This past weekend I attended an event over World Hunger and The Ethics of Eating. We covered how our food system has serious ecological, economical, and ethical implications and is in no way sustainable. We have a very complex food system, and to be quite honest, it can be quite daunting.
LIFE ON THE OTHER SIDE
Our group met at the World Hunger Relief center just outside of Waco. The most meaningful activity for me was when we were divided into groups of 8 and were instructed to cook our own dinner. But we did much more than that. We were given certain stipulations that people in many developing countries abide by every day. We had to walk up the road to a well to get our water, we had to gather our firewood and build a fire to cook on, we had to harvest our produce from the garden, and if we wanted chicken in our meal… we were responsible for that too.
Our group subdivided to accomplish each task. I am a vegetarian(ish). I don’t eat beef, pork, or poultry. I’ll eat fish maybe once a week and I do eat dairy. I didn’t have to be apart of the group that would slaughter a chicken... but I felt that I had to be. I didn’t think I would want to, but if I ever was going to eat an animal again, I had to take responsibility for its death. I had to close the gap between the prepackaged, boneless cuts of chicken breast that I could so easily get at Kroger and the feathered, squacking, living bird.
To be honest, I did not kill the bird. Chris, another guy in my group, shared the exact feelings about the situation as me and he did the final act. But I was the one who held the bird’s body on the table with one hand and used my other hand to pin the chicken’s head down, leaving his neck elongated and exposed for the cut. I was the one who felt the bird tense, stir with fear, and toss in pain through out his death. I was the one that had to hold he decapitated bird’s body feet up over a trash can while blood spewed from his neck and nerves left the bird forcefully shaking about. I was one to move the decapitated head with its eyes still open and mouth gaping to the discarded pile. I was the one that broke the bones in the bird’s legs with my hand, took a knife and cut off the extremities. I was the one that then used the knife to separate the skin and feathers and peeled it off the carcass to reveal only muscle. I was the one that cut open the bird and pulled out the still warm intestines, stomach, lungs, liver, and other internal organs.
There is suffering in the way we fuel our bodies. I have experienced it first hand. But there is also beauty. Our group made roasted squash, steamed greens, beans, and chicken. It was the only meal that I have ever eaten where I was able to witness 100% the assemblage of ingredients. I saw everything go from it’s living environment where it got its fuel, to me and becoming my fuel. With that meal, I felt a stronger appreciation for incredible process of gathering energy. To be honest, I grew spiritually that day.
Like I mentioned before, our food system is complex. The effects of our industrialized food system on climate change is great, it is toxic to our environment and our bodies, it exploits workers in nothing short of inhumane ways, and has warped and devalued the importance of food.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
A couple weeks ago I completed my 31 days of basically only eating whole clean food. It was a very rewarding accomplishment that has left me feeling healthier than I ever have before. If you ate the way I did, then the benefits of physical health would be a given… but I am always looking for improvement and I want more.
For the next 90, yes 90 days, I will follow the same guidelines that I set out for myself in my “Back to the Basic of Health” challenge. The purpose? To change my relationship with food internally. Food is far too precious take advantage of it. When I go through the drive through it is not only that I support a system that contributes to over 1/5 of our fossil fuel expense, it is not only that I am filling my body not just with a disgusting amount of calories and fat, but with toxins and carcenogines as well, it is not only that I am supporting big businesses as they capitalize on their undefended workers, and is not just that by going through the drive through that I vote in approval of and for the continuation of the system.
For me, when I go through the drive through, I demean the relationship I have human beings, with the earth, and with myself by belittling my very source of life. I'm hungry for something sweeter than that.
