Food and Faith

Grounded Scriptures: waiting for due season

Strawberries are coming into season. At least in the warmer parts of California. As of this week, they are showing up at my farmer’s market, which is enough for me to say FAIR GAME! Of course I write this here with great trepidation, because my kind readers, being from all over the country, may hurl spite and jealousy in my general direction. But just think of what you can look forward to. 
Strawberries from the grocery store just don’t do it for me. The white and mealy insides, the lack of juicyness, their ridiculous size – they smack of unnaturalness. The worst are the strawberries you buy in November. They’ve been flown from Chile or somewhere, and aborted prematurely off their vine so they can survive the flight before ripening (and rotting). But a local, fresh strawberry is something else entirely. Red all the way through, ripened thoroughly on the vine, intoxicating in their sweetness, and so delicate they will bruise in a minute, if you don’t eat them – nevermind flying them to another country. They are truly worth waiting for. 

The Bible verse that most immediately comes to mind is Ps 104:27. “[all creatures] look to you to give them their food in due season; you open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.” 
The proper course of things, the rightness of seasonal changes, the appropriate time to receive and to eat – the goodness of waiting! 

But a more ominous verse comes to mind as well. This is from the wilderness wanderings, Numbers 11:4-6: “The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”’
The truth is, we can get our cucumbers and melons any season of the year, but we get it at a price. We can have raspberries on our Christmas desserts, flown on little petrochemical wings from faraway lands, to save us from the boring manna diet of what CAN be grown (or stored) locally in the winter. We get it at a price: pollution across our skies, insecurity for our own local farmers, and mealy white strawberries. 
The Israelites got access to their wonderful, Nile-irrigated vegetables while they were in Egypt, and got it at a price: their freedom. It is useless to pretend we do not also give up our freedom when we allow Dole and other multinational corporations to feed us, hook us in, teach us the attitude of entitlement that keeps the dollars flowing and the strawberries flying. 

Barbara Kingsolver writes in vivid terms about our lack of (gastronomic) patience, which may be said to have negative effects on other realms of society. Patience and restraint, great virtues, are only applied selectively in our culture: “…browbeating our teenagers with the message that they should wait for sex, for example. Only if they wait to experience intercourse under the ideal circumstances (the story goes), will they know its true value. “Blah, blah, blah,” hears the teenager: words issuing from a mouth that can’t even wait for the right time to eat tomatoes, but instead consumes tasteless ones all winter to satisfy a craving for everything now. We’re raising our children on the definition of promiscuity if we feed them a casual, indiscriminate mingling of foods from every season plucked from the supermarket, ignoring how our sustenance is cheapened by wholesale desires.” (Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” page 31).

Dare to cut loose and be free. Cut loose from Pharaoh’s addictive provisions of food-with-a-price, and wait for the Real Deal. I promise (though I have perhaps not waited as long as you in colder climes will) that the strawberries will taste way better.

Food for My Child

Turning the Tables on the Food Crisis!

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance launched on World Food Day 2010. Since October, representatives from member organizations have been dialoguing with grassroots organizations, faith groups and coalitions -- primarily in the United States but linked to the global movement for food sovereignty -- to create an alliance for positive change. The Presbyterian Hunger Program has been an active member since the groups came together as the US Food Crisis Working Group, which formed in reaction to the 2008 global food crisis. PHP has been collaborating as the ad-hoc coalition formalizes and invites groups to join together to remake sustainable food economies everywhere so they serve people, both consumers and producers. Theologians from around the world were invited to reflect on the need to turn the tables on an often unjust food system and one of them, Sofia Oreland, despite the fact that she was due with her second child, responded. Here is her reflection...

Food for My Child

By Sofia Oreland
Sweden Theologian and Policy Advisor, Education and Mobilization, Church of Sweden

I gave birth to a child, Baby Brother (Lillebror, the name his sister gave him). Everything seemed fine. But when Baby Brother was only eight hours old doctors discovered he had several life-threatening heart problems. We were given emergency transport to the Swedish hospital that performs pediatric heart surgery. Once in his unit, Baby Brother shared an observation room with three others, with staff persons continuously supervising their young patients. Baby Brother’s surgery was postponed twice, the first time due on an onset of sepsis, the second time because the ICU was full. We spent two weeks, anxiously waiting and watching him.

Baby Brother was too tired to nurse, partly due to the heart problems, partly due to the strong life-sustaining medication. But every day I gave him the breast, hoping that this was the day he would have the strength to eat. After a couple of courageous attempts he always fell asleep. He was too tired. This was painful to watch. But then one day it happened: he was able to eat one whole meal! It was a fantastic feeling of liberation, relief. I was all smiles and when I looked up I discovered two African women, at the bedside of an older boy, watching me with Baby Brother in my arms. They saw my joy, our eyes met, and there, below their veils, their faces broke into big smiles as well. It was evident that they understood, that they were able to share my emotion and deep joy.

Grounded Scriptures: created in God's image

There's something difficult in the word "dominion" which the humans are commanded to exercise in most translations of the Bible: "have dominion over the fish and the birds and the animals." It should be translated somewhere on the fine line between "stewardship" and "domination," because its meaning is about midway between, but the problem is that the word resembles one much more than the other. So I take Ellen Davis' recommendation to call it "skilled mastery" (from her full article which you can download right here) which indicates that our rule is not arbitrary or forceful. In order to take good care of it, we must have knowledge and respect for it. 

Also, the "be fruitful and multiply" is mostly quoted with reference to humans, but the fish & birds & all are also commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Let us not forget our kinship. 

A reading modified from Gen 1:26-28

God said, “let us create humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them exercise skill and mastery over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind, Adam, (earthling), in God’s image. 
In the image of God,
God created him, 
Male and female,
God created them. 
In much the same way God had already blessed the animals, God now blessed humankind, and God said, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and exercise skilled mastery over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 

AND A PRAYER.
Great God, you have created us in your image, 
and imprinted upon us your attributes. 
You have created us to be creators, 
you have created us to be creative. 
Deep in our souls is imprinted 
your limitless vision of this world’s fertility and abundance; 
sharp on our hearts is your call 
to exercise good stewardship and loving care over what is entrusted to us. 
We feel the true goodness of the world you have created
And the particular goodness of our little corner of the world. 
We are standing on holy ground; ought we to have removed our shoes? 
Great God, 
Into your servants breathe the inspiration of your holy spirit,
Scrub away whatever is covering your image hidden inside. 
Allow us to pray and to think and to speak from that place of creativity, of wisdom, of love and tender care. 
Be in our work, and in our play. Be love in our hearts today. 
In the strong name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Grounded Scriptures: the Dandelion Tree

It's hard to understand about 80% of the Bible if you don't live in an agricultural society, and do at least a little bit of growing things. And sometimes even the Bible makes it hard to understand what's going on. 

Take Matthew 13:31-32: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the
air come and make nests in its branches.”

Right. Great story. The Kingdom (or the realm of God, as I like to say) is a thing that grows. When we tell it in Godly Play with the kids, weroll up a piece of cloth and hide it in our hands and unroll it - it's shaped like a tree. The kingdom is like something small becomingbig. 
uh-uh. We're missing a major part of the story, because, well, have you ever seen a mustard tree? GUESS WHAT - mustard is a weed. 

We live in a beautiful world: let's CELEBRATE!

A colleague Roger Doiron and Kitchen Gardeners International produced this video about the beautiful food we can choose. Roger found it ironic that "one day after the government issues its strongest recommendation to date to eat less and better foods, the snack food industry lobby launches "National Snack Food Month" to get Americans to eat more and worse." So they launched 28ate.org . . . for fun, and to bring attention to the billions  of dollars spent on advertising unhealthy, processed foods.

Kitchen Gardeners International has launched this open-source campaign to encourage people to opt out of unhealthy, processed snack and junk foods for the #20ate days of February and opt in for real ones instead. Please see the oh-so-satisfying, meal-sized version (well-balanced, of course) for some ideas on how you can join the campaign and help our country's good food movement to grow.

And for those of you who know what this means, please use the #20ate hashtag and avatar/badge to show your support.

If all this is a little too "out there" for you, find a group of people in your congregation to do the Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table curriculum. You may be happily surprised at what sprouts from that! You can download or purchase the adult or middle school versions here (middle school version available in Spanish too).

Food and sustainability: finding solutions!

A whole issue devoted to FOOD and SUSTAINABILITY! Introducing you to Kids Can Make a Difference and their Finding Solutions Newsletter. You can sign up for the newsletter on their home page. But without further ado...
1) About this issue...by Jane and Larry Levine and Christina Schiavoni
2) WhyHunger at 35: making connections, building the movement, sticking to its roots...by Alison Cohen
3) Bringing lasting change to school food: how we do it, and how you can, too...by Meredith Modzelewski
4) Just eat food ...by Joan Dye Gussow
5) Eat the sky: the food and climate connection...by Anna Lappé
6) Camel farming in Tanzania...by Donna Stokes

1) About this issue...by Jane and Larry Levine and Christina Schiavoni

This special issue of the newsletter marks only the second time in our long history that we have devoted the entire issue to one subject, Food & Sustainability. This important theme will be continued in future issues.
Download the article

2) WhyHunger at 35: making connections, building the movement, sticking to its roots...by Alison Cohen

For the past year I’ve been a part of a WhyHunger team working with community-based organizations to build a regional network to address issues of persistent lack of access to fresh and affordable food in Mississippi. After a day of travelling throughout the Delta down dusty roads through small towns stopping along the way to walk a farmer’s land or witness a makeshift food pantry in action, I wrote the following in my travel journal: My boots are muddy, feet frozen, face wind-chapped, head churning with images and ideas — another invigorating and inspiring day touring farms and meeting with community partners throughout the Delta in Mississippi. I’m overwhelmed by how much work there is to do and I’m full of hope.
Download the article

3) Bringing lasting change to school food: how we do it, and how you can, too...by Meredith Modzelewski

While it’s easy enough to say that children need healthy food – and the right amount of it – in order to succeed, far too many children come to school hungry. A hungry child can’t learn or play well, and school food may be her main meal of the day. In the U.S., more than 30 million children eat school food five days a week, 180 days a year – so it’s incredibly important that these meals are healthful.
Download the article

4) Just eat food...by Joan Dye Gussow

Many years ago, as I was beginning my formal study of nutrition, I spent a classroom break chatting with a new friend who was experienced in the field. I was in the process of learning more than I ever thought I wanted to know about vitamins and minerals, and told my friend that I had been thinking about nutrition education. I realized, I said, that it would take me about 20 minutes to teach ordinary people what they ought to eat if they wanted to be healthy: less meat, less fat, lots of grains and fruits and vegetables, some dairy. “The problem is that there are all those other things in the supermarket designed to confuse them.”
Download the article

5) Eat the sky: the food and climate connection...by Anna Lappé

The first half of 2010 will go down in history as the hottest January to July on record, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The top 11 warmest years all occurred in the last 13. But despite this historic heat and the growing evidence that skyrocketing manmade greenhouse gas emissions are fundamentally and permanently altering the climate as we know it, our elected leaders are dragging their feet on binding emissions limits—even backsliding on embracing climate science.

When the 112th Congress was sworn in on January 6th, dozens of its ranks were unabashed climate change deniers and Republican leadership was seriously talking about ending the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Download the article

6) Camel farming in Tanzania...by Donna Stokes

Timothy Sheghere Mgonja is a father of six children, including his 7-year-old daughter Sifa, the youngest. He is the fun sort of dad who once chaperoned a group of kids on a field trip to the Meserani Snake Park and Maasai Museum in Arusha, a nearby city.

After watching the delighted children ride camels at the tourist park, the struggling farmer asked the park workers how much money camels make them on each ride. He was pleasantly surprised. When he learned of the other extraordinary benefits of camels, including milk production and their ability to haul water and firewood and even to pull a plow, he was completely sold.
Download the article