Farmers and farmworkers are frequently the victims of injustices in the food system, working in dangerous conditions and bearing the financial burdens of changing growing seasons, heavier rainfall and unpredictable frost-thaw cycles. The 2023 ELCA social message “Earth’s Climate Crisis” notes that farmworkers die of heat stress at a rate 20 times higher than the national average. That risk is only increasing as temperatures rise due to climate change. Farmers are caught in a system that produces injustice, environment harm, and poor health outcomes, even as it promises greater variety and distribution of foods at lower costs.
This flies in the face of who we are and who we are called to be. Faithfully participating in the food system means recognizing our dependence on God and on neighbors who produce food, as well our interdependence with all creation. It also seeks justice for farmers and farmworkers, especially by protecting their rights to fair compensation and safety.
As Norman Wirzba points out, “Faithful eating begins when we recognize that food is not ever cheap.” There is always a cost, even if we don’t recognize it immediately.
This message is excerpted from “Faithful eating” by Ryan P. Cumming in the March/April 2024 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Thomas Cranmer, Bishop of Canterbury, martyr, 1556.
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