Jews, Food, Bikes

The marketing people hate it, but the tagline for Hazon, in my heart, is "Jews, Food, Bikes"... or maybe "Jews, Bikes, Food". Hazon works to make a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Hazon's projects fall into two main areas: outdoor activities involving physical challenge, and food-related programs. The outdoor activities have mostly been about bikes (although a 3 day hike makes its debut next March). However, all these programs include educational and practical elements relating to food: the food we serve is kosher and, as much as possible, organic and from nearby. As I have written before, as have many others, biking is about converting food into motion, and so even the act of biking is about food. Hence, my love, however forbidden, of the tagline "Hazon: Jews, Food, Bikes".

Today was a case in point: I went for a great bike ride with Guy Sapirstein and Ken Rosenstein (Jews, all three of us!). The weather was perfect, the ride was amazing, the company was fabulous. The food ... well, I have been eating a donut at our half-way point the last few weeks. Previously I had been eating a very politically correct energy bar. Today I felt more guilty on account of the donut because of a short recent correspondence with Gregg Stern.

Gregg had written this, worth repeating for all:

KING CORN starts its run at the Coolidge Corner Theatre tonight. This important and smart documentary peers into the American food industry. Called "clear-minded and fair, but just damningly descriptive enough to leave you distrustful of everything on your plate" by the Boston Globe, KING CORN features Harvard Book Store staff favorite Michael Pollan throughout, who expands on many points he makes in THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA. The film runs though next Friday, and one can't help but wonder what people will eat while watching.

In a subsequent note Gregg mentioned in passing "The kids love the high fructose corn syrup foods. To my knowledge, I eat almost none." Wow ... consciousness changing moment. Me, all high and Hazon mighty, and I realize that my food consciousness has been about kosher and maybe organic and a little of local... but I don't even know how much of this corn stuff I have been eating. When I do look at labels I certainly place High Fructose Corn Syrup in the "not good for me, any consumer, any producer, or the environment" category, but I don't actively avoid it the way I actively avoid, say, bacon. Thanks Gregg. Today, with all this reverberating in my head, I did not enjoy my donut, and I have a feeling that it may be my last!