Just one short day after Blog Action Day, is World Food Day, an annual celebration of The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The theme this year (and shouldn’t it really be every year?) is The Right to Food.
I was struck by how the FAO’s framing of The Right to Food feels so akin to the Jewish obligation of tzedakah, which is often translated incompletely as “charity,” but actually comes from the root meaning “justice:”
“The Right to Food is the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life. It is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed. With more than 850 million people still deprived of enough food, the Right to Food is not just economically, morally and politically imperative - it is also a legal obligation.”
In celebration of World Food Day, here are four resources for you to check out - an inspiring article by food activists, Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe, and three Jewish organizations that are working towards food justice.
Last month, I had a great time at the Alternative Energy Festival run by the Beacon Sloop Club, an affiliate of the Clearwater organization. The club has done wonders in rehabilitating the waterfront area, and bringing environmental education and progressive culture to the city.
Pete Seeger himself has been a hard-working member of the club from the beginning, and his commitment to the Hudson river has been remarkable and unwavering over many years, and it is always a delight to see him there. I came to sing, and to demonstrate the ‘Veggie Voyager’, my vegetable oil-powered van.
After my concert, I wandered around the well organized, dockside Beacon Farmer’s Market (with lots of sustainably grown food) that runs there every Sunday.
There I met Seth Aaron, a student from the Newburgh Free Academy, and part of the winning team in the 12th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge, a national competition. They drove from Texas to NY in July, and tied for first place with a team from Missouri. That qualifies them to go on to the world championship in Australia. The car itself, dubbed the ‘Sol Machine’, is actually made of Kevlar, a welded titanium frame and solar panels that charge the battery. It can go up to 50 mph. The car’s parts total more than $50,000.
In my next post, I’ll be talking with Seth about his culinary experience on the trip.
Days after Yom Kippur and it is already happening again: another pork establishment in Israel was set on fire. Ynet reported the news, though they have yet to report for sure whether or not the arsonist was an ultra-Orthodox Jew; nevertheless, this is just one of many recent related attacks and one more part of the ongoing battle over pork in Israel (see Ben Murane’s post on such battles in Netanya).
I just arrived in Israel one day before Yom Kippur and will be here for the year exclusively researching pork in Israel. I am specifically analyzing the tension between religious and secular Israelis, and am interested in how certain Israelis raise and eat pork as a form of political and cultural protest. It is still illegal to raise pigs on Jewish land, though through a series of loopholes, a few kibbutzim have emerged as major producers of Israel-raised pork products. I’ve been following this topic very closely and when attacks like this most recent one occur, I take notice . . . and feel surprisingly conflicted. Read more »
Leadership of the JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs) will be participating in the now-famous Food Stamp Challenge during the Days of Awe period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Sept. 14th-21st).
Executive Director Rabbi Steve Gutow and JCPA Chair Lois Frank will stick to the $1 per meal or $21/week budget of an average food stamp recipient, as part of the organization’s new Anti-Poverty Campaign, to highlight the connections between Jewish teachings surrounding poverty and the current Food Stamp reauthorization component of the Farm Bill.
JCRC leadership and Jewish communities around the country are being encouraged to also ”Take the Challenge,” coinciding with the Locavores’ September Local Food Challenge. Do any of us dare to take the double challenge? I think this would result in nearly an 11-day long Yom Kippur fast, or perhaps subsistance only on apples, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and the remains of nectarines and melon.
Ideally, an organized Jewish participation in the Food Stamp Challenge, including Rabbis and other national Jewish leaders, could have an impact on federal legislation, if it is publicized appropriately for advocacy. Hopefully, continued action surrounding Food Stamps will have an impact on the Farm Bill, which has yet to pass out of the Senate Agriculture Committee (expected in mid-October).
Local food is on the “back to school” shopping list for many colleges and universities across the country. Yale, Brown, Middlebury, and University of California Davis are just a handful of the institutions of higher education that have started sourcing some dining hall fare from regional farmers and even supplementing their menus with produce from student-run organic farms.
But Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA has moved one step beyond the sustainable food trend. Starting this fall, F&M will partner with food services behemoth Sodexho to offer kosher, organic food to all students on their meal plan. According to a press release from the school’s Office of College Communications:
“The program, featuring a Kosher, international, vegan/vegetarian, organic (KIVO) menu, will be offered to the entire College community in the Benjamin Franklin Dining Hall…In addition, the KIVO plan will be Star Kosher certified - all products that are served will meet Kosher dietary law, and the program will be subject to strict rabbinical supervision and employ a full-time, on-site manager that is trained and certified in Kosher dietary practices.”
Read more »
The secret to the feminist revolution is in a vegan cupcake.
Brooklyn born, Isa Moskowitz, is the founder and co-host of the Post Punk Kitchen, a public access cooking show that features recipes like sushi, coconut cream pie, and matzoh ball soup, all sans meat, dairy, eggs, honey, and other animal products.”
Despite its niche focus, PPK became a hit, and Moskowitz has enjoyed the attention of animal-welfare magazines like Satya, as well as slightly more, ahem, mainstream publications (e.g. The Washington Post and The New York Times). Building on PPK’s success, Moskowitz and her co-host Terry Hope Romero launched a website with a recipe archive and an almost unbelievably active forum that connects ostracized pink-haired teenagers and vegan feminists from around the globe. The website claims: “All we believe in is punk rock and tofu.” Cute, but I have to wonder what Ms. Moskowitz thinks of all the food miles her heavily-processed tofu products have traveled….
Read the full post over at Lilith Magazine’s blog where I write about women and food.
Photo of the pistachio rosewater cupcake originally from the: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Blog
Rabbi Morris Allen has served Congregation Beth Jacob outside of St. Paul, Minnesota for 22 years. In his “spare time,” he is also the founder of Hechsher Tzedek – a proposed certification put forward by the Conservative movement last December that would endorse foods that are traditionally kosher and also produced in a socially just and sustainable way.
Hecsher Tzedek has received significant acclaim, and also sharp criticism since the idea was piloted eight months ago. I spoke with Rabbi Allen recently to find out the latest news.
“Kashrut is not simply a statement about what we can and cannot eat,” Rabbi Allen told me. “There are so many people who worry about whether a cow’s lung is smooth [glatt] or not, but have no worry about whether someone’s hand was mutilated in the process.”
After my goose bumps subsided, I asked him what this vision looked like in practice. He identified six criteria that will be the “meat and potatoes” of Hechsher Tzedek as it develops:
Read more »
Hazon’s mission is to foster a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Our programs are focused around two pillars: bikes (and physical health more broadly) and food.
So I was very excited to find out about two upcoming bicycle rides that are focused entirely around food:
Tour de Blintz: Visit Greater Vancouver’s Jewish restaurants, delis and bakeries - by bicycle! Guided tours available Aug 12, 19, and 26. A self-guided version will be available Aug 31. The August 12 and 19 tours will be all kosher. More info / register here.
Tour d’Organics: Ride from one organic, family farm to the next, enjoying the beautiful scenery and delicious fresh produce along the way. (What could be better than riding 25 miles to be greeted at a rest stop by a fresh, juicy peach?) Rides include: Santa Cruz, Aug 25, Sebastopol, CA, Sept 16, and Portland, OR, Oct 6. More info / register here.
If you know of any other food focused bike rides, comment below or send them to tips@jcarrot.org
The Center for a New American Dream recently launched a sustainable - and tasty - campaign. Carbon Conscious Consumer (C3) “challenges individuals to establish climate-friendly daily habits and inspire their friends to do the same. Participants who most creatively and effectively spread the word will win prizes including:
Grand Prize: An eco-friendly landscape design package valued at over $6000 from Jim Pollack Design
Second Prize: A gas grill valued at $400
Third Prize: A package of goods from Patagonia valued at $100
July’s challenge is to buy 1 pound of locally grown food a week. Future challenges include downshifting driving, ditching junk mail, breaking the bottled water habit, green cleaning products, and using sustainable bags instead of plastic.
Find out more and take the pledge here.
Have you ever wondered how to make grape jelly? Even if you haven’t - check out this great video by The Jew and the Carrot reader, Becki Kasoff from Texas. The video, which is posted on her blog, “In My Backyard,” features her son Josh making Mustang Grape jelly, start to finish.
Becki writes, “Every time we look at our harvest for the year, we must say, Borei Pri Hagafen!”
Thanks Becki, for sharing this example of how your family celebrates cooking, food, and Jewish tradition. The Jew and the Carrot readers are invited to share their family food traditions, recipes, and videos at tips@jcarrot.org.
Check out this video news from The Washington Post about Congregation Tifereth Israel’s offering kosher, organic meat in the DC area. Devora Kimmelman-Block is a mom and sustainable agriculture fan who is also Hazon’s Tuv Ha’Aretz Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) site coordinator for the congregation as well. Check out her interview on Hazon’s web page here!
And now, the winner for the nifty-est thing ever award: New York Sun Works, The Science Barge!
It floats, it educates - it grows hydroponic vegetables, irrigated by rainwater and purified river water. From NY Sun Works’ website:
“More than half the world’s population now live in cities. Delivering food to them requires a transportation system that pollutes the air and water. Conventional farms use a lot of water, and fertilizers pollute streams and rivers. Traditional energy plants contribute to air pollution and global warming. If cities can produce some of their own food, energy, and water then this burden will be lighter. In a changing climate, food supplies will become unsecure in certain parts of the world. Urban agriculture protects people while it protects the environment.
The Science Barge is a sustainable urban farm designed by New York Sun Works, an environmental nonprofit organization. The Science Barge tours New York City’s public waterfront parks, offering sustainability education programs to wide audiences.”
Thanks to Sarah Rose for the tip. If you know of any other amazing food projects around the country (or the globe) send an email to tips@jcarrot.org.
Check out these great excerpts from a photo essay entitled, What the World Eats, from the book, Hungry Planet, by photographer (and fellow tribesman?) Peter Menzel.
And if you’re ever confused about what blessing to say when encountering a new food, you can use this new handy gadget, from The Jewish Learning Group!
I just finished reading this article in today’s Chronicle, and immediately had to post it. What a great idea to get urban kids interested not only in sustainable agriculture, but how they should be feeding themselves. Check it out.
