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.

Thanks to Jonathan Bloom for this series of photos. Jonathan is writing a book on wasted food in America. He became interested in the topic after a day volunteering at D.C. Central Kitchen. Seeing the truckloads of rescued food that would otherwise have gone to landfills made him wonder how much edible food does slip through the cracks.

As a journalist, Bloom set out to learn why and how Americans waste more than 40% of the food produced for consumption. He started a blog dedicated to the topic and worked at a grocery store, farm and catering company to better understand the problem.

The photos below depict the incredible amount of food wasted in America, and also some hopeful examples of food recovery.

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Related to an earlier post regarding bottled water, evangelical-type eco-warriors are known to say that all sorts of things are bad for us — frequently because our awareness about what is safe and unsafe lie on the many unexamined habits and practices that we don’t examine closely. Scientific study to prove one way or the other frequently is barely keeping up — or ineffectively communicated to the public. But of all the horrors, just as bottled water is bad for Ha’Olam, now our beloved Nalgene bottles are bad too?? How??

A little bit of internet research is useful, categorized here in brief.

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By the numbers, from Time Magazine:

• 1.1 billion - people around the world that the U.N. estimates that lack safe drinking water, a number that could reach 5 billion by 2025
• 8.25 billion - gallons of bottled water Americans drank in 2006, a 9.5% increase from the year before.
• $10.8 billion - water sales last year — all for something you can get virtually free.
• 4,000 - tons of CO2 generated each year — the equivalent of the emissions of 700 cars — by importing bottled water from Fiji, France and Italy, three of the biggest suppliers to the U.S.
• Less than 25% - percent of water bottles recycled, leaving 2 billion lbs. a year to clog landfills.

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Once, a man came to his rabbi and said, “Rabbi, at home I keep strictly kosher. I do everything by the book, but when I go out, I can’t be so kosher. I’m not so strict when I eat out, but at home everything is 100% kosher.” The man’s rabbi replied, “Ok, you’re very lucky, all of your dishes will go straight to heaven!”

I’d like to turn this old joke on its head for a moment. We’re here at this site because we care about our food’s impact on our bodies, our community and our planet. Many of us consider the choices we make as conscious consumers to be “eco-kosher.” That is, we want our food to be “fit” (ethically, chemically, socially, spiritually) for consumption, and we try to base our purchasing decisions on these values.

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In less than three weeks we will celebrate our son Shlomo’s Bar Mitzva, G-d willing. Those of you who have had the privilege of meeting him know that underneath the black hat, fringes and payos (sidecurls) he is one cool kid – into farming, animals (he raised the first flock of laying hens for Isabella Freedman/ADAMAH), woodworking, sustainable building and even a bit of WalMart and corporate America bashing once he gets going! Read more »

Water is strolling the red carpet a lot these days, from concerns about overhydration, Dead Sea water levels, and access to fresh water, among other things. Today’s Times article, “The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration,” illustrates another aspect of water’s newfound popularity. It traces concerns, from the late 60s, over the development of “bottle bill” programs that reward bottle recycling.

The article’s author, Jon Mooallem, emphasizes the complexities in the debate over bottle bills as well as the major players on both sides of the debate. New York State has taken significant steps in addressing the issues of water bottle recycling.

This year, the Bigger Better Bottle Bill campaign in New York is making its sixth attempt to redirect those unclaimed deposits — estimated at $100 million each year — into a state environmental fund.

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There’s a spectacularly successful genre in publishing, the pilgrimage/immersion first person. My favorites, “I was a miserable 20-something and cooked my way through Julia Child” (Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell), and “I was a miserable divorcee and traveled the world.” (Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert) Variations include, reading the encyclopedia or living biblically, and the forthcoming “Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Man Alive” by this gorgeous genius.

I love a good quest. I have cooked entirely round meals. In every category of clothing - shirt, shoes, socks, etc. - I own at least one item that is crossing-guard orange. I think these narratives amount to a healthy kind of OCD. They can give shape to our lives.

In the past week, the NYTimes has treated us to two previews of the next addition to the library: my year of living locally and conscientiously. Sub-headlined “The Year Without Toilet Paper,” the book will soon be known as “No Impact,” from venerable publisher FSG.

Bleccch.

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Many, many years ago, my father and mother took their first ever trip to Las Vegas. They were returning to their room after breakfast, and a waiter was in the elevator, with a room service cart…and on the tray with their food was a bottle of Scotch.
My mom, never one to keep things to herself, exclaimed “Scotch for breakfast?”
Without missing a beat, the waiter looked up, and said, “Lady…first time in Vegas?”

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Many of us have often marveled at the onion-like layers of packaging around our smallest deli sandwiches. But unlike onion skins, we know we they won’t really biodegrade. In fact:

• Almost 1/3 of the waste generated in the U.S. is from packaging
• Plastics will take 1000 years to decompose
• The U.S. population tosses out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times
• Paper comes from trees, plastic comes for oil (petroleum). To obtain both paper and plastic worldwide forests are being contaminated and destroyed

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