Interviewed founder of Urban Adamah, a non-profit that is combining Judaism and sustainability to feed the poor of West Berkeley
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:[inaudible] [00:00:30] the great American experiment, the seemingly endless stretch of shops and stories from every corner of the earth.
Speaker 3:A place where everyone is trying to carve out their precious plot of the free, if you can afford it, world. And a place that I call home, many people don't realize the San Pebble Avenue is actually a highway, California one two three to be exact, running parallel to East Bay, interstate 80 and a main link between the peoples of the East Bay, the Berkeley [00:01:00] portion of California one two three has been a hot topic over the last two years because it's part of the East Bay Green corridor and there's been many battles. And then Berkeley City Council about the zoning rights to west Berkeley [inaudible] as west Berkeley land owners sit tight waiting for resolution. One Entrepreneurial Organization is taking advantage of vacant land and creating a model for spirituality, sustainability, and a solution to the urban food desert. Today on method to the madness, we interview [00:01:30] Adam Berman, executive director of urban Altima in west Berkeley. Stay with us. [inaudible]
Speaker 4:tell me a little bit about how you came to this idea. Yeah. Um, I've always been interested in the intersection of spirituality and environmental stewardship. Um, I grew up in a Jewish household, uh, outside [00:02:00] of Los Angeles, uh, and went to Jewish day school as a kid. And so as soon as I, um, reached adulthood, I started asking questions of Jewish tradition about how it relates to the natural world, um, how questions of social and environmental justice fit in with the practice of Jewish tradition and how Jewish tradition itself can be, uh, supportive of living a lifestyle that is reflective of as much of my environmental and social [00:02:30] values. Uh, and it turns out Judaism has a rich tradition, uh, that teaches us about caring for the Earth, um, about caring for others. Um, and in fact, if you look at it's 2000 year old history, most of the time Jews were agriculturalists.
Speaker 4:So we were much more connected to the land than we are today. So for me, the integration of growing food sustainably and being an activists [00:03:00] and, uh, being someone who feels connected to Jewish tradition and part of Jewish community, part of the Jewish community feels like a seamless integration in my life. Um, my whole professional career the last 20 years has, uh, been spent in work that, uh, connects Jewish tradition and environmental stewardship. Um, my first job out of college was the director of a place called the Tebow learning center, uh, which teaches the connection between Judaism and [00:03:30] the environment, uh, to fifth and sixth graders on four day residential retreats. Uh, in New England. It's a hands on ecology, uh, program where they explore the woods, um, and learn about how Jewish tradition, uh, blessings, holidays, food, um, our awareness about how we treat others, um, all are supportive and uh, cultivate a kind of consciousness. Um, that's more, that helps us become more loving in [00:04:00] the world, which is how I understand Jewish tradition to serve me and human beings. And the tradition is a, uh, agrarian society. Um, and but dot. Kind of doesn't come to the forefront when you think about Judaism. So are you having to reinvent some of these things or is it just going back into the history and bringing them out into, to a modern day interpretation? Right?
Speaker 4:What's consistent about Judaism over [00:04:30] time as far as I can tell, is our core values. What are these core values? Our core values are [inaudible], which means justice. Uh, our core values, our headset, which means compassion. Uh, we have a core value of off of Ahava, which means love. And in every generation, the Jewish communities challenge is to interpret or apply those values to whatever the, whatever reality is presenting itself. And the 21st century, we have a food system that, uh, [00:05:00] you know, is producing a billion people that are overweight and a billion people that are starving every year, um, that is producing food deserts in Oakland and in cities across the country. While there's abundance beyond belief just a few miles away, um, we look at that reality and say, you know, this is the place where we want to apply these values. So it also happens that Jewish tradition in terms of ritual and practice is very connected to the natural world. So that's a very interesting [00:05:30] and curious thing to investigate. But the motivation for this project is much more about applying Jewish traditions, core values to a pressing need that we see in the world right now, which is how do we grow food in ways that are sustainable in ways that respect the earth and in ways that provide healthy food to people who don't have access to it. You're listening to KALX Berkeley 90.7. This is method
Speaker 3:to the madness. A 30 minute show about the [00:06:00] innovative spirit of the bay area. I'm your host, Darlene Izar, and we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director of Urban Adamah, a farm that's sprouted up on San Pablo Avenue in west Berkeley. [inaudible]
Speaker 4:okay, well let's talk a little bit about the project. Yeah. So how did you come to the idea, where did it start? Give me a little bit of the timeline of it. So, uh, urban, our demise is actually the successor to, um, a project called [inaudible] on demand means earth. By the way. [00:06:30] Um, and I founded this project called [inaudible] in Connecticut in 2001 and I Dima is a leadership training program. It still exists, uh, for young adults in their 20s that integrates organic farming, Jewish learning and leadership training. Um, to date, there are about 200 alumni from this program in Connecticut at still continues. It's a, it's housed at a place called the Isabella Freedman Jewish retreat center. Uh, and alumni of the program are doing amazing work in the world, both in the Jewish [00:07:00] community and in the secular world, uh, bringing their consciousness around environmental stewardship and spirituality wherever they go.
Speaker 4:Uh, in 2009, I left Isabella Freedman and the [inaudible] of my fellowship and I took the sabbatical from the world of work for about a year. Um, and you, when that year ended, um, it was really clear to me that what I wanted to do next in my life was sort of create sort of [00:07:30] Adama 2.0 sort of an enhanced version of the first project. It was clear to me that the demand was there. Uh, we had 50 or 60 applicants for 12 spaces in the program each season. Um, and the impact that the fellows were having on the world, uh, Jewish and non Jewish world was tremendous. So it was clear to me that that's where the, there was a need there. Um, and there was an impact that could be made. And then there were three and as I sat with this question of how do I create the next version of other ma, um, there were three things [00:08:00] that came to my mind, uh, that informed how I wanted the new project to be different.
Speaker 4:Um, the first one was where it would be located. Um, I'd demand Connecticut is two and a half hours outside of New York City, three hours from Boston. It's an hour and a half from the closest urban area. So may be a couple of hundred people visited the farm every year. And I knew that if we could bring our Dama to an urban area, thousands of people could be touched by the experience of the farm. And the farm that we have here in, in, [00:08:30] in west Berkeley is in fact an environmental education center for the whole community. We've already had, um, over a thousand people visiting the farm in just a few months that we'd been open. So the first difference between [inaudible] and urban on Dima is the rural versus urban nature of the project. The second aspect of the project that is different and that was really important to me was the social justice aspect of it.
Speaker 4:You know, in Connecticut, the fellows, the program learn how to grow food sustainably and they learn about the dysfunctional system that we're part [00:09:00] of in terms of the agriculture that we're producing in this country. Um, but it's one thing to learn about food and to eat it yourself. Uh, and it's another thing entirely to grow food sustainably and give it all away. Uh, at Urban Adema here we give 90% of the food that we grow. Uh, we give it away. Right now we're giving it to the, um, covenant, uh, the Covenant Tree Church, uh, ministry, which is next door to the farm in west Berkeley. And also to the long life, uh, community health clinic, which runs a soup kitchen, [00:09:30] um, a food bank rather, uh, on Mondays and Tuesdays every week. Um, and so we're giving it away to people in need. A Jewish tradition has this notion of it's a DACA which says that 10% of what you own doesn't actually belong to you.
Speaker 4:In our case, we're doing sort of reverse to DACA and we're giving away 90% of it. And so the fellows who are growing food to give it away are also spending one day a week volunteering with local nonprofits who are working at the intersection of poverty [00:10:00] and food security. So that was sort of the second piece was the social justice piece that's being manifested both in what we're doing with the food and also how the fellows are spending their time. They're not only growing food on the site and teaching on the site, but they're also volunteering at places like city slicker farms, people's grocery, Berkeley youth alternatives, all organizations that are working at that intersection, the intersection of poverty and food issues. The third, um, way that urban undermine is different from [inaudible] is that we're really designing it to be, um, [00:10:30] uh, I, what's the word?
Speaker 4:Um, uh, replicable. Uh, we're designing urban Nevada to be replicable, um, where a standardizing a curriculum where I'm being pretty meticulous with documenting everything that we do. And our hope is that we have urban on demand in other cities and coming years. Um, our farm strategy is based on finding vacant land that we can use temporarily for a minimum of two years. The entire infrastructure [00:11:00] of the farm is designed to be taken down and moved with us and there are millions of empty lots all over this country, um, that are just sitting there. Uh, and if we can figure out a relatively low cost way to grow food and create community on these vacant lots, it would be a huge gift, uh, in our opinion both to the Jewish world and to the world at large was really interesting. So, um, you're talking about, you know, low, uh, ranked for these lots that obviously this is a nonprofit, [00:11:30] right?
Speaker 4:Correct. So from an economics perspective, is it all donor based or uh, yes. The, the land strategy depends on getting land donated or virtually donated. So our land in Berkeley here is being donated by Wareham Development. That's giving us a use of the land for at least two years, possibly three. Um, and our sense is that there are, you know, there doesn't have to be a lot. There has to be some, uh, landowners out there who are in between development and would love to see their land at no cost to [00:12:00] them use for a public good like this. You know, what did you be a little concerned, not to be controversial or anything, but about, um, getting of Covenant Church or these types of places, giving them a lot of food, but all of a sudden, you know, your lease runs out, you can't really predict what's gonna happen next and what happens if they, you know, they get used to the food that you're going to give them.
Speaker 4:Right. Uh, it's a good point. Um, I'd like to think that we'd be able to give them a lot of warning. The food that we're giving them now is supplementing food that they're buying, uh, for their, [00:12:30] for their dinners on Saturday nights. So right now we're, we're hopefully saving them money by supplying them food that's probably also better quality than the food that they're buying. Um, and I think that we'll know at least a year in advance when we're going to have to leave this site. Um, it's also true that there's a lot of empty vacant land in west Berkeley, so if we have to move from this site and two or three years, I'm hoping that we'll find another spot in the same community. This is method to the madness. A 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the [00:13:00] bay area. You can hear this show on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM every other Friday at noon.
Speaker 4:And today we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director and founder of Urban Dima, a urban farm that has sprouted up on San Pablo Avenue in west Berkeley in the last few months. Um, I was reading on your website about this, these age old Jewish traditions you mentioned. Um, so one of them will, these laws, um, I'm probably [00:13:30] not gonna pronounce it right. Bald Tasha Ball. Tasha elite. Volatize sweet. It's definitely, yeah. So that's a really interesting concept. That's really a big thing today. Can you talk a little bit about that? Huh. Um, well, the, the concept of [inaudible] comes from the book of Deuteronomy and there's actually a line in the book of Deuteronomy that says, if you are in battle against a city and there are fruit trees surrounding the walls of the city, even if you could help, [00:14:00] it could help you win the war by cutting down the trees at the entrance to the city, you're not allowed to touch the trees.
Speaker 4:You gotta leave him there. And from that one line in the Torah, um, many rabbis and others have come up with, uh, an interpretation of what that would mean today. And at it, at its core and ball Tash cleats means don't destroy or interpreted by some is don't waste. So if we think in some ways that the challenge of [00:14:30] humanity in the 21st century with regards to the environment is how can we use our resources much more efficiently and much more intelligently? This notion of [inaudible], which is don't waste them, don't destroy, sort of fits right in. And if we were going to say, um, how would we make, you know, most of us aren't going around sieging cities and we don't have the question, you know, should I cut this tree down or should I? But in every moment we have the choice about whether or not we can use things efficiently. Uh, whether or not we're wasteful [00:15:00] choices that we make about our own consumption. I mean, they're, they're everywhere. Um, and so looking at those, this law ball Tash cleat is just one example of, you know, the Jewish community today, taking age old concepts and applying them to a 21st century ability and making that meaningful.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Which is so innovative and interesting about your project. A, another one of these laws was Shmittah
Speaker 4:should we shmita what's that one all about? Shimmy tie, [00:15:30] um, is a law that, uh, like many sort of Jewish environmental concepts come from the era when we were all farmers and Shmita um, is based in this understanding that the land doesn't belong to us. It's very native American in that sense. Um, and Shmita says that at the end of six years you have to let your land completely lie fallow. Insertive consistent with modern principles of organic farming. [00:16:00] There's something wise, uh, and the organic [inaudible] organic practices teach us about letting our land rest and having rotating crop cycles. Um, you know, Jewish tradition at came up with this idea of Shmita years ago basically saying you let the land rest because the land does not belong to you. It belongs to God. That was the traditional understanding of it. Um, it also happens that it makes the land more fertile. [00:16:30] So it's this beautiful notion where, again, old meets new, where a traditional understanding of something that has to do with how we relate to the creator of all life is ultra also a practice that helps sustain our inhabiting of the land and using it to sustain us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's really fascinating concept about you're looking at these old traditions are I think, um, um, Michael pay, Pailin, pollen, Paul and Michael Pollan, the, uh, the [00:17:00] author has food rules, but yeah. Or, or you went around the world and looked at all these kind of traditional rules for food and tried to solicited for them on the Internet and found, uh, that a lot of those rules are even better than modern day in nutritional science. Cause they're just some, there's something to it. That's why he's lasted so long and that, yeah, and the consciousness of those peoples who follow those traditions, it's really fascinating. I'm one more la wanted to ask about was um,
Speaker 4:[00:17:30] ah, man, these pronunciations, you would show it to me. Well, I think a p e a h [inaudible] [inaudible]. Yeah. So pay, ah, uh, literally means corner. And there is a law in the book of Leviticus that says, when you, uh, harvest your fields, you have to lead, leave the corner of your field for the poor. Over time that's been interpreted to also mean that 10% of what you earn and what you collect. [00:18:00] So if you're not a farmer, 10% of what you earn actually you have to leave for the poor. It doesn't actually belong to you. So there's this notion that in the days when we were all farmers, we don't know how big these corners were, but there were some part of the field that poor people in the town who didn't have food knew that they could go and collect. Um, and we're trying to model that actually at the urban [inaudible] farm in west Berkeley.
Speaker 4:Uh, we have a tent called the Payette tent at the corner of our farm. And the idea is once we're producing enough food that on [00:18:30] one day a week we'll actually put food there and working with local social service agencies, let folks know that they can actually come and take food from the pay a corner. And it will also be a food bank as well for local people to bring cans of food and other dried goods. So it'll be a sort of a food bank that's onsite at the farm. And that's what you were referring to before is going to flipping. You're doing 90%. Exactly though, the 10% exactly. Okay, great. And what about the last one is this one will definitely not get Sar and belie a [00:19:00] m sire by allay high game. Okay. So it literally means, um, the prevention of the suffering of animals.
Speaker 4:Um, and there are bunch of laws in the old testament that all have to do with how we treat animals. Um, you're not allowed to tie an ox and a donkey together if you're plowing your field because they are both have different levels of strength and it's inhumane to tie them both to the [00:19:30] same tool that's helping you plow your field. Um, you're not allowed to feed yourself before you feed your animals. Um, you're not allowed to take the egg of a mother bird. Um, if the mother bird is watching. So there's this whole list of, of Old Testament laws that collectively are called Sar by like high IEM. And we look at it today and we say, well, if we were going to take Sar by Liam seriously today, what would that mean in terms of our own treatment of animals [00:20:00] and our own consumption of animals?
Speaker 4:What would it look like if we're raising chickens on our farm? What kind of space would we give them? What would we feed them? Um, if we're buying food for ourselves, what is preventing the cruelty and the suffering of animals today? Can we buy factory farm meat and say that we're following this notion of [inaudible]? So these are, this is something again, that we're struck, that we're engaging with and looking at and trying to say, how are we going to make this meaningful in the 21st century, given the reality that we're facing? [00:20:30] You're listening to KALX Berkeley, [inaudible] 90.7 FM. This is method to the madness, a 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the bay area and I'm your host holding his arm. We expect to grow six to 7,000 pounds of food, um, this year that, you know, 90% of of which will be given away.
Speaker 4:But really urban on demoss contribution, um, to the world is, it's in, is in its education and in its leadership training. Um, there are three [00:21:00] cohorts of 20 somethings that live in a house a few blocks from the farm communally and engage in a curriculum that combines, uh, urban organic farming where they're actually working on the farm, teaching on the farm to members of the community about the work that we're doing, uh, and living and engaging, uh, in, um, and, and sort of learning and approach to Jewish tradition that resonates [00:21:30] with our core values and supports them and becoming JJ agents in the world. And we have three cohorts a year, so it's 36 fellows, uh, and our hope is that they're going to go out in the world and do great things. Um, and I think that's, uh, probably our biggest contribution along with the interaction that we have with the thousands of visitors that will be coming to the farm and what they will take away from the experience.
Speaker 4:And you also do camps, right? Yeah, we run out, we run a summer camp program, uh, in [00:22:00] partnership with several different, uh, bay area organizations. Uh, and we're also going to be running a program called Hebrew school on the farm in partnership with a couple of synagogues in the area. We'll be bringing their students to us regularly throughout the fall. Okay. And is there a particular, um, sect or form of Judaism that you're practicing there and there isn't? Um, we're trained denominational. Um, this summer we're running summer camps in partnership with, uh, the g the Jewish community center, uh, [00:22:30] which is, uh, I think by definition a nonreligious institution, um, and really appeals to folks who don't consider themselves, um, very traditional Jewishly. Uh, and we're also running a program with congregation Beth Israel, which is the, um, Hologic or Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. And so I think that, um, Jews and non Jews are hope, feel comfortable at urban, on Dima.
Speaker 4:Uh, we will be running programs [00:23:00] hopefully in partnership with the ecology center moving forward. The don't actually have any Jewish content that are just open to the public, uh, programs that deal with urban, sustainable agriculture. Um, and we'll, our hope is also this fall, we'll be running programs for kids in the community that aren't connected to Jewish organizations who are just interested in coming to the farm and learning what the farm has to teach them. This is a method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM and we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director of urban automa. What [00:23:30] is the vision? So if you look out five years from now and you're, this is something you created out of your brain, this show is very much about innovators and we interview innovation across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Um, and I always like to ask this
Speaker 3:question because it came from your brain. Where do you see it going in five years? If you could wave a magic wand and have it be exactly what you would want it to be, what would it be? Yeah. Um,
Speaker 4:my hope is that there would be urban od dima farms in many [00:24:00] communities throughout this country. Five years from now, I'd like to see us in four cities. I'd like to see, uh, the urban [inaudible] fellowship become a rite of passage for hundreds of young adults every year. And I would like to see the alumni of the fellowship out in the world planting their seeds and bringing how they interpret sat deck has said and Ahava just stick justice, compassion, and love into the world in ways that resonates with their own visions. So the first [00:24:30] circle is the circle of the fellows. The second circle in terms of the vision is what happens in the Jewish community where these farms exist. My hope is that the Jewish communities, wherever the urban [inaudible] farms exist, find joy, relevancy, meeting connection as part of their urban Adam experience. Whether or not they're sending their kids for a day long program or they're sending their kids for a three week summer program.
Speaker 4:My hope is that the farms enriched Jewish communal life wherever they find themselves. And then [00:25:00] the third circle of impact is in the larger world, forget about the Jewish community. My hope is that urban ended, my farms are producing tens of thousands of pounds of food that are going to people in need wherever the cities find themselves. My hope is that urban had to, my farms are a bridge between the Jewish community and the non-Jewish can be wherever they find themselves. Our food. The land is this common language is this common resource that connects us all and for urban out of our [inaudible] farmers to be a place where people come together regardless, [00:25:30] or religion or ethnicity, to grow, food, to eat, to celebrate, to sing. That's my greatest hope for what urban Audubon can be in the world.
Speaker 3:Wow. Well, hopefully we'll get there. It sounds like a, you've got the passion to make it happen. If people want to learn more about it, uh, how should they get in touch with you? Www urban onto [inaudible] dot org my email is Adam at urban adamah at demise a d a m a h. Dot. Org. I look to thank Adam for coming [00:26:00] on the show today and wish him the best of luck and Urban Altima you've been listening to. Method to the madness. 30 minutes. Share about the innovative spirit of the bay area. You can learn more about our show, a method to the madness.org have a great Friday. Everyone.
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