In a recent op-ed, Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Journal, read Michael Pollan and calls on Los Angeles synagogues to join Tuv Ha’Aretz:

Meanwhile, a cutting-edge Jewish organization in New York, Hazon, just announced it would expand its program linking synagogues with local, sustainable farms to five congregations across North America and one in Israel in 2007. Through Hazon’s Tuv Ha’aretz program, synagogue members buy shares in a local farm and receive a box of organic produce each week.

“In some locations,” JTA reports, “subscribers must work several days a year on the farm, ensuring that they have not only a direct connection with the farmer who grows their food but the place where the food grows.”

None of the congregations Hazon has signed on is in Los Angeles. I hope a large, local flagship synagogue (or two, or three) joins soon. [emphasis added]

Moderation, gratitude and awareness. The more we can institutionalize those, the stronger we’ll make our connection to kashrut, and to a better world.

[Jewish Journal]