Let Justice Roll Down Lesson Three

Lesson Three: Food Justice

Scripture: Genesis 1:22, 3:19; Exodus 16:13–18, 19–21; Joshua 5:12; Psalms 65:11–14, 78:23–29, 105:40–41; Hosea 4:1b–3; Micah 6:12-15; Matthew 13:8; Mark 4:8; Luke 8:8

Food Justice

Those of us who manage household meals confront complex food choices. Every day, we seek healthy diets that suit family budgets of both time and money, adapted for the allergies and preferences of household members, both children and adults. But conflicting information can confound us. Should we drive across town to find slightly better prices or work with what is available nearby? Are farmers markets worth scheduling into our week or organic foods into our budget? On busy days, should we order take-out, pick up fast food, zap a frozen entree, reheat leftovers from the last three nights, or pull a quart of soup from the freezer? With food tastes and recommendations always evolving, what constitutes a well-rounded meal and a healthy diet?

Environmental awareness adds new layers to this decision-making. How can we avoid pesticide exposure, both for our sakes and for farmworkers’ health? What should we do about the large carbon footprints of beef and other meats, and the ethical problems of factory farming? How can we sidestep processed, sugared, salted, larded and excessively packaged foods? How can we reduce waste?

For many Americans, part of the dilemma is the exhausting wealth of choices. Think, for instance, of the decisions an aisle of soups necessitates (e.g., canned, packaged, freeze-dried, fresh, condensed, low sodium versions of tomato soup, not to mention brand names, sizes and sales). Just to shop efficiently, we develop routines and standards based on habit.

Our family exhibits much of the general population’s range of dietary choices. We include pure carnivores, vegetarians, ailments and allergies and, especially among the children, strong if fleeting aversions. One grandchild is happy to pick tomatoes, but not to eat them. Another professes to love spinach “but not today.” One would eat every frozen blueberry in the house if given the chance. Another cannot stand the smell, much less the taste, of eggs.

Despite such challenges, I count myself happy actually to enjoy cooking. I find kitchen prep a relaxingly inexact creative process, delighting the senses. Our household is all about “slow food”: averse to landfills, eager to create from scratch, resistant to trendy, “convenient” but wasteful packaging even to the point of watching for glass jars and metal cans, and carrying produce bags for vegetables and containers for bulk foods and take-out. We see stalks, cobs and cores as compost for next year’s garden. Eating as simply, as freshly, and as low as possible on the food chain is a satisfying challenge that shifts with the calendar month. A full dishwasher, as my spouse says, is a sign of eating well.

Mirroring such personal ethics, a growing number of farmers and eaters worldwide are claiming that food should be healthy not only for ourselves, but for everyone along the food chain. The Slow Food Movement, founded in Italy in 1986, has adopted a “manifesto for quality” calling for foods that are good (delicious), clean (environmentally sustainable), and fair for all—socially and economically. It includes growers, cooks and eaters. It claims only two groups in the U.S., but 17 in Iran, 79 in Kenya, and 575 in Italy.

I recently took a small group to Kenya to see the work of the Africa Inland Church in Kisumu, the country’s third largest city after Nairobi and Mombasa. With U.S. help, back in 2016 they founded a small tree nursery on the grounds of their bishop’s office, where they grow tree seedlings—for both fruit and reforestation—to plant in schoolyards, church yards and farms throughout southwestern Kenya. Before driving to Kisumu, we stopped at the Nairobi office of an NGO called ICRAF, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry. There scientists work for agroforestry solutions for farmers, cultivating trees and shrubs along with crops and livestock for more ecologically diverse and economically productive farms.

As they explained, and as our friend from Kisumu, Bishop Tom Ochuka, has repeated many times, Kenya has been badly deforested by farming and by the cutting of trees for cookstoves. ICRAF seeks alternative incomes from food-producing trees, and supplies thousands of seeds every year to growers, including the Africa Inland Church’s God Green Resourceful Earth program. They research and develop food and nutrition security measures, water management to cope with climate-caused draughts and severe flooding—such as the El Niño flooding this past spring that killed many in Kenya and washed out thousands of acres of newly planted fields. They work toward soil fertility, sustainable wood-fuel production and land restoration, and are developing maps for suitable fruit trees, soil properties and flood zones. Their long list of partners demonstrates that the agricultural world is lively with scientists and growers seeking resilient food production solutions.

Such movements are small when compared with the large corporations that rule the American agricultural landscapes. Yet they are a growing force for environmental and social good. Lesson 3 on food justice stands as an invitation to all participants to reconsider how we garden, shop and eat so that both our neighbors and the planet itself may find a future that is healthy for all, both locally and internationally.

Patricia K. Tull
Author of the 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study, Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation.

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This blog is the third in a series of nine blogs.

Let Justice Roll Down is the Presbyterian Women in the PC(USA), Inc. Bible study for 2024-2025. Go to presbyterianwomen.org/bible-study/justice to find more resources and purchase Let Justice Roll Down to study along with us. Call 800/533-4371 or order online.