Originally from The Wall Street Journal, by Ben Worthen

Michael Pollan, author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and other popular books, has become a figurehead for the local-food movement, which advocates buying in-season produce from nearby farms.

Proponents say such food is healthier and that the way it is grown and shipped is better for the environment. But it often is more expensive. Mr. Pollan says the real problem is that subsidies keep the prices of some, largely mass-produced foods artificially low.

Still, he tries to strike a middle ground between advocate and realist. In his Berkeley living room, the 55-year-old Mr. Pollan discussed where he shops for food and why paying $8 for a dozen eggs is a good thing:

Mr. Pollan: The food movement really began on the West Coast, and you can make an argument it began in the Bay Area. There is a much higher level of consciousness here about where food comes from, about eating seasonally and locally, than there is in the rest of the country.WSJ: Do Bay Area residents eat and shop for food differently from people elsewhere?

But we have certain advantages that few other places in the country have. We can eat from the farmer’s market 50 weeks of the year—the only reason they close is to get a break Christmas and New Year’s.

WSJ: What do you attribute the greater enthusiasm to?

Mr. Pollan: A consumer who is willing to pay more for better food. That’s a matter of consciousness and a palate that has been educated by the chefs locally. Paying $3.90 for a Frog Hollow Peach, there are a lot of people here willing to do it. I don’t know if you can find a more expensive peach in America. My little rule, “Pay more, eat less,” is followed by a lot of people in the Bay area.

WSJ: Where do you shop for food?

Mr. Pollan: I shop at the farmer’s market on Thursdays. I shop at Monterey Market, and I shop at Berkley Bowl. Those are the big three, and then I’ll get household cleaning products, cereal, things like that at Safeway.

WSJ: How do you suggest people in New York or other places with a long winter eat seasonally?

In much of the country eating seasonally in winter is challenging, though there are options people overlook. A salad of grated root vegetables, for example, is a refreshing change from lettuce, and far more nutritious. But it all depends on how hard-core you want to be. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.

WSJ: Do you only buy certain things from certain places?

Mr. Pollan: No. I’m pretty flexible. I’m not a zealot, contrary to what people may think. I’ve told stories about being busted at Berkeley Bowl buying sugary cereals for my son when he was younger.

WSJ: Are there rules for shopping that people interested in eating better should follow?

Mr. Pollan: The most important is to buy things that are in season.

It’s nice to skip [things] until they are in season when they are so much better and cheaper. It becomes something of an occasion when the tomatoes come into the market, or the strawberries, or the asparagus.

WSJ: Does eating local, sustainable food have to be a lifestyle priority, or can people do it casually?

Mr. Pollan: People can do it casually. There are people who go [to a farmer's market] every week, and there are people who go when the mood strikes them. To eat well takes a little bit more time and effort and money. But so does reading well; so does watching television well. Doing anything with attention to quality takes effort. It’s either rewarding to you or it’s not. It happens to be very rewarding to me. But I understand people who can’t be bothered, and they’re going to eat with less care.

WSJ: Is eating well just an indulgence for people who can afford it?

Mr. Pollan: If you’re in the supermarket buying organic versus not buying organic, you are going to spend more. But buying food at the farmer’s market, if you compare it to the prices at Safeway for stuff that’s in season, it actually beats the prices in my experience. People shouldn’t assume that they are going to go broke at the farmer’s market.

WSJ: What do you wish people here understood about their food that they don’t now?

Mr. Pollan: We’ve been conditioned by artificially cheap food to be shocked when a box of strawberries costs $3.

But it’s important to know that farmers aren’t getting wealthy. When you see strawberries being sold for $1 a box, picture the kind of labor it takes to pick those strawberries and the kind of chemicals it takes to produce those kinds of strawberries without hand weeding.

Eight dollars for a dozen eggs sounds outrageous, but when you think that you can make a delicious meal from two eggs, that’s $1.50. It’s really not that much when we think of how we waste money in our lives.

This article is cross-posted on  joyofkosher.com

By Rachel Gelman, Hazon Food Area Intern

There’s no doubt that including dairy in your diet can have a wide array of health benefits. Dairy staples such as yogurt, milk, and cheese offer a healthy dose of calcium, protein, and vitamin D. Consumption of low-fat dairy has been proven to help lower blood pressure, and the calcium that comes from dairy can increase bone density and has even been linked to weight loss. Plus, it’s absolutely delicious! But there are also some considerable reasons to choose organic dairy products over their non-organic counterparts.

First of all, dairy can only be certified as organic if the production animals consume certified organic feed and are managed organically. Therefore, buying organic and local dairy products not only supports organic farms, but it also supports fair treatment of the production animals. Organic dairy products can also be better for your health and the health of the animal. The chemical rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, is a genetically-synthesized hormone that some dairy farms inject into their cows to increase milk production. This hormone can have some serious health risks for animals. For cows, this hormone can lead to a 40% reduction in fertility, a considerable increase in the risk of clinical mastitis, and a 55% increase in the risk of lameness. Although there is no direct proof that rBGH is carcinogenic for humans, there’s been a lot of controversy within the environmental world as to whether or not this hormone is actually safe for human consumption. So it seems like organic and local is your best bet, not only for personal health, but also for the welfare of the animals producing your dairy products.

Aitan Mizrahi is a Jewish goat farmer that started Adva Dairy in 2004, eventually merging herds with Adamah in 2009 to become Adamah Dairy. He has 46 goats in his herd and he uses the goat’s milk to craft kosher, organic, artisanal cheeses and yogurt, as well as teaching Adamah visitors how to milk the goats. All of Adamah Dairy’s products are sold through their CSA or at local farm stands and markets. I was lucky enough to get to speak with Aitan Mizrahi and ask him some questions about his goats and his dairy. The interview is below.

First of all, why a goat farm? What inspired you to start a goat farm?

It came together for me in 2004 as the Adamah fellow. By my mid to late 20s I started figuring out that I wanted to work outside, work with my hands, and be more involved with the Jewish community, and through Adamah I was introduced to goats and animal husbandry. I found working with animals more rewarding than working with vegetables because they had personality and they were just engaging. It also connected me to my Judaism in a way that I hadn’t felt before because I never really identified with the white collar academic Jew of the 20^th or 19^th century, I always identified more with the biblical Jew, the nomadic Jew. My dad’s family is Kurdish, Mizrahi, and so I always had this inkling of what it would be like to be outside with your animals and I think it was a combination of the Judaism and the work and just being involved with growing my own food and providing food for myself and my community.

How do you feel that the values associated with organic dairy might correspond with Jewish values?

What distinguishes a Jewish dairy farmer, at least a dairy farmer who identifies as Jewish and practices Judaism is that on Shabbat when other farmers are going out to milk and to save the milk and bottle it to convert it into cheese, we don’t use the milk, we pour it out. As a business it’s kind of radical to think that one day a week you pour out your product. We milk for the sake of the animal, her utters are filled with milk and it’s uncomfortable to have full udders for so long so it’s our duty as caretakers to milk her. Early on in the Torah it talks a lot about proper stewardship and the land, and proper stewardship includes caring for your domesticated animals and for their well-being. There’s also a lot in the Torah and in the following texts about not really polluting your body and taking care of yourself, and there seems to be an obvious connection here- eating healthy foods is a good way of taking care of your body as a Jew.

Do you think there is value in forming relationships with your animals?

There are some interesting dynamics of working with domesticated animals and the relationship and the responsibility we have towards caring for animals. Doing it in a respectful way and in a small scale way is important. When it gets to be 100 or 200 animals and you don’t know the animals personally there’s more room for error, and here on a small scale we have the ability to pay attention to the detail and be able to bring in variety.

Do you think it is important to choose organic dairy products over industrial? If so, why?

I would say one important value is that it gives the consumer the opportunity to know the farmer and know the animals. Whenever customers come and see the animals it really puts together some of the missing pieces about where food comes from and gives them a different relationship and value with their food. So I think the small-scale element and knowing the farmer is very important. A lot of Judaism is about learning and knowing, how much better to know and really be there and experience it. We hand milk our goats so there’s no interference between us and the animals. We’re really going to the source, and our animals eat whatever is growing in the woods. They roam the woods and they convert all of that local energy that’s stored up in the woods into liquid sunshine. If you have the choice, after seeing what’s out there in the commercial industry, why would anyone choose that. On a basic level it makes sense as human beings to make your own food and participate in food making, it’s a basic need that we all have and it’s a pleasure to be involved in that and be able to bring that to people.

It’s not so much the dilemma over recipe that irks me every Shavuot, it’s the huge crack (or 3) down the middle of the cheesecake when all I want is a smooth, beautiful top I don’t have to cover with fruit to hide the imperfections.

After doing some reading on the chemistry of baking cheesecake (and lots of failed experiments [in appearance, not taste ]), I found the perfect technique for making a smooth, creamy cheesecake. It freaked me out the first time I did it, but it was the most amazing cheesecake I’ve ever made.

There are two key elements:
1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature to avoid the need to overmix.
2. Allow the cheesecake to bake, then cool for 5-6 hours in the oven, no peeking allowed!

Yup. Bake, and then turn the oven off and walk away. Don’t open the oven to peek. You won’t see what the cheesecake looks like for many hours. Freaky, right?

But it really works–the slow cooling of the oven allows the cheesecake to cool very slowly to avoid cracking.

Here’s my favorite recipe, but feel free to try it with your own! The lemon zest really brings a brightness to this dish, but you can use lime or orange zest if you prefer, or just leave it out altogether if you aren’t a citrus fan.

Creamy Lemony Cheesecake

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 7ish hours

Makes: 1 9-inch cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp flour
zest of 1 lemon (optional)
24 oz cream cheese
1 graham cracker crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Let all ingredients including eggs come to room temperature.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until well blended, then stir in sour cream, vanilla, flour, and lemon zest. Fold mixture into cream cheese until smooth. Do not overmix.
4. Pour into graham cracker crust. Bake in oven for 50 minutes, then turn oven off and leave cheesecake for at least 5 hours, and no more than 8. Do not peek or open oven door.
5. Cool and serve (tip: Dip the knife in hot water before you make each cut to avoid jagged edges).

Note: For we lactards, substitute parve (non-dairy) cream cheese and sour cream.

The iridescent colors reflected off an oil slick are like a twisted and distorted rainbow.

There is a special correlation between this week�s Torah portion and the rainbow covenant of Noah�s time. And there is a foreboding contrast between the rainbow covenant and what�s happened in the Gulf of Mexico. The tension between these dynamic relationships in many ways defines the predicament of our time.

Just as this week is the week we read about the central covenant of the Torah encoded in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, it is also the week when the anniversary of the rainbow covenant falls. It is no random happenstance: the covenant represented by the Jubilee is in many ways a response to the covenant with Noah and the animals.

How so? The covenant of Noah�s time�the first covenant recorded in the Torah�includes the land and the animals as covenant partners with God alongside the human family. This is also the case with the Jubilee covenant: the land is promised her Sabbaths as a condition for the Israelites to settle upon the land, while the people are required in the Sabbatical year, when the land is resting, to open their fences to allow the wild animals in to eat their fill.

The first condition�to let the land rest�is a fulfillment of the promise in the rainbow covenant that God will no longer destroy the land because of humanity: here God promises to exile humanity in order to save the land from being destroyed. The second condition�allowing the wild animals into the fields�is a tikkun for what happened after the rainbow covenant: even though the animals were partners in God�s covenantal promise not to destroy the earth, they afterwards became fodder for the humans (�like green plants I give you them all�).

Instead, here, in the Sabbatical year, the humans are required to allow their agriculture to go wild and to invite the wild animals to share what grows. This is not only a tikkun for the permission granted to human beings to eat animals. It is also a return to the Garden of Eden, where animals and human beings shared the same food.

And the Gulf of Mexico? In the rainbow covenant God promised not to destroy the Earth because of us, but God did not promise that we wouldn�t destroy the Earth. As the oil laps at the shore and threatens vast ecosystems, important food sources, and endangered species, we must realize that God�s covenant is not enough to save us. The iridescent colors reflected off an oil slick are like a twisted and distorted rainbow. The tragedy and horror of this accident remind us that we have reached a point where we can undo God�s rainbow covenant at the expense of our own lives and the lives of other creatures.

These are the worst of times, because the threat is that close and that enormous. And these are the best of times, because we can wake up to our potential for love and righteousness and create a sustainable world, a world that reflects the rainbow covenant as it was meant to be: a promise to honor and cherish all beings, as God does, and so to act in God�s image.

Then, to quote a medieval prayer (from Pri Eitz Hadar), may we be privileged to see �the whole return to its original strength�and to see the rainbow, joyful and beautified with his colors.� Yashuv hakol l�eitano ha rishon, v�niratah hakeshet, sas umitpa�er b�govanin.

David Seidenberg is the creator of neohasid.org and a teacher of Judaism and ecology.

This week, as Earth Day came and went and I attended a fair here or an Earth celebration there, it also donned on me that Spring is here!

So, beyond my environmental excursions, I also attended of variety of events held on my very own Columbia University. Yet, what I found was an inability to fully appreciate some of the events due to the ubiquity of plastic water bottles. Some may laugh, but I find myself becoming more and more annoyed with these obnoxious bottles that I suddenly see everywhere. As I have previously written about bottled water, my awakening began when seeing the movie “Blue Gold: World Water War’s” on instant play on Netflix. Then, I really became irked when seeing “The Story of Bottled Water,” which I posted on this blog.

Last week though, I attended another water documentary screening, this one a full length feature exclusively focused on the water bottle industry. Now, the movie does a lot of pointing fingers. Most obviously, the manufacturers, NESTLE, Coca-cola, and Pepsi Co., bear a large portion of the blame.

Yet, beyond these stormtroopers, the film also criticizes the manufacturing of plastic bottles, or specifically the type of plastic used for water bottles. Called “PET” or “PETE”, this plastic has traces of all sorts of toxins linked to all kinds of health hazards. The most common and perhaps scariest is the link between the toxins in the plastics and fetal development. You would think the Right-to-Life community would be all over this one?

We remember the BPA discovery that destroyed Nalgene and made SIGGs cooler than Uranus, but what we don’t realize is that much of the plastic in your “Poland Spring” “Dasani” “Deer Park” or “Aquafina” contains some trace of BPA, benzene, or some other kind of harmful toxins. Though it seems impossible to escape simply breathing in toxins because of the pollution we all breathe daily, it is more distressing that we choose (most of the time out of ignorance) to put these poisons in our body.

And just to reiterate, Dasani and Aquafina are JUST PURIFIED TAP WATER. It is exactly what you drink out of the sink! Only it’s less healthy because there are some other salts and chemicals in it, as well as, whatever has mixed into the water from the plastic bottles.

And this is the danger. We don’t know why and how these poisons leak into the water contained in the bottle. Now, we know not to drink a bottle if it has been sitting in your car in the heat, yet none of us know where that bottle came from before we bought in the store. Perhaps it was sitting in a heated area. Or perhaps, simply long liquid exposure with the plastic releases some of the toxins into the water. I don’t know, but either way, tests (from the film) found that the water in plastic water bottles is often highly polluted and/or toxic.

So, take all this information and then attend some University events I did this past weekend. Every event had an assortment of drinks, including plastic water bottles. The BBQ on Saturday Afternoon on the South Lawns, in the middle of the heat of the day, had plastic water bottles to drink.

Forget everything I have just written about the health dangers of bottled water. Consider this:

Imagine the price of a 6-pack of .5 L bottled water to be about $6 (let’s say 1 dollar for every bottle)
Multiply that by however many people are coming to your event (let’s say 50 ppl): $300

Already you have spent several hundreds of dollars on something you can get essentially FREE:
84 oz pitcher (from wal-mart.com): around $20
Igloo 10 gallon water cooler: Around $80

So it is obviously much cheaper to have someone refilling the water at your event, then buying bottled water for “convenience” (I’m sure your constituents won’t mind the poison you serve with that “convenient” bottled water).

One good thing about Tapped: The Movie was contact it made with another organization – Food and Water Watch – about how to “get off the bottle” and reclaim the TAP. The produced a brochure about how public events can easily be ran without plastic bottled water. The more we refuse to serve it in our public events, the more people will stop using it.

Please, if you are reading this and you are organizing an event soon, DON’T BUY PLASTIC BOTTLED WATER. There are other, healthier ways of keeping your peeps refreshed.

To read more astonishing facts, here is the No Impact Man’s opinion.

We’ve just begun to distribute our Hazon CSA 2009 Season Report, and we figured that sharing it with our JCarrot readers might be fun for you all. Each of the carrots on the above map represents all of our CSAs for the 2010 season, but to learn more about what happened in 2009 in our longest standing food program, you can download the report. For instance, did you know the following?

In 2009:

• The Hazon CSA program grew to 32 communities in the United States and Canada, with forty-one partner organizations, including synagogues, day schools, Hillels and JCCs and twenty eight partner farms.
• Hazon CSAs brought an estimated 305,350 pounds of fresh, mostly organic, sustainable produce to about 6,100 people in over 2,500 member households!
• and Hazon CSAs put Jewish purchasing power – more than $950,000 – behind local farmers who are committed to sustainable agriculture.

As we link people and families more closely to the land on which their food grows and the farmers who grow it, we are also renewing a sense of connection with the rich Jewish traditions that surround eating and agriculture.� Last year, Hazon CSA communities hosted 120 innovative educational events.� There were many farm visits, including sukkah-building and gleaning on partner farms; at host institutions, programs included cooking demonstrations, text studies on brachot, and special events for Tu B’Shvat.

Hazon is deeply grateful to the dedicated farmers, the passionate volunteer leaders in every Hazon CSA community who plan pick-ups and education events, and the partner institutions that host and support Hazon CSAs. To learn more about the Hazon CSA program click here.

�

We are seeking a full-time Program Coordinator to manage the day-to-day scheduling of the Adamah Fellowship and other Adamah programs, to teach classes and lead morning prayer services, and provide general program support. Ideal start date is May 15, 2010. Staff housing is available if needed.

Download a complete job description here. To apply, please send cover letter and resume to Heidi Jacquier. Please include in your cover letter a description of why you are uniquely suited to this position.

Listen to our new PODCAST, Episode 5 by clicking here!

Co-Founder Julie Wolk sits down with me on the latest Hazon Podcast. Listen to what Wilderness Torah is doing to revitalize the American Jewish Community. Also, don’t forget you can subscribe on iTunes by searching “Hazon”.

Also, don’t forget that it is Earth Day this week, so check out all the options going on in your area. For a good listing, check this website out

They have a map where you can choose where you live and find out what is going on near you!

And finally, for those in the New York area, come see “Tapped: The Movie,” a documentary about water usage and safety in America. It is screening at 5 pm at the Cowin Center at Columbia University (between 120 and 121 streets on Broadway). If you are one of the first 100 people to arrive at 4 pm, you can exchange a plastic bottle for a FREE Klean Kanteen! So look into your recycling bin and grab a plastic bottle. If you come after the first 100 people, you will get a great discount on Klean Kanteen.

Uri L’Tzedek is now accepting applications from college and graduate students for our 2nd annual Summer Fellowship Program! This 6-week program is an opportunity to work alongside Uri L’Tzedek’s staff and board, experiencing the many mechanisms that come together to create an effective non-profit organization, gaining exposure to communal Jewish life, effecting change, and learning Torah, social justice philosophy, and community organizing models.

Fellows will be based in New York City and will dedicate their time to some of the following innovative projects: Tav HaYosher (the ethical seal for kosher restaurants), organizational development, communications, education, service, community outreach, website development, multi-media, and technology.

Fellows will participate in weekly seminars focusing on the role of social justice in the Torah, workshops devoted to social justice and community organizing, and dialogues about the religious and emotional dimensions of the Fellowship. Sessions will be led by Uri L’Tzedek’s staff and board, local rabbis, and social justice professionals. Uri L’Tzedek Fellows are volunteers.
To apply, email Shani Porter , Fellowship Director, at porter.shani@gmail.com