculture committee at 12:15 AM last night!

However, we are still working to secure mandatory (meaning it doesn’t need to be fought for each year in an appropriations bill) funding for the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, an important incubator for projects linking small, sustainable farms with communities that need improved access to healthy, affordable local foods.

• The House Agriculture Committee has been debating and adding amendments to its draft Farm Bill since Tuesday and will be continuing throughout the day and maybe tomorrow. You can view the Committee’s (surprisingly interesting) debate and voting on the Farm Bill at: http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/audio.html
• Please contact your Member of Congress and let them know that their support for the Farm Bill should be contingent on it being a bill that promotes healthy food and communities.

Read more »

Since I seem to be cultivating a Whole Foods beat–

In the wake of the Mackey online pseudonym scandal, one fellow Cantabrigian advocates a boycott of the health food giant:

A big Whole Foods investor said it was sticking by Mackey and, as of midafternoon, the Whole Foods board hadn’t met to discuss the matter. Well, as the Whole Foods board sits in la-la land thinking that their shiitakes don’t stink, I offer myself as the first consequence. I am staging a one-man boycott. I will spend the rest of the summer procuring my vegetables from places other than Whole Foods, most preferably my local farmers market or co-op…

With Mackey mouthing off, there is no better time to strengthen local connections and sever our ties with Whole Foods until we hear that Mackey is disciplined or fired. He might be close to a monopoly on the freshest commercial grown food. It will never be as sweet as the strawberry from a farmer’s market.

Read more

NYPost reports on a dispute over the authenticity of the new Bowery Whole Foods’ Guss’ Pickles supplier:

July 5, 2007 — It’s a case of the big pickle versus the little gherkin. A pickle peddler says she’s soured on trendy Whole Foods, claiming the chain of supermarkets has been buying legendary Guss’ Pickles from a Bronx rival she accuses of ripping off the famous name. “Whole Foods is selling the pickles [as if ] they are coming from the Lower East Side’s Guss’ Pickles,” said owner Patricia Fairhurst. “They never came from me. I am Guss’ Pickles.”

The briny brouhaha stems from a legal battle between Fairhurst’s 85-year-old store on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side and another business, United Pickle in The Bronx. Fairhurst insists that United Pickle stop using the Guss’ name synonymous with sours and dills. Both sides are due in Manhattan federal court July 16 to fight over the name - but Fairhurst accuses Whole Foods in the meantime of using the Guss’ Pickles brand to sell a rival’s inferior product in a new Bowery store.

A Whole Foods Market spokesman, however, insisted that United Pickle - run by the Leibowitz family - is the true purveyor of the pickle name.

I guess we’ll see on July 16th who the “real” Guss is…Wikipedia and NYTimes Select have the full scoop:

In 2006, Tim [Baker, former owner of Guss, several owners after Isidor Guss] sold his ownership of Guss’ Pickles and left a legal mess in its wake. A buyer in Woodmere, NY claims to have bought the name Guss’ Pickles from Tim, while the actual store, which moved from its historic location on Essex Street to a storefront within the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was sold to someone else. The two parties are now battling in court for the rights to the name Guss’ Pickles.

As the mark-up of the 2007 Farm Bill begins–the first two of six House sub-committees completed their mark-up of the Bill last week– I will be posting a series of updates about the Farm Bill, as I spend the summer in the thick of things interning for a national coalition working to create a Farm Bill that promotes healthy and local foods.

But first, a shameless plug: as part of the Community Food Security Coalition’s work, I am helping to organize a sign-on letter in support of these Healthy Priorities, which will be submitted to the leadership of the Senate Agriculture Committee this week as part of a Dear Colleague letter from Senators Feingold and Brown.

If you are involved with an organization that is related to food, agriculture, youth, communities, farms, public health, or really any area that understands the importance of what we put into our bodies and how our tax money is used, please support of the inclusion of initiatives to ensure access to fresh, healthy and local foods for all communities in the 2007 Farm Bill by signing your organization on to the letter to the leadership of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

PLEASE email me to sign on to the letter. For more information about the issues and efforts, visit CFSC’s Farm Bill policy page. Read more »

There are only a few days remaining to vote in the JFSJ poll to shape the upcoming Domestic Jewish Agenda. I’m very excited about this campaign for which Hazon, Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, Jdub Records, Jewcy.com, Jewish Student Press Service, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Jews United for Justice, Jewschool.com, Moishe/Kavod House Boston, Progressive Jewish Alliance, The Shalom Center, The Tribe, VelveteenRabbi.com , and Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring are sponsors.

I’m only dissapointed that reforming our food system did not make it to the 10 issues that voters can choose from to help shape the new domestic social agenda for Jews/Jewish organizations. Does this mean that food systems will not be included in the agenda? Some might argue that food is encompassed by the “Environment” choice, but there is much that needs reform in our food system beyond its environmental implications. Perhaps someone from Hazon can clue me in to whether this was discused and why it was left out.

(cross-posted on Jewschool)

This isn’t exactly a brand-new concept, but the NYTIMES 05.25.07 feature on “Veggie Mobiles” traveling through food deserts seems like an exciting, albeit temporary and non-systemic, solution.

I’ve recently had a number of conversations about the role of the ice cream man in childhood. Despite the fact that I was privileged to grow up on a street that the ice cream truck did frequent daily, my “health nut” mother relegated actual purchases from the truck to highly rare novelties. Therefore, while I know that the concept of a vehicle driving around neighborhoods selling food isn’t exactly a comprehensive or sustainable solution to anything, I definitely see potential for “veggie mobiles” around the country, in lieu of Mr. Softee’s monopoly.

Perhaps this hasn’t been tried before, because of the common misconception that kids only like unhealthy foods, which was shattered by David Kamp’s article in Wednesday’s NYTimes Dining Section about the horrors of traditional children’s menus and a new movement towards serving children real food instead of the dreaded “fingers.” Like Kamp, I was usually given smaller portions of what everyone else was eating, and didn’t have a problem with this. In fact, with regard to exciting grown-up restaurant foods, I was always told that “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” In addition to the more innovative children’s menus, hopefully more restaurants will follow the trend of offering half portions of regular menu items, an option I have always appreciated.