Archive for the 'Food' Category

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Awaken to Justice!

Published June 9, 2008 American Judaism , Food , Immigration , Judaism , Labor , Religion 2 Comments

What can you say about the situation at the AgriProcessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa other than it was the kind of thing for which the term “shandeh fur de goyim” was invented?

The Jewish world has been seriously abuzz about this whole big mess for a several weeks running now. If by chance you haven’t been following the story, you should know it touches all the bases, from maltreatment of undocumented workers to government raids/detention to union busting to cruelty to animals to (I kid you not) allegations of illegal methamphetamine labs. If you want some sordid reading material on the subject, you can check out these articles in the Chicago Trib or the Jewish Forward. I just don’t think I can bear to summarize it all for you here.

All I can say is thank goodness for Uri L’Tzedek (“Awaken to Justice”) - a grassroots petition/boycott initiative by the brave yeshiva students at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Another gutsy player is the Jewish Labor Committee, who has been tirelessly tracking this issue. (For more on the rising Jewish protest against AgriProcessors, check out this article from The Nation).

Don’t Just Stand There

Published May 8, 2008 Current Events , Food , Global Activism , Hunger , International Aid 2 Comments

If you are reading the news about recent global crises and you’re feeling overwhelmed and impotent, I’ve always found that actually doing something seems to help allay my feelings of helplessness.

To help aid victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, I’m encouraging donations through the International Development Enterprises. IDE Myanmar opened in 2004 and is one of the few organizations that is doing both relief and development work in all of the affected areas and also has government permission to go into them. Donations to IDE Myanmar will be used for relief aid to survivors of the cyclone in the Irrawaddy Delta region, many of whom have no shelter, food or fuel. Most critically, IDE will initially focus on providing immediate relief but will also plan for rebuilding communities to be self sufficient in the long-term.

On a wider front, Avaaz.org is organizing a campaign to deliver the following petition to G8, UN and EU leaders to respond to the growing world food crisis::

We call on you to take immediate action to address the world food crisis by mobilizing emergency funding to prevent starvation, removing perverse incentives to turn food into biofuels and managing financial speculation, and to tackle the underlying causes by ending harmful trade policies and investing massively in sustainable agricultural productivity in developing nations.

(For important background on the food crisis, I recommend this excellent NY Times editorial.)

What’s Your Footprint?

Published May 4, 2008 Energy Efficiency , Energy Policy , Environmentalism , Food , Green Buildings 3 Comments

Just finished playing an on-line quiz called “Consumer Consequences” – a test sponsored by American Public Media that helps you determine your personal environmental footprint. Based on your consumer habits in various categories (i.e. use of public transportation, energy bills, eating consumption, trash disposal) the quiz calculates how many earths it would take to sustain your personal lifestyle.

I’ll warn you ahead of time: your results will sober you up. To state the obvious, the earth simply wouldn’t be able to support its 6.6 million residents if everyone lived like a typical over-consuming American. (A critical statistic: we Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population, but consume 25% of the world’s energy).

Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the test itself is actually pretty fun to take (they even let you pick a goofy avatar persona). Along the way it also includes important insights about American consumption and tips on how you can reduce your footprint. One especially interesting feature: you can compare your footprint with reporters from various American Public Media programs. (Full disclosure: mine is almost equivalent to the the footprint of Krista Tippett, host of “Speaking of Faith“).

World Water Week

Published March 20, 2008 Food , Global Activism , International Aid , International Health , Poverty , Water Leave a Comment

Did you know that lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second largest worldwide killer of children under five? Rather than take that in as yet one more depressing stastistic, there is something you can do. UNICEF’s Tap Project is an effort that celebrates the clean and accessible drinking water available as an every day privilege to millions, while providing safe drinking water for children around the world.  

Here’s a description the Tap Project’s figurehead campaign, World Water Day:

Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

Currently, UNICEF provides access to safe water and sanitation facilities while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries. By 2015, UNICEF’s goal is to reduce the number of people without safe water and basic sanitation by 50 percent.

The Tap Project has a great website that walks you through the entire project and gives you an easy way of identifying participating restaurants in your area. (After a quick perusal, I discovered that nearly all of my favorite local eateries are part of this campaign.)

Will this effort be enough? No. Will every effort make a difference? Absolutely. Click above to learn more about World Water Week.

Duty Calls

Published March 13, 2008 Food , Health Care , Judaism , Religion , Spirituality 3 Comments

Man should strive to have his intestines relaxed all the days of his life.

–Moses Maimonidies

Be forewarned: this post is about poo.

Why, you ask, is a rabbi writing about…uh… bowel movements? Well, because as the Rambam himself reminds us above, having a successful BM is nothing less than holy work. If you think I’m joking, you should know that one of the best known daily blessings in Jewish tradition is the one we say before we do our business every morning:

You abound in blessings, Eternal One our God, Soverign of all Creation, who with wisdom created the human being with wisdom, making for us all of the openings and vessels of the body. It is clearly apparent that if one of these passage-ways be open when it should be closed, or blocked up when it should be free, it would be impossible to exist or stand before your Presence. You abound in blessings, the wondrous healer of all flesh.

It may well be that we are waking up to the joys of regularity – and in particular the importance of examining what we leave behind. The whimsical medical guide, “What’s Your Poo Telling You?” has now sold 250,000 copies world-wide – and even the Oprah Winfrey show has devoted air time to the the health importance of toilet bowl gazing. Could it be that that poo-observation is becoming (pardon the expression) something of a movement?

If I haven’t completely nauseated you by now, click above for a musical tutorial or check out this recent article from Salon. Here’s an exerpt:

Going to the john is no longer simply a process of elimination. No, the “unbridled elation that results from releasing the perfect poo” is now a transformative act, bringing the conscientious fiber-eating toilet sitter to a spiritual or sexual high.

(Hmmm, maybe Maimonidies was onto something after all…)

Tam Tam Crisis Looms

Published March 3, 2008 Food , Judaism , Pesach 4 Comments

matzo_crackers.jpg

This just in: there will be no Tam Tams on your table this Pesach.

You heard me right. Manichewitz recently announced that due to unforeseen delays at their “brand-new, state-of-the-art, computer-controlled” Newark plant, the company has been forced to cut back on several of their matzah products and will not be producing any Tam Tams at all this year. What’s next, a run on sugary fruit slices?

An article in the New Jersey Jewish News has the whole sad story. (Among other things, it features the horrified response of Andrew Halper, owner of Zayda’s Kosher Deli in South Orange.)

Feed the World, Improve Your Vocabulary

Published December 19, 2007 Food , Hunger , International Aid , Poverty 3 Comments

egyptian_white_rice.jpgNow this is interesting: a website called FreeRice.com hosts an online vocabulary game that actually feeds the hungry. Here’s how it works: you’re given a specific word and are asked to click on the multiple choice answer that best defines it. For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

Apparently, FreeRice.com is a sister site of Poverty.com - a private website dedicated to raising awareness about world poverty. (According to their tally, Free Rice has donated 9,868,446,910 grains of rice to date.)

Having played this game several times, I can safely attest two things: it is seriously addictive, and my vocabulary isn’t nearly as stellar as I’d like to admit. But what more noble reason to bust out the thesarus?

A Shout Out for Food Banks

Published December 4, 2007 Current Events , Food , Hunger , Poverty , Tzedakah Leave a Comment

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While you’re thinking about end-of the-year tzedakah, you should also think about helping out your local food bank. According to news reports, rising food and energy costs, together with reduced help from the federal government, have created growing shortages for food pantries nationwide. (In a particularly perverse economic twist, a relatively healthy agricultural economy is contributing to this shortfall as there is less surplus available for food banks to purchase.) For further reading, here is a recent article from the New York Times, and another from the Chicago Tribune.

Next time you’re out shopping, why not pick up some extra food items and swing them by your local food bank? Obviously individual donations themselves will not overcome the shortfall, but I do believe every gesture makes a difference (especially if we encourage others to donate as well). If you aren’t sure about what to buy, here is what is commonly considered “one standard allotment” for a family of six or less:

Canned Meat: Meat Meal or Pasta Meal, Tuna or other Canned Fish

Beans: 1 Dry, 1 Canned

Canned Fruit: 1

Peanut butter

Jelly

Canned Vegetables: 2

Juice: Canned Concentrate, if possible

Pasta Sauce or Canned Tomatoes

Soup: 2 cans + Ramen or Dried Soup

Pasta

Macaroni and Cheese

Breakfast Cereal or Oatmeal/Grits

Rice or Potatoes

Frozen/Refrigerated Food: Bread, Meat (1 per standard allotment), Produce, Milk

PS: Though not in a “standard allotment,” food pantries often need diapers too.

PPS: Thanks to my friend, journalist Emily Hauser for raising my awareness of this one…

Thanksgiving and the Farm Bill

Published November 22, 2007 Food , Judaism , Politics , Religion , Thanksgiving , Water 1 Comment

farm_1116.jpgThis Thanksgiving season, I’ve been thinking more and more about the complicated ways in which our food reaches our tables. In particular, I’ve been paying increasing attention to the torturous course of the 2007 Farm Bill – a critical piece of legislation that has important implications for our nation and the world.

Like most Americans, my eyelids tend to droop when I hear words like “Farm Bill,” but I have slowly come to understand that it will have a profound and wide ranging impact upon us all. In the words of Time Magazine‘s Michael Grunwald, “If you eat, drink or pay taxes – or care about the economy, the environment or our global reputation – U.S. agricultural policy is a big deal.”

For its part, Jewish tradition teaches that the means by which we sustain ourselves is a mindful and sacred process. The Torah reminds us over and over laws that the land which produces its bounty (not to mention the bounty itself) is not a commodity that belongs to the farmer. God is the source of all sustenance and accordingly, the food we collect and consume must be understood to be a part of a greater, more transcendent good.

This past week it was reported that the Farm Bill stalled in the Senate for strictly political reasons. (What else is new?) This legislation is not likely to resurface for another year – in the meantime, anyone who eats food in this country would do well to educate themselves about the impact this bill will have on their lives.

So here’s a reading list for you this Thanksgiving. In addition to the fine, thorough Grunwald article linked above (“Why Our Farm Policy is Failing”), I recommend “Farm Bill 101,” from Food and Water Watch and this editorial by Michael Pollan, author of the GREAT book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and one of the most eloquent food advocates in our country.

Oh, and Happy Day to one and all…

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Welcome to "Shalom Rav," a collection of posts that have nothing much in common other than my desire to share them with you.

While some of my posts are related to my day job (I serve as Rabbi of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL), the opinions I express here are mine alone and do not reflect official stands of my congregation or any organization with which I'm affiliated.

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