How often do you think about where your food comes from? When you are sitting down for a meal, do you imagine the farms where your food grew and the farmers who planted and harvested what sits on your plate? Do you ever think about these things?! If you do think about these things what do you imagine?
I recently watched a documentary titled “King Corn” about two friends who purchased an acre of corn to learn about the questionable farming and eating habits within the American food system. They discovered that the reality of the source of our foods, specifically corn, is vastly different from what we might image. An average corn farmer owns thousands of acres of industrialized corn that is not edible until processed. The irony is that the farmer cannot even feed him or herself while most of the corn that is grown in the United States is used to feed cattle, or is used to make sweeteners or unhealthy foods.
The documentary has me questioning why we do not put much thought into where our food comes from or how it is grown. As Christians we are entrusted by God to care for creation. The first step to caring for creation is caring about creation. Yes, many of us live in urban or rural areas where we do not come into visual contact with farms on a regular basis. But that does not mean we should not care.
Once we start caring about creation, we can start caring for it. As Christians we should try to cultivate an attitude of respect and reverence for creation and a duty to ensure that those attitudes are upheld in the ways we grow, produce and transport our food. However, if we are not even aware of the sources of our produce than we can never fulfill our call as Christians to do these things.
The ELCA has deep agricultural roots and has a history of working for policies that support farmers, promote local food systems and advocates for ethical eating habits of its members. To learn more about the work ELCA is doing in relation to the U.S. Farm Bill please download this brochure. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves about these issues and then advocate for policies that ensure the sanctity of creation. I encourage you all to watch the interesting and entertaining documentary “King Corn” and tell me what you think! I would love to hear from you about how you feel it related to your faith! (It is available on instant play on Netflix!) I can’t wait to hear from you!
God Bless,
Karen
