Table Talk: Ethics of Eating
Brother David Andrews, CSC
Executive Director
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
First United Methodist Church
Topeka, Kansas
February 13, 2001
This is a talk about food, tables, and a talk about talking.
A few years ago, Christopher Loetscher (Office of Social Concerns, Diocese
of New Ulm, Minnesota) developed a discussion exercise for small groups in a
parish setting. "We converse, eat and learn to share around the family
table," he said, and recalling these habits and "manner" can help us to
connect family life, Christian life and civic life.
Think about your community's table, where the community's work gets done. Think
about the social, economic, political life of your community -- the table wider than your
family table.
What is the greatest injustice in the local community? What rules ought to be enacted to
enforce or counter this injustice? What can be done to enact or enforce these rules? The
aim of politics is the realization of justice and peace. Politics is the art of seeking and
fostering the common good. Politics establishes the rules whereby people work, compete,
raise families, and share the benefits and burdens of society. These rules are either just or
unjust. The goods and services available or needed in the community are like the food
present or lacking on a family's table. Public policy helps or hinders people as they
present themselves at the common table and seek their just share of the table fare. And so
we say, "money talks." "What goes around, comes around." "It's not right!" 'Special
interests have too much power." "They never listen to us."
Think about the table of the Lord.
Who is called to the Lord's table? Does Christ have any expectations of his disciples
when they gather at his table? How are disciples expected to treat one another? Consider
the actions at the table of the Lord: assembling, singing, hungering for the Word,
listening, expressing gratitude and wonder, blessing bread, breaking bread, sharing bread,
eating bread, drinking the fruit of the vine, remembering the example we've been given
and being sent to the world, to love it, and transform it. "We say to each other: "Love
your neighbor as yourself." "Remember, as long as you did it to one of these, the little
ones, you did it to me." "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall see God." "Do unto
others as I have done to you." "This is my body, this is my blood." "Take and eat."
Our table fellowship reminds us that we are created in God's image to be sons and
daughters of God, brother and sister to one another in Christ and temples of the Holy
Spirit. We have personal dignity. We are called to participation in Community to seek the
common good. The goods of creation are meant for all, that all might flourish. We are
called to be good and just stewards of creation. Through our work, we are called to
continuing participation in God's creation. Those who are weak, sick, or poor are entitled
to particular attention.
Think about your tables, family tables, community tables, faith tables. Who eats? How is
food prepared? How is it shared? And who gets to talk? What do they say? Tables are for
eating and tables are for talking. Eating is a moral act. We shape each other and our world
at our tables: family tables, community tables, faith tables.
Our choices create our tables, our food, our talk.
The stories of the people of God are often stories of land, people and food. Consider
Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve. They were given the responsibility to tend the
garden and to keep it. They were given the responsibility to care for all of creation. Evil’s
entry into the world in the scriptures was described as a decision to eat the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. Responsibility and choice was associated with the act
of eating. Similarly, when Jesus was to choose to accept or reject the direction that his
Father had chosen for himself that choice was identified by the drinking of a cup. "Let
this cup pass from me." This was the voice of Jesus. Eating and responsible decision-
making are thus conjoined in the life of Jesus. Eating becomes a symbol of deciding, of
responsible decision making. As eating can symbolize responsible choice, so too eating
can itself demonstrate moral behavior. Eating is a moral act.
Eating is significant not only to personal behavior and individual actions. It is also related
to a social order, to a food system. Consider the story of Joseph at the end of the book of
Genesis. At first this story is one of fraternal conflict and jealousy when Joseph’s
brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt. But, while in Egypt, Joseph demonstrates his
managerial expertise gets noticed by the Pharaoh who puts Joseph in charge of his food
policy. Joseph takes the land of all who abide in Egypt in exchange for seed and food.
Readily people allow themselves to give up their freedom in order to eat. The social order
becomes centralized in Pharaoh's hands, managed by Joseph. Out of hunger people give
themselves over to slavery. The social order in which slavery was an acceptable form of
social order in recompense for hunger becomes a way of life in Egypt. " To quote the
scripture: "Joseph told the people: "Now that I have acquired you and your land for
Pharaoh, here is your seed for sowing the land…. And the people answered: "You have
saved our lives!" They answered. "We are grateful to my lord that we can be Pharaoh's
slaves." (Genesis 47: 23, 25) A food system can become a structure of unfreedom. Where
God tells the Hebrews that he has created them to "tend and keep the garden." And that
He has created humankind so that the human being could "stand erect." "To rise to full
stature," as St.Paul says. We find structures of food production and consumption, which
are systems of unfreedom, of slavery.
Remember the table of the Lord? How he washed the feet of his disciples? How he asked
us to remember his action…of feeding us with his body and blood? Remember how his
table fellowship included a lying friend's life's decisive act--Judas' momentous meal.
Remember how Jesus treated those who condemned him with dignity and kindness, but
nonetheless with decisiveness: "It would have been better that he never have lived."
"Today you will be with me in Paradise." The meal of suffering is also the meal of
justice and love.
At the National Catholic Rural Life Conference we have a campaign directed at eaters,
those who shape the structure of agriculture and the structure of our food system. By our
choices we shape the world. Do you purchase food from retailers who support family
farmers? Do you eat food that was grown by farmers who treated their animals with
dignity and respect, who raised the animals humanely? Does your food come from
Kansas's farmers or does it travel to get long distances to your table? Does your food
habit contribute to global climate change? Is the food you eat part of a sustainable food
system that contributes to the well being of unknown future generations, to a healthy
environment, to a local community in a rural or urban area which has a great deal of
vitality. Or will the food you eat come from a system which depopulates the countryside
and demeans farmers, farmworkers, food process workers, corporate executives and their
families?
Eating is a moral act. We are what we eat! And we can ask ourselves who is at the table?
What are they saying about the food system?
The picture shows a closeup of a farmer’s hands.
He is wearing work gloves.
The hands are pressed together palm to palm
and he holds them at waist level.
You do not see the farmer’s face. Only his hands.
And wrapped around his gloved hands
are strands of twisted barbed wire ---like a rope---
binding them like those of a prisoner or a slave.
This photograph is part of a campaign of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
It is an informational campaign
meant to stimulate thinking about issues of justice
in the production of our food and the people who labor to produce it.
The campaign is called,
"Eating is a Moral Act"
and it attempts to
open our eyes to see what we otherwise ignore:
To take note of deficiencies of justice
in the midst of mounting riches.
To take note of the hard work of farming,
the dangerous working of fishing,
the tedious work of processing...
all those raw and unsettling realities
not reflected in the soft glow of the candle light in fine restaurants;
human realities blanched pale in the glaring convenience of fast food,
economic oligopolies glossed over by plastic packaging by the handful of companies
who control our eating
at bargain prices
and bargain basement wages.
"Look, take a good hard look at what you are overlooking!"
This is the cry of all prophetic voices
throughout the history of faith:
to see what is otherwise ignored!
Though it is difficult to admit,
we all have this tendency to overlook essential elements of justice.
Whether it is the food we eat or the clothes we wear or the services we use
we all have a tendency to take our comforts for granted.
We set a fine table for our fine foods and our refined talk.
And on the other side of this otherwise innocuous tendency
comes the surprised reaction when we are confronted with words
warning us
about the long-term results of our lack of attention.
This is our habit and it leads to sin,
the sin of overlooking
the wages paid
the pollution made
the plans laid by the rich
and those for whom the buck never stops.
My words carry a terrible sting
and our reaction is certainly predictable.
We quickly reach for some ointment to alleviate the pain
caused by these accusations.
Amidst the soft glow of candle lights at our dinner tables
we begin reciting the soothing mantras
of neo-liberal doctrine:
"It’s a global economy," we whisper to ourselves,
"free markets benefit everyone."
And the automatic ritual allows us
to better ignore disturbing reports
and pass over such facts that, since the passage of NAFTA,
the working poor in Mexico has climbed from 40% to 60% of the population.
We know many such chants.
Here is another one:
"The low wages of the maquiladores simply reflect
the lower standard of living in that country."
It’s a comforting verse.
It numbs the gnawing fact that the average wage of $5.00 a day in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
must buy food that costs the same as across the river in El Paso, Texas.
We ignore many things at home as well.
We ignore the growing poverty in rural America.
We are ignorant of the loss of 300,000 family farms
in the last twenty years.
See the wages withheld from the people who work the land, says St. James Gospel,
Take a look at what you’d rather ignore!
But it’s so distressing to be reminded of this, you say.
It’s so frustrating to be aware of injustice
and not be able to do anything about it.
When Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was, on one of those rare occasions,
invited to the table of economic leaders in Davos, Switzeerland in 1999, he said the
following:
We should first like to express our joy that this meeting of distinguished and dynamic economists,
political figures, and other eminent dignitaries has included on the agenda of its discussions the
human dimension of globalisation of the economy, as well as non-economic values. There is no
doubt that when ranking values the human person occupies a place higher than economic activity;
neither is there any doubt that economic progress, which is present when there is growth in
economic activity, becomes useful when -- and only when -- it serves to enhance the non-economic
values that make up human culture. …
Unfortunately, globalisation tends to evolve from a means of bringing the peoples of the world
together as brothers and sisters, to a means of expanding economic dominance of the financial
giants even over peoples to whom access was denied because of national borders and cultural
barriers.
It is not our intention or responsibility to suggest ways and means by which this danger can be contained or eliminated. We do, however, have a duty to point out and proclaim that the highest pursuit of humanity is not economic enrichment or economic expansion.
The Gospel saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone" (Mt.4:4), should be more broadly understood. We cannot live by economic development alone, but we must seek the "word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt.4:4), that is, the values and principles that transcend economic concerns. Once we accept these, the economy becomes a servant of humanity, not its master.
Would that the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City invited religious leaders to its discussions about the future of rural America. I suggest this to Mark Drabenstott, the Director of the Center for the Study of Rural America and to Thomas Hoenig, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for their next April meeting. Would that Seaboard invited religious leaders to speak with it across the table to consider the needs of Kansas as it moves to exploit its resources. Would that the land, air, water of Kansas were considered as gifts from God to thepeople of Kansas as a sacred trust and not simply as a resource reservoir. Would that the notion of community were considered as a value added entity. Would that the welfare of animals were considered as part of our stewardship responsibilities. Would that concerns of wheat farmers about GMO wheat be appreciated now that we’ve had Starlink and Aventis’ problems with GMO corn. Would that a more holistic vision of Kansas were part of the table conversations about our food system.
Indeed, what is the purpose of this diatribe?
What can sincere people do in a world
where injustice exits and will always exists?
Why bring up these unpleasant facts?
These are valid protests.
Religious rites, worship services, are to be banquets of joy and peace.
Eating is a moral act, and sometimes a religious act.
Yet, the gratitude for holy food
and the salvation it brings
is fully expressed only when we remember
that unleavened bread was first eaten by slaves on the run
and the cup of some drink is a cup of suffering.
Just as I believe that Bread and Wine are transformed,
so are we transformed...
transformed into people of compassion,
people who see what others overlook,
people who can begin to trace the vague outlines
of the prophetic vision of the Reign of God
where justice and mercy embrace
and a grand table is set.
Where bankers sit next to farmers,
boarder guards converse with the undocumented
and ranchers share toasts with environmentalists.
Where work gloves lie next to linen napkins,
hands are scrubbed, feet are washed,
thirst is quenched, hunger satisfied
and there’s no hint of injustice,
no whisper of enslavement,
no sign of barbed wire anywhere!
Eating is a moral act. Our tables need to include those who've been excluded. Our talk
needs to include our farmers, their families, the rural communities, our environment, our
landscape, our countryside, religious and moral values. We are what we eat. By our
choices we shape our world. By our conversations, our talking, we influence others. Let
us remember the challenge we have to shape a world of justice and peace.
Thank you.
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