JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Spring break on the farm

By Ami Eden · January 21, 2010

Writing in the Forward, Linda Kriger reports on a new program to boost the Jewish farming movement:

Rather than jet to tropical party capitals for spring break, about 105 Jewish college students are choosing to do something a little different during their time off.

Bountiful: JFS participant Michal Gersman cleans radishes after harvesting them at Common Ground Farm in Beacon, N.Y., during a field trip.

Some will be collecting maple sugar on the East Coast, while others will be working on organic farms in California. At the same time, they will learn about food sustainability, Jewish agricultural laws, medicinal herbs, global food security and the growing food justice movement within the Jewish and secular worlds.

The program, run by Jewish Farm School, with offices in New York and Philadelphia and co-sponsored by Hillel, intends to give students a greater understanding of the complex issues involving sustainable food production. Among the participating schools are New York University, the University of Miami and Arizona State University.

JFS has neither a farm nor a school, but provides a case study on how to carefully develop an organization with big long-term plans. Its gestation has taken five years, parallel to the growth of the Jewish sustainable-food movement.

Read the full story.