Many Christians say grace before a meal, thanking God for the food on their tables. But few stop to consider where their food came from, how it was grown and at what cost it arrived on their plates.
A conference at Duke Divinity School starting Monday attempts to bring clarity to that prayer, so often cited but seldom explored.
“Our Daily Bread: A Theology and Practice of Sustainable Living” is Duke’s latest venture into the moral implications of eating, a subject that has been much discussed recently with a crop of popular books on the perils of the industrial food supply.
The conference is aimed at clergy and lay leaders and draws on some of the leading thinkers in the field. One is a geneticist. Another a poet and farmer. But all share a conviction that churches ought to bring a discussion of food into their pulpits.
“How we eat is the single most important decision we make about the health of our planet,” said Ellen Davis, a professor of Bible and practical theology at the divinity school, who championed the conference.
The idea is not to encourage pastors to eat organic, but to examine the ways in which Christians have become alienated from their food sources and have neglected their responsibility to care for creation. Instead of encouraging sustainable agriculture and a love of the environment, many Christians are preoccupied with building even bigger sanctuaries and paving even larger parking lots.
thank you thank you thank you for posting this article! i have recently changed my eating habits and am closely looking at food labels now, i am still amazed at how many chemicals i have ingested without a second thought through the years. fabulous article! when i write to my politicians to support environmental legislation i tell them that God does care about preserving His creations, otherwise He would not have asked Noah to build an ark…thanks again Mr. Harmon and elves.
Not a bad idea. Wendell Berry will be there.
It too bad they couldn’t ask Joel Salatin to come down.
http://polyfacefarms.com/
“How we eat is the single most important decision we make about the health of our planet” —Ellen Davis
Bad government does far more environmental damage than individuals’ eating choices. To make the point even more specifically, GOVERNMENTAL CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION by themselves do more environmental damage than individuals’ eating choices. But it’s easier to nag people about what they eat.
Sentiments like this are admirable. We are indeed charged as the stewards of Creation, but criticizing the fact of imported food is just hogwash. Do they want to go back to the days of people in northern climes eating potatoes and beets to make it through the winter? Should people in sunbaked South Georgia have to forego fresh vegetables?
I think they should quit eating. It will do us all a lot of good.
I’m a big Joel Salatin fan. He’s a Christian and considers this a stewardship issue. I just processed 26 of my own chickens last weekend for my own freezer. It wasn’t especially easy, but it made me realize how much denial we’re in about where our McNuggets come from. I raise my own eggs and lamb, too. But I’m blessed to be on 4.5 acres. Not everyone has that luxury.
I ate an apple from Chile yesterday, bought from the store. Seems kind of crazy to ship an apple thousands of miles. Eating local makes sense.
Cindy T.,
If it were uneconomic to ship that apple, rest assured you never would have gotten it. And if autarchy were a viable economic system, North Korea would be a paradise.
If we go on the premise that all we eat should be local, does that mean the U.S. should STOP sending shipments of grain and other food-stuffs to third-world (developing) nations to help relieve the stress of famine or natural disasters in those countries? Perservatives help get the food there without spoilage.
Follow the logic to its — er — logical conslusion. The world cannot feed itself only on what each nation grows individually. I thought that this was the lesson learned in the Irish Potato Famine, and the ‘year without a winter’ where so many starved because the crops were frozen in the ground when they should have been ready for harvesting.
libraryjim, I don’t think a commitment to eat local precludes us from helping people far away who are suffering from drought or famine. For me, it means not consuming extra resources needed by the demand to eat exotic fruits and vegetables out of season. Heck, it means mainly fewer trips to the grocery store (I HATE grocery shopping) to grow and preserve my own produce and meat. It means that my large yard is put to a better use than just fertilizing it, watering it and mowing it for looks. With a little effort, it gives me food for minimal cost. I don’t know how many starving children in Africa have it better because I grew my own veggies, but it can’t hurt. God gave my family a beautiful “farmette” and I believe he expects me to make 10 talents out of the 5 I received. And if I raise more veggies than I can eat, I have resources to share. Must run… gotta deliver several dozen eggs–pasture raised, non-genetically modified, eggs from happy hens. 🙂
Cindy,
you are indeed blessed. Most of us not so much so, and when living in the midst of a city, we have to take what we get. If Chilean grapes are available in the winter, we buy them. We rarely get US grapes anywhere around here, anyway.