Food, Farming, and Faith looks at agricultural sustainability and Christianity. Using scripture and science, Gary W. Fick—a Christian agricultural scientist—demonstrates that faith can inform decisions about creating, managing, even consuming our food. The book highlights such topics as food and celebration, environmental care, ecology and faith, soil and water stewardship, animal welfare, and the impact of poverty on women and our food supply. Throughout, Fick presents and discusses biblical passages that comment on these areas and provides insight from personal experiences growing up in a ranching family, in teaching sustainable agriculture, and as a scientist. Ultimately, Fick challenges the reader to think about eating more thoughtfully so that we have good food, a healthy environment, and a comfortable lifestyle all at the same time.

Although the religious and ethical consideration of food and eating is not a new phenomenon, the debate about food and eating today is distinctly different from most of what has preceded it in the history of Western culture. Yet the field of environmental ethics, especially religious approaches to environmental ethics, has been slow to see food and agriculture as topics worthy of analysis. This book examines how religious traditions and communities in the United States and beyond are responding to critical environmental ethical issues posed by the global food system. In particular, it looks at the responses that have developed within Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, and shows how they relate to arguments and approaches in the broader study of food and environmental ethics. It considers topics such as land degradation and restoration, genetically modified organisms and seed consolidation, animal welfare, water use, access, pollution, and climate, and weaves consideration of human wellbeing and justice throughout. In doing so, Gretel Van Wieren proposes a model for conceptualizing agricultural and food practices in sacred terms. This book will appeal to a wide and interdisciplinary audience including those interested in environment and sustainability, food studies, ethics, and religion.

From the creator of the bestseller Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective comes Food & Faith. Food is itself a joyful gift – recall how the gift of food so often mediates the sanctity and preciousness of life. This collection of reflections by Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Johnson, Alan Durning and others helps you start thinking about the moral, spiritual and economic implications of eating. Readings focus on the enjoyment and spirituality of good food, ways in which eating connects us to the land and to each other, and on the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of daily food choices. Food & Faith includes an eight-week study guide for groups or individuals, which leads to action: setting a table that is healthy, joyful and just.

"Organic Wesley: a Christian perspective on food, farming, and faith examines the intersection of the teachings of John Wesley with the ethics of the contemporary food movement. Wesley's teachings can provide us with guidance as we seek to make food choices that are consistent with our Christian values--the choices that are best for our bodies, our fellow creatures, our communities, the environment, and all of creation"--P. [4] of cover.

Distinct practices of eating are at the heart of many of the world's faith traditions -- from the Christian Eucharist to Muslim customs of fasting during Ramadan to the vegetarianism and asceticism practiced by some followers of Hinduism and Buddhism. What we eat, how we eat, and whom we eat with can express our core values and religious devotion more clearly than verbal piety. In this wide-ranging collection, eminent scholars, theologians, activists, and lay farmers illuminate how religious beliefs influence and are influenced by the values and practices of sustainable agriculture. Together, they analyze a multitude of agricultural practices for their contributions to healthy, ethical living and environmental justice. Throughout, the contributors address current critical issues, including global trade agreements, indigenous rights to land and seed, and the effects of postcolonialism on farming and industry. Covering indigenous, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives, this groundbreaking volume makes a significant contribution to the study of ethics and agriculture.

Rural contexts are often over-looked, treated as "flyover land." But because everyone must eat, rural communities and their work in food production are important to the whole of society. Mark Yackel-Juleen spent many years in rural ministry and is the founder and executive director of Shalom Hill Farm. He offers valuable insight on the present issues of food production and environmental sustainability, and connects it in profound and practical ways to the biblical and theological tradition. The result is a clear set of powerful and actionable tools to help rural leaders and ministers address issues of sustainability and land use in their ministry. Everyone Must Eat masterfully shows how one can integrate the sociology of community, the secular realities of economics and public policy, and the powerful presence of God's word in order to practice faithful leadership.

This book addresses major issues concerning missions and agriculture, bringing relevance to the relationship of God, creation, and humanity in the context of ethics, agricultural science, economy, and globalization.

With the growing farm-to-table movement and popularity of local farmers' markets, we are becoming more conscious of where our food originates. This spirituality of eating and food helps us reflect on current realities and understand how eating forms our souls inwardly, upwardly, and outwardly. The author offers practical guidance on what it means to eat alone or in community with more intention, compassion, humility, and gratitude. She also tells the story of food as it transitions from seed to table. Sidebars contain gardening and food tips, recipes, and food preservation guides. End-of-chapter questions for individual and group use are included.

"There is a widespread assumption that organic agriculture is a secular environmentalist cause, but there is a growing contingent of conservative Christian farmers that is vital to the organic food and sustainable farming movement. This interesting balance, wherein the market tends to be politically left-leaning while the growers tend to be right-leaning, calls into question what Roland Barthes would call our "contemporary mythologies;" what it means to be an American Christian farmer and what it means to support sustainable agriculture. How are these groups portrayed as polarized and how has that portrayal affected environmentally sensible agricultural progress? This paper considers Wendell Berry's assertion that , as we all eat, we are all implicated in farming and explores what that means for Christians in particular, to whom eating can be a sacrilegious or sanctified act. It also discusses the role of Christianity and farming: in the formation of America and in the formation of the American identity. Applying these foundational themes, the paper chronicles three groups of Christian farmers at work: Calvinists, Mennonites, and fundamentalist Christians, and explores how they think about farming. Though each farmer's core identity is based on a strict code of Christian conduct, how their faith affects their farming varies. The Calvinist farmers represent the notion that the market, not the Bible, dictates how they survive as farmers, but that they still choose to be farmers because of their faith. The Mennonite farmers make their farming decisions based on their belief in stewardship of community and of Creation before the individual, and simplicity of scale before economic profit. Finally, the fundamentalist Christian farmers practice sustainable farming methods motivated by the idea that their faith should touch everything that they do, celebrating God's explicit design. These case studies suggest that it is time to describe a new "sociolect;" one that does not perpetuate the assumption that the mythologies surrounding sustainable agriculture and contemporary American Christian culture are "by nature" mutually exclusive. Instead, the groups should consider how mutually essential they are to each other's success and begin to look to each other for help."