In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver laments the lack of emphasis on food purity in Christianity. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and many other religions address food purity to some extent, so why not Christianity? Not surprisingly, it is from so-called Christian countries like the United States that chemical farming and concetrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have emerged and quickly become the predominant method of food production. This bothers me. I wonder if the lack of emphasis on food purity started with (or was reinforced by) a misunderstanding of Peter's vision on the roof of Simon the Tanner in Acts 10:9-16? If you have any theories on this, let me know!
My guess is that the CAFOs and chemical farming and such are simply the fruit of our consumer values. For a period of years we have demanded cheap, cheap, cheap at all costs, and this is the kind of thing that leads to. The other aspect is our system of non-accountability, where we don't know the farmer's or butcher's or livestock transporter's practices - we are insulated from them. The doctrine of sin tells us that accountability is necessary in our post-fall world, and by benignly assenting to a system that takes away that accountability we are in some degree complicit in the abuses that must occur in such a system.
ReplyDeleteI have a dream of getting to know a farmer and buying a part share of a cow. Then my family could visit the farm and there would be many good things about it all around. (Then I think, how can I do that when so many in the city can't afford such a privilege but must eat the processed stuff from Aldi with caramel color in it? Then I think, why couldn't we get to know someone who's poor and share our bounty with them?)