Ben Murane is formerly the Communications Coordinator at Hazon. He is new to the intersection of Jews, food and contemporary life and in particular he is new to vegetables which are not microwaved and relishes this learning experience.
Ben Murane was also the Executive Director of Jewish Student Press Service/New Voices Magazine in 2005-2006. He serves on the organizing committees for Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the New Israel Fund, the National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute and Matzat; and is a proud resident of Crown Heights. He is also a contributing editor to Jewschool, and has written for New Voices, PresenTense, Jewish Currents, Ameinu.net, and The Forward.
Ben Murane's Website »
Via Jewschool, via Treehugger:
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye — everyone in the Middle East. Saddle your camels – Israel is announcing that it is to open the largest health food store in the region and among one of the largest in the world, reports Israel Today…
Eden Teva Market, a $6 million project invested by businessman Guy Provisor is expected to open this June in Netanya. On its shelves will be stocked more than 14,000 products in 20 different departments, which will include a bakery, a deli, an organic hummus stand, and an ice cream parlor – to name a few. Organic will be a focus but also specialized products manufactured by small companies will be kept in stock.
Full story.
This September will mark the beginning of shmitta, the period every seven years where soil in the land of Israel must be left uncultivated, which until 2007 has raised an important question among the ranks of observant Israeli farmers: “Oy, whattam I gonna eat?”
The answer apparently has been provided by Israeli high (low?) tech:
(JTA) An Israeli company has found a way of circumventing a religious injunction to let agricultural land lie fallow: fake soil.
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How far would go to reduce your ecological footprint? But in The Year Without Toilet Paper in the NY Times, the question seems to be, how far can you go? Among eschewing retaurants, cars, extra straws and napkins, composting there garbage with tiny worms, and foroging TVs, radios and superfluous electrical appliances, Colin Beavan, 43, a writer of historical nonfiction, and Michelle Conlin, 39, a senior writer at Business Week, are four months into a yearlong lifestyle experiment they call No Impact.
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From Dr. David Kraemer, keynote speaker at the 2006 Food Conference, Latkes to Lattes, in The Forward on how bread — and leavening by extension — communicates far more about Jewish life than at first glance:
Leavened or Unleavened: A History
David Kraemer | Fri. Mar 30, 2007 | The Forward
Everyone knows that food is a serious part of the Passover Seder. But very few people take Seder food seriously. Though everyone who attends a Seder is aware that certain foods are central to the Seder ritual, and most — at least by the end of the Seder — will be aware of the conventional interpretations attached to the Seder’s “symbolic” foods, few people see the food symbols as more than “mere” symbols. That is to say, they fail to appreciate fully the potential expressive power of the foods. This is unfortunate, for the foods communicate far more than we might imagine.
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The web site Kashrut.com, by kosher news maven Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf, has kept it’s Kashrut Alerts going strong for years to cover the various mislabelings — both deliberate and malicious — as well as sudden changes, hekhsher revocations, and industry news. Here you can learn not only a reputably complete list of recognized hekhshers and their certifying agencies, but that Wawa Hot & Spicy Peanuts are using an unauthorized OU hekhsher and that consumers should call the Orthodox Union to report Wawa sightings.
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Many of us have often marveled at the onion-like layers of packaging around our smallest deli sandwiches. But unlike onion skins, we know we they won’t really biodegrade. In fact:
- Almost 1/3 of the waste generated in the U.S. is from packaging
- Plastics will take 1000 years to decompose
- The U.S. population tosses out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times
- Paper comes from trees, plastic comes for oil (petroleum). To obtain both paper and plastic worldwide forests are being contaminated and destroyed
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X-posted from Sustainable Apple Pie, an exploration with Israeli black cumin:
Hannah’s Kezach Bread of Wonder (not to be mistaken with Wonder Bread)
Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 package of dry yeast
1 (heaping) tbs. brown sugar
1.5 cups wheat semolina
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbs. olive oil
3 tbs. black cumin
1 tbs. kosher salt
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Or at least, that chicken wasn’t a happy one. Eat happy chickens.
I grew up for the majority of my childhood in the MidWest with corn, but little did I wonder why there was so damn much of it. Back in college economics courses, corn was touted as a solution to the world’s poverty problems. But it’s an interesting twist that now that corn turns out to be the devil in disguise. Produced in too large quantities by farm subsidies, at falling prices, it’s our desperation to use up the surplus that leads us to convert it into biofuels, plastics and other goods. Alas, eco-gourmets have it out against corn, and here’s why, via Grist.com:
An often forgot lesson of our bad diets is that, while cheap and fast now, they are quite quite expensive later on.
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This just came to my inbox–and begs some unpacking. The ad boasts “Stay fit, keep Kosher.” …But am I missing something about where the first part of that slogan fits in? (Click the pic for a better view of it.)
So rather than let my skepticism get away with me, I checked out their web site which is very patriotic light blue motif with “healthy” written here or there. Complete with advice from a certified nutritionist, perhaps it wasn’t so bad. But there’s a small devil in the fine print:
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Covered in the JTA today, the Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Hillel Forum on Social Justice and the JCPA annual plenum donated $2,000 to negate their carbon impact, requested that no toiletries be delivered to conference goers unless asked, and all paper was recycled.
This is encouraging for a number of great reasons. Last year’s conference was an abominably empty attempt at any environmental awareness, as covered by yours truly and Ilana Sichel in an open letter to Hillel in The Forward, such as the lack of any recycling efforts and the overwhelming amount of complimentary bottled water. It is great to see Hillel (hopefully after that op-ed peice of prodding) take the next step forward.
But noticably, little mention was made of the food at the Spitzer Forum. Read more »
