My involvement in Hazon’s recent food work has opened me up to a whole new world of environmental and food issues and have given me a lot of “food for thought,” pardon the pun, as to how I can better my eating habits and thinking about how the food I eat gets to my table. As an orthodox Jew involved in mycommunity, environmental issues haven’t been strongly highlighted during my upbringing. However, changes are taking place in orthodox thought and I am happy to see more awareness and attention given to them.

It’s still fascinating, though, how people are genuinely intrigued to learn about CSA’s, Fast Food Nation, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It has happened to me on more than one occasion where I will be at shabbos meal with new people in my community and when asked what I do professionally, I start explaining what Hazon does. When I begin to explain about the concept of CSA’s with a Jewish twist (since I was a proud member of the Washington Heights CSA this season!) and about the various insights that have stuck with me, I realize that not only are my listeners very interested in these new ideas, but I am also very passionate about what I am saying as well! Whether it is about supporting local agriculture and decreasing the amount of fuel wasted to ship produce across the world, or the quality of eggs from Polyface farm due to the natural internal eco-system the farmer created which Michael Pollan describes, or how corrupt the meatpacking industry is in this country as highlighted by Eric Schlosser… I think since Jews are attracted to food (hey, we like to eat!) hearing about these insights catches their attention.

However, the ongoing challenge is getting these ideas to stick with my listeners past the shabbos table so it creeps up on them on their next food shopping outing. People think these are powerful insights into the food industry, as I’ve seen in their amazement and keen curiosity when we discuss these issues, but they leave it to self-described “activists” to make changes to the current system.

Or, they think that these aren’t necessarily deeply-rooted Jewish concepts and therefore don’t realize how healthier practices can be applied to their lives. They say, “If there are sick and poor children in Israel, why should it matter to me if my coffee was grown in South America by a farmer who got pennies for his crop, or if I buy non-organic eggs that are cheaper?” As someone involved in this culture and sympathetic to those children in Israel as well, these decisions aren’t mutually exclusive.

We can make small changes in our daily lives that can have ripple effects on other people in our communities. Hey, it’d be cool to have weekly visits to a farmer’s market for our shabbos shopping!