Food and Film

I've never had bacon

Judaism is a monotheistic religion.

We eat Kosher aka I've never had bacon or a cheese burger. 

The saying goes: "don't cook a animal in its mother's milk."

This video does a great job of explaining Kosher rules.

"Jewish Dietary Laws (Kashrut) originated in the Bible(Torah). Over the centuries, the rabbis codified and interpreted these Biblicallaws. Today liberal and traditional branches of Judaism hold different views ofthe Jewish Dietary Laws."

Passover starts tonight at sundown. 

Do you have any remaining questions for me? Ask away!

Blog post assignment: Write about a tradition / food / value within your religion / family. Can't wait to read everyone's posts!

More Articles

Over the weekend I have come across a handful of really interesting articles; that relate to conversations we have had over the semester:

• 10 Things You Can't Buy With Food Stamps
• KFC Debuts 'Chicken Corsage'
• The Best Foods For Runners
• Drought Could Complicate Already Difficult Food Crisis In Syria
• 11 Food Companies That Won't Tell You Where Their Meat Comes From
• 15 Make-At-Home Dinners That Are Better Than Takeout
• 14 Horrifying Confessions From Fast Food Workers

Food Justice

On Thursday April 3rd at 7:00pm I attended a presentation sponsored by the Kalamazoo Public Library lead by Karika Phillips at Bronson Hospital-Gilmore Center for Health Education. The presentation was titled Food Security or Food Justice: Does it Really Matter. We learned about the different between disparity and inequity for food security. 

In order to work towards health equity; it requires advocacy and education. "Social determinants of Health; Where you work, live, play;...and buy groceries, matters!" Karika Phillips expressed: "food brings people together...relationships." She also added the need to: "stop blaming children for the environment they live in." Further mentioning: instead of blaming, advocate! 

I really enjoyed the lecture a lot more than I thought I would. Karika Phillips is a very passionate women and speaker. Saying, "when you experience oppression we don't blame the person who is oppressed but asks what we can do to help. We are one community. How can we be of service?"

What food injustice situations have you seen / are you aware of? What can we do within our communities to advocate forward?

*The information I have mentioned above is all from the presentation that I attended.

1.02 Billion Hungry People Worldwide

On Monday the lecture - Food and Climate Change - by Dr. David Karowe, was very interesting. As someone who isn't a science person I was uncertain how interested I would be. One fact that specifically stood out to me was that there are "1.02 billion hungry people worldwide." Since this course is related to food, I found this fact super fitting to blog about. Just to put this statistic in perspective, there are about 7,225,207,281 people worldwide.

As we have learned throughout the semester, directly in Kalamazoo we have Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, People's Food Co-op of Kalamazoo and other organizations that directly work with the community and food (or lack thereof).

The fact that there ever are "1.02 billion hungry people worldwide," is so sad to me. As I heard this fact, I was eating my challah slice. I didn't want to finish eating it after that. Hearing the fact made me sick. Reading the fact again, makes me sick. What can we do to lower end this horrible statistic?

Challah

I hope you all enjoyed the challah today! The loaf I brought in today is from Dakota Bread. They are one of my favorite (challah) bakeries. Challah is also referred to as "egg bread." The ingredients are: lots of flour, water, eggs, old, yeast, salt, (and sometimes honey). There are a lot of challah recipes. Here is one challah recipe. 

This is the most common way challah is braided.

A challah turkey! Sometimes challah is even braided in fun ways.

I am interested in hearing your response about the challah. Did you like it? What were your thoughts? Would you eat it again? What questions do you have? 

Please add your other questions here so I have a better idea what to base my presentation on.

Border Patrol

Casey and Joe did a great job presenting video games to our class. As someone who isn't a "gamer" I was interested in the presentation.

During the video game presentation, I noticed in the
clip of Border Patrol, on the American flag is a Star of David. As someone who is Jewish, I was surprised to see this. Is it a message of dislike? Is it a message of Jews in the United States? Is it showing support for Israel? Is there any connection between the Star of David and the welfare office sign underneath the flag?

I was curious and googled to see what the meaning of this was. I couldn't find any direct meaning. I found different blogs with comments and opinions, from others; those who commented were against Jews and commented that the Star of David is shown as Nazi support.

I wonder what the "real" meaning behind having the Star of David as apart of this game is? As someone who doesn't play videos games I don't get the "point" of them...

*Please take a moment to post a question you have that you want me to answer during my presentation. (Click me for link) Thanks!