Thanks so much to Rita Esquenazi for her great thoughts on the Hazon Food Conference

630 people. Four days. One conference. I am here in the rugged beauty of Asilomar State Park, where the Pacific Ocean meets a rocky beach, to attend the fourth annual Hazon Food Conference. Among the many ideas and emotions running through me, more than anything I feel blessed to be here, being able to exchange knowledge with a wide variety of people from across the country and around the world, from as near as Salinas, CA to as far as South Africa. As a Goldman Young Adult Fellow I am deeply grateful for this opportunity that the Fellowship enabled. Almost 50 other Fellows are here and we are discussing our next steps and how to bring what we’ve learned back to our communities, how to create teachable moments, how to build more sustainable communities.

I am here because I am interested in the nexus of Judaism, eating healthily and sustainably and helping those in need. Many others are focused on environmental issues, bringing down “the Man” of giant agribusinesses, or simply because they enjoy food! But what is this Food Conference all about anyway? Hazon states that they exist to create a sustainable world for Jews and for all people. Clearly, with over 600 people here, that chord resonates.

Thanks to Debs Gardner for this great guest post.  Debs maintains the food blog, Seattle Local Food.

It was Friday morning at the Hazon conference, and we were already deep in weighty conversations about social justice and corporate food production. We’d watched The Garden, a documentary about Latin American immigrant farmers protesting destruction of a gorgeous 14-acre garden they’d built in industrial South Central Los Angeles. I’d participated in a media panel, discussing misleading marketing, the role of blogging in media, and the challenges writers face. Like needing a salad after too much kugel, it was time for something at least a little lighter. So, I went to hear one of my favorite experts on Jewish food tell stories and make nosh.

Joan Nathan was on stage, multitasking. Busily adjusting the top of a food processor, she was demonstrating how to prepare two different dishes, while overseeing an assistant chopping vegetables and simultaneously talking into a microphone, held by another assistant, about the history of Jewish foods in France.

I’m stuffed. Not from my Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family in the US – although everything on the table was delicious – but from five days of intellectual, spiritual, and gastronomical nourishment while participating in Hazon and Heschel’s first Israel Sustainable Food Tour. From November 15th though 19th, twenty-seven foodies and I explored Israel from the perspective of sustainable food. We met with farmers, chefs, community gardeners, a permaculture expert, a food scientist, volunteers at an innovative soup kitchen, the founder of a food co-op, an expert on food insecurity in Israel, and many other passionate people who shared their experiences working on sustainable food issues throughout the country.

Thanks to Julia Segal for these reflections. Julia serves on the planning committee for the Hazon Food Conference and is a student at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine.

It’s a natural season for abundance and gratitude, autumn bringing harvest holidays and rituals in virtually every culture.  In America this is Thanksgiving, the most nourishing foods are stacking up on tables and families are preparing to eat together to enjoy the bounty.  In our mythology, pilgrims, after their first lessons in local agriculture from local native populations, made feasts and enjoyed.  We are still enjoying our food, and though today it comes to us mostly through a food system that paradoxically combines convenience and complication, we are still giving thanks.

The Jew and The Carrot, Hazon’s blog about Jews, food and contemporary life.  The blog has a diverse and inclusive community, where we welcome readers and volunteer writers from across the Jewish denominational spectrum, and from all walks of culinary life.  Our aim is to ensure that The Jew and The Carrot community is a platform for vibrant discussion for anyone interested in food issues.

Late on Friday we received the following letter from Pete Cohon, founder and moderator of VeggieJews, an international, real-world and online, Jewish, vegetarian organization.  He has been a vegan and animal rights activist for 22 years and a vegetarian for 27 years.  A former San Francisco trial lawyer, Pete now lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Below his letter is the response from Hazon.  We encourage a vibrant debate, but please ask commentators to refrain from personal attacks on any views.  We reserve the right to remove  any comments that violate our Community Guidelines.

An open letter to Nigel Savage, Executive Director of Hazon, and the groups members:

The Hazon group claims that it works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, fight climate change and promote a more sustainable world for all.  I understand that the group even hosts vegetarian meals at which it promotes its programs.

That sounds great.  But I’m concerned that Hazon is not living up to the promise.

I often get asked if there is such thing as Jewish food. After all, Jews are not the only ones to smoke meat, eat couscous or make fish into little balls. So when I was asked to put together a short description of Jewish food to sit on the tables at the upcoming HAZON conference I was excited to try and answer the question. The topic is a big one but here on one foot is a good succinct overview.

What is Jewish Food?

Recently, acclaimed bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer appeared on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show to talk about his upcoming book, Eating Animals. As Julie Steinberg details in her post below, Foer, being both Jewish and a vegetarian, explores issues of food choices and eating meat in a personal narrative that helps shape a larger argument about vegetarianism.

Through the generous support of a donor, Hazon is pleased to offer two full scholarships for teens who are involved in food and/or Jewish life.

Join the thinkers and doers of the new Jewish Food Movement — where contemporary food conversations meet Jewish traditions. Think, act and dig in with:

Michael Dimock, from Roots of Change * Joan Nathan, Cookbook Author * Woody *Tasch, Founder of the Slow Money Alliance * Rabbi Seth Mandel, head Mashgiach at the Orthodox Union * Abbe Turner, Cheesemaker at Lucky Penny Goat Farm * and hundreds of other amazing presenters!

Be sure to reap the harvest… now is the best time to register this Fall! Prices rise on October 16.  Use the code “sukkot” (valid for just one more day!) when you register for $85 off your registration fee.

Foodie fun abounds at the Hazon Food Conference — the only place in the world where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists and chefs, vegans and omnivores, come together to explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish tradition and contemporary life and play together at the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

This year’s programming will likely include the following highlights and much much more:

Thanks to Rabbi Dara Frimmer, of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles,  for sharing this sermon with us. Each of the four clergy gave a mini-sermon on a place in the house (“home” is their theme this year) and Dara says “not surprisingly I chose the kitchen.” This piece, Dara says, was in part inspired by her work on the Hazon Food Conference executive committee and the work she’s been doing to create a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Enjoy, and feel free to share your own kitchen memories below.

If you’re interested in attending the Hazon Food Conference December 24-27 on California’s beautiful Monterey coast, but need a little bit of financial assistance to register for the event, there are a limited number of scholarships available.  Applications for these scholarships must be received by this coming Monday, August 17^th. Applications can be found off of the Food Conference pricing webpage.

The Hazon Food Conference is the only place in the world where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists and chefs, vegans and omnivores, come together to explore food, Jewish traditions, and contemporary life.

The fourth annual Hazon Food Conference is the only place in the world where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists and chefs, vegans and omnivores, come together to explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish traditions, and contemporary life. Don’t miss four days of do-it-yourself food workshops, cooking demonstrations, lectures, discussions, kids and family activities, joyful Shabbat celebrations, and of course, delicious and consciously-prepared food.

So says Fortune Magazine, who profiled six of the most prominent young farmers in North America listed in the recent report from Mother Nature Network. Even though Fortune only featured a select few of the aggie all-stars selected by MNN, the 2009 Hazon Food Conference chair made the cut.

This comes as no surprise to us, of course. Emily’s talents and dedication to her craft make her a natural choice. Fortune points to Emily’s “year-long stay in Israel on a kibbutz…that changed her taste for organic food and farming.” Emily will be joined by other organic aces at this year’s Hazon Food Conference in December.