Firing Fake Food and Loving Living Off the Land

The living, breathing earth we inhabit is magnificent.

We marvel at its splendor,
richness,
fiery bursts, and
ocean depths. 

Words fail us.

Within its orb we find everything we need to live. 

So full of wealth,
created for our sustenance
and enjoyment,
it invites us not merely to survive here...

We can flourish,
respect the earth,
toil in the earth,
learn the earth,
utilize the earth,
enjoy the earth,
feed from the earth,
and prosper
abundantly. 

It was created to be so, and it is good.

The various outcries for cleaner, purer food are refreshing and right.  They indicate an awareness that, at some point, we began to adulterate what was already right for us.  As part of the ever increasing kingdom of God and knowledge of mankind, we have made discoveries and birthed ideas and inventions that have radically improved our human condition.  All improvements, however, must stand to be tested and proven.  In some cases, we've sought and bought convenience and free time, yet all the while our lives have become more frenetic and complicated.  The statement itself is so cliche we want to roll our eyes at it.  We're so civilized.

It would appear, in the end, that we've created a world in which we are no longer required to be tied to the earth for our livelihood.  We tread on concrete.  We have a chemical to make it better.  We have a factory.  We have a loophole where we can cram as many living creatures into such tight quarters that they grow diseased.  But we have an antibiotic for that.  We'll disease them, treat them, make them bigger faster, slaughter them, sell the unnatural abnormality to the masses, and call it "meat."  It would appear to be meat.  Maybe it started out that way.  One thing our culture must conquer is the lie of appearances.

We've moved from land to cities where we remain mostly singular and anonymous in our existence.  Our communities are not likely to be familial, and our lives are much less likely to be rooted to the land in any capacity (at least that we are aware, though we must recall that our food, however bastardized it is, still started there).  Agriculture has taken on a somewhat banal, old-fashioned reputation.  It's sweet and cute, like little white church steeples that remind us of our grannies and, more importantly, how far we've come.  We've learned how to make babies in test tubes and turn our corn into a body builder.  We have chemicals to make our food make us a higher profit margin.  We individuals mustn't mess about any longer with heirloom seeds and soil and sunshine and waiting for the first sprig of life to poke through the ground.  We mustn't mess about with tending the sprig, nurturing it, relentlessly pulling the weeds to see the once-seed transformed and resurrected into a life-giving plant full of fruit, fruit full of hundreds more seeds.  At least, it would appear that way.  We mustn't even mess about with paying the just price to a true farmer who wants to take the time, spend the energy getting hands dirty, to do it the original way, removing his hat, wiping sweat from his forehead, surveying his land with pride. But perhaps this last bit is changing.

The problem at the heart of it is money.  We might add habit and convenience as worthy of blame, but they are residuals.  It appears that somewhere along the line, greed and self-service, coupled with a desire for more gain with less pain, might have weasled into our decision making, or that of industry leaders. 

We can argue around it, because it makes us feel squirmy to look it in the face.  The truth remains, however.  We must permit it to change our thinking so that we can tackle the face value issue blinking red in front of us, our health and that of our land. 

We must consider.  Is it really too costly or inconvenient to buy organic?  To buy from the local farmer?  To tend our own small garden?  We can do any or all of these options, or take another approach.  Our generation can see an inescapable connection between two things:  the distance our food has been altered from its original form, and the rampant diseases plaguing our civilized culture.  Of course, this glosses over the other significant issue of the negative impact--diseases, death, impotence--that our decisions are hammering into the natural order of creation that is meant to sustain us, thereby effectively making it much harder for us, and our children, to make it right again.  The natural world, including humans, is meant to be gloriously interdependent and interconnected.  From such a vantage point, the cost of real food (as opposed to the appearance of food we are usually sold) seems like a steal when we consider what all is truly at stake.

As doom, gloom, and fear saturate our media and should not be our primary motivators, however, let's not settle in that mess.  Let's move on.  We can remove ourselves from that which is wrong and move forward with hope toward that which is right.

From a practical perspective, when families live on a budget in a world that has shaped their lives to be dependent on a system that has deviated from the original products of the land, how do such families (real people, real children, real concerns, you and I) shift the balance and pursue the more costly, but overwhelmingly healthier, options?  First, it absolutely can be done.  It will take the obvious: retraining.  We people are extraordinarily adaptable.  We mustn't be fooled into believing that we're all so set in our ways that making changes is so very difficult.  It can, and ought to, be a challenge and an adventure, but it need not always be an uphill struggle.

The best approach is always action:

• Decide now that we will not become overwhelmed.  We are the boss of this process.
• Turn our wrists and read the label.  If it's a can of beans with a long list of ingredients with which we are not familiar, it should at some point go on the chopping block.  Start a running list of the weird, extra ingredients and research what they are.  Some of them are fine. Most of them are not. 
• Go where the good stuff is; this often just means the Organic/Health Food aisle at our favorite supermarkets.  Find out that many of the prices are not so frightening after all.  Do some research and mark up our grocery lists with prices. Start incorporating what is immediately affordable, even if it's only one thing.
• Keep it simple.  Simplify some of our meals.  Simplify our expectations.  Our culture in general honestly believes that our food must be an event; it must entertain and stuff us and make us feel better about our day.  It must not be dirty from the ground; it must be beautiful and big and bold.  This is not true.  Feasting has its place, oh yes.  Everyday is not that place. 
• Go slow and steady.  Take the pressure off, and as we are able, make one change, two changes at a time.  Start with those items we use most often that have the most additives and preservatives and other harmful substances.  Replace those with a brand that keeps it pure.  Or cut back on those items and replace them with something new and unadulterated.  Realize that every change we implement becomes a part of life for our children who will not have to fight this battle.  Thank God.

As with any new venture, it seems foreign, so foreign, just so very scary and foreign, until we take the first step, at which point we realize maybe it was never all that mysteriously overwhelming after all.  Once we get the hang of it, some of us might decide to start a little patio garden and grow a few tomatoes.

A couple months later, that fortunate soul might discover the exquisite taste and ease of homemade tomato sauce coupled with the gratifying peace that comes from putting into our mouths that which was meant to go into our mouths. 

And as one tends the soil that nurtures those tomatoes and witnesses the miracle of their growth, providing nourishment for our lives, one also might find that the time and the wait are worth the final product.  One might discover the satisfying camaraderie with the earth that all those "old-fashioned" farmers have relished in quiet from the dawn of time. 

Author's Note:
I am pro-business and believe that profits are good.  I do not affiliate with a political party, but anyone who knows me would say correctly that I tend to lean to the right on most issues.  Business ought to be free to grow and succeed, but not at any cost.  Where ethics are compromised and consumer health and welfare are jeopardized, knowingly, a change must occur.  I wholeheartedly believe that the food industry as a whole, and the politicians they have purchased, have entered unethical territory.  I also believe that they have punctuated what we all know: money talks.  Ideally, and I believe and prophesy that this is happening, clever business people and leaders and politicians with brains and a steady moral compass will realize that there's a stirring in our culture for real food again, and will follow our money as they make decisions.  But in the end, we must realize one thing:  the big guns should not, and really can not, rule our lives or what we put in our mouths.  We are joined to the earth.  No matter where we are, or what options are available to us, there are indeed options available to us, and the choice is ours.  And if we want them to follow our money, we have to start spreading that scent where we want them to go.