Hazon Educational Library: Food

Hazon partnered with EarthX to produce episodes on Jewish environmentalism for the Faith is Green series on EarthxTV. This brand new original series details how we can all strive to create a more environmentally sustainable world through observance of Jewish values such as respect, fairness, responsibility, and community.

Episodes were available for free on EarthxTV for a year. The shows are currently unavailable due to international media agreements. Please check back in the future; we will reactivate the links as soon as the shows are available again.

From the Jewish Climate Network: We are asking our community to place an ice block beside the Seder plate and open up a conversation about climate change this year, while linking it to the fundamental themes of Pesach. The ice block represents the rapidly melting ice caps and sheets throughout the world caused by human activity. As the ice block shvitzes on our Seder table, we are reminded that time isrunning out for action. It becomes a physical prompt to ask questions, much like the other Seder table objects prompt questions. To support these questions the JCN has created a printable Ice Block Challenge guide that can be incorporated into Seder night.

The Hazon Shmita Sourcebook presents a guided exploration of the history, concepts, and practices of Shmita, from debt forgiveness to agricultural rest, economic adjustment to charitable giving. The updated sourcebook explores texts and commentaries that build the framework of Shmita within the biblical and rabbinic tradition, as well as contemporary voices that speak to Shmita as it relates to our modern world.

Through the practice of a food waste ritual, we can find deep lessons in how we gather, cook, and scrap food. We visually express those lessons into a “visual blessing” using actual food scraps and stones or other found natural objects. Then, we craft and recite a spoken blessing. Together, this helps us rethink food waste in our homes and communities.

There are many options to preserve each season's harvest, including canning, vinegar pickling, drying, blanching and freezing. This particular activity teaches lacto-fermentation pickling - an easy, fun and extremely health-friendly method of food preservation. Participants will take home a jar of their own and in a few days will be able to eat their own pickles!

Microgreens are mini versions of regular vegetables. The shoots are harvested at a young age, before they grow into fully matured plants. They have a wonderful flavor and are richer in nutrition than their larger counterparts. Best of all, microgreens are fun and easy to grow!

This source sheet is a dive into Jewish tradition's commentary on prohibitions against wanton waste, environmental stewardship, responsibility for community members in need, and responses to hunger and surplus. We hope that it serves to mobilize Jewish communities to act on climate change and food injustice by reducing food waste, keeping it out of landfills, and transforming it to reduce food insecurity.

The connection between industrial animal agriculture and climate change is significant. But why and how is that so? This two-page source sheet presents a string of data that tells a concise and compelling story of the connection between industrial animal agriculture and climate change. Based on the writings of Jonathan Safran Foer in his book We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast.

There are anecdotal stories about food throughout the Torah. These food-cameos are, perhaps, even more instructive in the origins of Jewish food culture than the direct instructions about what may be eaten.

Three-fold workshop, which involves delving into the history of dairy on Hanukkah, making cheese and butter, and a discussion about the dairy industry and striving towards greater ethical consumption under capitalism, under the lens of our environmental crisis.