A few days ago, I wondered whether my family was adventurous enough to try fennel matzoh balls.

Today’s lead story in the food section of the San Francisco Chronicle features young Jews who have no qualms about tweaking original Passover favorites, with what sound like delicious results. You can read the story here.

j. Weekly, the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, features Hazon’s own Zelig Golden and Emily Freed in its cover story about young Jewish environmentalists.

Golden is an alumni of the Adamah program and serving as co-chair for Hazon’s Food Conference in 2008. (According to the article, he also makes a mean pickle martini — okay, I confess, I was the one who told that to the reporter, after Zelig made me one at my birthday Shabbos dinner earlier this year). Freed (whom, the article says, had her first candy bar at the age of 12!) is on the executive committee of the 2008 food conference, working to obtain food from local farms. And Jon Rosenfield, who is also featured in the article, will no doubt be at the Food Conference, we just don’t know what he’ll be doing yet.

You can read the full article here.

Here’s the newest article about kosher, ethical meat…this one I wrote for American Jewish Life  (Those of you who read this blog religiously might already be well-versed on the subject - but for the non ethical food-obsessed Jews out there, it’s definitely still hot news.)

Conscious Carving
American Jewish Life
By: Leah Koenig
February 25, 2008

Early on a Friday morning this past December, 70 Jews gathered in a frost-covered field in rural Connecticut. Some of them huddled in small groups, talking in hushed tones and blowing on their frozen fingers. Others stood at a distance, quiet with thought. They were all there for one reason — to witness three goats being slaughtered for meat, in accordance with Jewish law.

No, these people were not part of some underground Jewish cult. They were attendees of a food conference hosted by the New York-based non-profit, Hazon (which, for full disclosure, is my employer). The purpose of the ritual slaughtering, was to “enable people to have a more direct understanding of where kosher meat comes from,” said Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel Savage. In this case, it would be the same meat that many of the participants would eat that night for dinner.

Read more »

From this week’s New York Jewish Week:

Can You Be A Kosher Locavore?
by Sandee Brawarsky
Published on: Feb 5, 2008

‘Locavore” is 2007’s Word of the Year, as anointed by the Oxford American Dictionary. The word refers to someone who makes an effort to use locally grown ingredients. More than a word, it’s a collaborative movement, encouraging people to buy their food from farmers’ markets or grow their own, with the aim of eating healthier, supporting local farmers and avoiding the great costs of fuel in shipping foods long distance.   

Locavores — some of whom set a 100-mile radius to define local — may be environmentalists, food lovers who appreciate a challenge, health conscious cooks, novice and veteran farmers, for those with a spiritual bent who want to be aware of what they’re eating and where it comes from. But locavores who are both urban and kosher face particular challenges, especially in New York City in mid-winter.

Read more »

An article in the San Francisco magazine this month discusses “eco-worriers” – people who can hardly make it through the day because the polar bears are drowning. In fact, there are now eco-therapists who specialize in dealing with people who feel guilty and anxious—simply for doing things they have to do to live in a city, like turn on lights. For some, it’s just never enough. One woman, who walks to work and buys local produce,

“still gets plenty of ribbing when someone learns that she eats meat (once a month) or drives a car (a Toyota that gets 37 miles per gallon). “People get really pissed off and tell me I’m not going far enough. I want to say, ‘What do you mean, far enough? Do you want me to kill myself so I don’t produce any greenhouse gas, except for the methane I produce when I decompose?’”

The article suggests that in San Francisco, where people are so ecologically minded (ie — check out this article about supermarkets in today’s Chronicle), it’s almost a question of theological faith: when you worship the earth, and draw strength and meaning from your relationship to it, what do you do when your god, your earth mother, is sick – under siege – dying?

Perhaps the deepest reason for our distress is that we don’t just love Mother Nature—we worship her. In places like the Bible Belt, where the End of Days is not necessarily viewed as a bad thing, some might see the coming apocalypse—if they even believe it’s coming—as God’s will, and they take comfort in that. To them, our existential panic about snowless winters and 120-degree summers must seem almost meaningless. Yet in the Bay Area, where environmentalism is practically its own religion, global warming isn’t just killing the world, it’s also killing the thing we look to for inspiration and solace—in effect, our God. What are we supposed to do with that? What is the outlet for all our fury and sadness and fear?

Read more »

Not too long ago, I posted here asking what Michael Pollan would do in a given situation. Today’s Chronicle asks the same question. It’s the lead article in the food section, complete with *huge* photos of Pollan and his son Isaac cooking, and then eating, lunch.

Among the interesting tidbits: that his next article is about orchid sex, and that he’s a little bit tired of talking about food.

Lately the conversation amongst my foodie friends has gone something like this:

Friend 1: “Sustainable food is all the rage right now.  It’s amazing that so many people are talking and writing about it!”
Friend 2: “That’s true, but how long do you think it will last?  What if it’s just a fad?”

Whether Americans’ current obsession with all foods local and healthy will continue, dwindle, or change shape remains to be seen.  For now, we think 2008 is off to a great start with three  articles written about Hazon’s food work in the last week.

In Hadassah Magazine, Adeena Sussman writes about Tu B’shevat or (Tu Bishvat, as I’ve been scolded into writing even though it looks funny), Tuv Ha’Aretz and Community-Supported Agriculture, and organic kosher meat.  Read it here. 

The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles reports about how Tuv Ha’Aretz’s new LA location at Sinai Temple is bringing local, organic flavor to Southern California.  Read it here.

Houston’s Examiner News also spreads the Jewish CSA gospel with an article on Tuv Ha’Aretz happenings at the JCC in Houston.  Read it here.

So what do you predict?  Will sustainable food stay hot in 2008, or are we destined to be eating out of cans again by the end of the year?

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 »

The San Francisco Chronicle’s dining section has been doing an occasional series called “Food Conscious” that has addressed many of the same issues found here on “The Jew and the Carrot.”

Today’s installment is about the numerous studies that are beginning to prove what proponents of organics have hoped for (or known)  all along, that the food is often more nutritious. Read the article here.

This year, Black Friday was significantly lightened by more news on the ethical, kosher meat front (and more shoutouts to Hazon, Kosher Conscience, and The Jew & The Carrot) - this time in the Wall Street Journal by long-time Hazon friend and journalist-extraordinaire, Julie Wiener.  Read the article below and find the original text here.

Wall Street Journal
How Kosher Was Your Turkey?
Some Jews demand better treatment for birds.
BY JULIE WIENER
Friday, November 23, 2007

Yesterday, 24 New York City households served turkeys that were not only free-range, organic and raised on a nearby family farm–but also 100% kosher. For that, their guests can give thanks to Simon Feil, a 31-year-old actor who has devoted the past 1 1/2 years to starting Kosher Conscience, a “kosher ethical meat co-op.” The co-op, which 90 people have expressed interest in joining when it begins regular poultry and beef deliveries in a few months, will offer kosher meat that has been treated humanely “at every stage,” he says.

Judaism’s taboos on pork and shellfish, as well as the requirement to separate meat and dairy products, are well known even among gentiles. Yet for many contemporary American Jews the taboos can feel arbitrary, cumbersome and devoid of meaning (only 17% say they keep kosher homes). At the same time, some Jews who do find spiritual meaning in the dietary laws have become frustrated that kosher food production does not always reflect their values.

Read more »

On the eve of Thanksgiving, The Jewish Daily Forward (which just this week ran the controversial “Kosher Food Safety Alert” ad) published an article I’m truly grateful for: Kosher Activists Strive To Slaughter With a Conscience. Below is the article in full, which gives shoutouts to Hazon, The Jew & The Carrot, Kosher Conscience, and Heeb n’ Vegan and - more importantly - is one more, very public indicator that the demand for ethical, kosher products is on the rise.

Kosher Activists Strive To Slaughter With a Conscience
Nathaniel Popper
November 21, 2007
The Jewish Daily Forward

After 18 months of planning, New York’s new kosher meat cooperative slaughtered its first animals this week, just in time for Thanksgiving.

It took the founder of Kosher Conscience, Simon Feil, many months to find a shochet, or Jewish ritual slaughterer, who could do the job, and then Feil needed to find a flock of free-range heirloom breed turkeys. But he was not content to deal only with the logistics. When the first turkey went under the knife, Feil was there to cradle it in his arms — feeling the “solemn experience,” as he put it, of life leaving a body.

“It was an emotional day, and I’m still trying to process all the reactions I had to it,” Feil said a few hours after the first turkeys were slaughtered. “You really watch something that is a living creature turn into meat.”

Read more »

The Oxford American Dictionary just announced its word of the year and it’s more than relevant to us all at The Jew and the Carrot. The most important new word for 2007 is: LOCAVORE. Even a more prescriptivist dictionary like Oxford has recognized the new local movement and the importance of a diet based on locally harvested foods. The New York Times covered this story. According to the Times’ Mike Nizza, “The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.” Nizza detailed a bit about the movement’s history up until the coining of the word of the year by Jessica Prentice of San Fransisco in 2005.

The runner-up for the word of the year was “tase,” as in to stun someone with a taser or stun gun.

Ever wondered what eco-Judaism sounds like from a woman’s perspective? Think it’s all a bunch of spiritual, hippy-dippy hoo hah? Okay, that might be part of it - but it turns out, there’s a wider world of female, Jewish environmentalists out there than you may have expected.

Lilith Magazine’s latest issue features a section called “Women take on the Environment.” Hear first hand from seven women: “Leagle Eagle” Tzipi Iser Itzik, “Frying-Pan Bodhisattva” Betsy Teutsch, “Veggie Pioneer” Dr. Roberta Kalechofsky, “Outdoor Educator” Nili Simhai, “Activist/Executive” Barbara Lerman-Golomb, me as the offical “Blogmesiter,” and The Jew & The Carrot’s very own hard core “truck farmer,” Esther Mandelheim, as they discuss their own journeys - as Jews, as women, and as guardians of the earth.

Read the Lilith article here.

On UJC’s podcasts web page, Nigel moderates a panel discussion about the new jewish food movement featuring Simon Feil, Leah Koenig, Linda Lantos, and Lisa Kleinman. Download it here!