Ever since the right to privacy went down on sheepskin, there’s been a cornucopia of confusion about whether or not American law should regulate personal choices, and what those “personal choices” are. As law makers get more and more worked up over “the epidemic of obesity”, and their constituents’ new interest in food, they look to legislate people’s eating habits from both the consumer (taxes on soft drinks, calorie counts in fast food) and the producer ends. As I listen to pizza makers bemoan the loss of transfats, community activists struggle to increase access to fruits and vegetables in poor neighborhoods, and local curb-sitters mark the price of a smoke in NYC, I get to wondering where all of this interest in our personal habits comes from, and whether the government really has the right to legislate it in the first place.
I asked my brother, the recent law school grad (though not yet lawyer) to dispel some of the mists of obscurity surrounding civil rights in general. What follows is a highly simplified version of his explanation, as filtered through my not-too-legal mind.
It’s been a crazy few weeks for milk in the US. Earlier this month, dairy prices officially tanked, collapsing over $5 between last February and this one. It’s the worst drop in prices since the Great Depression, when the government asked dairy farmers to pour off millions of gallons of milk. The drastic losses have prompted 35 senators to send a letter to Vilsack and the new administration asking the government to support the dairy industry.
In somewhat more unconventional milk news, the first pharmaceutical goats were approved by the FDA (big surprise there) as was the drug that they produce in their milk. The goats produce ATryn, a drug approved to prevent blood clots. ATryn is a human protein, and the gene for its production is implanted in the goat embryo, while the protein itself is extracted from the milk.
Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel, likes to quote Reb Shlomo Carlebach with the idea that the Jewish holidays come around to remind us of the things we should be doing all year. For example – in theory, we should always work to clear out the spiritual “chametz” from our lives, but if we don’t then Passover arrives to remind us. And we should always remember to connect to the land and the seasons, but if we forget then Sukkot’s lulav and etrog jog our memories.
Tomorrow night, Rosh Hashanah begins – ushering in with it the reminder to reflect and find ways to return to the best possible version of ourselves. To welcome in such a special time, we’ve rounded up a number of great Rosh Hashanah stories, ideas, and recipes from the Jewish food blogosphere. The creativity coming out of these bloggers minds and kitchens is truly inspiring – feel free to share more resources below.
Rosh Hashanah round up below the jump…
The week is already off to a big foodie Jewy start:
Judging from some recent food journalism, using spurious logic to rationalize the choice not to eat ethically is as easy as slathering a mound of Jif Creamy onto a slice of Wonder Bread.
For example, Portland, Oregon is a great city for green living. Maybe that’s why the Oregonian, our newspaper, recently started a weekly green living column — although with dubious results. The inaugural piece was about how to not feel guilty when you *don’t* buy organic. The gist of the article was that as long as you avoid the “Dirty Dozen” – the twelve foods most contaminated with pesticides — you’re a-okay. As columnist Shelby Wood giddily reported:
With the Dirty Dozen in mind, I paid the $1 premium for organic spinach (No. 11 on the Environmental Working Group’s list) at the grocery last week. But I saved $1 on conventional broccoli (No. 35) and 20 cents a pound on bananas (No. 37). After all, I’ve been eating those for 34 years. And I’m not dead yet.
Great job, Shelby. Perhaps you’d like to celebrate by investing that $1.20 you saved on some low-tar cigarettes.
Change is in the air at The Jew & The Carrot. It’s summer and we have some spiffy new duds to show off. So drop by, stay a while, and check out our new features.
Keeping Tabs. Find out more about The Jew & The Carrot, browse through our Green Resources (sustainable kiddush or a kosher organic cheese list anyone?), meet the contributors, and more by clicking on one of the tabs on the top right of the page.
Recipe Archive – Coming Soon! The Recipe Archive will feature all the healthy, sustainable recipes from past posts. Looking for breakfast dishes? dairy/vegetarian recipes? snacks for a party? You got it.
Chosen Bites – Food News From the Web. This regularly updated feature (found on the left hand column of the page) will bring you our vetted list of the best Jewish and foodie news and ideas from around the blogosphere. If you have links or stories that you would like us to consider for “Chosen Bites,” please email tips at jcarrot dot org.
More new features, below the jump…
File under the good news heading: According to this article in Crains New York Business (I read it online – as in standing on line for my take out lunch. It beat reading about Jenna Bush’s wedding…),
New York City is one of the largest players in the burgeoning green restaurant industry. According to Boston-based non-profit Green Restaurant Association, 25% of all American restaurants that it has certified as “green” are in NYC! The article also mentions the specific efforts of Tavern on the Green, who are nervous about not being up to sustainable-snuff when ownership of the site reverts to the Parks & Rec dept., and New York’s first certified organic restaurant, Gusto Grilled Organics. Now New Yorkers can have their cake and eat it, too.
Welcome back to the land of bread! I had a realization on Sunday night, around 6:30 (i.e. T-minus 2 hours to carb consumption, when I was locked in a state of restless self-pity) that Passover would be a perfect time to try a cleanse. After the original spirit and kavannah (intention) of the seder wore off, you could at least still congratulate yourself for detoxing. Perhaps – but I digress.
Two days after Passover, however, is definitely a great time to wipe off the final matzah crumbs and get your finger back on the pulse of what else that’s going on in the world of food. Check out these tasty ideas from around the blogosphere. B’tai Avon!
It’s the week before Passover and the foodie blogosphere is ready. Like hand-grated horseradish, fluffy meringues and caramel-coated “matzah crack” ready.
The most exciting news (for us anyway!) is The Daily Green’s sustainable Passover story, which features tips from The Jew & The Carrot’s Healthy Sustainable Passover Resources. Check out their (gorgeous) feature here.
Below the jump, we’ve rounded up a number of other great Passover stories, ideas, and recipes from the Jewish food blogosphere. The creativity coming out of these bloggers minds and kitchens is truly inspiring – feel free to share more resources below.Also keep your eyes peeled for a chance to win Arthur Schwartz’s new cookbook Jewish Home Cooking
- early next week.
Are Passover snacks the new bees? Chametz-free noshes seem to be disappearing everywhere without a trace. First, TamTams disappear from the shelves, and now, the NYTimes reports about a historic New York social club that recently lost its source for the perfect macaroon.
It seems that the bakery which supplied the Century club with macaroons for over half a century has gone out of business, and this article describes the remarkable search by its members for a suitable replacement. I have to say, even as someone who disdainfully associates macaroons with those awful, sticky, cloying, calorie-laden chunks that come in the vacuum-sealed can, I can’t help but admire the passion and discernment by which Century Club members are conducting their search. Here’s how they lovingly describe the perfect macaroon:
“They had just the right amount of texture. They weren’t too crispy. They weren’t too gooey. You know, they didn’t flake or break. They kind of pulled apart. I would say they sort of had a nice elasticity. They displayed a particular combination of crustiness and tensile strength.”
Mmmm…tensile strength. Good luck with that. So much for Macaroons. The cheese(cake) half of this post is after the jump…
What is it about Jews and Chinese food?This oddly-passionate obsession has inspired scholarly dissertations, cookbooks, multi-cultural festivals, and even affected international relations [this last link, btw, about Asian chefs in Israel going on an eggroll strike over the elimination of foreign worker permits, is worth a trip to Jewschool to read in its entirety]!
So when this article appeared recently in the NYTimes about the history of the fortune cookie, I immediately thought, “hmmm…what’s the Jewish connection?” The answer? The long Jewish tradition of bibliophagy (eating the written word). Find interesting examples of Jewish bibliophagy after the jump:
Does it pay to read blogs? Maybe if I hadn’t checked a few of my favorites this morning (metafilter.com, jewlicious.com, nextbook.org), I wouldn’t have come across these bewildering, highly amusing and slightly nauseating headlines:
- A talmudic analysis of a soccer player’s lament, as it relates to restraints made of kreplach
- An FBI plan to track Iranian terrorists in California based on monitoring spikes in falafel sales
- White Castle’s 2007 Recipe contest winner? Slider Latkes (only slightly less gross than last year’s winner -I think I’m gonna be sick)
OK, back to work, people. (Image via Jewlicious)
Pesach on our vegetable farm is a challenging holiday to pull off. We have had seders here, with everything home made, except the matzah. The menu usually included wonderful cinnamony Middle Eastern charoset balls made by a friend, an organic free-range kosher chicken soup, sweet potatoes, and a big salad. Sometimes, I would make roasted beets and potatoes. Anyway, my philosophy for Pesach, if there were to be one, is to just stick with simple whole foods. Whether that be fruits or veggies, or fresh cheese, meat, or eggs. I buy nuts, in bulk, and make a dessert of coconut milk, with frozen berries, cocoa powder, nuts (almonds) and some maple or agave syrup and call it a complete seder meal! None of the flourless, matzah meal stuff really appeals. I don’t like to imitate cakes and cookies with complicated, multi-step baked goods. I’d rather have fresh, home made sorbet. Or even fruit.
