The news about Agriprocessors is spreading both within and beyond the Jewish community, reaching sites as nearby as a Jewish educators’ conference in Vermont, and as far away as acclaimed political publications like The Nation and The Huffington Post. Check it out:
The CAJE Conference, a Jewish educators’ conference, which is largely focused this year on the connections between Judaism and ecology (to the collective sound of thousands of die-hard Jewish environmentalists slapping their foreheads and muttering, “finally!”) reportedly decided to not serve any Agriprocessors’ meat during the conference. The JTA’s Fundermentalist blogger author, Jacob Berkman, quote conference organizers as saying Agriprocessors’ products are “just not in the spirit of CAJE.” Berkman also quoted Hazon’s own, Nigel Savage, who commented, “We want to shift the axis of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century so that it necessarily means to be involved in the larger issues that concern us.” Read it here. (hat tip: Arieh Liebowitz)
The Nation, known for its no-nonsense, lefty political commentary, included a brief mention of the Agriprocessors scandal in their most recent edition. The Jew & The Carrot and I got a nice little shout-out in the article, along with a tally of how many times the Jewish Press has covered the Agriprocessors’ story over the last three months, since the raid. (For the record: 11 articles in the NY Times, 12 in The Forward, 14 in The Jewish Week, and a whopping 25 in the JTA.) Read it here.
More “Agriprocessors, elsewhere” coverage below
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Since the raid on the Agriprocessors plant on May 12th, bashing the kosher meat giant has become something of a sport. Everyone from the New York Times to failed messiah to yours truly has taken a few shots (some cheap, some well-deserved) at the Rubashkin family and the business they run out of Postville, Iowa.
I’ve never been big fans of the Rubashkin family. In fact, I called for a boycott of their meat in January, months before Uri L’Tzedek was on the case. But I’m getting a little frustrated with the way the scandal is being dealt with by liberal-minded people like me.
More, after the jump.
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I made mozzarella cheese last night. This is not a shechechiyanu moment - I’ve done it before, using this, highly recommended, cheese making kit. But every time I accomplish the feat of turning a gallon of milk into two fistfuls of salty, stretchy, kosher cheese, it feels rather profound.
It also feels a little wasteful, as in, “I go to the trouble of pouring a whole gallon of milk into a pot, heating it 88 degrees, and stirring in vegetable rennet, and this is the thanks I get? A bunch of wasted whey?” I know I could probably save the whey that separates from the cheese curds, and use it for a million different things (suggestions welcome). But aside from pouring about 1 cup worth into my grateful plants, I dumped the rest of it down the drain. I thought my roommates might not appreciate two large Tupperwares full of yellow cheese-water crowding up the fridge.
So why did I go to all this trouble to make my own cheese? Well, to impress my Shabbat guests, of course - and also to make an “Israeli caprese salad,” which is a simple tweak on the Italian classic of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, but might just be an entirely new creation.
Perhaps I should say a shechechiyanu afterall? Recipe below the jump.
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I first read Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld’s thoughts about Tisha B’Av and Agriprocessors (re-printed below) via email this morning. My fiance’s dad is on a Jewish listserve where the article was forwarded as a d’var Torah, and he sent it along to me. I was deeply touched by Rabbi Herzfeld’s words - both their emotional and spiritual resonance and also his coherent assessment of Agriprocessors’ rippling impact on the Jewish community. “Who was this Rabbi Herzfeld?” I wondered. More importantly, “Would he let me re-print his d’var Torah on The Jew & The Carrot, so I could share it more widely?”
Then I picked up (meaning read on my laptop) the New York Times - and there he was again! This time, his words were in the form of an op-ed - slightly edited from the d’var - but equally powerful. Yesterday, I mentioned hypocrisy on the blog, in the context of examining our own food ethics, and not always liking what we find. Rabbi Herzfeld picks up on similar themes in his article. Kol ha’kavod to him for his brave words.
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Rosh Hashanah is still more than a month away, but after reading Slate’s article on “The Great Vegan Honey Debate,” I’ve got the sweet stuff on the brain.
With so many other natural and delicious alternatives to honey available (maple syrup, agave nectar…), questioning whether or not a vegan should eat honey seems somewhat irrelevant. But author, Daniel Engber, posits that, “There is no more contentious question in the world of veganism than the one posed by honey.”
He says some vegans scoff at the very notion of indulging in a food that is most often produced in a “cruel and exploitative” manner, while others wonder if saying no to honey opens up a larger can of worms hive of bees. Engber writes:
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The concept of sustainable kosher meat has been swirling around the Jewish community for a couple of years now, but tracking down the real thing is about as tough as an undercooked brisket.
I have come to partly dread the semi-regular emails I receive from hopeful people asking if I can tell them where to find kosher organic chickens in Topeka or, heck, Berkeley. Same thing for the farmers who call and say they have the chickens, or cattle, or lamb and just need to find a shochet (kosher slaughterer), and can we help them with that? In some cases, the answer is yes, but overwhelmingly I find myself apologizing that, while the demand for such a thing is growing, supply - and especially willing schochtim - just haven’t quite caught up yet.
That’s why I was excited to hear that New York City resident, Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein, is making it a little easier to eat one’s values, through a new sustainable kosher meat co-op: Mitzvah Meat.
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The JTA reported yesterday about a pair of kosher butcher brothers in Long Island who are causing a peculiar controversy: by petitioning the state of New York to stop enforcing its kosher laws.
The brothers’ shop, Commack Deli and Market, adheres to a Conservative definition of kashrut, which holds that some foods (like frozen vegetables) are inherently kosher, and therefore do not need kosher certification. But according to the JTA: “Under New York law, only products labeled as kosher can be sold as kosher. The store’s kosher supervisor – a Conservative Rabbi named William Berman – submitted an affidavit with a different point of view: “the state is infringing upon the religious freedom of the non-Orthodox denomination/sects of Judaism by compelling [them] to adhere to the law requiring labels on all kosher food products.”
On the one hand, I sympathize with the Yarmeisch brothers. I consider myself Orthodox, and I do purchase some foods without heksherim, beer, certain rice products (rice wine, vinegar in some cases), and frozen veggies. But I feel a bit like a hidden Jew - “If anyone finds out!”
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Thanks to Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster for this guest post. Rabbi Kahn-Troster is Director of Education and Outreach for Rabbis for Human Rights North America.
Last Valentine’s Day, my husband and I fell in love - with duck schmaltz. And duck gribenes. And potatoes fried in—well, perhaps I’d better start at the beginning.
For Valentine’s Day, I decided to try making duck for the first time, using a recipe by Mark Bittman that promised to handle the most challenging aspect of cooking duck: dealing with the fat. Cutting the duck into pieces exposed much of the surface fat, allowing me to remove it and set it aside, free to cook the duck in splatter-free bliss. Until I read the following line in the recipe:
“What’s different in this procedure is that you will also have a cup or more of trimmed duck fat. If you’d like to render it - it’s great for cooking - cut it into pieces and cook it slowly in a skillet until all the fat has liquefied and the bits of skin have become crisp. Drain and eat the crispy bits, and refrigerate the fat; it will keep for weeks.”
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For those of you wondering what will be on the menu at the 3rd annual Hazon Food Conference in Asilomar in December, as the person leading the volunteer food committee, I can tell you this: there will be food at the food conference. And it will be good. Beyond that, it’s hard to say, since we’re still working out the details of the menu.
However, I did want to raise “the meat issue,” because it’s what been occupying my thoughts a lot lately. When the conference’s volunteer Executive Committee met earlier this month for a planning retreat at the conference site, most everyone agreed that we should serve meat at the conference in order to show that it’s possible to get kosher, sustainably-raised meat. Except it seems that it isn’t - at least not in California. Shipping it from the East Coast is prohibitively expensive and not a very sustainable practice. But right now, it does not really exist here on the Left Coast.
With six months lead time (the Food Conference is Dec 25-28, 2008), we are hoping to find a way to make it all work out. How this will happen, I’m not sure. But I’m relieved to have two competent people who volunteered to take this on with me because this non-kosher keeping, non-meat eater has been thinking about meat way too much for her liking lately. Read more »
Thanks to Anthony Silverbrow for this guest post. Silverbrow lives in England and maintains the blog Silverbrow on Food.
Earlier this year, Leah asserted that Great Britain could claim “foodie superiority” over the US thanks to the work of Jamie, Hugh and Gordon. But while television shows are good indicators of the cultural zeitgeist, what interests me is the quality of food and in particular, the quality of kosher food.And it’s there that I believe we in the UK are the laggards. Read more »
The JTA reported that one of the kosher restaurants in Beijing shechted (kosher slaughtered) 7 1/2 tons of beef and 9 tons of chicken in preparation for the kosher Olympics. They also plan to fly in five rabbinical supervisors specifically for the event.
Jokes about Jewish grandmothers being over-prepared aside, just how many Jews can possibly be going to the Olympics?
When a big news story - like say, the Agriprocessors raid - breaks, there’s an immediate storm of “you heard it here first” reports, and “you heard it hear differently, no really!” follow up reports and interviews, as well as a hail storm of commentary from urgent bloggers who mine new story angles, chomp noisily on old ones, and introduce both fact and hearsay into the mix. It’s an urgent, emotion-driven process that wipes away other news headlines, and shouts for readers’ undivided attention.
And then. There’s a pause. A lull like the last few kernels of popcorn smacking against the pot lid, but mostly settling into stillness. Other stories begin to trickle back into public consciousness (”Speaking of underage workers, did you hear about those Chinese gymnasts?”). Activists worry that people have stopped caring. But they haven’t - they are just catching their breath and digesting everything they have read and heard.
It seems that the most recent Agriprocessors story, which started in mid-May after the raid, is beginning to enter its post-pause phase. During this time, articles begin to move beyond the shocking, breaking-news headlines and dig a little deeper into the story’s nuances. These articles are more reflective, and they begin to point to the longer-lasting impact that a story might have on public consciousness. Today’s article in the New York Times, which focuses on the stories of underage immigrants who worked for Agriprocessors, is a good example of a post-pause article - one of others that will undoubtedly begin to surface now that the dust (or maybe feathers?) has cleared.
Read it here or below the jump.
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The JTA reported that an interfaith coalition is planning to demonstrate in Postville this Sunday, July 27. Participating Jewish organizations include The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish Labor Committee, and The Workmen’s Circle. Similar to the Darfur rally in Washington DC, which made waves of a couple years ago, participants will drive and bus in from across the region and country to Postville (with transportation funds supported by Mazon) for the rally. JCUA’s Executive Director, Jane Ramsy said:
There are two targets here. One is a message to the government for comprehensive immigration reform on the one hand, and secondly to Agriprocessors for the permanent implementation of livable wages, health care benefits and worker safety.”
Read the article here.
Imagine you are out on your bike (or running, rock climbing, extreme gardening - whatever you like to do) on a hot day. You’re sweaty and tired, and feeling like you need a boost of energy. The question is, do you reach for a bottle of Gatorade and a squeeze of Power Gu, or are there less expensive, less heavily packaged alternatives? Ok, leading question.
In planning long distance bike rides, Hazon has found it particularly challenging to find kosher-certified sports drinks (who knew this would be such a problem?) that fall in line with our larger food values. But during a typical NY Ride we probably go through about 100 gallons of the stuff! For the last several years, we have used powered Powerade (OU certified) , which we’ve purchased in bulk and mixed with water in big, sturdy coolers. It keeps cyclists happy and at least avoids the plastic bottle pile up. This year, we will probably switch to CLIF’s version (KSA-certified), because powdered Powerade is for some reason harder to come by since the company was purchased by Coca Cola.
For now, and honestly for the sake of convenience, Hazon will stick with the powdered stuff for our bigger rides - but let’s get back to you. There are lots of alternatives for quick homemade power drinks that deliver all the salt and sugar that your body needs after a good sweat without the “tougher-than-thou” image, fake food dyes, or landfill potential.
Here are two recipes to try:
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