Food and Faith

Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa

I missed this story completely back in March. Did you? Or did network news give it full, multi-day coverage and I just need to watch more TV?

South African farmers suffered million of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of GMO maize failed to produce hardly any seeds. "Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory ; but we are saying that is (a general) biotechnology failure. You cannot make a mistake with three different varieties of corn", those were the words of Mariam Mayet.

The three maize varieties which failed to produce seeds were designed with a built-in resistance to weed-killers, and manipulated to increase yields per hectare. Was this the case ?

This is a good example of how a simple mistake in the laboratory can lead to hunger and especially for small holder farmers who rely on their crops for their existence. 

Read the story

Below (and on the website) is the video of farmer suicides in India due to Monsanto policies and GM crop failures

advocate raw milk and get sued?

Some people really like raw milk. Calves too. But, as advocates found out last week, you must be VERY careful what you say about pasteurized milk. Or, you may be sued. In the United States, it is not always the power of the argument, rather the size of your legal team that wins out.

See this article about the raw milk symposium in Seattle for the latest on pure, unadulterated cow milk.

Not Indifferent

This coming Sunday, the lectionary brings us round to one of the most important teachings about Jesus that we can find in the Gospels: 

When hungry people are around Jesus, they get to eat till they are full.

They also get to cross lakes in the middle of storms without harm and even try a little water-walking if they aren’t too full of bread or doubt, but the most important message shows up in the first part of this lectionary passage - hungry people get to eat. 

I’ve heard sermons where the preacher tries to explain how five loaves and two fish make it around the crowd. I personally think the moment you do that you lose the point. The point isn’t how the crowd gets fed but is instead that they are fed. I really don’t care if the fish just kept growing or if everyone suddenly remember the picnic lunch they had tucked up their sleeves before setting out and then deciding to go ahead and share with everyone else. Not only is the how not particularly important but it is also outside of this story. 

The most important point in this story is clearly and simply stated in verse 42: 

“And all ate and were filled.”

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.