As If Kosher Weren’t Hard Enough

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posted by bfeiler | 6:00am Wednesday August 1, 2007

A common complaint I hear from people who keep kosher is that it’s increasingly difficult to find kosher food outside the big cities. But kosher food may be only half the problem. Try organic kosher food. When being part of one minority is not enough. Here’s the WaPo on one woman’s trials.

The only way to make sense of Kimelman-Block’s effort is to understand that she is part of a budding movement, sometimes called “eco-kosher,” that combines traditional Jewish dietary laws with new concerns about industrial agriculture, global warming and fair treatment of workers. Eco-kosher, in turn, is part of the greening of American religion — the rapid infusion of environmental issues into the mainstream of religious life.
Notoriously drafty churches are insulating their ceilings and buying renewable energy through a ministry named Interfaith Power & Light. Synagogues are switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs. The vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals drives a Toyota Prius, and more than 50 other evangelical Christian leaders have pledged to neutralize their “carbon footprints” through energy conservation.
But, for many people, the primary daily impact of rising environmental consciousness is on the food they eat. They want it to be produced locally, sustainably, organically and humanely. Increasingly, religious people view this as a religious obligation, not just a matter of good health or ethics. The trend is advancing particularly fast among Jews, who have a long tradition of investing food with religious meaning.

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