Ethical Food Purchasing Policies as Vehicles for Activating Jewish Values

Jewish identity and values have always been connected with food choices. In part for this reason, the growing contemporary American concern with more ethical sourcing of food creates a natural opportunity to link everyday institutional decision-making with questions about Jewish values and identity. In this presentation, Dr. Aaron Gross, the current President of the Society for Jewish Ethics and CEO of the advocacy group Farm Forward, looks at the recent phenomenon of Jewish institutions--from congregations, to Moshe Houses, to summer camps--making ethical food purchasing policies that guide institutional food buying well beyond the usual kosher food policy. Gross attempts to show why the practice has proved compelling, detail how current efforts by groups like Hazon and the Jewish Initiative for Animals are supporting the creation of even more policies, and, finally, to make a case for why such policies fit especially well with longstanding Reform commitments.