A new film is being produced on Haiti’s crisis, its roots and its future.  Hands That Feed has made a short intro video about their project in order to try to raise the necessary funding for the film’s production.  The film will explore questions about what the real problems facing Haiti are, and from the video it’s clear that the recent earthquake was simply an exacerbation of pre-existing problems.

Haiti’s dependence on food aid seems to be an unnecessary and reparable problem.  The film shows how the organization, Nouvelle Vie, is working to empower young people to take back their nation’s food production.  Through education, this program creates sustainable aid that will allow the participants to learn about agriculture and teach it to others.  By employing active solutions on the ground, Nouvelle Vie seeks to help Haiti both recover and grow.

Watch the video and visit the kickstarter website.  In order to get funding for the entire project, the group needs to raise $15,000 by Monday.  If they do not raise the money, all donations will be returned and the project will remain unfunded.  However, a generous donor has offered to independently match the next $2,000 raised, so go check out the site and consider making a donation.

Haiti’s self-determination has been undermined by food aid.  Hatians have been turned into dependents, relying on rich nations for food, when they have everything they need to take back control.  Help this story be told about a new generation of leaders rising up who will create sustainable change.

If you haven’t had a chance to see Food, Inc., carpe diem! PBS recently aired it on POV, television’s oldest showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV has also put the entire film on their site for free viewing for a limited time. It’s only up until April 28, so check it out today!

Cross-posted on From the Ground—the blog of American Jewish World Service (AJWS).

Imagine waking up one morning to find your crops—the food that keeps you alive—completely submerged in water and entirely destroyed. This is exactly what happened along the Sinú River in northern Colombia, a region that has supported a diverse community of indigenous people for generations. The Zenu and Embera people who live by the Sinú banks depend on the river for fish, irrigation and drinking water. But in 2000, the Urrá Dam, built by a consortium of Colombian, Swedish and Russian companies, submerged over 7,400 hectares of land, crops, homes and sacred sites. The dam displaced 2,800 people and continues to threaten the lives of 70,000 by altering vital food supplies. Areas of severe periodic flooding and drought caused by its flow have stymied traditional farming practices. Compounding this reality is the construction of a new dam—many times the size—by the Colombian government, presenting a constant looming threat over this beleaguered rural community.

In response to the radical changes brought about by the dam, a local NGO—Association for Community Development of the Cienaga Grande (ASPROCIG)—is working to restore the ecology and agricultural productivity of the region by helping farmers along the Sinú develop agriculture and aquaculture farms suitable to the changed environment. With AJWS’s support, ASPROCIG-supported farmers are establishing 175 agro-ecological farms in the Lower Sinú region.

Click on the image above to watch a video of how ASPROCIG is developing agro-ecological farming practices in response to dramatic changes in the Colombian landscape.

Visit Fighting Hunger from the Ground Up—a campaign of American Jewish World Service (AJWS)—to learn about other grassroots organizations that are addressing food insecurity in their local communities with creative, sustainable solutions.

Parshat Masei from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

We all do it, but we do it in radically different ways. And with radically different philosophies (for proof, read some of the comments on this very site). And don’t worry, this isn’t a video about how Jews SHOULD eat, it’s about how we do eat, like it or lump it.

Anyway, check it out and let us know what you think.

This video, in honor of Hazon’s Party here in New York with the 92Y Tribeca is pretty cute. But what really caught my eye was just how much food played into it. Food can always be code for identity, but here I found the rapid fire use of mayo (not Jewish), rugelach and bagels and Manashevitz (need I even say, Jewish?), pork (not Jewish) and then the big finale of mayo = shmaltz a pretty funny way of coding the main character’s Jewiness. There are multiple “inappropriate” uses of Jewish foods which mark this little snippet as a Jewish parody of the original. What the original story is here is lost on me and my cultural cluelessness…

I counted 6 uses of iconic Jewish and non-Jewish foods in the 3 minutes 25 seconds of video here…did anyone catch more? And, strangely enough, the symbolic foods of THIS holiday do not appear (really, just Hamentashen. Stay tuned for more thoughts on Hamentashen through the week). Any thoughts on why that might be?

Transforming Kosher Meat in America

Three large meat companies, under the supervision of a few national religious organizations, produce the vast majority of the kosher meat consumed in the United States. These companies slaughter animals in industrial slaughterhouses far removed from major urban centers. The scandal at the Agriprocessors plant in Iowa has forced us to re-examine our modern system of industrial kosher meat production. How do notions of transparency, sustainability, affordability, consumer choice, and ethics fit into our kosher meat production system and whose responsibility is it to determine and enforce these standards? Join some of the most influential players in the world of kosher meat to discuss their visions for the future of kosher meat production in America.

• Naf Hanau moderator
• Rabbi Seth Mandel, Orthodox Union
• Devora Kimelman-Block, KOL Foods
• Rabbi Morris Allen, Hekhsher Tzedek
• Ari Hart, Uri L’Tzedek