Thinking about eating ethically

THANK YOU for bringing food - the center of our existence - to the table of Catholic Social Teaching. This discussion needs to happen at more tables. So many people are unaware of the effects of their food choices and would likely want to change their eating habits if they knew how their choices affect their fellow humans and the Earth we all share.

"eat less meat and don’t over eat."

Great advice. Pass the burgers, now there's more for me!

So glad to see another thread woven into the "Food as Sacred" and "Food as Social Justice Issue". The National Catholic Rural Life Conference has also been a leading voice for many years in walking the walk. http://www.ncrlc.com/ethics_of_eating.html

I think that this lament is a contemporary phenomenon. If one goes back into history, and one searches through the culinary traditions of Catholic cultures, their agrarian ties, their calendars of days involving true abstinence and fasting, one discovers much about ethical eating, seasonal eating, and menus that respect and respond to local variants.

I am sure that Mr. Carter means well, but I notice that he didn't make a distinction between industrial meats from animals fed grain and soy, pumped full of drugs, and raised in extreme confinement and meat from animals that are grass fed, move around freely, and are not drugged. He also speaks generally of "fat", not making the very important difference between good fats and bad fats. Americans need MORE of the good fats and less of the unhealthy ones, which we greatly overconsume.

Readers might find the following videos are helpful:

Big Think Interview With Nina Planck
Big Fat Lies with Gary Taubes
Wise Traditions Conference 2010

Also see this excellent online book: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price

Thank you for succinctly putting together the meat vs forest/environment relationship that I have found hard to explain to people.

That must be the whole idea of prophets and leaders to make these ideas clear, direct and accessible.

Yes! The "Domestic Church" where meals are central to the family makes a powerful witness to our stewardship as Christians and our community of Faith. I'm happy to read that this awareness is growing, and being a convert to the Catholic Church from my Presbyterian heritage, I can appreciate Bill Tammeus' appeal to both sides, as we meet in the home. However, I'd go farther and ask everyone, everywhere, to become aware of GMOs -- Genetically Modified Organisms -- and refuse to buy or consume anything with GMOs. This is not the same phenomenon as the "green revolution" of the 70s; GMOs are changing the life essence of the natural world, and the long-term effects are anything but sustainable. The disaster of GMO cotton in India and the failure of GMO corn in Africa over the past few years must not be ignored. Worse, there is growing evidence that GMOs actually alter the digestive tract of humans and animals that consume GMOs. Monsanto is without rival in its seed monopoly, and appears to be going for a global patent on all seed production. This should be very alarming, for it parallels the evil of past totalitarian regimes that sought complete power and political control, which is possible to whomever controls the world's food. But this is a matter with another dimension, both blasphemous and sinister. As Catholics who believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, we should be horrified at the thought of Eucharistic bread, offered for confection in the Eucharist, that is not actually pure wheat, but rather contains the DNA of pigs. Ethically eating is about much more than merely the expanding waistline; our very lives and souls are on the line.

What a wonderful insight into eating ethically.

I would also suggest:

"I know that an economy of endless growth must be confronted and converted to an economy of sustainability, to what the Bible calls stewardship."

Any Christ-follower should feel bound by these values, not only Catholics or Presbyterians. So glad this is continuing to be written in articles and on blogs, but nothing much will change until people recognize that real farmers rather than farm corporations are the only ones who will follow them. As long as money is the only ultimate goal, the problem will continue and poverty will eventually win. the book Diet for a Small Planet has been around for many years, as well as re-published in recent years, and the effect is very slow. Keep up the message, though, because without it there is no hope for change.

I wholeheartedly agree with this effort. As consumers of any product, but especially food, we need to be aware of the impact of our choices. The purchase of eggs, chicken, veal, or other animal products means that a sentient, living creature was held, raised, and killed on our behalf. Furthermore, when consumers purchase strictly based on low cost and do not look to see how their "food" was produced, they put additional pressure on producers to raise and butcher animals in the fastest, cheapest way possible. Ethical treatment takes time and costs money. As Albert Schwietzer said, "Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight."
Let's get the word out!

Hi, Bill,
Carter falls into the error of proposing a simplistic approach to a complex question. If we condemn the consumption of Brazillian beef, what shall we have the farmers down there producing instead? They have to live too! And I live in the Pacific Northwest, where oranges do not grow well. Do I have to give them up because they are not "local"?
I think Mr. Carter is using a brush much too broad to paint his picture.

I have been searching for true Catholic Catechism Catholics who will listen about ethical choices in food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, etc.
Does John Sniegocki fit the bill. Is he a Catechism of the Catholic Church Catholic?
I'm excitedly awaiting your reply!

The theologians ought to be basing their theology on this sort of principles rather than on who begat whom and how many angels dance on the head of a pin.

I agree we should eat less meat, more fruits and vegetables, and fish. Buying locally grown, or produced, food also has advantages, but the supply can be very limited, depending on where you live (oranges do not grow on the Pacific Northwest, nor in other parts of the world). Also, I would like to know what you mean by "ethically harvested" wheat or whatever. Sustainable food production, in my opinion, has 3 dimensions: environmental (do your best to not hurt the environment: use as little chemicals and fertilizer as needed to have a reasonable productivity without increasing arable land), economical (all those involved should profit: farmers, farm machine makers, seed producers, etc), and social (reasonable and fair prices, both for consumers and for farmers, so that subsidies may be terminated and farmers from third world countries (where there are no subsidies) can compete in the international market. May I suggest a good, easy to read book, you can download for free? Here you are: http://www.sibi.org/ingles/jgp/p2009.htm
Food production and distribution is a very, very complex matter!

One problem with the "eat locally" idea is that an apple brought 60 miles in the back of a badly-tuned pick-up may have taken more energy/piece than one shipped cross country by train. You really never know for sure which is the more "responsible" choice.

Yes, apply Catholic Social Justice teaching to food, but leave out any Animal Liberation and PETA false and occultic teachings.

And there is some danger in concentrating the application of our teachings only for te sake of our personal health. There is much more of a call on us to eat for the cause of the Mission of Christ.

Many Catholics have been led astray in generations past with good ideas focussing on a personal application of the Gospel - look at Jansenism, colonialism, fascism, NAZIsm, the Peace Movement of the 1960's, 1970's and there are many more.

Hi Bill,

I've lately started reading a book I checked out at our local library: "Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first Century," and am starting to feel greatly encouraged by the new waves of change that are guiding individuals, families, corporations, and communities toward a wholistically sustainable way of life.

The Ford Motor company is revitalizing the ecosystems at the site of its plant in Dearborn, Michigan -- and saving money in doing so! DesignTex has developed a manufacturing process for its fabric that filters the water: the water coming out of its Swiss mill, at least at one point when it was tested, was just as clean as the water going in!

To me, clean water and flourishing ecosystems are integrally-intertwined with food ethics. These waves of change are so encouraging, because, as a lower-income mother, I've often felt discouraged by the seeming impossibility of ceasing to support unethical agricultural practices, when the ethically-grown and raised foods are often beyond our budget.

I'm now seeing that I don't need to paddle upstream, or kick myself for failing to singlehandedly change the tide. I just need to get more plugged in to my community and stay alert as more and more wonderful solutions present themselves. We are living in an age in which previously unimaginable solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems are surfacing at our very fingertips -- it just takes faith to see them sometimes.

Thank you for addressing a subject that I feel is essential to everyone's existence. It is all too easy to "over enjoy" the easily obtained food in our country. I encourage those interested to consider the book More-with-Less, a world community cookbook, by Doris Janzen Longacre. Unfortunately, it is all to easy to know the right thigs to do, but much more difficult to actually do them.

Tammeus reports: So when I go to watch the Kansas City Royals play and, between innings, see the team mascot firing hot dogs at fans out of a giant air rifle, I often turn to the person next to me and sigh, “Only in America.”

Baseball stadiums . . .
along with the arms trade our most lucrative industry

and yet

There the security police taze old men in the bleachers for cheering the game too loud.

There the obese security police taze young men for streaking the field too quickly.

Plus, rifling tripe tubes into the stands?

Do NOT take me out to the ball game.
Leave me way out alone in the desert,
in this place apart.

Where the sport is much more fascinating, than watching Dustin Hoffman French kiss men.

By the way, I quickly dropped seventy pounds a few years back by quitting all meat and dairy and oils other than olive and other stuff I can only recall with recoil.

Now I'm mostly guacamole and oranges, and of course Morinu Silken organic tofu, raw.

In the morning of a work day a bowl of Irish steel cut oats, plain, at night a few slices of Bran for Life bread, with a dash of olive oil.

Plenty of garlic, etc., of course, in the guacamole or lentils.

I find I have cut way back on the lentils and garbonzas.

I am cutting back on the raw nuts as much as I can. A lot of the frivolities like that jsut slip away forgotten after awhile, as the body adjusts to a softer, yet full of fiber diet.

My garden's harvest of carrot and pea pods are drying now under the desert sun, and for some reason my cherry tomato plants would neither transplant nor sprout this year. The Thai basil I plant for the hot weather to replace the earlier abundant self-reseeding cilantro also has not sprouted . . .

And the hummingbirds have not returned, not a one, after earlier years's abundance.

sorry for wandering
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)

To get some sense of what Dr. Schwietzer meant about the suffering we spare ourselves and to get a glimpse of what corporate farming means and the effects socially as well as biologically of GMOs Genetically Modified (and patented)Organisms, take a look at the documentary film Food,Inc. Won an Academy Award and deserves wider viewing. Try Netflix.
Let us hope it is at least as effective as The Jungle which influenced the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair, the author, commented that with his book he had aimed at the public's heart and hit its stomach.

This is a very important issue, and it certainly is a 'eucharistic' issue. I remember a story of a Spanish priest, chaplain to one of the colonial settlers in the early days of European settlement of South America. Can't remember his name (Las Casas??), but his whole life changed as he prepared to celebrate Mass in the great house. He found himself reflecting on the fact that the grain used to bake the eucharistic bread was planted on stolen land and raised by the slave labour of an oppressed people. How could he bring this 'work of human hands' to the altar without concern for the human beings themselves? He spent the rest of his life working for better treatment of the colonized 'indians'. Lots of parallels today....
I don't think this article was painted with 'too broad a brush'. Try reading 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver - her family lived for a year trying to live on what they could produce themselves or easily buy from nearby. Coffee was a big problem, and perhaps oranges, but how they coped is very inspiring.

Fabulous! Thank you so much. I completely agree. Now I must follow up on the names you give in your article.

Thank you for bringing more awareness to God's creatures and our stewardship of them. We need to hear more about it. It would be nice if cruelty-free food was served at Church events (ie. vegan burgers, etc.).
What we eat is a moral, ethical and faith issue that needs to be brought into the Church's agenda. Someday we will be held accountable for every creature as Hebrews 4:13 states.
What we eat and why (ie. greed) is a moral issue summed up in 1 Cor. 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God."
We should be speaking out more for God's creatures (even those on 'family' farms).
Jan
Catholic Concern for Animals-USA
www.Catholic-animals.org

Please visit www.Catholic-animals.org for more information.
We are Catholics (all volunteers in the USA).
Dr. Deborah Jones (who has her doctorate in Catholic animal theology), has written "The School of Compassion: A Roman Catholic Theology of Animls" -- it is available from Amazon.com. She has also written a booklet "Concern for Animals, from a Catholic perspective" available from Catholic Concern for Animals-USA. Dr. Jones is coming to the States to speak at a Catholic theological conference. She is the editor of CCA's journal 'The Ark' (free samples available). She'll be here in NJ for a couple of weeks with me if anyone would like to call here and speak with her in NJ from June 24th - July 7th. She's also going to be speaking at a Catholic Church during the Masses.

Jan Fredericks, LPC, MA
Chair, CCA-USA
973-694-5155

I'd like to see the women religious orders lead their "prophetic ministry" with this advice. Most of them are morbidly obese.

Excellent article!

Free will grants great power and great responsibility, (the Peter Parker doctrine). Our eating really does represent most of our impact, and therefore stewardship, of our world. Even small steps, (meatless Fridays, taking mass transit, trains instead of planes), can have a very big impact. -Living simply: Who knew that St. Benedict was so smart so long ago?

Let me also add my voice to those warning about the dangers of GMOs. I'm a biophysicist by trade and believe me we are playing with fire. The BP oil spill is peanuts compared to what an under-regulated corporation can wreak with GMOs.