Abraham Joshua Heschel taught in the name of his grandfather, the Ohev Yisroel, that on Tisha B'Av, when we fast in memory of the destruction of the temple, exile and persecution of our people, he would ask ver ken essen-who can eat?

And on Yom Kippur, when we fast in order to be like an angel-ver darf essen-who needs to eat?

But I would add in English vernacular, that on Pesach, there is one question on our minds-what can we eat? There is a custom of not eating any matza during the month of Nisan, looking forward to that first taste of matza. The first bite is indeed a wonderful taste.

But after the first taste, what do you really want to eat? By the end of 3, 4 days, are you dreaming of cereal, pasta, French bread-are you yearning to eat hametz?

The contrast between the foods we eat on Pesach and those we eat the rest of the year are quite stark in an era with so many choices for food, not only what to eat, but where: take-out, eat-in, fast food. And those of us who give up the usual routine meals and snacks become more home-bound, more reliant on our own cooking, more aware of what we are eating and where it comes from.

And this is a good thing. Because there are frightening facts about the food in the supermarkets, in the fast-food kitchens, and even in our schools, that we need to learn about and face up to before we switch back to our everyday habits.

At the Passover seder, we open our homes and share our food with friends and strangers alike. "Let all who are hungry come and eat"-is a noble and generous proposition, only if what we are offering is healthy, nutritious food, untainted by toxic chemicals, life-threatening bacteria.

I recently read the New York Times bestseller, Fast-Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, subtitled, "The Dark Side of the All-American Meal." At first, I was not very interested in reading the book, since we don't make a practice of eating fast-food. But once I began reading, the book served as a warning about the price that we are all forced to pay for the convenience and reliability of those trusty meals-on-the-go, the drive-through windows and the tasty French fries that, believe it or not, drive our nation's economy.

As Schlosser explains, "this is a book about fast food, the values it embodies and the world it has made." Next week, during Pesach, I will share with you his findings about the oppression of workers all along the production line, from the farmers and ranchers to the meat-packers, to the food-service workers at McDonalds and Burger King. But this week, as we clean out the hametz from our homes, I'd like to present some of the disturbing facts and trends that affect the food we buy and eat the rest of the year.

You may be thinking that you don't eat fast food, or at least not that often. But the impact of this industry has reshaped production of meat and potatoes, and how the government regulates and enforces-or in this case, does not-the production of our food. Why? McDonalds is the largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes in this country. It is the second largest purchaser of chicken. Therefore, their demands shape the production of food that goes to the entire country, not only fast-food. In 1996, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) vowed to take immediate action to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease. One year later, they passed new restrictions in 1997 to regulate what is fed to cattle. I am not going to share the specifics of what is fed to cattle, but keep in mind that they are not carnivores-they are meant to eat grain, grass and water. Yet they are regularly fed "animal by-products," which are the source of the disease. When the regulations were passed, the strongest language was rewritten by the meat industry itself, and was hardly noticed or followed. But when fears of Mad Cow disease in Europe threatened the meat industry in 2001, McDonalds decided not to purchase meat from producers who feed their animals dangerous by-products, all of a sudden, people start to comply. That is awesome power-quite a mighty hand and outstretched arm!

Many of us read Upton Sinclair's horrific descriptions of the meat-packing industry at the turn of the 20th century in his classic The Jungle. I read it in high school, but felt comforted that the filthy and toxic conditions described there had been remedied by legislation. How naïve to believe that any industry might not lapse back into practices and neglect known a century ago! Schlosser's description of the way cattle are slaughtered, and the lack of hygienic conditions recalls the worst of Sinclair's diatribe. Not only are these conditions prevalent, but the meatpacking and fast-food industries have successfully prevented legislation that would require recalls of tainted meat, or testing at the plants. This is how, in 1997, we were frightened by the appearance of the e coli pathogen that killed children who had eaten the hamburgers that Ronald McDonald had told them and their families was good for them.

You may be thinking, well this doesn't affect me, because I am not a meat eater, or I only eat the French fries. Think again. Shortly after this book was published, in 2001 you may remember, vegetarians and Hindus and others who thought they were eating potatoes cooked in 100% vegetable oil were shocked to learn that what makes the famous McDonalds French fries so tasty was that they were cooked in beef tallow. You might also be surprised to learn that beef flavor is added to the chicken nuggets that so many children eat in their Happy Meals, to make them taste good. And although your shampoo and your pet food have to provide accurate and measurable lists of ingredients, the fast food industry has powerfully prevented any regulations that require labeling that tell us the origin of so-called "natural flavors" or colors-flavors that can come from as wide a range of sources as beef, pork, poultry, shellfish or even insects.

While we're chewing on the plan matzah, bravely swallowing the bitter herbs and even enjoying the many varieties of charoset that will grace our seder tables this week, this would be an ideal time to consider what we eat, where it comes from, and whether we know for certain that it is not dangerous to us and to our children. And when we open the door for Elijah, hoping that he will arrive to bring hope of a renewed world, a world at peace, we might consider how we play a role in creating a world in which it is safe to bite into a hamburger or French fry. Schlosser leaves us with a sense of our own power, to make our voices heard.

McDonalds has demonstrated a certain degree of responsiveness to public pressure. Thanks to animal rights lobbyists, they have sent inspectors into plants to ensure that animals are slaughtered in a humane way. Thanks to vegetarian concerns, they have changed the way they make French fries. Thanks to environmentalists, they dispensed with the Styrofoam containers-at least in the US. And thanks to consumer protests, they stopped purchasing genetically-engineered potatoes, thereby essentially halting the production of these biotech vegetables. What we choose to buy, or choose not to buy, may seem like a small form of protest, but when you and your friends and your friends' friends become aware of what we are actually putting into our mouths when we eat in those clean, bright and cheerful restaurants, we have more power than Congress. We are, after all, a stiff-necked people, going back to those brave midwives who refused to sacrifice the newborn babies to the powerful demands of a cruel Pharaoh. This task will save the lives of our babies, with much less risk to ourselves. Let's just think of it as cleaning out the hametz once again.