When Birkat HaChammah arrived a week ago, a group of people from the Washington area marked the morning in a very D.C. way—by converging on the National Mall. The spot the organizers chose—at the Lincoln Memorial, in sight of the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool—is a place folks from this city and around the nation have gathered for thousands of events spanning our parents’, grandparents, and great-great-grandparents’ lives. The historic spot seemed fitting for a holiday that comes once every 28 years, or once a generation. (And the Washington Post seemed to like the choice of venue and celebration enough to write and video about it).
Back when I was a wee tot enjoying my first veggies, birkat hachammah, the holiday honoring the creation of the sun—literally “the blessing of the sun”—quietly came and went.
On April 8, 28 years later, birkat hachammah will return. This time, I’m hearing all sorts of fanfare from a Jewish community more aware than ever of what the sun provides, and seizing the opportunity to encourage sustainable practices. As shared on this very blog, organizations are mobilizing.
Perhaps the most quirky and inspiring sign of this foment is the Topsy-Turvy bus from the Teva Learning Center.
This head-over-heals double school bus has been scooting between synagogues and schools on used vegetable oil since late February. Its mission? To teach kids about the blessing of the sun, and using our solar gifts wisely.
Red meat in moderation is okay, but you probably shouldn’t chow down on steak every day. That’s what conventional dietary wisdom says. Now, a National Cancer Institute study suggests, the distinction between moderation and daily intake has become a matter of life and death.
In the study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 545,653 people ages 50 to 71 were asked about their eating habits and then tracked over the next 10 years. During that time, a little over 70,000 died.
The United Nations Environment Programme released a major report this week on the impact of the recent surge in food prices, a rapidly growing population, and declining agricultural yields due to environmental degradation. It is very clear that the solution to 21st century food problems is not to simply rely on technology and increased use of pesticides, fertilizers, and chemicals. Included among the findings of the report is the fact that agricultural yields through organic farming methods are higher than through industrial farming. It criticizes the use of cereal and grain as animal feed, connecting that in part to rising food costs. And importantly, it points out that climate change is a key factor in 21st century food security, as water scarcities, invasive pests and weeds entering new ecosystems, and increased drought put additional pressure on the already-stressed world food system.
A short reminder about an event tonight that many of our readers might find interesting:
Colin Beavan, aka “No Impact Man”, who spent a year trying to live “a zero impact lifestyle in New York City“ and Rabbi Steven Greenberg, currently scholar-in-residence at Hazon, will be speaking tonight, February 10th at 6pm [note corrected time], at a forum organized by the Sustainability and Practice Network on the topic of Everyday Sustainability: Personal Responsibility and the Planet at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. The panel will focus on how individuals can make a difference:
Michael Ableman is a farmer, an author, a photographer, a recognized practitioner of sustainable agriculture, and a proponent of regional food systems. He has written several books, essays, and articles, and he lectures extensively on food, culture, and sustainability worldwide. Michael is currently farming at the Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and developing The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture there.
I’ve always believed that keeping kosher was not just a way of creating Jewish identity, but also a way to create a society attuned to the earth. After years of wondering why some animals are kosher and others are not, I found an ecological explanation for these rules (see section VI). I’m sharing it with the hope of getting some feedback.
I. Why do we keep kosher? I want to open up this question by taking a look back to parshat Noach. Usually when we think of the Noah story, we think about how Noah’s family was given permission to eat animals (read more about this on neohasid.org and on jcarrot. ) But parshat Noach is also the first place where we (that is, all humanity) are given laws restricting how and what we eat.[1]
Even though the laws about keeping kosher, kashrut, may seem like the most specifically Jewish of practices, they have their origins in this “Noachide covenant”, where the first restrictions on eating are described. Those restrictions are to not eat a limb from a living animal and to not eat the blood of an animal. Both are the basis of many kashrut rules.
The Noah story is also the first time the distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘unclean’ animals is mentioned (Noah is told to bring seven of the pure (tahor) animals, which are the ones we call kosher.) So even the least universal aspect of kashrut, the “cloven hoof and cud-chewing mouth” requirement, has its roots in one of the Torah’s most universal stories.
That’s a good jumping off point for searching out the universal meaning of these culturally-specific, arguably parochial laws.
Rabbi Julian Sinclair is an author, educator, and economist. He is also the co-founder and Director of Education for Jewish Climate Initiative, a Jerusalem based NGO that is articulating and mobilizing a Jewish response to climate change. Before starting JCI, Julian worked as an economist advising the UK Government and for a British political think tank. Meanwhile, he authored the book Lets Schmooze: Jewish Words Today and is working on completing a Phd in the mystical thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Phew!
Sinclair lives in Jerusalem and has been featured on NPR and interviewed for the New York Times by our own Leah Koenig. Hazon is delighted to invite Rabbi Sinclair as a presenter at this year’s Hazon Food Conference, December 25-28, 2008.
Get a sneak peek at what Julian has to say below the jump. And find out more/ register for Hazon’s Food Conference, here!
If ever there was a day for foodies to curl up with a mug of fair trade coffee and the newspaper, today’s the day. The New York Times Magazine’s (first ever, I believe) Food Issue hit stands this morning, so if you haven’t already scanned the whole thing online, find yourself a comfortable chair and a couple of hours to savor it the way papers were originally intended to be read.There’s a LOT of good stuff inside – enough to be slightly overwhelming. So before you dig in, take a look at The Jew & The Carrot’s recommendations on what to read, skim, and skip. Get the most out of the magazine and still have some daylight left to play. Below the jump!
I first started out in the Jewish environmental movement back in 1981 (I was already an environmentalist of the 70’s variety in high school). Back then the majority of Jewish enviros were ideological vegetarians, the backbone of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), people like Richard Schwartz, Jonathan Wolf, and Roberta Kalechofsky. Their zeal for vegetarianism was as strong as any other passion they had for the earth.
Though I empathized with their feelings, they never rang true for me. I’ve been a vegetarian for about 30 years, well more than half my life, and well before I was into Judaism. When people asked me why, I could give a dozen reasons, related to human health, the health of the land, the suffering of animals, etc. But I’ve never been an ideological vegetarian, and I never thought it was my mission to get everyone to stop eating meat.
That’s not to say that I never thought it would be a good idea for more people to “go veg.” Especially now, when we hear about things like what happens on the killing floor at Agriprocessors, vegetarianism looks like the better option.(1) Agriprocessors is not the only great argument for vegetarianism. So is global climate change—a huge percentage of the global warming gases emitted by our civilization come from the two ends of a cow.
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!
(Cross posted from All Voices.)
Napa Valley has a problem – their grapes are drunk.
Grapes – the region’s cash crop and tourist draw – grow best under a warm summer sun that is tempered by a kiss of cool air at night. When the weather gets too hot for too long, however, the grapes can “cook” on the vine, resulting in an alcohol content more fitting to a firey grappa than the mellow cabernets the region is known for.
Unfortunately, rising temperatures seem to be the norm in Napa these days where, according to the NY Times Magazine: “most Napa winemakers agree that 10-year averages are the hottest in memory.” As a result, Napa grape farmers are being forced to rethink every growing technique they thought they knew to save their crops. The NY Times Magazine reports:
x-posted from All Voices.
Scene from inside a fancy restaurant circa 2015:
Man: (scanning the menu) – What are you thinking of getting dear?
Woman: Hmmm…pasta looks good, but I think I’d actually prefer a steak.
Man: Do you know where the meat comes from?
Woman: Of course! I always inquire about the source of the meat I eat. It’s from vat 13 at Acme Labs!
This scene may sound like fodder for a science fiction novel, but according to Wired, test tube meat may end up on consumers’ plates in the not-too-distant future.
Grown in bioreactors, the in vitro meat would be created to mimic the texture and flavor or real meat, from to ground chuck to filet mignon. As of now, scientists say that they have a ways to go before reaching the desired results – but they’re making progress. Wired reported: “Researchers can currently grow small amounts of meat in the lab, and have even been able to get heart cells to beat in Petri dishes. Growing muscle cells on an industrial scale is the next step.”
