To Till and to Tend

Today’s news from the Middle East is dominated by the fighting in Gaza. Even during trying times, and perhaps especially at times like these, it is worth reminding ourselves that our homeland stands for so much more than the security of the Jewish people. Friends who have visited Israel in recent weeks report that life continues as normal, and that Israeli society thrives as always, despite the constant threat of violence. On no front is this more evident than the advances made by Israel on environment and energy issues.

Renewable energy, innovation in agriculture and manufacturing, greening the desert- this is Israel’s environmental path- and it teaches critical lessons to the rest of the world.

Project Better Place, the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, is moving forward with its efforts to install a global network of plug-in stations for electric cars. Better Place has recently announced plans to expand work to Australia and Hawaii, building on existing projects in Israel and Denmark. Agassi’s vision of an oil-free world is inspired in part by Israel’s quest for energy security. Despite impressive advances in automotive technology in the U.S., we are nowhere near Israel and Western Europe on fuel efficiency or electric/hybrid innovation. In this regard, Israel is a model for the kind of nation we aspire to be: one powered by renewable and stable fuel sources.

Environmental challenges and innovations are not entirely separate from conflict in the Middle East, but rather serve as a potential pathway to peace. The Kibbutz Lotan community in the Arava Valley of Southern Israel is a center of learning and environmental activism, and a model of sustainable and equitable community building dedicated to the task of Tikkun Olam. Members of the Kibbutz work towards an environmentally sustainable community, and use environmental challenges to promote conflict resolution and building bridges among communities. Students at Lotan participate in the Common Path program, twinning with youth in a Muslim-Arab Israeli community near Nazareth, and college students participate in the Peace, Justice and the Environment Semester in the Negev with American and Arab students.

In the coming months, Jews in Israel and around the world will commemorate Tu B’shvat, Passover, and Birkat HaHammah, a unique Blessing of the Sun that occurs only once every 28 years. As we engage in the ritual celebrations of these holidays we remember the value that Judaism places on our natural world by celebrating trees, commemorating the start of spring, and giving thanks for the sun and the power it provides. Israel is truly a ‘light unto the nations’ in this regard, planting trees through the Jewish National Fund and leading the world in solar power innovation. As Jews of the Diaspora, we look towards our homeland for inspiration in so many ways, including how to build a truly sustainable society.

We can and should be proud of Israel for so many reasons, regardless of where we stand on the situation in Gaza. Whether motivated by energy security concerns, a desire to protect our local environment, or the fight against global climate change, we can all learn lessons and take inspiration from Israel.

Rachel is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant working on environment and energy issues at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC. She will be a regular guest blogger on To Till and To Tend this year, posting entries every other Thursday. This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.

While COEJL’s mission is primarily North American, it’s exciting to note all the buzz and activity in Israel around sustainable, renewable energy.  Israel is positioning itself as a high-tech center for all things solar, water conserving, energy efficient, and post-petroleum.  As I like to say, Israel’s main natural resources are sun and engineer/entrepreneurs.
News about Shai Agassi’s electric car initiative has been heard ’round the world, most recently reported on by Thomas Friedman.  Micro-irrigation is an Israeli invention grown into an industry, exported around the world.  Indeed, with the run-up in food prices, microirrigation is one of the technologies referenced to improve developing countries’ food yields, and increasing food yields means increasing incomes for the world’s hardworking subsistence farmers and their families.  Microloans are extended for drip irrigation. 
One of the most interesting projects I’ve learned about is through the Arava Institute, known to many COEJL supporters through its relationship with Hazon.  The Arava is located at Kibbutz Ketura and trains young environmental professionals from many different countries – their education involves not only the technical aspects of ecology and planning, but coexistence, since many of them hail from countries with cold or non-existent relations with Israel.  I learned much about its marvelous work when I cheered my husband David on the 2007 Hazon/Arava bike ride in Israel.  Two Arava alumni, Illana Meallum and Mazen Zuabi, are working together on designing a biodigester which will create biofuel out of “biomass” which, in the case of Israeli Bedouin villages, equals raw sewage.  Because Bedouins live in unincorporated villages, they have no formal plumbing infrastructure – so this technology, replicable once it’s refined, will be a win-win: cleaning up sewage and creating a renewable source of fuel.
The list goes on and on, but the basic point is inspiring: Israel is indeed providing sustainably powered Light unto the Nations!

photo from Israelli.org

The list of concerns when food shopping just keeps lengthening. Once upon a time, I simply bought on the basis of price, kashrut, and perceived quality but over time, my definition of quality has evolved. Price is actually much lower on the list of consideration.
Some of the concerns are:
1) ingredients. If there are too many, or I don’t recognize them as actual food, I don’t buy the product.
2) packaging. Is the packaging recyclable? If not (hello, hummus!), is it at least minimized?
3) extra points if the product is organic.
4) deduction of points if the product is from too far away. In many cases you can’t telll where the product is from, of course, but now we have to pay attention to food miles, how far the product has shipped.
5) extra points if the product has a hashgachah. But since I’m primarily vegetarian, I’ll go with a vegan or reliable vegetarian designation. (Obviously there is a wide range of observance on this issue.)
6) cost. It’s hard, but not impossible, to find extremely expensive vegetarian food.
7) size. It’s more resource efficient to buy a larger size of a product, providing you can use up the contents. (Like a plastic half gallon vs. a quart – they each have one cap, so buy the bigger one. Unless the milk will sour before you finish it.)
is the product Israeli? This used to be a big plus, since I felt like buying Israeli was virtuous. Now I’m coming around to it being a minus, since it’s shipped such a long distance.
Like I said, oy vey. This is hard. My personal compromise is that I buy light weight items from Israel, such as tea. (Which is only packaged in Israel; the tea is imported from Asia, I presume.) And Israeli wine. The studies that came out awhile back about wine showed that wine miles are counterintuitive. East coasters are better off, ecologically, by buying wine from Europe than California. In any event, I don’t buy that much wine, so have permitted myself to indulge in Israeli wines. My favorite was one we found last summer, organic wine from the Galil, named “Barn Owl” in honor of the barn owls which eat so many of the critters that do wine in that the vineyard can eschew pesticides. I wasn’t able to find it on line for this post, so perhaps it was a special edition wine.
How do you work your way through the food purchasing decision tree?

I just returned from Israel where I spent the week with family and friends, absorbing the realities of a Jewish state. Some aspects of a Jewish state elicited a guffaw (see articles on Mikvah ladies and chametz), but some I found to be insightful, meaningful and even useful. For now, I will focus on the commandment of shmita,which is taking place this year, 5768. Leviticus 25:3-4 explains the mitzvah of shmita.

Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Torah doesn’t talk science, but in this case, the spiritual tradition is right on target. The text continues with the ramifications of fulfilling and ignoring the law. If you fulfill: “then shall the land make up for its sabbath years (26:34).” But, “the land shall be forsaken of (those Israelites who did not practice shmita), making up for its sabbath years by being desolate of them (26:43).” This isn’t just God having fun with random laws.

Scientifically speaking, when one plot of land is used in the same fashion, year after year, the soil becomes depleted of its nutrients. Eventually, crop yields weaken until the land is so depleted that it must be deserted.* On the opposite end, when a farmer allows land to lay fallow, nutrient balance is naturally restored, allowing for endless use and production.

Science and Torah take it one step further. Though the owner is not allowed to work the land, the naturally growing fruit remains available to people, wild animals and livestock. By allowing animals in the fields, they naturally fertilize it (think feces), enabling greater yields.

Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, spotlights a modern farmer who, by using methods similar to those demanded in Leviticus, manages a model sustainable farm.

It’s rare when Jewish law and modern science lead to a uniform conclusion – hopefully we’ll eventually get the message.

* Today, many farmers “solve” this problem with intense (oil-based) fertilization, an energy-intensive endeavor that, due to chemical run-off, is the source of a whole range of other environmental problems.

The sustainable farming vision of the Torah is still alive:
Jewish Farm School
Adamah, The Jewish Environmental Fellowship