I recently attended one of the lectures of the January Series
entitled Dancing With Dinner. The
speaker was Joel Salatin, an alternative farmer who was in the film Food Inc. In his lecture
Salatin talked about how we as Americans have lost our love and respect that we
once had with food and the way that we grow food. He told us about the
earth friendly and natural ways that he grows food on his farm, how he still
had that intimate relationship with the stuff that he puts on his table every
meal.
Since we watched Food Inc. just yesterday,
it is easy to see how this topic ties into our class. In God's kingdom,
humans are stewards of the earth, meaning that they take care, provide, and
sustain the resources that are entrusted to them. In the kingdom of the
Empire, anything goes along as you can make a quick buck off of it. This
means that cows are grown faster, pumped with antibiotics, and crammed together
in a tight space just so we can get cheaper more convenient beef.
The same can be said for chickens, pigs, and any other animal that can be
turned into a product. This heinous food cycle has become the
dominate way of life in our society today, those who try to oppose it are
quickly dealt with by the Empire or deemed to insignificant to be a threat.
However, recently there has been increasing movement against this status
quo. We need to focus on alternative ways to feed ourselves, shop at our
local farmer's market, avoid mega-stores, and be more conscious about
what we put into our body.
What are you doing in your life to combat our corrupt
food system?
Do you still have respect for what’s on your dinner
table?
Glad you got to hear Salatin in person, Nate! His challenge to industrialized agriculture in favor of a more stewardly approach to land and animals is certainly a light in this area of life.
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely with what he is saying, we as Americans have lost all respect for our food. We don't care where it comes from or how it got here, just as long as it tastes good. If people were to step back and look at what actually goes into making our food, they would be more inclined to buy food from local farmers markets and be more conscious about what we eat. We would also have more respect for our food.
ReplyDeleteNate, I really like your comment about the food cycle in our society today: "This heinous food cycle has become the dominate way of life in our society today, those who try to oppose it are quickly dealt with by the Empire." I think we saw clear evidence of this in the documentary Food Inc., where many farmers were completely controlled by Monsanto, and new farmers starting up had no way to compete against this business. Even the farmer, Moe, who owned a seed cleaner was sued by Monsanto for encouraging farmers to break the patent law! And this farmer had no voice in this battle and had to settle with Monsanto because he could no longer pay the trial fees. Yet even these empire ways are being combated with "alternative" farmers such as Joel Salatin. It really makes us take a step back and think about where our food comes from and who we are supporting when we buy our meat from the supermarket.
DeleteSince Food Inc., I haven't been able to eat anything without wondering how it was made and decided most of what I was eating supported capitalism (corn) and the torture of animals. So far I have bought more fruits and have been checking the labels. I don't think I've been to a chain restaurant since and I bought Mountain Dew Throwback which has real sugar in it.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments, everyone. Food, Inc. seems to have struck a chord. Bo, I'm glad to hear about the steps you're taking. I know it can be really overwhelming to start thinking about these issues. As Rob and I said in class and in our discussion after class, it's definitely been a long process for us to figure out more ethical sourcing for our food--and we're not done yet!
ReplyDelete