Food and Faith

Bread of Life

My husband’s mother lives with a diagnoses of celiac disease. This means she doesn’t eat anything that has gluten - which can be found in wheat, rye, or barley. Personally, I’m a big fan of gluten and I add gluten flour when making bagels. It puts the chewy in chewy bread. My mother-in-law is on the other end of that scale. Not that she doesn’t like chewy, its just that she has to avoid any speck of gluten which requires a fierce vigilance. Web sites, including the Mayo Clinic, advocates not even using the same counter top that bread may have touch for risk of a few molecules of gluten coming into cross-contamination. I hear those who are allergic to peanut butter need to maintain a similar vigilance least they inadvertently kick off a much more immediate and fatal allergic reaction. Celiac is more of a long term threat.

Imagine - food that every one else enjoys, and even shows up in medicines as a binder, can actually cause deep suffering and a shortened life span. Its one of those confused immunity systems things where what should be our friend (food) gets labeled as an enemy. Much like all wars, the immunity system’s defensive attack on the perceived invading force of the gluten protein takes out innocent bystanders, in this case, the villi of our small intestines. Villi is how we get the nutrients out of the food and into our body. Damaged villi is not so good at that. No villa, no nutrients.

growing gardens and community in Harlem - ABC news

Great video of urban farming in Harlem.
(right after the short commercial)

This comes from City Farmer News (based in Vancouver, Canada) whose main web site Urban Agriculture Notes has hundreds of pages of information about city farming. Published since 1994, it was the first web site on the Internet to promote urban farming. City Farmer teaches people how to grow food in the city, compost their waste and take care of their home landscape in an environmentally responsible way. 

If you are lucky enough to get to Vancouver, you can visit the staff at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden, 2150 Maple Street, and see how they take care of the urban landscape. You can see their compost toilet, green roof, cob shed, organic food garden, permeable lane, natural lawn, waterwise garden, worm and backyard composter and more.

Photo caption: Maya Donelson tending the rooftop garden of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times.

what's on my food?

Pesticides Action Network of North America has just launched a powerful new online tool that enables all of us to find out exactly what pesticides are on our food, in what amount, and with what implication for our health.

How much is too much?

Find out for each thing you eat.

Pray for Peace in Peru

Violent clashes between Peruvian police and indigenous protesters in the region of Bagua, Peru this past week.

The indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are protesting because of fast-track decrees that allow the entrance of extractive industries to their native lands. These decrees are part of the implementation of the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement which began February 1, 2009.

Friday night and Saturday, the Peruvian police were called into the area, called "The Devil's Curve" and opened fire on the communities who had been performing a protest and blockade for several weeks.

The communities were armed with sticks and lances; the police with guns, helicopters, shields, and gases.

Numbers of those killed are unconfirmed, as allegations that the police are hiding bodies have come to light. The government also called a curfew, preventing indigenous residents to search for the missing.

This is one example of the violent results of Free Trade. Many, many communities have spoken out about these events in defense of human rights, environment, fair trade, indigenous rights, and democracy.

One step you can take is to read more from the following english articles. Sign the letter to President Garcia here. Sign on to this ecumenical, international statement for peace. And stay tuned for ways to communicate with other international leaders for the rights of all people.

Democracy NOW:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/8/peruvian_police_accused_of_massacring_indigenous

Eyes on Trade:
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/06/ftaspawned-crisis-continues-in-peru.html

swine flu 1999

Sorry for the lapse in posts. I know you missed us and were wondering what was happening in the world of food and faith. Well, things have been hopping with new legislation around agricultural aid to Africa coming out of the Senate and the State Department soon (more on that later), and the swine flu virus--as seen above through a microscope--popping up here and there around the planet. Thought you would be interested to know the following, kindly noted by Virginia, coordinator extraordinaire of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders -

We Were Warned

May 3, 2009 by David Kirby

In researching my upcoming book on factory farming for St. Martins Press, I have come across many warnings from our past about the looming threat of pandemic influenza emerging from large-scale hog operations.  It now appears that six of the eight genetic components in the currently circulating virus are direct descendants of a swine flu virus that first emerged in North Carolina a decade ago. That bug was discovered in August 1998, at a 2,400-head breeding facility in Newton Grove, NC, where all the sows suddenly came down with a phlegmatic cough. Pregnant animals spontaneously aborted their litters. (read the article)

Our Own Backyard

I want to start this entry with the following disclaimer: I am not currently employed by any Christian-affiliated organization but I have been and hope to do so again. 

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to do meaningful work with compensation and I am even more grateful when I remember that my paycheck started out in an offering plate. What little income I currently earn as a free-lance writer for Presbyterian-related publications also starts its path toward me as a ten or twenty-dollar bill pulled out of a wallet or a pocket and folded discreetly in someone’s hand as they await the solemn passing of the often decades old offering plate.  As a free-lance writer and occasional pulpit supply preacher, I remain aware that my income, meager as it is, is someone else’s sacrificial gift. In these economic times, tithing has become both more important and more potentially sacrificial as jobs disappear, savings dive with the market, and paid hours are cut in the workplace. 

Andean Harvest Festival by a first-time participant

They call it Pachamanca.

The word, in Quechua, means earth-pot. It's a harvest festival, not unlike our Thanksgiving. It takes place in the Andes among indigenous people at the beginning of May.

And I was invited.

An artisan group called Tupac Yupanqui invited my fellow US colleagues and me to participate in their Pachamanca. It meant a steep hike up a mountain to a small farm complex nestled in the foliage of harvest.

The family, mostly Quechuan-speaking with a couple people able to translate into Spanish, greeted us native-English speakers to their courtyard. As the guests, we were beckoned to sit on the sheepskin covers on the handmade benches. We chatted about the weather, knitting, and swine flu, before my curiosity overcame me and I had to ask: Can we see the Pachamanca?

Macedonio led us around the back of the courtyard, where we hopped over a small wall to the dirt pile adjacent to the kitchen.

Pachamanca means the food is placed in a hole in the ground, layered with heated bricks, then covered with plastic and dirt, and left to cook for an hour.
 
The kids ran all around our earth-pot. They placed stick crosses in the top. They pestered Macedonio to open it.

It wasn't time yet.

I was getting anxious to unearth this food-treasure. Fortunately, I was distracted by my first course: a rich, hot soup served with a handmade wooden spoon.

"Caldo de cuy," Macedonio pronounced as he served us. I looked down, and sure enough, the hindquarters and claw of a guinea pig were sticking out of the broth. I felt very fraternal picking the meat off its tiny bones while holding its tiny hand. Cuy, while time-consuming and tedious to eat, is delicious. Ezequiel, the resident grandpa, repeatedly told us how delicious this soup was, and how we had to eat more.

"Es Pachamanca!" he declared, "You have to eat LOTS!"

The whole family had started to congregate around our earth-pot. Macedonio led the group in shoveling off the top layers of dirt. The kids got down on their hands and knees, scraping with their bare hands to unearth the treasure below.

Soon, the first layer was peeled back, and steam bellowed from the belly of the mound. It smelled like the whole world: food, family, harvest, roots, animal, labor, love.

Layer by layer the dirt came off. We found the treasures one by one: first, meat of alpaca with its bright Georgia O'Keefe bones. Then, beans, savory sweet within their furry pod. Three kinds of potatoes: fresh yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, and oca, an Andean tuber deliciously soft and sweet. The last surprise were humitas, gifts of sweet corn tamales wrapped in their green husks, dripping with beads of sweat.

The family served us huge bowls with all of this steaming hot. We sat on hand-woven mantas, or blankets, in a large circle, surrounding the warm food. With our dirty hands we peeled the potato skins, unwrapped our tamales, opened our bean pods. We ate together for over an hour straight.

The kids ran around picking from everyone's plates. We all made piles of scraps at our feet which were later fed to the cow, tethered just a few places from where we sat for our meal.

I didn't understand what was said during the majority of the meal as the family talked in Quechua and our request for translation was met with shy giggles from the women and confused stares from the children. In situations like this, however, the language doesn't matter. We all understand: we are so grateful for this food, for the work in harvesting it, for the community with which to eat it.

Pachamanca means eating and sharing the work of your labor with your loved ones. May we do this all the days of our lives.

combined pesticides may cause Parkinson's

Two pesticides combine to raise risk of Parkinson's

In the first study of its kind, a survey of more than 700 residents of California's Central Valley suggests that people who live near farm fields sprayed with a combination of pesticides have an elevated risk of acquiring Parkinson's disease. The results, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that residents who lived within 500 meters of tomato, bean and potato fields sprayed with a combination of maneb and paraquat had 75% greater risk of Parkinson's disease. Environmental Health News (EHN) reports that exposing children to the pesticide combo posed "an even higher risk." Residents aged 60 were "five times more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease." Although this was the first study to investigate the combined impacts of the two pesticides, it adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests chemical cocktails of two or more pesticides can be more harmful than any single chemical acting alone. Rodents exposed to a mixture of maneb and paraquat in lab experiments suffered nerve cell loss, diminished motor activity and decreased levels of dopamine, an essential neurotransmitter. EHN notes that, because the study did not include tests for pesticides in blood and urine, "other factors" may account for the observed relationship.

Thanks to Pesticides Action Network for this news brief. You can subscribe here to their PANUPS e-newsletter.

What I've learned so far from planting plants

My parents were not big garden/yard hobby people. They preferred to read, watch TV, do crosswords or travel. In my first marriage, my deeply introverted husband desired to garden in a personal, no-talking zone. Being an extrovert and a garden neophyte, I left it all to him for decades. Time passed till one year at seminary (mid-life & post-divorce) I bought a rose bush and put it in a container. It didn't die. Then I bought little flowers and kept them in some old wooden planters. They didn't die either. Before long I had herbs and even a cherry tomatoes plant hanging off the railings and I was happy. I had fresh herbs again and the tomatoes tasted really good. 

At the same time I was preparing to graduate from seminary, I was also preparing to marry again and to take up residence in a real house with a real yard. I started tomato and basil plants from seed and nurtured the little starts in my seminary apartment before moving them into their (and mine) new home. I just now planted my fourth round of future yummy goodness in the former sandbox outside my writing desk window. 

While I still consider myself to be a plant-tender newby, I've learned a few things along the way. 

#1 - fresh food grown within ten feet of my back door is really really good tasting stuff.

#2 - slugs & snails agree with me 

#3 - Life Wants To Live.

traveling fruit