Transparency and the New Kosher

The requirements on a restaurant that wishes to maintain a kosher certification are imposed by a local certifying authority which is either an individual Rabbi or a Rabbincal Assembly or committee. In some communities, of course, there are arguments as to whose supervision is "more" kosher, or kosher "enough" (Editorial comment: Yuck!).

One aspect of Kosher certification relates to sabbath observance. If a restaurant is kosher in all respects but opens on Saturday (thus transgressing not food rules, but rules on sabbath observance), is it kosher? Generally the given answer is no, but there are exceptions, relating to restaurants owned by non-Jews, who are not bound by sabbath rules (as long as food prepared on the sabbath is not served at other times). However, Jewish tradition is always concerned about confusion that may ensue from rules that are applied with too much flexibility. The fear is that perhaps someone Jewish sees the restaurant is Kosher on a Saturday morning, and then goes in an buys a meal cooked on the Sabbath and pays with money (both forbidden by sabbath laws)? (Editorial comment: What?)

I have been very pleased to see that in some cities, a restaurant owned by non-Jews can receive a kosher certification that reads something like: "This establishment is kosher under the supervision of except during the Jewish Sabbath and Jewish Holidays". This tells Jewish customers who care about the certification that they can eat at the restaurant because it is kosher, but not to do so when rules that apply to them (but not the proprietors) prohibit cooking and commerce (Editorial comment: Clever, if a little annoying that is necessary at all).

However, once you realize that a certification can be dependent on things not directly related to food preparation, the notion suddenly becomes really exciting, and this applies to organic food labeling as well.

What if the food is prepared in farms or factories where the workers are exposed to unsafe working conditions? Should that be kosher, or organic? Should we require a higher standard of worker treatment, that is also supervised by a certifying authority, before purchasing food?

What if the packaging and processing is wasteful, non-recyclable, energy inefficient or who knows what. Can we hope to certify that the packaging and processing meets standards of safety, environmental responsibility, and energy efficiency? Is it kosher (or organic) if it is wastefully packaged or prepared?

What if the food is shipped across the country, and so consumes huge amounts of petroleum and creates huge amounts of pollution compared to public good of having that food in our supermarket? This is a key question asked in The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polan, and points to the growth of the movement to support local farmers and buy local produce. Perhaps, like that flexible kosher certification I mentioned, the labels on organic food should read "Organic if purchased and consumed within 200 miles of ", or "Organic if purchased and consumed in due to fuel efficient delivery fleet".

How about an interim step... some extra transparency on these issues. Instead of "Produce of USA", label produce to the county level where it was produced and processed (possibly two locations), and how it was transported. Label processed foods with the energy used to process it, the location of the factory and how it was transported. If people could see just those facts, perhaps it would change the conversation.

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Jewish Social Action Month

We are now in the Hebrew month of Cheshvan – between the many fall holidays of Tishrei and the flickering lights of Chanukah in Kislev. Cheshvan has no holidays, and so has been called Mar Cheshvan by tradition, meaning the bitter month of Cheshvan. We read the story of Noah during Cheshvan, and it was during this month that the great destructive rains began to flood the world. However, an organization called Kol Dor (which translates as both “Voice of the Generation” and “Every Generation”) has recreated Cheshvan as Jewish Social Action month, now in its second year.

Jewish Social Action Month calls on Jews and the Jewish people to look beyond our own community at what needs fixing in the world, to look at these contemporary issues through a Jewish lens, to engage with a regard for what unites us, to get on the right side of these issues and to do something about them.

Please share the urgency of being involved in social action with your communities whenever you can.

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VC:VC Social(ly Active) Networking

Continuing my sporadic VC:VC series of postings comparing life as a venture capitalist with life as a venture cyclist, here are some thoughts on social networking, and socially active networking.

Social networking is a term that has some academic background, but venture capital types know that it means the internet phenomenon that links people together according to something that ties them together: high school, college, employer, friend-of-a-friend, shopping preferences and so on. An early icon of this phenomenon was the six degrees of separation websites that allowed you to register and invite your friends, and for them to do the same. You could then see if you had a connection to anyone else in the network stepping through connections registered on the website. Linked-In seems to have become the most successful of the professional oriented sites that provides this service. I have over 100 contacts registered with my profile, and I can search to see, for example, if I could connect through a network of connections to a vice president at Google or a programmer at EMC. Facebook and MySpace are analagous sites aimed squarely at the hip young market with lots of features for sharing information about yourself, your favorite photos, music, videos, hangouts, friends and so on.

Many startup ideas now come with social networking features, either thinking they are de rigueur or that, no matter how irrelevant, they make it easier to get funding. Social networking is part of the cluster of ideas that have been rolled together under the banner of Web 2.0 (or for jaded commentators: internet bubble 2.0). If I had an idea to create an online business by selling accessories for cycling, I could add the ability to find other cyclists who like my kind of bike in my area, and I would have a social networking component.

In the venture capital world, we have been doing social networking without the internet for years, but it does break down beyond one or two steps. I might remember to ask my partners if anyone knows someone at such-and-such company for a background reference on an entrepreneur, but I don't know if lurking just one connection away is exactly the right person. When one VC meets another for the first time, we generally see whom we know in common based on deals we have worked on. Similarly, when one Jew meets another for the first time, we often play "Jewish Geography", looking for mutual friends (or relatives). The Jewish community is small enough (even though larger than the VC world), that we often find some connection that exists. This is yet another example of non-internet social networking (although here is the on-line version).

In her keynote address to the Hazon 2006 NY Bike Ride on September 1st of this year, Anna Stevenson concludes with a marvellous poem:

The Long Road
by Marge Piercy

Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
But they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.

Two people can keep each other sane,
can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat a pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund-raising party.
A dozen can hold a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

It goes one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.

This shows the power of socially active networking, which is similar but slightly different. When I meet you, my goal is not only to find out who we know in common, and to whom else we might connect each other, but it is also to enlist you in a cause (hopefully a good one). When I meet you, expect me to play some variant of six degrees, and also to encourage you to get on your bike and join me, join us, next year on the Hazon 2007 NY bike ride.

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Think globally, think locally

Dear Newton Community Farm CSA members,

Its been an interesting year, weather wise, to start a farm. But we've made a pretty good go of it, I think. I hope you do too. Thank you for supporting the farm in our inaugural season. I couldn't have done so much without all of your help.

I'm writing to let you know that the pick ups for [this week] will be the last pick ups for the 2006 season. We've been hard hit by frosts so things are winding down quickly for the farm. Our fields are low and surrounded by the large berm, so we get frosts even when no one else does.

This is the beginning of an email sent out today from Greg Maslowe, the farm manager at our CSA program at the Newton Community Farm. I am struck by how truly local food can be. Greg starts by reminding us of the spring and summer rains (and rains) under which the first season floated into existence. He then reminds us of the micro-topography of the farm, at a low point in the surrounding landscape. Just like heat rises, cold air falls, which is why being at a low point, surrounded by rising slopes and a berm, the cold, frosty air falls into the farm fields and has nowhere else to roll down. This is a true microclimate laid bare.

Sometimes, environment is global, but it can also be really local.

The food from our CSA has been amazing this year. If you are have not considered enrolling in one before, I recommend you do so for next year.

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