This year The Covenant Foundation made it possible for all members of our Jewish Food Education Network, JFEN, to attend the entire Food Conference, including a special pre-conference track designed specifically for those involved and  interested in the field of Jewish Food Education.

“I feel really positive about the energy and engagement here,” said [star educator Vicky] Kelman, who presented a session on the centrality of family mealtime in Jewish culture and consciousness. “There is tremendous commitment and passion around JFEN and Jewish food education.

Click here to read the whole story about the Covenant Foundation’s grant-in-action and don’t forget to play the stunning slideshow that accompanies it.

For this, we need to turn a little later in the tradition.  While in the Torah the land of Israel is compared to milk and honey, we find that later commentators compare the Torah itself to food and drink.  Rashi, in interpreting various verses in Deuteronomy which refer to the Torah being given ‘today’ understands that this means the words of Torah will be like new for us – hadashim – every day.  That word hadashim can be understood as being the initial letters of the Hebrew words for milk, honey, oil, wine and water – and it is intriguing to compare each of these to the five books of the Torah.  Which, we might ask, goes with what?

It’s milk and honey which win the day, with the verse from the Song of Songs, ‘Milk and honey are under your tongue’ cited in various sources as an image for Torah.  From the milk and honey it’s only a short leap to the cheesecake in which we indulge on Shavuot, the festival in which we remember our first encounter with Torah.

Why milk, and why honey?  Various suggestions are made.  Milk spoils quickly and must be eaten immediately, while honey can keep virtually forever, suggesting that Torah is meaningful both in the short and the long term.  Milk comes from an animal that is not kosher until it is slaughtered, and honey from an insect that is not kosher at all – yet both milk and honey are kosher, suggesting the power of the Torah to transmute what is impure to what is pure.  Milk is the first food of an infant, and honey is a similar kind of complete nourishment.

Yet I am struck by the imagery of a verse in Psalm 34 that Rabbi Miriam Glazer taught so eloquently when she was here in the community a few weeks ago – ‘Taste, and see that the Lord is good,’ (Psalm 34:8).  In education theory we are taught about visual learners and aural learners and kinesthetic learners, but how are we supposed to learn Torah, or experience God, through our sense of taste?

One example the ceremony we created for our K-1 class this year – ‘Torah Cookies’.  About 40 of our youngest members paraded with the Torah, read the first verse of the book of Leviticus together, sang songs, and each received a specially baked ‘Torah Cookie.’  The ceremony has a long history – there are illustrations of it in medieval manuscripts.  By creating an analogy between Torah and sweetness, we hoped to create a genuine appetite for learning in the years to come. 

Our challenge now is to create similar experiences for all of us.  And with this in mind, may I suggest a rather appealing modern invention – that the first Saturday in February is the day on which ice cream is eaten…for breakfast!

I wonder what other innovations we could make that link food directly to Torah?

Follow the link below to learn more – and Shabbat Shalom!http://www.itzahckret.com/icecreamforbreakfast.html

Rabbinic Intern Deborah Silver

Shomrei Torah Synagogue

The Hazon CSA community in Elkins Park (Philadelpha, PA) hosted another outstanding Tu Bishvat seder this year. (Click here to see photos from their seder last year.) Their organizers shared this list of individual commitments that folks wrote down for the year, to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, a healthier and more sustainable world for all. May they serve as an inspiration for all of us in the coming season!

Leave your own resolutions in the comments.

• Go outside more
• Take shorter showers
• Purchase more organic produce – for our health, for the health of the environment, to support the people who grow the food
• Use less water bottles and no plastic bags
• Be less wasteful of Hazon CSA food I don’t know how to cook
• Support COEJL
• Support paper recycling at my synagogue
• Plant a fig tree
• Start a CSA at my university
• Plan ahead to reduce/avoid car trips
• Work in my community garden
• Find beauty in all those and all that surrounds me
• Don’t drive as much on weekends: ride bike, walk, combine errands, don’t go
• Buy car that gets better mileage
• Reduce family waste by 50%
• Free the hikers
• Plant more trees
• Consume sustainable meat only
• Grow my own vegetables
• Pick up trash I see on the ground
• Buy more organic produce, eat only free range chicken
• Plant a tree
• Reuse grocery bags
• No plastic bags
• Support sustainable seafood, join a CSS
• Lower thermostat in winter
• Recycle more in the office
• Turn lights off
• Most successful Arts in the Park ever
• More green building laws
• Reduce, reuse, recycle everyday, promote same to others
• Use ecologically sound cleaning products
• Reduce carbon footprint – use less fossil fuel-based energy
• Recycle relentlessly
• Create a garden free of groundhogs, celebrate the bountiful harvest
• Increase family involvement in social justice
• Plant more food to eat
• Plant a fruit tree
• Help replenish the ocean – join a CSS
• Attend sustainability film series at Ambler theater, become more educated about sustainability issues, actions and advocacy
• Start community garden at my synagogue
• Participate on sustainability committee at my synagogue
• Promote the Jewish Climate Change Campaign

Can the Jewish Deli be sustainable? Can a retro cuisine be part of the avant- garde?

Local, organic VS. the externalized costs of cheap, industrial food and . . . collective memory and food traditions?

Deli is at a crossroads. In New York, only a handful delis remain from hundreds. Across the country, beloved Delis continue to disappear. Popular expectations of “real” Deli conflict with today’s economic realities. And these expectations conflict with environmental sustainability.

For example, towering pastrami sandwiches once signified success, security and abundance, an immigrant’s celebration of the American Dream. At “real” Delis, the meat is piled so high it topples. But given the realities of meat production in America today – 99% is factory farmed – how can we continue to stand by this as an icon?

Meat at the center of the plate is gradually losing ground in the American diet. Innovative chefs and new farm-to-table restaurants draw informed, activist eaters, ready to pay for the true cost of food, and celebrate carefully prepared vegetables at the center of the plate. Young Jewish foodies re-examine Kosher, going back to the land. And vegan/vegetarianism has become the paradigm for many Jewish foodies concerned with sustainability and humane treatment of animals.

Meanwhile, Deli mavens come to Saul’s with a hankering for a huge pastrami sandwich to relive cherished taste memories. Deli is part of the grand tradition of secular, cultural Jewish identity. So people come to Saul’s for many different reasons. Eating sustainable, local food doesn’t always top the list. Some changes to Deli that have made Saul’s a battleground over the years:

• No more Dr. Brown’s – housemade, seasonal soda instead
• Non-mammoth-sized pastrami sandwiches
• Artisanal, fermented, brown, organic old-world style rye bread
• Seasonal, local produce moved to the center of the plate
• Chilled borscht only in summer and when beets are in season . . . .

How can a popular Jewish deli, working to become more sustainable, keep the goodwill of its most traditionally supportive customer base?

To open this conversation, Saul’s Restaurant and Deli in Berkeley, CA is hosting a referendum on the Jewish Deli menu with three Saul’s regulars:

Michael Pollan, Willow Rosenthal, and Gil Friend. Evan Kleiman will moderate. Questions that might guide the discussion:

Even “authentic” cuisine can obstruct progress towards more just, sustainable food. How does a business committed to being part of the solution persuade traditionalist customers of the importance of change?

What taste memories and flavors of The Deli have been provided by an industrial food system? How can we look at our nostalgia and expectations critically?

How might we evolve a shared cuisine together? How can we bring our people along with us – away from grieving the disappearing deli, into the conversation and into the future?

Referendum on The Deli Menu Can a Retro Cuisine be Part of the Avant-Garde?

To accomodate demand:

**Venue has been changed from Saul’s to JCC of the East Bay around the corner**
1414 Walnut Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
Directions to JCC of the East Bay

6:30 pm Tuesday, February 9
Doors open at 6pm
Registration/Will Call check-in from 5:30 on

Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at the door

Proceeds benefit The Center for Ecoliteracy

Panelists:
Michael Pollan, Journalist, Author: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food
Gil Friend, CEO of Natural Logic, Author: The Truth About Green Business
Willow Rosenthal, Founder, City Slicker Farms
Karen Adelman, Co-Owner, Saul’s Restaurant and Deli
Peter Levitt, Co-Owner, Saul’s Restaurant and Deli
Moderator: Evan Kleiman, Host, KCRW’s Good Food, Owner-Chef, Angeli Caffe

The genetically modified alfalfa seed at the heart of the dispute has been engineered to be immune to Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup. Monsanto intervened in a 2007 federal district court ruling that the Department of Agriculture’s approval of GE alfalfa was illegal. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a 2006 lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of non-profits and farmers who wished to retain the choice to plant non-GE alfalfa. CFS was victorious in this case – in addition CFS has won two appeals by Monsanto in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: in 2008 and again in 2009. Now, upon Monsanto’s insistence, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

Our struggle here at CFS is a struggle for organic and sustainable farrmers everywhere. This is truly a ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle, between the farmers we represent and Monsanto, a chemical company turned seed company that appears to have control of our food supply as its ultimate goal. Here are the words of my boss, Andrew Kimbrell: “That Monsanto has pushed this case all the way to the Supreme Court, even though USDA’s court-ordered analysis is now complete, and the U.S. government actively opposed further litigation in this matter, underscores the great lengths that Monsanto will go to further its mission of patent control of our food system and selling more pesticides.”

The federal district court required the Department of Agriculture to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assessing the impacts of the crop on the environment and on farmers; the first time the U.S. government had ever undertaken such analysis for any GE crop. The court permitted farmers that had already planted to continue, but halted any further planting pending the agency’s re-assessment. That the EIS was required is not in dispute; the legal issue is only the scope of relief while USDA analyzed the impacts of the crop for the first time.

In October 2009 Monsanto asked the Supreme Court to hear further arguments. In response, the Center and the U.S. government separately opposed that request the following December. USDA completed the first draft of the EIS in December 2009.

Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage. It is the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles, spreading the patented, foreign DNA to conventional and organic crops. Such biological contamination threatens the livelihood of organic farmers and dairies, since the U.S. Organic standard prohibits genetic engineering, and alfalfa exporters, since most overseas governments also reject GE-contaminated crops.

Here are the worlds of Phil Geertson who we represent: “We trust the Supreme Court will uphold farmers right to choose their crop of choice and protect us from the constant fear of contamination from GE crops.”

This struggle that we are engaged in is all of our struggle – centered on the right to eat food without GMOs and farmers to grow GMOs. Please stay tuned to this important case, consider a donation to the Center For Food Safety, and please – Submit comments to the USDA on their profoundly disappointing EIS, recently issues.

Onward
zelig

In 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its illegal approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa. USDA failed to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) before deregulating the crop. An EIS is a rigorous analysis of the potential significant impacts of a federal decision. The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa until the USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the GE plant on the environment, farmers, and the public in an EIS.

USDA released its draft EIS on December 14, 2009.
A 60-day comment period is now open until February 16, 2010. CFS has begun analyzing the EIS and it is clear that the USDA has not taken the concerns of non-GE alfalfa farmers, organic dairies, or consumers seriously. Instead, USDA has completely dismissed the fact that GE contamination will threaten export and domestic markets and organic meat and dairy products. And, incredibly, USDA is claiming that there is no evidence that consumers care about such GE contamination (also known as transgenic contamination or biological pollution) of organic. USDA’s preliminary determination is to once again deregulate GE alfalfa without any limitations or protections for farmers or the environment.

CLICK HERE to Review the draft EIS:

Review Supplemental documents here:

CFS is spearheading a campaign to ensure that all affected parties are involved in the public process and have the opportunity to submit public comments. This is the first time the USDA has done this analysis for any GE crop. Therefore, the final version (and resulting decision) will have broad implications for all GE crops. The failure of the agency to address the environmental and related economic impacts of GE alfalfa will have far-reaching consequences for organic and conventional agriculture and food producers.

Consumer/Organic Outreach Talking Points
*Tell USDA That You Care About GE Contamination of Organic Crops and Food:

USDA claims that there is no evidence that consumers care about contamination of organic alfalfa and alfalfa-derived foods with Monsanto’s GE Roundup Ready alfalfa.

- Prohibition of genetic engineering (GE) is a fundamental tenet of the Organic Standard. In fact, USDA’s failure to exclude GE crops from the first version of the organic rule was one of the main reasons that 275,000 people filed public comments in 1997– the largest outpouring of public participation in the history of U.S. administrative procedure. Consumers care deeply about organic integrity, and genetic engineering is fundamentally at odds with organic. More than 75% of consumers believe that they are purchasing products without GE ingredients when they buy organic.

*Tell USDA You Will Reject GE Contaminated Alfalfa and Alfalfa-Derived Foods:

USDA claims that consumers will not reject GE contamination of organic alfalfa if the contamination is unintentional or if the GE material is not transmitted to the end milk or meat product.

- The Organic Standard requires that livestock feed for animals used for meat, milk, eggs, and other animal products is 100 percent organic. Protecting organic alfalfa, the main source of feed for the organic dairy industry, is crucial to the health of that important sector of U.S. agriculture. Additionally, as the Court found in the lawsuit that required this EIS, to “farmers and consumers organic means not genetically engineered, even if the farmer did not intend for his crop to be so engineered.” Whether or not the end product is impacted is not the issue. Farmers’ fundamental right to sow the crop of their choice is eliminated when it is contaminated with transgenes, and so is the public’s ability to support meaningful organic food and feed production. The public’s trust in the integrity of the organic label is essential to the continued vitality of the organic foods industry. Tell USDA you reject GE contamination of organic by any means or at any stage of sustainable food production.

*Tell USDA to Protect Organic Farmers and All Farmers Who Wish to Choose to Grow Non-GE Crops:

Although USDA says it supports “coexistence” of all types of agriculture, USDA refuses to even consider any future for alfalfa that would include protections from contamination for organic and conventional farmers and exporters.

- USDA can approve GE crops in whole or in part. Partial approval could include use restrictions, geographic limitations or planting isolation distances. Yet, in the court-ordered analysis, USDA analyzed only two options: 1) Full approval, allowing GE alfalfa to be grown and sold without restriction like any other crop; and 2) No action, meaning GE alfalfa could only be grown under USDA permit, as at present. USDA’s “all or nothing” approach leaves un-analyzed any potential options to protect farmers. This is contrary to law and logic. USDA’s basic mission is “protecting American agriculture.” Yet, USDA refused to even consider any options that might protect organic and conventional agriculture from contamination and the resulting loss of markets and ability to sow the crop of their choice.

*Tell USDA That Protecting Farmers is Its Job and That Relying Solely on Monsanto’s Business as Usual “Best Practices” Ensures Widespread GE Contamination:

USDA claims that Monsanto’s seed contracts require measures sufficient to prevent GE contamination, and that there is no evidence to the contrary.

- In the lawsuit requiring the EIS, the Court found that GE contamination had already occurred in the fields of several Western states with these same business-as-usual practices in place!

- The EIS itself acknowledges that GE contamination may happen and includes studies that honey bees can cross-pollinate at distances over 6 miles, and Alkali bees at 4-5 miles, much further than any distances under Monsanto’s “best practices.”

-In general, where other GE crops were approved without restriction, contamination of organic and conventional seeds and crops is widespread and has been documented around the world. A recent report documented 39 cases in 2007 and more than 200 in the last decade. The harms incurred by organic farmers and food companies from GE contamination are many and include: lost markets, lost sales, lower prices, negative publicity, withdrawal of organic certification, expensive testing and prevention measures, and product recalls. In at least one case, pervasive GE contamination eliminated an entire organic sector. According to an article in the journal Nature Biotechnology: “[T]he introduction of GEherbicide-tolerant canola in Western Canada destroyed the growing, albeit limited, market for organic canola.”

*Tell USDA That GE Alfalfa Would Significantly Increase Pesticide Use and Thereby Harm Human Health and the Environment:

USDA admits (correctly) that introduction of Roundup Ready alfalfa will increase Roundup use. However, USDA’s claims that the increase is not significant and that Roundup will replace other, more toxic herbicides are flat-out wrong.

- The great majority of GE crops grown today are Roundup Ready, and their widespread introduction has vastly increased Roundup use and fostered an epidemic of Roundup-resistant weeds. To kill Roundup-resistant weeds requires higher doses of Roundup, often in combination with other toxic herbicides. Over the past 13 years, Roundup Ready crops have significantly increased overall herbicide use on corn, soybeans and cotton – by 383 million pounds – and Roundup Ready alfalfa will only make matters worse.

- As the agency’s own studies here show, the great majority of alfalfa is currently grown without the use of any herbicides at all. So Roundup Ready alfalfa will increase Roundup use and exacerbate the resistant weed epidemic without displacing other herbicides on most alfalfa farms.

- Roundup has been associated with increased rates of several cancers in pesticide applicators (e.g. non-Hodgkin’s & multiple myeloma), and is highly toxic to frogs at field-relevant concentrations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently re-assessing the safety of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, for the first time in over 15 years. USDA should wait for this new EPA assessment before it considers approving GE alfalfa.

*Tell USDA That Harm to Small and Organic Farmers is Significant:

USDA concludes that GE alfalfa will cause production to shift to larger farms (that can afford built-in isolation distances) and conventional growers who are not threatened by GE contamination, but that these economic shifts are not significant.

- Small, family farmers are the backbone and future of American agriculture and must be protected. Organic agriculture provides many benefits to society: healthy foods for consumers, economic opportunities for family farmers and urban and rural communities, and a farming system that improves the quality of the environment. However, the continued vitality of this sector is imperiled by the complete absence of measures to protect organic production systems from GE contamination and subsequent environmental, consumer, and economic losses.

Comments can be filed online HERE:

Comments are due February 16, 2010. For written, mailed comments please send two copies of your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044.

If you are in New York next week please join us for Hazon’s New York Ride Launch Event followed by a presentation by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Wednesday, February 10th – 7 pm reception | 8 pm presentation
Bnai Jeshurun | 88th and West End

Learn about Hazon and the 10th Annual New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride at a wine and cheese reception featuring ADAMAH goat cheeseand local, kosher delicious treats.

Following the reception New York Times Bestselling Author, Jonathan Safran Foer will speak about  his latest book “Eating Animals,” sponsored by Bnai Jeshurun.

Both events are open to the public and free of charge, but please RSVP to jackie@hazon.org. For more info click here.

Registration is now open for the 2010 New York ride. For the next 10 days you can register at record low Early Bird Prices at hazon.org/nyride.

Hazon staff love granola. We’re blessed to often get home-made batches from our colleagues, but when we need granola for 600+, we turn to Udi’s Granola. Udi and his team have been supporters of the Hazon Food Conference for years. And, if that wasn’t enough to convince us that we like them, Udi’s Granola was a winner in the  San Francisco Chronicle’s granola reviews. Here’s what they said in the article:

Panelists described the first-place Udi’s ($4.99/13 ounces at Whole Foods) as “toasty and nutty,” with “a mild honey flavor” and “nice small flakes.” They liked the “oaty-ness” and “simple flavor” and thought it had an “old-fashioned taste.” Two would buy this brand, two might and one would not.

Read the rest of the review by clicking here.

Udi’s will also host a special gathering of Hazon foodies in a few weeks. Nigel Savage, Hazon’s Founder and Executive Director will teach and then we’ll get to go on a bakery tour! Click here to learn more about Hazon’s visit to Colorado, Feb. 18-20.