Tierra Sur, a well-known restaurant in California’s wine region, has made an environmentally friendly New Year’s resolution. According to Chef Gabriel Garcia, beginning in 2013, the restaurant plans on using only locally sourced food available within 200 miles of the restaurant. “Food tastes better if it’s naturally available,” Garcia explained. “Like, why would you eat berries in the winter from a grocery store when they are not in season if the winter veggies are hearty, …More

Over last weekend’s Shabbat Hanukkah, Jews from the United States and Canada packed the newly merged Isabella Friedman Retreat Center for the 2012 Hazon Food Conference. The sold out four-day event highlighted the relationship between sustainable food and food justice and Judaism. In addition to beer brewing demonstrations, challah braiding and milking how-to’s, the weekend included a controversial goat shechita (slaughter). The decision to include such a powerful experience was not taken lightly by …More

Hazon and the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center announced this week that the two non-profits plan to merge. The new organization, which will be called Hazon, will focus on Jewish environmental and food justice issues. The merged group “will be at the forefront of renewing American Jewish life and creating a more sustainable world for all,” reads a joint press release from both non-profits. Working together, the new program aims to use the national influence of Hazon’s programming with the …More

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg will officially launch the largest bike share program in the US this July thanks to $41 million in corporate sponsorships. “We are getting an entirely new transportation network without spending any [taxpayer] money,” Bloomberg told reporters at a press gathering in May. “Bike share programs have been off the charts successful, I think, in every place they've been…I will certainly pay and ride one.” New York’s green transportation solution is one …More

A diverse group of Jews of all ages took to the road this weekend in California to learn more about sustainable living and support Hazon, an organization whose mission is to create healthier and more sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond. The group covered 86 miles and raised nearly $80,000 to support Jewish environmental initiatives in the US and Israel. Affectionately titled “The People of the Bike,” the Hazon sponsored program featured a range of cycling options to meet the needs …More

I had the privilege of being one of 120 participants at a unique conference that took place in mid-May. Siach (conversation) was a gathering of Jewish social justice and environment professionals from Israel, Europe and the United States. Funded by the Commission of the Jewish People of the UJA Federation of New York, the gathering was coordinated by three organizations: Bema'aglei Tzedek (Israel), Jewish Social Action Forum (U.K.) and Hazon (U.S.). I knew a good many of my Jewish colleagues from the U.S. but only …More