Last week, I took a cross-country ride on Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago, then from Chicago to New York City. I had great fun posting photos on Facebook along the way. By the time I arrived in NYC, over 100 of my friends were following me on this visual journey.
One of the things that stayed with me was the vastness of the farms in the middle of the country. I have always been a city person – grew up in Hong Kong and New York City. Twenty years ago, I would have looked at these huge farms and had nothing but praiseworthy thoughts. What great amount of food that these farms produce! What wonderful technologies that are used to make these farms work!
But now I have conflicting thoughts about these big farms. What have been the impacts of these farms on the environment? How were the workers treated? What happens to the smaller farms and farmers?
These conflicting thoughts were still swimming in my head last Sunday when I was invited to preach at the 115th anniversary service at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, NJ. Before the service, I was given a tour of the facility. The pastor, Rev. Karen Henandez-Granzen proudly showed me the small raised-bed community garden by the side of the church. Later on in the service I saw a multi-media presentation that presented Bethany House of Hospitality, which has a more expanded community garden.
The contrasts between a community gardens in the city and the huge farms helped me realize what was bothering me. A community garden always grows a diversity of plants – tomato, pepper, herb, squash, corn, etc. It brings people together. As they work with the earth and experience the miracle of growing food and celebrate the harvest, they connect with each other and with the earth again. While a large farm creates enormous amounts of food efficiently, and I am grateful for all the technologies involved, it creates a distance between everyday people and the earth. What percentage of the citizens of the US really knows where the corn-on-the-cobb that they ate on Labor Day comes from and how they were grown?
I am not against big farms. A sustainable community networks globally and connects locally. Through the big farms, we produce food to feed people globally; at least, this is the hope I have. (In fact, I know that we produce enough food in the US to feed everyone in the world and yet, there are people around the world who go to bed hungry – a problem that needs to be solved to maximize our global network.) However, a sustainable community also needs to feed people locally with locally grown produce. In doing so, we not only feed people physically, we are also feeding people spiritually and socially, building up local relationship networks that in the long run is the heart of a sustainable community.
Reflection Questions for Proper 20 (Year C) Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 Psalm 79:1-9 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org
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