368 results for tag: Food Justice


The Holiness of Eating

This weeks Torah parsha, Shemini, begins on the eighth day of the ceremony to ordain the priests and consecrate the Tabernacle. Moses instructed Aaron to assemble several types of animals and a meal offering as sacrifices (called korbanot in Hebrew) to God, saying: “Today the Lord will appear to you." (Leviticus 9:1–4.). At one point, Moses becomes angry at Aaron and his sons for failing to eat the sin offering at the proscribed time and place. The parsha concludes with a listing of which animals are considered clean and therefore permissible to eat, and which are considered unclean and therefore forbidden to eat. In ...

Question of the Week #15

Farmer Emily Jane Freed asks Jewcology's Question of the Week from a field of rosemary in Santa Cruz, CA.

Jewish views on Food Security

Jews often talk about FOOD, and we often talk about SECURITY, but we don't often talk about FOOD SECURITY. Lately I've been reading many disturbing and important articles connecting recent riots throughout the Middle East and elswhere with increases in food prices and food shortages. The predictions are not good at all. Global food prices are at all time highs, and are not expected to go down any time soon. The riots are really just the tip of the iceberg, because rising food prices also means literally millions of people going hungry and malnurished. These issues are all connected under the general term of "Food Security" ...

Bad few weeks on the Anti-GMO front, but its always darkest before the dawn.

Its been a bad couple weeks on the anti-GMO front. Last week the USDA approved the planting of GM Alfalfa without restrictions, and they are now poised to approve GM Sugar Beets as well. These approvals come as part of the efforts of the Obama administration to remove "burdensome" regulations, and are a sad betrayal of consumer's rights and environmental health concerns. Alfalfa, America's fourth largest crop, is planted on over 23 Million acres. What this approval means is that while currently 93% of alfalfa is grown without the use of pesticides, the approval of GM alfalfa will undoubtably increase the use of herbicides in ...

Question of the Week #8

Daniel Infeld of Hazon asks Jewcology's question of the week.

Question of the Week #3 – Jakir Manela

Jakir Manela of Kayam Farm asks Jewcology's Question of the Week.

The Language of Sustainability as Second Nature

As I continue to write about my experience in teaching a formal Judaism and the Environment course at a Jewish high school, I aim to share with you some of my personal and professional lessons along the way. This week I am wrapping up the first semester of my 11th grade Judaism and the Environment course. Each semester I have a new crop of students and I try to experiment with new ways of teaching the texts and contemporary examples to highlight the major concepts. For the sake of context, I covered three units this semester: Land Use, Water and Food. In each unit we study the major biblical and rabbinic texts and laws associated with ...

Why Genetically Modified Foods Should Not Be Considered Kosher.

New technological innovations have always created a need for the Jewish community to respond from a religious, ethical and cultural perspective. For instance, the discovery of electricity forced Jewish authorities (rabbis) of the past to assess its use on Shabbat. Hence, we have hot plates and crock pots running but no switches flicking. The time has come for Jews and Judaism to take a serious look at perhaps the most fundamental innovation of our time, the genetic manipulation of life. Genetic Engineering (GE), and the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) it has been used to create, are incompatible with some of the most basic ...