“Every day when we get our food we are influencing the kind of food system that will provide our food tomorrow.”

Dr. Gary W. Fick Professor of Agronomy at Cornell University

Will it be healthful?
Will it be enough?
Will others be better or worse off by the way I eat?

We all need to eat, but we do not all know or exercise our eating power in knowledgeable ways. In a free economy, we vote for the kind of world we want by the way we spend our money. Money spent on food sends a signal that accelerates or changes that are going on all the time in the food system.

With the bulk of the American population two or three generations removed from farming, few of us know very much about the sources of our food. Though food may seem mundane and even self-indulgent, several times a day our body tells us otherwise.

Anyone who remembers grocery shopping sixty years ago knows that the U.S. diet has changed rapidly (Remember only Corn Flakes, Shredded Wheat, Cream of Wheat and Sugar Crisp in the cereal aisle?). Few know that this transformation has been worldwide.

Societies that are becoming less physically active are also increasing their consumption of energy-dense foods (high in fats or sugars and low water content). To make sense of this fascinating, baffling, important muddle is a challenge for us all.

We conclude our Eco-theology series by looking at food. Bon Appetit!

See you in church!