In this week’s parasha, Beha’alotcha, Bnei Yisrael continue their journey from Egypt to the promised land. They are provisioned during their desert wanderings by manna, a mysterious food which appears on the ground with the nightly dew, and, according to midrashim,[1] exhibited a variety of tastes. It is against this background that we read the Israelites’ astounding complaint:
“If only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.” [2]
The Israelites had only just been redeemed from tortuous oppression, so it is most perplexing that they would now long for the ‘free’ foods of slavery. Commentators have offered a number of explanations, claiming that perhaps the fish were so cheap or easy to catch such as to be considered free.[3] The Sifrei, however, provides a more profound interpretation.
By AJWS Director of Advocacy Timi Gerson. Cross-posted on Civil Eats and Food Forever — the AJWS Food Justice Blog.
Monsanto has donated $4 million in seeds to Haiti, sending 60 tons of conventional hybrid corn and vegetable seed, followed by 70 more tons of corn seed last week with an additional 345 tons of corn seed to come during the next year. Yet the number one recommendation of a recent report by Catholic Relief Services on post-earthquake Haiti is to focus on local seed fairs and not to introduce new or “improved” varieties at this time.
Some tough questions need to be asked and answered before we’ll know whether or not Monsanto’s donation will help or hurt long-term efforts to rebuild food sufficiency and sovereignty in Haiti. Here are five of them:
Hungry for Change? Join teens from around the country for five days in Washington, DC as they take on today’s hottest issues around hunger. Click here to learn more about BBYO’s PB and J: A Jewish Teen Summit on Hunger. Jewish teens from around the country to will gather in Washington, DC. Over the course of five days in the Nation’s capital teens will have the opportunity to celebrate Shabbat and Havdalah amongst the monuments, engage in service and advocacy, meet with their Congressional offices, and make strides in eliminating hunger in America and the world.
By Josh Berkman, cross-posted on From the Ground–the blog of American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
Over the last week, an important discussion has emerged in the blogosphere about the best ways for hungry nations to produce food. The debate began with a piece by Wellesley professor Robert Paarlberg, published in Foreign Affairs. Paarlberg argues that sluggish food production—rather than price explosion—is responsible for food insecurity in the Global South and that the only way to produce enough food is through advanced technology, increased chemical use and genetically modified seeds. He marginalizes organic farming as quaint and unrealistic as a solution. It’s time to stop rejecting biotech and industrial food production, Paarlberg claims, and realize that it is the only way forward.
Yoni Landau inspired by the Hazon Food Conference and as a result is putting together a training in Northern California for students to take their campus food movements to the next level and then implement a sustainable, student-run business model to act as a hub. The organization is called the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFed). Thanks, Yoni, for sharing your work and your thoughts with the Hazon family!
Think of the last time you saw something that pissed you off enough to do something amazing about it. Maybe it was a long grocery line or a bumper sticker for the Tea Party, or maybe it takes a humanitarian crisis like Haiti to really get your adrenaline going.
For me, it was orange chicken.
Let me be the first to say that I’m all for fighting for justice the little guy and when necessary, boycotting the big evil corporations of the world. But because we live in the age of “astroturfing,” “Tea Parties,” and “Birthers” there is plenty of false, misleading and sometimes offensive information presented in the guise of educational materials or concerned citizenship. Needless to say, I’ve grown cynical enough not just to swallow every bit of Michael-Moore-like corporate bashing I come across.
Take for example a recent report by the Cornucopia Institute a Wisconsin-based think tank that according to their website is a group “seeking economic justice for the family-scale farming community.” It wasn’t their mission that caused me pause as much as their vehement attacks on certain brands of soy products readily found in most grocery stores.
Good news for all you justice-seeking java-lovers and chocoholics! AJWS has teamed up with Equal Exchange and formed Better Beans – “ a new initiative to sell and distribute fairly traded, kosher coffee and chocolate. Better Beans products allow congregations, community organizations and individuals to order high-quality coffee and chocolate while supporting farmers and community cooperatives in the developing world.
On April 18, my co-steering committee member Sylvia Frankel and I were invited to speak to the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon, a nearby city most famous for being the home of Nike. It was an opportunity to address the congregation for one of a series of learning and study sessions; this one was called Food and Spirituality from a Jewish Perspective.
About 25 people attended, including Lead Pastor Mark Brocker and Associate Pastor Robyn Hartwig, and members of the St. Andrew Green Team, a group of congregants who work on sustainability issues within the St. Andrew community.
Check out this Cleveland Jewish News article about the new community garden just starting out at Beth El Congregation in Akron. Ellen Botnick and her friends were, in part, inspired by their connection to Hazon on the Israel Food Tour that we cosponsored with Heschel last Novemeber. As Ellen says “Food connects us to the earth, to each other, and to something much larger than ourselves. We are building community through this garden.”
Cross-posted on From the Ground–the blog of American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
In Mogadishu, store shelves are full of food but the bellies of civilians are not. An article in IRN today reported that the Somali government has asked the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to release food stocks in Mogadishu for distribution to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are chronically hungry.
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.
I have long harbored misgivings about soy. Â It is highly estrogenic. It’s associated with many environmental concerns (fields are clear cut internationally to support it, most of the crop goes toward feeding animals on feedlots, etc.) It’s highly processed (and a non whole food) as milk, frozen entrees, and other products. Â And honestly, and this is just my perspective, I don’t enjoy the taste. But I have always respected the fact that many people do not agree with me on all these points, and enjoy soy as a deliberate and integral part of their diet. Â Most of these folks have countered my concerns with the fact that it is a healthy, non-animal protein that provides efficient calories at a low cost.Â
After thousands of community screenings and grassroots word-of-mouth, you can finally watch FRESH at the theater. We’re opening at the Quad Cinema Friday April 9th. In the spirit of our grassroots model, we’ve organized a long list of how-to workshops, farm to table dinners, lectures and tastings just for you – including two lectures this Sunday by Joel Salatin (details below)
So pick up your fork, get your hands in some dirt and discover new ways to support real food in the city! Almost all FRESH Week event tickets include a redeemable voucher for a FRESH movie ticket at the Quad, so what are you waiting for? GET FRESH NYC!
Below is just a sampling of the events we have planned.
