Eco-kashrut? A New Way of Eating Jewishly

By Melissa Crawley
University of Missouri

Doubtless you've heard the old cliche, "you are what you eat." If it were true, I'd probably be a chocolate sugar wafer or a homemade cheese boureka-this I can say without much thought. However, as a people, it can't be said that eating is a thoughtless process. Jews who maintain kashrut are constantly monitoring the contents of their food. In one sense, keeping kosher is something many of us do simply because we are commanded to in the Torah, but it is also a way to get closer to God, by thinking about every morsel we ingest and relating it to our personal relationship with God.

Combine this strict monitoring of food with a commitment to food sustainability and you've got eco-kashrut. Eco-kashrut is a new movement in Jewish eating that encourages followers not only to keep kosher, but also to eat organic, buy local produce and meat and lobby for food integrity. It combines strict dietary adherence with a sense of social justice. It is a new way to bridge a connection between adam, the human, and adamah, the earth.

How does eco-kashrut connect to social justice? Consider the path that your food takes. Are you buying fruits and vegetables that are out-of-season? Chances are, they’ve come from someplace warm and foreign, so they’ve been freighted over land, air and sea. What is being used to keep bugs and pests from eating your food? The environmental costs of pesticides range from outright damage to the environment during the manufacturing process, to eliminating pests that are important dietary components for other animals, to potential negative health effects from handling and ingesting the chemicals.

Keeping eco-kosher has been a way for me to increase the sacred connection between my food purchases and my eating habits. Every time I go to the grocery store, I think not just of whether my food choices fall within the parameters of traditional kashrut, but also in terms of how my food choices connect me to my community. I make the effort to shop at farmer's markets in the summers and other independent outlets of locally-grown produce during the rest of the year. I am plugging money back into the local economy, helping small farmers to maintain their livelihood by ensuring that they receive a greater percentage in profits from their sales. I'm helping maintain the ground by purchasing food grown under natural methods of pest control. I am doing my part to reduce carbon consumption by purchasing local produce and meat, which require substantially less transport time.

Keeping kosher is undoubtedly a challenge, especially in college. Finding organic and local food is equally difficult. However, the combination of the two is something that constantly has me thinking about how what I'm eating affects the world around me and how I can improve my consumption patterns. It helps me to break down the process of eating, from farm to table, while helping my community and my local farmers.

Melissa Crawley is a senior at the University of Missouri. She is studying biochemistry and rural sociology, but in her real life, enjoys teaching religious school, playing guitar, and trekking through mid-Missouri in her Na'ot clogs.

[Posted 03/20/07]