So, began my journey of healthy eating. Every modest dish was cooked the Sephardic way. The week’s order from the peddler was used to prepare copious salad greens (ensalada), vegetable (veruda) casseroles flavored with eggplant and tomatoes, stuffed bell peppers (pimientones reyenados) with grains and soups rich with veggies and chicken for Shabbat dinner. Seasonal melons, cherries and apples were eaten simply raw, cooked into compotes or baked. Our cupboards were empty of boxed snacks and freezers stored no packaged hot dogs.
It’s amazing that in my life time we have placed so much distance between us and natural foods. We are bombarded by ads for sugared cereal, flavored drinks and chips with ‘real’ cheese. The food industry processes foodstuffs by manipulating nutrients like salt, sugar and fat to enhance, by a lot, the normal cravings we have for them. Agriculture today, industry farming with the emphasis on commerce, contributes, too. Machines are used to remove the whole grain nutrients, bran and germ, from wheat that then ends up in loaves of white bread. Ads hype, surprisingly, that white bread has added vitamins. Confusing as this may be, white bread is engineered to remove natural nutrients then vitamins are added artificially. The top aim is to sell bread with a longer shelf life.
The land itself has changed radically in other ways. Pesticides have replaced careful farming methods that keep the soil fertile, not depleted or damaged. Pesticides are used to improve crop yields without considering the consequences that toxic chemicals have on the soil, water, air or our health. How can we eat healthy food if it is grown in unhealthy soil and the crops themselves are contaminated?
Book of Leviticus shows that our forebears lived successfully in the natural world. They tended fields of grains and vegetables, groves of olive trees, vineyards and fruit orchards. The Israelites looked after the land by sowing fields and pruning vineyards for only six consecutive years. In the seventh year, the soil was left crop-free and given rest. The community, acting responsibly together toward nature, had preserved healthy soil for their future sustenance.
In America, for over 14,000 years before white settlers arrived, Indians lived at peace in nature. They hunted bison in the Great Plains, gathered wild onions, prairie turnips, berries, and seeds. In the East, they gathered shellfish and clams, and domesticated corn (known as maize), squash and bean crops. American Indians have always revered the land, taking only what was necessary to survive. They believed that nature belonged to everyone and to all living things.
Food traditions have eroded and the modern diet has hurt our health; people are suffering from diet related diabetes and obesity. To change, we must recognize, once and for all, that the land is the main source of our existence. We depend on clean soil for healthy crops and natural unaltered foods. Avoiding processed foods can send a clear message to the food industry that we won’t buy products that are unhealthy for us. Concerned Indians are working to help their tribes. They are collecting seeds of traditional crops to distribute with the hope that their communities will turn to the nutritious foods that sustained them in the past and to be more self-sufficient during these challenging times.
The pandemic crisis has brought us to a crossroad; we have to a decision to make. We can return to our former way of life; too busy and too distracted to pay much attention to where our food comes from and to the ravages inflicted on the land. Or at this pivotal moment, we can aspire for a new direction. Dramatic improvements in nature raise hope during the ‘stay at home’ necessity. In Venice, Italy, canal waters are running clear and air quality has improved in America resulting in fewer chemicals circulating in the atmosphere over the land. Customers are increasingly buying produce directly from small farms, and more people are tending their own organic plots similar to Mitzvah Garden KC and the Victory Gardens of the past. The possibilities for real change are inspiring. We Jews have the collective strength to improve our place on earth. Working purposefully together we can live in peace, not at odds, in nature.
Mary Greenberg, Ph.D., serves on the State of Kansas Holocaust Commission. Her speaking engagements on preventing anti-Semitism, and the link between civil leadership and anti-Semitism are based on her research that advances the study of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. She is dedicated, also, to writing about the beauty of Jewish life and its deeply principled values.
