Food, God, Community
Agriculture has always needed relationships to be successful. Just watch the Travel Channel when they cover distant cultures. It’s not just a family that plants and harvests the crops, but the whole village. There are many advantages to working with people you care about and are close to. In fact this is what it means to be in community.
In Wendell Berry’s enlightening essay “Sex, Economy, Freedom, Community”, he explains that community is that space which is between public and private. Community is an extension of our family, or private life. It acts as a place where we voluntarily submit to each other and serve and sacrifice for each other.
In agriculture, there is an economy of scale, meaning that it takes less time and energy for 2 families to harvest 2 acres of corn than it takes for 2 families to care for their 1 acre plots individually. Many companies have taken advantage of this economy of scale by creating industrial food and agriculture. However, this mass production of food comes at a cost. In essence, we go to the grocery store and exchange our valuable time and craving for relationships for the purchase of food. We essentially forfeit the life giving process of agriculture.
We want to offer an alternative to this sterile practice which separates us from the rewarding practice of growing our own food. Through individual and communal gardens we are helping people return to the spiritual and communal practice of relying on each other and God for dinner.
In our robust economy, if we want something to eat we go buy it. But that food does not originate on the shelf, it starts with a natural source. This habit of instant food purchase brings with it a subtle temptation to forget where our food comes from and how it is produced. Ultimately, God is the source of our food. In fact, agriculture is actually a partnership between God and people. When we lose sight of this, we lose a valuable dimension in our relationship with God as provider.
Individual and communal gardens allow us to decrease our dependence on our financial status while at the same time developing trust and reliance on God and each other. By growing our own food we are essentially acting on our faith in God’s economy. The seed designed by God can grow and provide the vegetables we need. God’s environment can provide the rain and sun for the plant to grow. Our part is to plant the seed and take care of it by weeding, fertilizing, and other measures.
When we learn to live with what God has provided, we learn the art of sustainablity.
