I recently watched the documentary Food Inc. and it blew my mind. This documentary goes deep into the United States food industry to show viewers where our food actually comes from. This movie aimed to show how the way food is grown and produced is hidden from consumers, and the realities of the origins of everything we eat shocked me.

One point the documentary argues was that our food comes from what we picture in our mind to be a typical American farm. The film states that much of our food does come from farms, but large corporations often own the animals on those farms, and thus have the power to control how our meat is grown and produced. The result of this is overpopulated farms, with animals living in unhealthy conditions (both for them and for us once we eat them!). Cows are fed corn when they are meant to eat grass, leading to a build up of E. coli in their system, which then is cleaned with ammonia. Chickens are grown in a manner that leaves them too large to walk. Also, many people who work in food producing factories are mistreated and underpaid, and the farmers who grow the food often end up with debt from standards that the corporations force them to uphold. Food Inc. argues that this system is harmful to our animals, our health, and the people who work hard to put food on our tables.

Another important topic the documentary discussed was the government’s relationship with the food industry. The government heavily subsidizes corn, wheat and soy, which can be harmful to our health, especially for those in poverty. Food Inc. points out that we can buy a double cheeseburger for 99 cents, but we cannot buy broccoli for this price. They argue that the reason for this is that calories in the double cheeseburger are cheaper due to heavy government subsidies.

The documentary goes in depth on many other issues related to the food industry, and toward the middle of the film I began to wonder if there was anything in the refrigerator that I would be able to make myself for dinner! Thankfully, they showed success stories of farmers and producers who grew their products organically and safely and still were profitable. They stressed the importance of buying foods grown locally to reduce your carbon footprint. They also discussed past successes in the food industry, such as the push from consumers that led Wal-Mart to stop selling milk products with rBST. They are confident that if consumers treat their dollars as votes, we will be able to tell the food industry what we expect from our food, and the system then will change to benefit our environment, our animals, our workers, and our health.

Food Inc. is an eye-opening documentary that depicts one point of view of the food industry, and I would recommend it to anyone. I learned a lot and now think about food in a different way. While it does give some suggestions about how you can have a positive impact on the food industry, I was still left with questions about how I should act on this issue, so if you watch it I suggest going to their Web site for more ideas. Also check out their blog.

So, I leave you all with some questions. Have you thought much about how your consumption affects your health, other human beings, animals and the earth? Has it changed how you eat? Do you have suggestions for those who wish to take action on these issues? I would love to hear ideas from all of you.

-Allie Stehlin

So what’s the scoop on twenty-somethings and vegetable gardens? My brother and I were talking this afternoon about all the people we know of, our age, who are beginning to grow their own food. I think that this is very cool, and I too love a good fresh leaf of lettuce or handful of blueberries, but I also wonder…what’s the motivation for our age group? The friends we thought about ranged from Seminary students to general contractors and insurance agents; different people from different walks of life. As my brother and I are both in our twenties, I wonder if all those films we saw in school are finally settling in? We have grown up with the likes of Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me, forming an awareness and interest in more recent documentaries like Food, Inc. and The Cove. Could it be that our generation is finally putting their foot down on all those chemicals disguised as food? Is it that when we mix this media with the growing trend of rooftop and community gardens, then add in our recent independence and the financial crisis that we’re simply reaching critical mass? Or is everyone else just beginning to till up their grass for gardens as well, but they are simply a bit further from my radar?

Here are my questions:

To my fellow twenty-somethings – Do you grow your own food? If so, why…is it all those documentaries, are you trying to save a buck, is it the rooftop garden scene? Or did you grow up with it, so it just seems natural? Perhaps something else entirely?

To more seasoned adults – When did you find that you started to become interested in growing your own fruits or vegetables? Has it been in recent years; are you also enjoying the organic gardening trends and responding to the economy? Or is this just something that begins in your twenties?

Thanks for your thoughts, and thanks even more for your gardens!

~Lana

I sat down to dinner last night feeling quite proud of myself. That lasted all of about 30 seconds. I was proud of myself because I’d found time to make a dinner from scratch that my family really likes – pizza. But then I realized that, technically, to make something from scratch, you have to start from nothing. Ha! A laughable notion! I began thinking about just how much I started with, and how many people and places went into the food I “made from scratch.” Out of curiosity, I even looked at some labels to see where things came from. Here’s what I came up with (and by the way, I live in a northwest suburb of Chicago):

water – Lake Michigan
whole wheat flour – Ted’s Organic Grains in DeKalb, IL
white flour – no idea where it came from, and I no longer have the packaging
canola oil – Canada
salt – U.S.A. (where, precisely? Anyone know where our salt comes from?)
yeast – Canada
parmesan and romano cheese blend – Argentina and Italy
olive oil – Italy
spinach – Sandhill Organics in Grayslake, IL (part of my CSA box)
tomatoes – Canada (a surprise this time of year; I was expecting Mexico or Chile)
goat cheese – no idea and I no longer have the packaging

So, my dinner from “scratch” actually came from at least four countries on three continents, and with a surprisingly strong showing from Canada! And I’m fortunate enough that I can take all of this for granted. I had to look most of it up, and I still don’t know even what country two ingredients came from.

Then I thought about how many people helped make my pizza. How many people did it take to grow and harvest tomatoes, spinach, wheat, olives? How many people did it take to care for the goats and sheep, collect their milk, and turn it into cheeses? How many languages were spoken in the process? What are their lives like? How many people were involved in the packaging, distribution, and eventual stocking of those items? For that matter, how many people are involved in making the water out of Lake Michigan come out of my tap in a safe and appealing way?

Food ties us together in so many ways, and my sustenance – my life – is dependent upon so many others, most of whom I’ll never meet and often don’t even think about. I give thanks for them all, and proceed in the fight against hunger with the humility of knowing how lucky I am to be well-fed, and how much of my feeding I owe to others.

What did you eat for dinner last night? How many countries were represented? Please leave a comment. I’m curious!

-Nancy Michaelis

I just got done reading Joel Makower’s book, Strategies for the Green Economy. I have to admit, I was very impressed with how many different perspectives Makower introduces to his readers. For instance, I was challenged to think not just about the negatives of big box stores, but also about their positives. Looking at the entire picture was enlightening. It turns out corporations that I had no idea had a green heart are making strides toward sustainability, zero waste production and eradicating toxic chemicals.

Much of the book focused on messaging from a business perspective. How and when should companies tell their green story? How good is good enough when it comes to a green initiative? I found it thought provoking to consider Makower’s points about companies who come out and say, “Hey, we’ve done this green thing!” and then getting called out by activists for every other thing that they haven’t done. A favorite quote from the book reads, “Consumers, even activists, can accept imperfection in incremental solutions when they know that the company understands the issue at hand, is sufficiently concerned, and is taking adequate steps to change things, including influencing others—suppliers, competitors, and legislators—to join them in becoming part of the solution.” I also found it interesting to learn more about how consumers view “green” products and the accompanying research which suggests a product’s effectiveness must be proved, not just proclaimed.

It’s more than just messaging and box stores though, Strategies for the Green Economy asks important questions that relate to everyday life such as, “What are the opportunities in the green economy for those at the lower end of the economic ladder? Where are the jobs, the access to renewable energy, the affordable organic produce, the availability of wellness programs?” In other words, how does the greening of business positively affect all people?

More than anything I was encouraged by the research, facts and outlook of a book that focused on the greening of the business world, and how it can continue its climb. Makower, in fact, believes that green is not going anywhere, and when it comes to sustainability suggests that this goal will be surpassed as real market leaders look toward being restorative. Restoring the earth, providing green jobs to the lower end of the economic ladder, and encouraging corporations large and small to “green-up” seems to me like a pretty decent way to begin to impact hunger—as companies take care of resources, the environment and people on a large scale.

There are so many thought provoking ideas, notions and facts between the covers of Strategies for the Green Economy that a blog cannot truly do it justice. Check it out for yourself at your local library or grab an e-book!

~Lana

There’s a competition in the small town where I grew up called Foodball. It’s an 11 day all-out contest between two high schools to see who can raise the most food and money for local food banks. The contest however, is not just fueled by goodwill, but largely by the rivalry which surrounds the competition. Steeped in over 100 years of competition on the athletic playing fields, our two neighboring one-high school towns are bathed in school pride. When it comes to Foodball that pride feeds a lot of people. I remember in high school, while out on our one-day door-to-door neighborhood blitz, an old-timer asked me (right before he donated some money) whether or not the Bobcats were going to win this year. In this case, raising the most amount of food is a matter of pride. How much food? Historically, enough to run the local food banks for about nine months of the year – quite a feat in 11 days.

Well, it’s Foodball time again and every time I walk into a local store there are high school kids asking for donations and little donation bins on every coffee shop and ice cream store counter. Yesterday, however, I got a glimpse of why we really do this and who it helps.

After a nice lunch with my brother at a downtown cafe we decided to go on an afternoon walk. My brother is a designer and up in the older neighborhoods of my one-high school town, both tucked in corners and standing resolute on the side of the main street, are beautiful old homes. As reminders of our past, I often refer to a group of them as the timber mansions – built by wealthy timber barons in our earlier glory days. Around them are brilliant little craftsman homes and once noble tudors. On our way out of the neighborhoods we passed the local Lutheran church and the high school, right before we reached the museum. On the other side of the road from the museum sits a local food bank. No doubt a recipient of the funds raised by the high school kids just blocks away. Outside of the food bank during the mid-afternoon I saw people stopping by to pick up their nourishments; a mother with a little girl who was holding a doll, parents with a baby seat, older men in logging attire chatting next to their vehicles and a nice-looking young man who drove up in a newer foreign car. On my little architectural walk I was blessed to see the faces of Foodball – the people all of that rivalry and friendly competition actually benefits. Normal people, just trying to make ends meet. I hope my Alma Mater wins this year, but I know that either way it’s those faces that I saw yesterday who really matter.

~ Lana

The staff at Crossways Camping Ministries in Wisconsin spent a lot of time this summer helping kids deepen their understanding of hunger and it’s causes. Below is a follow-up to their original post. It is written by Ben Koehler.

Every week we talked with campers about how to help solve hunger problems. In these discussions staff members were encouraged by how responsive the campers can be.  The catch is that most leave and quickly forget what they have discovered. We were awestruck in hearing about two campers who went home to their congregation and asked for the loose offering to go to the Crossways Mission Project, which in turn goes to Hunger Relief and Disaster Response in Zimbabwe. Of all of the voices calling their attention inside and outside of camp, the lessons of hunger stuck.

Some of our highlights this summer were…

Fresh Veggies from the Garden

Working in the Garden

Weighing Food Waste After Meals

 Teaming up on Hunger Issues

 And, of course, learning as much as we could.

Changes at Crossway’s Waypost on Mission Lake are making for a more environmentally friendly and sustainable camp community. To learn more, check out this video:

http://www.godsworkourhands.org/v/445,summer-of-hope-crossways-waypost-camp.html

Joyfully,

Ben Koehler

Recently, I attended the first regional “Ethics of Eating” Leadership Training in Region 1. The event took place at Campbell Farm, a 40 acre working farm also used as a retreat center. We flew into Seattle the night before and drove through green, pine covered mountains on our way to the farm. On the other side of those mountains we approached dull, brown mountains. Campbell Farm is in Yakima Valley, WA, a desert on the other side of those barren mountains. I was going to learn many, many things in this desert made fertile with irrigation waters.

We talked to both conventional and organic farmers, employers and employees, and observed the farming practices of the area. Our objective was to discuss the ethics of eating in a world where 1 in 6 people are hungry. We did this by educating ourselves on our own methods of food production and transportation, and exploring the conflict of the abundance of food and empty stomachs.

I’m still sorting through most of the information; however, I want to share with you the 10 things that stand out the most to me from this experience.

1)      The farm we stayed on was fairly small and had both an organic and conventional apple orchard. We asked Craig what was the difference between organic and conventional farming. He informed us that organic farmers ‘pull a heck of a lot more weeds.’ Herbicides are not allowed, making for a more labor intensive care of organic fields.

2)      We further questioned the differences between organic and conventional, knowing that pesticides were not used either. He explained that to keep pests away from organic foods they are coated, with fish oil. A vegetarian in the group was quick to question whether or not this information was required to be advertised on organic foods. I’ve never seen an organic food label announcing the use of fish oil, and it’s pretty common practice, along with the massive amounts of bug hormones used to keep moths from mating in organic fields.

3)      One reason the fish oil may not be considered a problem is that produce is rinsed in water and chlorine. While chlorine is not natural, the USDA has decided that it is necessary considering the manure used to fertilize the organic fields.

4)      Developing the composite is a lot of work, especially for organic fields; not only must it sit in the sun for weeks to get to a certain temperature, the manure used must come from organic animals. Ten thousand gallons of water are used on approximately one square mile of compost piled about a foot high. A lot of compost, but that’s a huge amount of water in a desert of all places!

5)      The amount of water used for irrigation is just phenomenal, enough to make a desert a fruitful place! In order to conserve water, some farmers received incentives to begin a ‘drip system,’ where a small hose lines the rows of crops and drips out water, as opposed to being doused by a sprinkler system. This greatly reduces the amount of water used; however, the water table level is greatly reduced as well. This means there is less water in local reservoirs, and more water will be needed out of the Yakima river, lowing river levels for fish, which is what was happening with out the drip system. What a cycle!

6)      You may think your kids are picky eaters, but we all, as consumers, are very picky eaters and because we are spoiled. An incorporated farm that we visited throws out 15,000-20,000 pounds of produce a day. Twenty thousand pounds of fresh food goes to waste every day during harvesting season because consumers like us don’t want to buy a yellow-bottomed cucumber. It doesn’t taste any different; it just grew on the ground the way cucumbers are supposed to grow!

7)      The greatest concern expressed by farmers was over production. Over production in a local and global community where some people do not get enough to eat does not sound like a problem to me. Both big and small farm owners admitted to letting produce rot in the field, which nourishes the soil, and keeps food prices from plummeting by not flooding the markets, however this keeps this food out of the food pantries that would distribute the produce to people in need. Yet another vicious cycle.

8)      Just down the road, Campbell Farms struggles to provide healthy meals to youth in the area whose parents are financially strained when it comes to groceries, buying limited, and often unhealthy, food. While our visit may have opened up the eyes of the incorporated farmer as to how these neighbors can help each other, how often is this happening in other communities, or in my own refrigerator?

9)      These kids who aren’t eating healthy food don’t look as though their not eating. That’s when I recognized the concept of nutritional starvation. Sure these kids eat, but they eat processed, fatty, high in calorie and low in nutrition foods. It’s all their families can afford, or know to eat, even with the abundance of fresh produce all around them.

10)  On top of nutritional concerns, farm workers are 70% more likely to get uterine cancer and 60% more likely to get leukemia. May be genetics, may be working conditions? The number one cause of death among farm workers is suicide.

To end on a better note, I’ll share another quick story. On a small 18 acre farm that we visited they were raising organic chickens. The pen they stayed in was a beautiful little piece of land, covered with apple and crab apple trees as well as tall grasses. Off in one corner we noticed a small circle enclosed by some fencing: chicken jail! Apparently, there is such a thing as a cannibalistic chicken; the three housed there ate eggs.

We obviously covered a wide variety of topics, specific to the region, but applicable nationally and globally. Enjoy the food for thought I’ve shared with you, and consider for yourself the “Ethics of Eating.”

If you’ve spent any time on this blog, you already know that I (and and many of my colleagues) have some thoughts on how food is produced and distributed here in the U.S. For a sampling of some of our thoughts on the issue, click here, and here, and here (and while you’re at it, go ahead and click here too).

These are pressing issues and worth our reflection. For one, so many of our food practices exacerbate global hunger and poverty. When it takes 10 pounds of feed to raise one pound of beef we strain food supplies (I know this is a simplification, but it still carries some truth). When 1/5 of our oil consumption is spent on producing and distributing our food we harm the environment by depleting finite natural resources and releasing harmful gases that cause global climate change (which, by the way, is the number one issue if we want to talk seriously about sustainable development of impoverished nations and feeding hungry people). When we subsidize large companies to make cheap food that then causes health problems we perpetuate a cycle of poverty (the last article linked above explains how this happens well). In short, there is lots of room for improvement when we look closely at how we do food in America.

Now, as I see it, there is no easy solution to all of these problems. I admit that I don’t know all the nuances and complicating factors. It is for this very reason that I need to think long and hard about the issues. I think the starting point is awareness that there is indeed a problem (of this I am certain). The next step is to find those ways in which we truly address root problems.

David Creech

At David Creech’s suggestion, many of us ELCA World Hunger staff have gone vegetarian for Lent. (He explains why in previous posts, like yesterday’s.) Admittedly, I’m on the “vegetarian lite” plan – only abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. But even so, and even only a week into it, the experience has been educational for me.

I’ve never attempted to be vegetarian, but nor am I especially carnivorous. In fact, I find nothing appetizing about a steak or a roast; big slabs of meat kind of gross me out. At the same time, I really like most vegetables. I eat vegetarian meals regularly, though not exclusively, simply out of preference. So I didn’t think skipping meat two days a week would be particularly difficult – or even different – and I liked the reasons for doing it. I agreed to participate without hesitation.

And this is where the role of meat in my life and culture began asserting itself. I myself had no hesitation about an experiment in vegetarianism. Not so my family. I am the primary meal-maker in the house, and there was swift resistance to the idea of several weeks of a vegetarian menu. Not keen on preparing different food for myself and them, we agreed on the two-day-a-week plan. Lesson one: there is social pressure for me to eat meat, even in my own home. Or maybe especially there, since unlike a restaurant, we don’t each get exactly what we want every meal. My choices are tied to the choices of others.

I’m also learning that meat can be difficult to avoid. Compared to much of the world, meat here is cheap and plentiful, and therefore ubiquitous. It is on offer everywhere I go, and often, it’s no more expensive than non-meat choices. Last Wednesday, I consciously looked for vegetarian choices on a menu and discovered that there weren’t many. Lesson two: meaty meals can be easier to obtain than vegetarian ones. There’s a cultural expectation and incentive to eat meat every day.

Then there’s the challenge of remembering what day it is. It was sheer luck that I didn’t eat meat yesterday. At lunchtime, I opened the refrigerator and saw some leftover soup. I considered it, but decided that a leftover beet burger sounded better, so I had that instead. It wasn’t until I started thinking about dinner that I realized it was Wednesday and I almost ate Southwestern Chicken soup for lunch. Lesson three: when you live surrounded by a wide variety of plentiful food, it’s easy to be careless about what you eat.

All of this awareness in only a week! It’ll be interesting to see what else we learn – both individually and as a group – by the time Easter rolls around.

I just read an interesting report from the Global Policy Forum that makes important connections between food and finance. One little factoid that struck me: more than half of U.S. grain and nearly 40% of world grain is being used to feed livestock. The author of the report cites a 1997 news release from a Cornell ecologist who suggests that the U.S. could feed 800 million people with the grain that livestock eat. Granted, not all the grain that cattle eat is suitable for human consumption (thank you Mark Goetz for pointing that out to me), but again this underscores for me how lowering our own meat consumption could be an effective way to lower food costs and perhaps improve food distribution (to say nothing of the amazing environmental benefits of consuming less meat).

On a related note, Lent is just nine days away (and yes, as you may have already guessed, it is my favorite church season). One way to experiment with consuming less meat would be to practice the ancient and venerable tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays (and Wednesdays if you wish!) for the six weeks of Lent. Or if you’re adventurous, you could fast from meat for the whole 40 days. I am tempted to do just that, and I would probably succumb to peer pressure if I heard from enough people who would join me…

David Creech