Happy Easter! We serve a risen Savior, who is in the world today. And as we think about what it means to serve Him, we begin the very first week of the Food & Faith Challenge.
Each week we’ll begin by reading a passage from the Bible. Normally I prefer The Message, because I think it is more accessible to people new to the Bible, and for those who are very familiar with the Bible it can provide a fresh perspective. (If you’d like an easy way to look up your favorite translation, check out www.biblegateway.net) For this week, though, I prefer the NIV version because it keeps the imagery of vines and fig trees.
Micah 4
1 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
4 Every man will sit under his own vine
and under his own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
for the LORD Almighty has spoken.
5 All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods;
we will walk in the name of the LORD
our God for ever and ever.
Isn’t that a great image of peace?
“Having access to one’s own source of food and drink was, as it is today, a great source of security. Yet the image of every person with a vine or fig tree is not one solely of self-reliance. Vineyards and trees, more than other crops, require years and even decades to reach their full potential. Wars, which destroy homes and scatter families, and the threat of war make such long-term investments in a piece of land impossible. In addition, in order for everyone to have the ability to grow food, a community must share its resources—water, suitable soil, etc.—equitably. As it is today, an ideal food system is linked both symbolically and literally to much larger international and local relationships.” (Simply in Season Leader’s Study Guide, page 8 )
Readings from Simply in Season:
- “Increasing insecurity about food security” (2005 p. 286 / 2009 p. 300)
- “Shortening the food chain” (2005 p. 187 / 2009 p. 196
When we think about how we get our food, the reliance on agribusiness and transportation, we begin to get an idea that maybe our food system isn’t build on a solid foundation. The readings from Simply in Season introduce the idea of a food chain. Take, for example, a tomato.
If you buy a tomato from a grocery store, the food chain could look like this:
People who provide the grower with seeds, fertilizer, other inputs > owners of the farm > migrant workers who pick the tomato > truck driver who transports the tomato > grocery store owners and workers > consumer.
If you buy a tomato from a farmer’s market, the food chain could look like this:
People who provide the grower with seeds, fertilizer, other inputs > grower > stand worker > consumer
If you grow your own tomatoes, with saved seeds without chemicals, the food chain could look like this:
Grower > consumer
Think of all that could go wrong in each step of the food chain, and shortening it seems like a good idea! For an even scarier picture, click here and see a visual of California’s Disaster Preparedness plan around food security (scroll to the bottom of the page to the colorful chart)
Questions for Reflection (share your responses below for any one of these for an entry in this week’s drawing)
- Describe a concern you may have about our current food chain.
- List the world problems that seem the most overwhelming. How close are we to Micah’s description of a world in which God’s love and justice rule and we are well fed, both physically and spiritually? What are the characteristics of such a world?
Challenge to Action (post on your blog and add a link below to the specific post about this challenge or email me before Friday to be included in the round up post and for an additional entry into this week’s drawing). Choose from one of the following:
- At your usual grocery store, see if you can find information about where the produce is grown. Then check out meat, milk, and eggs. Is any of it local?
- Visit your local farmer’s market and let us know what’s in season right now. If your farmer’s market isn’t open yet, when does it open and what kinds of things are available from it?
- Other ideas you can use for this challenge can be found in Simply in Season (2005 p. 334 / 2009 p. 350)
This week’s drawing:
This week we will be doing a random drawing for a $15 gift card to localharvest.org. It’s a great website to help you find local food resources. Remember, you can earn up to two entries each week. One for commenting about a reflection question, and one for doing one of the challenges to action.
this post linked to Fight Back Friday
Happy SITS Saturday sharefest!! Love blogs with yummy recipes – thanks for sharing! Come over and visit at http://www.boutiqueonfeet.blogspot.com/
.-= Erica´s last blog ..Shoe Therapy =-.
Happy SITS sharing day! Hope you have a wonderful Easter!
Happy SITS Saturday sharefest!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.
Have a great Easter!
I actually found your website through your post to fritter!
Wendy, my biggest concern for our food supply are the GMOs that are “out of control”. For example, GMO corn cross pollinates with non-GMO corn and contaminates it. The consequences are far reaching, but few seem that concerned. While there are other things that certainly could happen, this is already well on it’s way to being a reality. A second concern would be the fact that so much of our food supply is dependent upon electricity to move food around. From computers to refrigeration to cash registers, it’s a fragile system that would come to a screeching halt if there was a long term power outage in any portion of the country.
Because of my theological position, I believe Micah’s prophecy will not be fulfilled until the second coming of Christ during his millennial reign. However, that does not relieve the believer from the responsibility of reaching out to a world in need by helping them to find ways to be sustainable in terms of a food source. We are to reflect and live out Christ’s love here and now by helping those in need, but it will not be realized globally until He returns because this need is what He will often use to draw the unbeliever to Him.
Good thoughts, Wendy. I enjoyed this challenge! (And I just received my copy of Simply in Season yesterday! Wonderful resource!)
Challenge to Action… We’ve switched to eating almost exclusively from local farmers and ranchers. What doesn’t come from our own back yard or community comes from the San Joaquin Valley which means our food travels less than 100 miles at the most (but the bulk of it comes from only about 30-50 miles). The exception: bananas. I haven’t cut loose of these yet!
My favorite item in season right now… asparagus! Yeah!!
My biggest concern is our dependence on oil — we use fossil fuels in running machinery, transporting food, and many conventional pesticides and herbicides are derived from fossil fuels. We are rapidly approaching a point where oil-based agriculture will become too expensive and un-sustainable. When will we know we are in trouble?
I’m also concerned about GMOs and seed sovereignty — only a few seed companies control the supply of most agricultural and garden seeds. And they are trying to tighten their grip.
I’ve become very concerned about where our food comes from, how much time it spends in transit, etc. Having two little ones, I’m getting more concerned about pesticides and illnesses that come from mass grown produce.
I’ve become a huge label reader and I’m hoping that in June (first delivery) I will be getting my produce through a local CSA, provided that I am able to get a worker share. I’m talking to the wife of the couple who run it tomorrow and they are sending me home with eggs. It sounds silly, but it’ll be the first time I’ve gotten farm fresh eggs and I’m excited!
I seem to be having issues commenting and lost my comment. BOO.
Problems with our food chain: global importation of majority of foods in large retailers putting small local farmers out of business.
this hinders not only the economy and creates a large carbon foot print but introduces new pesticides, soil particles, and pollens to our bodies that our immune systems do not handle very well.
I don’t think people realize what all comes with the foods we injest and what properties those foods hold from their native areas.
I’m a strong supporter of growing your own and shopping locally not only for the economic and green reasons, but for the health reasons as well.
I am really thrilled to find your blog through HOMESTEAD REVIVAL, Amy. I just feel we all need to watch what big business is doing with our food supply.
My experiment today is with fresh asparagus. I am neither a cook nor gardener but, I am learning for my family’s health.
Thanks for reading,
Mal
I was happy to find out about this challenge through Amy’s blog at Homestead Revival and immediately ordered the Simply In Season book this morning. While my concerns about our food are many, my main concerns are the safety of our foods (through natural or negligent contamination), and decreasing nutrition related to where food is commercially produced.
Yesterday in our local paper, the Long Beach Press Telegram, the headline read: “Wasted: 6M tons of food: Hunger: Items not sold or eaten are the single largest source of CA trash.” 6M tons of food!! Although some grocery stores and farms make an effort to donate food or glean extra crops there is still ALOT of good food being thrown away. In many urban communities people still lack access to fresh produce. Or there is a gap in understanding nutrition and what it means to eat healthy. Yesterday I talked with my neighbor, who has anemia, about spinach being a great option for iron, and she didn’t know this would be a good choice in her diet. The passage from Micah gives light to God’s kingdom being present on earth. Access to healthy food for everyone. I think we see glimpses of Micah’s prophecy today through farmers markets and programs that glean the extra produce from fields. But there is still much wasted in the current food chain and a reminder to pray that God’s kingdom would continue to “come” in each of our communities when we think about access to food and the amount we waste.
Like some of the others have said, I too have been very concerned and aware of where my food comes from,especially my meat. The thought of meat from many different feedlots all mixed together and than packaged scares me. If bacteria is discovered, how do they know where exactly it came from? Scary!!
I don’t know that we have just one main concern-they’re all scary! We serve a mighty God that’s bigger than all of it though, so we are doing what we can as we can. The fact that so few companies control so much of the food market really bothers me. Isn’t this America, land of the free? Home of the independent?
I think the most overwhelming problem facing the world is a turning away from God. Each step brings another social ill, and likely physical ills to go with the spiritual illness that plagues our society. Relativism is a big problem, I think.
None of the food in our grocery store is locally produced, unless you count something grown several hundred miles away, still in the same state. Our farmers market doesn’t open until June, but we are visiting a local farm next Sunday to see what they offer and learn more about supplying our own food.
Thanks for this series!
I found your challenge through Amy at Homestead Revival. This is very insightful…so thank you. My biggest concern is what my children are ingesting. As they go to daycare, I am unable to control what they eat there–much of which I would never even consider feeding them at home. We do everything possible to offset those things ingested at school, but I firmly believe if more whole foods were served at daycare instead of fried or sugar laden food, then I (and other parents) would not have to deal with the roller coaster of emotions as their little bodies try to process all of the artificial, overly processed and refined ingredients in their food.
The separation of people from their enviroment, be it through political oppression, race or class discrimation or through their own choosing to ignore what is happening around them and remain self centered is terrifying. At the current pace that the world is moving, I worry about our future generations. We need to support the small farmer and expose our children to those farmers and farmer’s markets so that they can identify the source of their food. The more children know about the origination of their food–and how it grows/is produced–the more likely they are to make better decisions. As Willie Nelson said,“Eating organic, family-grown food is important to a lot of us, so that’s why it’s important to take care of the family farmers. They’re the backbone of the country.”
Thanks to Amy at Homestead Revival, I found your site and this incredible challenge. I’m picking up my copy of Simply in Season from the library today!
My biggest concern is for my children (and their peers.) My husband and I both work full time outside the home, so our children go to daycare. What is served to the children is nothing that I would ever entertain feeding my children at home. While I understand that our daycare center must meet state regulations and follow certain mandates, I remain concerned when I review the menu. More than once I have asked that more fresh fruits and vegetables be served. I do not consider juice to be a serving of fruit, although the company that provides the food to the daycare does. It seems that so much over processed, fried and refined sugar food is being served to our children and their bodies have such a hard time processing it. I know that for my own two children, when they eat whole foods on the weekends we notice an improvement in their attitudes and general behavior. If only we could convince those who take care of our children when they are away from us to serve more whole foods, our youth would be on a better path to healthy eating.
I have a great many concerns about our food chain, but am trying to not feel overwhelmed by all of them, as sometimes that can lead to feeling like there is nothing I can do about them. I am concerned that we are getting further and further away from good, basic food that truly nourishes us,instead, depending on packaged or processed food that saves time. Children are being raised with little idea of how food grows or where it comes from. Our detachment from this basic process can, I think, contribute to over-consumption and bad food choices, ending up with major health problems.
Thank you for that beautiful passage from Micah – one of my favorites.
The image of each person having their own food source implies a local food source, and one that is not owned or controlled by someone else. But it’s the next line that interests me – the one about no one being made afraid. When we have “food scares” in the US – salmonella in tomatoes or lettuce, e.coli in beef, etc. – people become terrified – and rightly so. The source of this fear is from being completely out of control of their own food. The only way past that fear – and I believe this is God’s way as depicted in the passage above – is to take back control of one’s own food source, either by growing/producing it yourself, or by finding a local farm to partner with. This takes the power out of the hands of the Monsantos of this world and back into the hands of the eater. This is Micah’s vision. There was a time when all people ate this way – very long ago. By the time Micah came along there was enough injustice in the world that people lived in fear and without their own food source. The problem has gotten worse over time. But now I feel the tide is turning as more and more people learn this truth.
I am very privileged to live in Vermont, where local food is abundant and this issue is well-understood.
I love this challenge and I can’t wait to see how it affects my life. As I mention in my blog, this challenge definately will help me use the Lord’s teaching as a way to cleanse not only my body with healthier foods, but my soul as well in asking God to guide me along this journey.
Thanks for hosting this challenge! I can’t wait for next week’s addition to the series.
Shelby Michalek
.-= Ms. Michalek´s last blog ..Food and Faith Challenge =-.