WWJE? Food choices are theological
Culture, Featured, Food and Drink, Social Justice — By Richard Dahlstrom on March 9, 2010 at 12:00 pm
If you’re one of those “it’s all going to burn up anyway” Christians, in love with your dispensationalism, there’s a good chance you’ll be eating a big slab of meat tonight, cooked over a fire (maybe burn a few California Redwoods?), complemented by a pesticide laced salad, enhanced by an Italian Red, and washed down with coffee that was utterly affordable thanks to the rainforest that was cleared to increase the crop size. If I thought it was all going to burn up, especially in the near term (as I’ve been told it will, any day now, for the past 35 years), I’d join you.
Instead, I’ll be having a slab of meat, a salad, red wine, and coffee, just like you, except utterly different. My meat will be grass fed, my salad organic and local, my wine from a local winery, and my coffee shade grown. That is, at least, what I’ll be eating when my food choices match my view of the end times. Believing that God’s people are called to make God’s good reign visible here and now in some small measure means that I need to make choices that exalt health, justice, and ecology (among other things) in all areas of my life, including “what’s for dinner?”
Concerned about the state of environment and the horrible carbon footprint of the beef industry, I’d always believed that vegetarians were on to something, but could never manage to get there myself because when I tried, I’d be continually hungry and sick (not to mention the truth that I enjoy only about half the vegetables available). A recent read called “The Vegetarian Myth” (see intro here), written by a left-wing activist and former vegetarian, opened my eyes to the realities that the real culprit isn’t meat or not meat; it’s industrial agriculture. Monocrops require heavy pesticides (oil), deplete the topsoil, which then requires heavy fertilization (oil), so that the crops can be maximized and then harvested by machine (oil), to then be shipped to warehousing locations (oil), where they’ll either become something else (twinkies, made from oil), and/or shipped yet again to stores (more oil). The problem is that this is our world, whether we’re vegetarians or meat-eaters, if we just run down to the supermarket and buy the cheapest beef and spinach on the market.
The food that comes out of this system is destructive to the human body, the earth, and industrial pork and cattle that inhabit it. Why are we doing this? Maximum profit of course, and cheap products. Do we really think, even if Jesus were returning tomorrow, that He doesn’t care about us trashing his planet, compromising our bodies, and torturing his animals like this?
On the other hand, if I buy organic vegetables, and grass fed animal products, and as local as possible, several things happen:
1. I participate in a sustainable model that actually builds topsoil, rather than destroying it.
2. I dramatically lower my carbon footprint, by consuming things that required relatively small amounts of energy to produce.
3. I ennoble small farming and local economies, both of which are far healthier and more resilient than ADM, supermarket to the world.
4. I declare by my choices that monocrops and the forced migration of small farmers to the urban centers, a destructive global trend, is wrong.
5. I gain a healthy ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats in my diet, and enjoy better heart health, and the taste of real, rather than industrial food. I’m sick less, sleep better, and just generally feel more alive.
I’m as guilty as anyone regarding my food choices, even more so because I now know better and still choose cost and convenience way too often. This conversation, if we take it seriously, is a portal to many other topics. Since we who can afford to eat this way don’t, how can we ever expect those with neither the means nor understanding to freely choose these healthy alternatives? Is it enough to live “alternatively,” or is activism appropriate? And if activism is appropriate (as I sometimes sense is the case), why do I feel like I’m wasting my time? Wouldn’t it be better to just grab a Big Mac and get on with handing out Bibles?
I welcome your thoughts!
26 Comments
I think living “alternatively” to culture is the first step – you have to practice it yourself before you can expect anyone else to. But I think our own lifestyle choices regarding food should move to activism at some point. When you eat in a way that respects your body, creation, and family farmers, you not improve your health, but your improve your community. That should be something that we want to share with others.
I, like you, struggle with how that works for the poor and marginalized because the processed “food” in the grocery stores and fast food restaurants (and gas stations, which is often the only source of “food” in urban areas) is so heavily subsidized that it only appears cheap. We’ve started a community garden that we glean food from to the local food pantry. And they’ve started a garden at the local food pantry. I really think gardening is a key part of the answer because, if we can teach people how easy, rewarding, inexpensive, and tasty it is to grow their own food, they’ll do it and, in the process, improve their health, save money and be better stewards of the land.
Sara,
I like your “living alternatively to culture” context! It’s certainly modeled by Christ & therefore is a LIFESTYLE choice that will ultimately reap blessing. Gods early mandate was to care for & bless the earth & though budgets ARE the focus of vulture today, PEOPLE, & relationships are the focus of Kingdom living. I read a “money saving” suggestion recently I’m
now living by: if it improves “relationship(s) in some way- it is a great choice over & above materialism, aka- fitting into culture.
In other words, think about the long term
benefits over & against the short term relief.
I’ve had to face the fact that for me- I REALLY DID NOT BELIEVE that God WOULD/ COULD bless me for risking Lifestyle changes that were more Christ-like than culture driven!!!
Aargh!! Personally, I’m looking for some adventurous folks who want to risk that along side me!!
Thanks Sara!! And THANKS, RICHARD!!
Sharon D.
Richard, this is very interesting stuff. Thanks. Many of my fellow conservatives tend to bristle whenever this topic is brought up, and for good reason. Much of the time, environmentalists can have views, and reach conclusions, as extreme and whacked-out as anything someone on the Right can dream up. But you have presented some well-thought-out points here, and backed them up. I appreciate it.
I know very little about this stuff, though I did swear off food after we watched “Food Inc.” But hasn’t monocropping saved, like, a billion lives? I’m fortunate to be able to afford the luxury of grass-fed beef and local vegetables, but input-intensive, genetically modified crops can be lifesavers for people without such luxuries. Or so says this wiki on the Green Revolution, which also devotes ample space to its critics.
These issues are so huge, who can untangle them?
It’s easy to be glib about stuff like this when you have money to spend on those kinds of food. I earn $600 a month, doing ministry and writing basically for free with a small side job, and that money is enough to live on. It is not, however, enough to treat myself to grass-fed beef and organic vegetables. That stuff is expensive. I don’t see how I could afford it except by work more days (oil) to earn more money, which is a strange message for a “counter-cultural” article.
ah, but my point, actually, is that this is sort of a justice issue. That $1 buys 1200 calories of potato chips, or 875 calories of soda, or 250 calories of vegetables, or 170 calories of fruit is wrong. That we’re having conversations about national health care w/o addressing diet is wrong. That most subsidized lunches in public schools are contributing to the obesity epidemic is wrong.
The problems are complex, but if we don’t have the conversation now, we’ll have it later, when oil is $300 a barrel and the topsoil is fully raped. Better to work on this now than later right?
So, for the sake of full disclosure I used to work, and would work again, for one of the “biggest, baddest” agribusiness companies. I also own part of a small ranch that raises grass-fed cattle.
I have long had the growing feeling that an important part of the discussion of food is acknowledging luxury. Yes, grass-fed and free-range are often better, and I am often thankful that I have those options. However, I’m priced out of many “organics”. Still, when I walk into the grocery store there is an entire aisle of bread, all varieties, at least four kinds of milk, and even several kinds of organic mac and cheese.
One of the problems is that the issue has been falsely moralised and poorly defined.
While food choices do speak to our theology, the way we try to apply those personal convictions to other people (i.e. do we make it a “law”) and the way that we judge other people based on our own standards are also deeply theological.
When I really think about it, it is for me an embarrassment of riches, and to speak of it any other way is, in many ways, arrogant.
and for the sake of full disclosure, I grew up in the midst of industrial ag in the central valley of California, with farming uncles and grandparents. I agree completely that imposing this stuff on others is wrong, and my wife and I have discussions that go like this: “bigger donation to Haiti, or organic apples”. There aren’t easy answers, but one thing is certain – we’re running out of time to do business as usual, and in the meantime we’re getting fatter and sicker. I’m simply pleading that we have the conversation.
I like that you’re asking to have the conversation.
I think the struggle I have is that people, in their passion, have tried to make it black and white or a sin when good stewardship is deeply subjective. It seems as though, often (not here, but in general), we are not allowed to acknowledge the subjectivity of it.
For instance, and part of me feels confident that I’ll get a really negative response to this, it really grosses me out to eat beef at a restaurant that serves “anti-biotic free” beef. I’ve seen sick cows and am very familiar with the requirements for feed lots/medicines. Watching a cow die or having to put it down because of infection breaks me heart, so I just can’t be anti medicating a sick and suffering animal. At the same time, I’ve seen organic veal on restaurant menus, and it totally baffled me.
I think that agreeing that it really is about stewarship, and that means we may not all come to the same conclusions, is the part that is so often missing.
I still eat organic mac and cheese, though. I like to know that the orange powder is chemical free… But, I also read Norman Borlaug…
I agree with what you say in theory but as you also say, this is a large and complex issue. While we are called to be good stewards of the earth, we are also called to be good stewards of our finances and holdings. So is it morally right to buy a random assortment of a dozen eggs for $1.00 or must I buy the $4.00 organic, free range chicken eggs? My budget says one thing, my heart another. If only we could get the government to stop subsidizing any agriculture or start subsidizing it all.
In the end, aren’t we potentially saving money by eating local and organic? I understand it’s expensive upfront, but by eating healthier we will save money on medical bills. Americans are overfed and undernourished. This is especially true of low-income Americans, who either don’t have the option or don’t see the value of investing in the right type of food — even if it means eating less.
Also, I don’t think this is just a money vs. environment issue. I’d rather have less money in my pocket and buy the organic milk than pay less to drink milk from cows that are fed newspaper instead of grass-fed and hooked up to a bunch of machines. And it isn’t just animals we’re talking about. Individual farmers etc. are losing their livelihood to factories and big businesses. It’s pointing toward consumers not having choices and toward only higher-up management getting paid big bucks while poor migrant workers etc. work long hours in the hot sun to make only a few dollars. If this were just an argument about saving the beauty of the environment, I could somewhat understand, but we’re talking about real live animals and real live people.
yes but when you have a tight budget and a certain amount of money set aside for food, it gets to be a battle between what is cheap and what is right/good. BUT I will say that I did save some of our tax return money and joined a CSA that also supplies fresh eggs with a grass fed meat option. (I could not afford the meat option but can afford to pick and choose throughout the season). Also, since we are moving to a house in late summer, I will spend the rest of summer and fall preparing our yard for a garden for next year. I want to learn to put up the veggies that we grow. So I am doing what I can in a way that is sustainable and frugal.
Just to throw something out there, my wife and I anticipate saving over $500 on our grocery bill this year due to our membership in a local CSA (community supported agriculture). That’s not chump change, that’s nearly 5% of our entire annual budget. So local and healthy food isn’t necessarily antithetical to affordability.
The so-called Green Revolution temporarily saved some lives but ignored the underlying economic issues of poverty and ecological degradation promoted by things like not being able to take care of the soil properly due to economic pressure. Furthermore, biotech farming in poor countries is highly problematic because of debt issues and the widespread inability of farmers to afford the fertilizers and pesticides the crops need. Several studies have suggested local, organic methods would be better-suited to combat hunger. There’s also cases like the ongoing greening of Detroit and urban farming there.
Several comments have hit on a major issue, though, which is justice and access to affordable, local, healthy, ecologically sustainable food. I believe we must both develop structures that provide access and education as well as work for structural political and economic change so that food prices reflect the true cost, not subsidized costs where ecological and other costs are externalized.
I knew I should have trademarked WWJE? Nice article!
This is for rich christians! How about writing how all could follow your theology of food…i hear you but is your theology of food more about validating your ideas on food then on G-d?
good points, just not sure if there is a total detriment to buying some cheap food from the super market. In order to be able to attain these foods, one needs to spend a lot of money. The average American works hard to afford the food they buy already, any change would take a lot of time. I prefer a lot of organic products over the main line foods, but some times I can’t afford these. I don’t think Jesus would care to much about what is for dinner, I think he would eat what was graciously given. I believe in being healthy and being good stewards of what we have, but I don’t think that is Christs concern with us. You need to be a little less ethnocentric when writing for a broad range folks who come from much different economic backgrounds. I like your facts and your solutions, but those solutions need to be more applicable to a greater span of american consumers.
Im sorry I didn’t pay attention to the end, pardon my unfair comment.
Some foods are more important to buy organic than others. This link shows which food should be organic and there’s a link to which ones don’t need to be:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods
I haven’t tried it yet but the coupons listed here sound like great deals for organic foods:
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/22/coupons-coupons-coupons.html
I’m really surprised by how negative people’s comments have been about eating organic, local, small-farmed food. Organic food isn’t really that much more expensive; in fact, sometimes it’s even cheaper than fast foods. And if it’s healthier for you, you’ll be saving money on medical bills. Also, if we make our own foods from scratch, it’s cheaper than buying the ready-made, freezer-aisle option.
Nice.
I live in China and I frequently eat at this mall food-court that is close to my home. In the mall there is a grocery store above the food-court so the other day I saw the chef at one of my favorite places with mounds of fresh vegetables in his arms. And it made me think that this would never happen at a food-court back home. Each place would have a truck shipping frozen foods in and out. Not saying everything is perfect here by any means but it was nice to see.
I applaud the fact that you have chosen to eat the way you do.
But how you come to a conclusion and theological summation about WWJE is a stretch. Buying meat at supermarkets=contribution to system that tortures animal=Jesus isn’t happy with us…so…WWJE?
I choose a healthy lifestyle as a way to glorify God and give thanks for my life…but from my reading of Scripture, when Jesus returns his concern will be on things other than my diet.
I went vegetarian about a year ago, and have been trying my best to buy the most local, freshest stuff I can…my body has never felt better!
Hi Vince…
I don’t think I’m trying to make a hard and fast declaration about what foods Jesus would eat. I am trying to point out that food is political and that if we give thought to what kind of car we drive, or whether take the bus or bike, maybe we should also think about the food we eat. There certainly aren’t easy answer, but the fact that cheap food, in general, is destructive, should give us reason to stop and think about the way we’re doing all this. Jamie Oliver’s passion to teach children how to cook healthy food and enjoy a decent meal is, sadly, something that is rarely considered a worthy ministry. This speaks to our Platonic Dualism more than our devotion to Christ and His reign.
If you are unable find a local seller to suit your needs,shopping online is a convenient method to purchase your requirements. This is due to organic produce having steadily gained in momentum. You will find there is a reasonable choice of organic food available online and it is as simple as carrying out a search on the Internet via a search engine to locate suppliers. You will normally need to pay for your purchases by using a credit card or debit card