Food Sleuth: Sustainability Links Food, Faith

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

May 23, 2007

Available online at: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/May/20070523Life014.asp

Never in a million years would I have thought that Jerry Falwell would provide inspiration for a column about food and nutrition. But I was surprised to learn from news reports that the late Christian television evangelist loved fast food.

We could talk about how a steady diet of fast food might have contributed to the reverend’s excess weight, heart problems and death. However, of greater importance than nutrients and calories is the spiritual aspect of Falwell’s food choices. In fact, a growing number of religious communities worldwide are making renewed connections between faith, food, social and environmental justice and sustainable living.

For example, Stephen Meyer, a member of the Episcopal Church in Syracuse, N.Y., believes "food is a window through which we can strive to attain justice and a more Christ-like relationship to the world." He’s started a backyard garden so that he can eat more of his own fresh produce throughout summer and fall.

Episcopal pastor Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows blessed Meyer’s garden to make the connection between sustainability, food justice and community. She said that over the past several years, she began asking herself the all-important question: "Where does my food come from?"

In the newly released documentary film "King Corn," we learn where the ingredients for fast-food meals originate. At a recent screening in Traverse City, Mich., film director Aaron Woolf described beef cattle feedlot conditions many miles from the familiar drive-through window. He said he knew then that "we had crossed a line that we should not." It violated the sacred relationship between food animals and man.

Martha Gardner, an environmental ministries consultant for the Episcopal Church, believes that being intentional about how we live and the choices we make can contribute to a more sustainable and humane way of life.

Similarly, in Judaism, eating is considered a spiritual act that requires focus and intention. The Islamic religion regards eating as a matter of worshipping of God, like prayers. The Quran contains verses emphasizing the eating of whole, pure foods in moderation.

Brother Dave Andrews, executive director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, recognizes that food is at the heart of the Catholic faith but that "spirituality will play a central role in digging us out of the mess we’ve made in our food system."

What kind of mess? In the "The Ethics of Eating" in the National Catholic Reporter, author Rich Heffern describes soil erosion plus water pollution from pesticides, herbicides and nitrogen fertilizers typically used in industrial agriculture. There’s also the air and water pollution from large factory farms, home to most of the meat and poultry served at fast food outlets.

Just last month, in response to accumulating evidence documenting the negative effects to humans, animals and the environment, the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons passed a resolution supporting a moratorium on the construction of any new "concentrated animal feeding operations" - also known as CAFOs or factory farms - in the state until hazards to the health and welfare of residents can be resolved and safety reasonably assured.

Gary Paul Nabhan, director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, said that "if we no longer believe that the Earth is sacred or that we are blessed by the bounty around us or that we have a caretaking responsibility given to us by the Creator, … then it does not really matter to most folks how much ecological and cultural damage is done by the way we eat."

In all faiths, food is worshipped, blessed and revered. With Falwell’s enormous political influence, imagine the potential he could have had to model sustainable eating habits more in line with universal religious doctrine.