Including Sustainability in Your Tu B’Shevat Celebration
Tu B’Shevat is coming early this year, but it’s never too soon to celebrate trees and their fruit. A Kabbalah-based Tu B’Shevat seder, though not as steeped in tradition as the Pesach seder, nor, for that matter, cloaked in the same Biblical authority, is nonetheless increasingly popular among all segments of the Jewish community. (A full explanation of the significance of the holiday and a blueprint for celebrating it can be found in the February 2023 issue of this publication.)
The original text of the seder, Peri Etz Hadar, a seventeenth century compilation of scriptural selections by a disciple of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal, is often liberally adapted to suit the spiritual inclinations—not to say, levels of erudition—of the intended celebrants, but it would not be any kind of seder without wine and symbolic foods. As befits the New Year of the Trees, most of those foods are fruits. But, also as befits this occasion, shouldn’t that wine and those fruits be sustainably produced and delivered to the table?
Sustainability, as most literally defined, means the ability to maintain itself, but in the agricultural context, it means much more than simply putting things back the way they were. Of the three specifically defined systems of environmentally responsible farming, sustainability has the broadest reach.
Organic farming at its most basic involves the avoidance of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Biodynamic farming views the entire enterprise as an organic whole. Sustainability includes not only the farm itself, but the workers’ welfare in addition.
If you want to serve sustainable wines at your seder, you will need to rely on certifications from various organizations to make your selections. Since growing grapes is just one portion of the wine-making process, it is simply too difficult for a consumer to make that determination on his own.
The USDA National Organic Program certifies agricultural products including grapes, which means that the product has been grown in compliance with organic criteria for at least three years. If the criteria are met, wines can be certified as “made with organic grapes.” That is not the same as organic wine, which must include only organic-certifiable ingredients, such as yeast, and must meet criteria established by the Alcohol, Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau as well. Various other countries have their own certifying organizations with their own criteria.
For a biodynamically produced wine, there is the Demeter certification. Many biodynamic practices tend to be more New Age than mainstream, so that only a small cadre of true believers engage in this method, and very few wineries have sought or earned this seal of approval.
A number of groups—almost all California-based—have established sustainability certifications, with emphases on slightly different aspects of what makes a wine sustainable. Certified California Sustainable Wine growing issues a code of 151 vineyard and 113 winery best practices, including Integrated Pest Management, measurement of water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and an on-going improvement plan.
Sustainability in Practice (SIP) Certified publishes a fourteen-chapter set of standards addressing biology, diversity, soil, water and energy conservation, pest management, pollution and waste control, business management and social equity. A conservation plan must be updated at least every five years, and the applicant for certification must submit to a third-party inspection.
Lodi Rules (California, that is, not New Jersey) is the granddaddy of California wine sustainability programs with over one hundred mandatory sustainability standards. It has now expanded beyond the United States and includes Golan Heights and Galil Mountain wineries in Israel.
Beyond labels from these three comprehensive certifying organizations, some wines may 
carry certifications that are more specialized in scope. Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) Certified departs from some vineyard standards to adapt to a cooler and wetter Pacific Northwest climate, as does SalmonSafe. Wineries can apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification for their buildings.
Determining how sustainable particular fruits may be is much easier than ascertaining a winery’s compliance with a novel’s worth of different criteria. From an environmental standpoint, the most sustainable fruit is that which is locally grown in season, which, in New Jersey in February, includes nothing. Yes, it is no doubt possible to grow fruit in a local greenhouse, but the energy costs of maintaining light, temperature and sufficient carbon dioxide erase any savings from reduced transportation. Thus, sustainability criteria are necessarily different for out-of-season produce.
Most ordered lists of sustainable fruits place figs at the top. They are quite prolific and therefore consume less acreage per pound. They tolerate a wide temperature range as well as drought and floods, so they can be a source of locally grown fresh produce over a large area. But, as fresh fruit, they do not keep well, so they would need to be air-freighted to Central New Jersey at this time of year. Berries have the same advantages and drawbacks. They are nutritionally dense for a low environmental cost per serving in season, but they have poor keeping qualities, so out-of-season transport is expensive in every way. Stick with the dried fruit.
Apples and pears, however, move to the top of the list. Among the most prolific fruits, apples boast close to 8000 known cultivars, while pears boast over 6000, so there are a number of suitable varieties for every climate zone from Maine through Georgia. They keep well in cold storage, so transportation costs are low. Citrus fruits have a much more geographically limited range, but are prolific, tolerant of poor and relatively salty soils and keep well, so their environmental costs are among the lowest of those of winter fruits.
If you want some variety beyond these more sustainable selections, the next best choices would be native fruits. If you want grapes, choose native varieties such as Concord or Niagara. They have energy costs similar to those of vinifera grapes, but are better adapted to our environment and more beneficial as far as biodiversity is concerned.
Unfortunately, high fat fruits, including tree nuts, avocados and olives, are near the bottom of the list. They have very high water requirements and, except for some nuts, require a climate that is found far from New Jersey in sensitive areas at risk of deforestation.
Granted, it would be much easier to acknowledge trees sustainably in July, but for that very reason, now is when we need a Tu B’Shevat celebration. And, if indulging in some fruits may be a bit too self-indulgent for the eco-conscious, a little scrutiny at the produce bins can make this Tu B’Shevat better for the planet and more meaningful for us.
And, by the way, if you are contemplating enjoying some chocolate on that gentile holiday that occurs halfway through February, be aware that the cacao bean is at the very top of the list of the world’s thirstiest crops. Just saying.
Sue Kleinberg is a contributing writer to Jlife magazine.
