After months of the largest religious party’s membership waffling on participation in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coaltion - on issues as divisive as partitioning Jerusalem and a ceasefire with Hamas - Olmert might find his coalition collapsing over an unexpected blindside: matzah.

As the Forward reports, a landmark ruling by the Israeli court system abrogated a law illegalizing the sale of leavened bread during Pesach (NY Times article from 2001 on the chametz police here). The ruling cited that restuarants and stores are private property and thus not violating any “public display” of bread.

But further, the judge ruled that “Hametz prohibitions as they are outlined in the Halacha,” are not relevant. The secular law only prevents the display of goods that look like bread, such as “bread, rolls and pitas.”

Needless to say, the ultra-Orthodox are pissed. Read more »

Here are three newsy bites for your Friday reading enjoyment. The first is about the ongoing meat recall crisis, the second about the (also ongoing) Agriprocessors saga, and the third about the disappearance of Tam Tam crackers. (Okay, maybe I used the word “enjoyment” a bit too soon…but certainly food for thought.)

Rotten Meat. The Meat & Poultry Business Journal reported that, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering a proposal to not identify retailers where meat cited in recalls was sold except in cases of potential serious health risks to consumers.” Already, the report says, stores are required to remove recalled meat from shelves, but not obligated to alert customers about the recall. Read the full story here.

AgriProcessors fined $180,000 - The Forward reported that the controversial kosher meat company, AgriProcessors was fined over $180,000 by the state of Iowa’s Division of Labor for, “failure to provide workers with proper safety training, insufficient programs to manage blood-born pathogens and a failure to label toxic chemicals.” AgriProcessors denies many of the citations. Get the story here.

Where’s the Matzah? The New York Times City Blog reported the sad truth this week: Because of a technological glitch, Tam Tams Crackers (the beloved unleavened snack cracker) will be all but extinct this Passover season. (hat tip to Jewschool) In equally distressing news, Streit’s Matzo factory is closing down - shut out by rising rents on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where the family-owned business has churned out Matzah for the last century. Like many New York residents who can’t take the rent hike, Streit’s is moving to New Jersey. Read the Streit’s story here.

(x-posted at All Voices)

The AP reported this week that inmates in Vermont prisons are suing the Vermont Prison System for cruel and unusual punishment: disgusting dinner food.

Instead of the processed meat and cheese-heavy dinners served throughout most of America’s prison system, the worst offenders in Vermont (particularly those inmates with a history of disruptive and dangerous behavior at meal times) are served Nutraloaf: a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes.

The prison system argues that the “square meal” is nutritionally complete. More importantly, because it can be served without utensils or trays, it doubles as an effective tool for behavior control. Speaking about Nutraloaf, Vermont Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said:

Read more »

Here’s the newest “kosher meat industry article” from Nathaniel Popper over at The Forward.  This time he covers Israel’s South American meat fetish - as in South America where he reports that most cows are killed using the controversial “shackle and hoist” slaughter method that is largely banned in the US.  (In comparison, the folks at Agriprocessors are given a relative ”kudos” by PETA for using alternative methods.)

Is anyone else just getting bored by our (meaning Jews, meaning Americans, meaning Israelis etc.) collective ignorance and/or defiance about how the animals that give their lives to feed us are treated?  Also, is anyone else kind of shocked - and I learned this in the article - that Congress passed a Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act in the early 20th century?  I imagine it must have been Upton Sinclair fallout (let me know if you know otherwise), but considering the state of things today, what a joke!

Widespread Slaughter Method Scrutinized for Alleged Cruelty
The Forward 
By: Nathaniel Popper 

Read more »

 What is it about Jews and Chinese food?This oddly-passionate obsession has inspired scholarly dissertations,  cookbooks, multi-cultural festivals, and even affected international relations [this last link, btw, about Asian chefs in Israel going on an eggroll strike over the elimination of foreign worker permits, is worth a trip to Jewschool to read in its entirety]!

So when this article appeared recently in the NYTimes about the history of the fortune cookie, I immediately thought, “hmmm…what’s the Jewish connection?” The answer? The long Jewish tradition of bibliophagy (eating the written word). Find interesting examples of Jewish bibliophagy after the jump:

Read more »

Last summer, the British rock band Radiohead made waves by selling their new album, In Rainbows, on a pay what you can basis.

Now, a vegetarian restauranteur is taking this model to the food world, selling meat-free, globally-inspired cuisine to customers - for whatever they think is “fair” - at his non-profit eatery, Lentil as Anything, and a local college cafe.

Some customers are completely thrown by the concept, and continue to ask for prices at the counter, but others see it as a chance to give back to their community. Owner Shanaka Fernando said the most a customer ever paid for a lentil burger was $50. “There must have been something in it that I didn’t see,” he said.

What do you think - is this an inspired idea, or totally nuts? I’m not sure yet, but I do already have a name in mind for the potential kosher, vegetarian spinoff: Abraham’s Tent.

Read the full article about the restaurant and school eatery here.

I’ve already posted once today, so sorry for double-dipping, but this is worth posting ASAP:

From the JTS press release:

Dr. David Kraemer, the author of Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages [and 2006 Hazon Food Conference Keynote Speaker], will discuss “Jewish Eating and Jewish Identity” at The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Henry N. Rapaport Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 4, 2008. The event will take place at JTS, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City.

Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages is the first book ever to explore the history of Jewish eating practices from the Bible to the present, and the first to interpret Jewish eating practices throughout the ages as keys to understanding current Jewish identities.

This week, the Winnipeg Free Press reported yet another scandal in the kosher food industry - this time focusing on the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp.  According to the article, the company sold kosher-certified fish products that had sloppy-at-best supervision throughout the 1990s:

“The FFMC is the largest North American supplier of fish minced to produce kosher fish called “gefilte fish…”  To be OU certified, the FFMC employed a rabbi to supervise the processing and cleaning required for the kosher certification…But according to information obtained from employees at FFMC, the rabbi was often derelict in his duties and management knew it.While he was required to observe the production line at all times, he spent a great deal of time in an office on a computer, or was simply absent….He was obliged to make sure that only fish with fins and scales were being processed, that species like burbot and catfish were not in the mix. Allowing a catfish into the mix would be as offensive to Jews as dropping pork into ground beef would be to Muslims.

Honestly, as I read about this latest transgression - I felt anything but shocked.

Read more »

There was a disturbing story in the Times today about the alarmingly high level of mercury in both store-bought and restaurant-served sushi-grade tuna. How is it possible that no government agency tests for mercury in our country’s seafood, when even the FDA and EPA have issued warning advisories about the consumption of certain fish that are known to contain unsafe levels of this industrial pollutant?

While it might be fun for my three-year-old son to color in this page from his “Jewish Activity Book (!):

…maybe I should just substitute a page with Joe Camel smoking a cigarette, which would be no more toxic?

The good news for fish-eating Jews everywhere is that there are sustainable seafood choices out there, including smaller fish found lower on the food chain (but just as high up on the kiddush buffet line), which are not only safer in terms of mercury levels, but very high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. So dig into those herring, sardines and anchovies, everyone!

Apparently China is now trying to tap the lucrative kosher market. A story on Bloomberg.com (thanks, Dad, for the tip) leads off like this:

Chinese exporters, facing a U.S. backlash over tainted food products, are turning to an unlikely group of inspectors to help clean up their act: Jewish rabbis.

While the whole story is rather humorous, I can only ask this question after reading the lead: What other kind of rabbis are there?

Find the full story here.

After a week of rather distressing food news - the FDA approving cloned animals as “safe” for consumption and Starbucks going back on their comittment to serve organic milk to customers - here’s something a bit happier to end the week with, right in time for Shabbat.  From today’s New York Times Business section:

“After an outcry from consumers, Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Department has backed off its plan to ban milk-container labels stating that the milk comes from cows not treated with bovine growth hormone.  On Thursday, the state issued new guidelines that required that the labels not be misleading and that there be a paper trail to verify the claims.

For instance, a label cannot read “No BST,” which is short for bovine somatotropin, since the hormone occurs naturally in cows. A dairy can, however, label its milk as coming “from cows not treated with rBST” — for recombinant bovine somatotropin, the synthetic version — as long as a disclaimer is included that says that “No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.” (A dairy can preface the disclaimer with “The F.D.A. says.”)

The decision was hailed by some dairies and consumer groups, who had complained that the planned ban disregarded consumer demand.”

One small step for consumer rights - and after a week like this we’ll take what we can get.  Shabbat shalom!

Read the full article here.

As a staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, I was appalled that the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cloned animals for use in our food today. I have to ask, “who does our federal government protect? How can they allow this into the food system without facts showing it is safe and without any labeling or public disclosure requirements?” As a Jew, it makes me ask other questions: “Will this be allowed in kosher milk? Kosher meat? What do our rabbis think? What about the eco-kosher movement?”

FDA Approves Cloned Animals for Our Food

Today’s FDA decision was a long-awaited regulatory assessment of cloned animals, proclaiming that food from cloned animals are just as safe as food from naturally raised animals. (See FDA on Cloning) And while the FDA did not address whether cloned milk and meat is kosher, they did decide today that it is safe for Americans to eat.

The FDA made this decision in the worst way possible. FDA based its decision on an incomplete and flawed review that relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force this cloning technology on American consumers. Biotechnology companies such as ViaGen provided FDA with the “science” in this case. There are no peer reviewed studies showing that this stuff is safe for us to eat.

Read more »

Thanks to The Jew & The Carrot contributor, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, for his great article “Thinking Outside the Bun,” in The New Jersey Jewish News.  Read the article here and see the full text below.

Also - check out The Jew & The Carrot’s new “Jcarrot in the News” page.

Thinking Outside the Bun
By: Jeffrey Yoskowitz
New Jersey Jewish Week
12.20.07

I just ate a kosher Whopper from Burger King in Tel Aviv on a soggy, white sesame seed bun that oozed with mayonnaise, tasteless pickles, subpar mustard, and wilted lettuce. I made sure to add an extra packet of ketchup to enhance the flavors of the meat patty.

Israel was ahead in terms of kosher fast food, but the United States is catching up. A kosher Subway has opened in Livingston, one of 15 kosher Subways expected to open this year throughout the United States.

When large corporations take an interest in kosher food, the Jewish community responds with jubilation, a sense of triumph, and an opening of their wallets. More exciting than the typical Jewish products (read: anything made by Manischewitz or Streits) are American products that go kosher.

Read more »

So maybe they did stop their covert nuclear activities almost five years ago, but now there’s a chance that we’re supporting the axis-of-evil with our choice of snack:

World Briefing | Middle East
Israel: The Hunt for Illegal Nuts

Published: November 22, 2007

Israel has asked the United States for help in cracking down on illegal pistachio nut imports from Iran, an official said, after Washington warned that the trade was hurting efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Israel imports pistachios worth $26 million annually, mostly from Turkey. But Washington says nuts from Iran are mixed in with the shipments, undermining economic sanctions meant to force Iran to stop developing its nuclear abilities. An Agriculture Ministry official said Israel was willing to help but, as in the past, the problem was how to figure out the nuts’ origin.

A much more adversarial description of this exchange can be found here.

Fear not, gentle readers - if you want your eating to contribute to peace, love, and understanding, enter the Build a Sustainable Gingerbread House competition over at Bake for Change.

And about those pistachios…maybe we should just start a nougat for nukes exchange program .