This Train

It is staggering to think that in our day and age, over 800 million people on our planet suffer from hunger. Meanwhile, in the Western world we have such an abundance that the dieting craze has spawned a very profitable industry ($30-$50 billion annually according to one estimate).

Recently, there have been a plethora of books published on various aspects concerning food; a representative (and certainly not exhaustive!) list includes:

I want you to share your food with the hungry ... You must actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed. (Is. 58:7,10)

Given today’s political realities, just who is responsible for the lack of progress in the fight against hunger? Does hunger continue because of public apathy or disenfranchisement, or are our leaders to blame for not listening to the people's mandate?
Are We on Track to End Hunger? Bread for The World Institute's Hunger Report 2004, p. 95.

Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World, David Beckmann, Arthur Simon

The Paradox of Plenty: Hunger in a Bountiful World, Douglas Boucher

World Hunger: Twelve Myths, Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset

Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger, Ronald J. Sider

Woe to you who are well satisfied with food now, for you will be hungry (Luke 6:25)

Not surprisingly, Christians have tried to cash in on the diet and health bandwagon by trying to manipulate the Bible to promote their peculiar theories of dieting and healthy eating. I'm not saying that there isn't some good nutritional advice in these books, but it really irks me when Christians butcher the Scriptures in an attempt to give an air of spirituality and authority to their ideas. Note the bombastic and boastful titles of some of the book titles:

What Would Jesus Eat? The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great, and Living Longer, Don Colbert

The Maker's Diet: The 40 Day Health Experience That Will Change Your Life Forever, Jordan Rubin

The Weigh Down Diet, Gwen Shamblin

Creationist Diet: Nutrition and God-Given Foods According to the Bible, Gary F. Zeolla

None of These Diseases: The Bibles Health Secrets for the 21st Century, S. I. McMillen, David E. Stern

The Bible's Seven Secrets to Healthy Eating, Joyce Rogers

The Prayer Diet: The Unique Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Approach to Healthy Weight Loss, Matthew Anderson

Food and Love, Gary Smalley

It would be unfair to lump these two with the above, but I'm not so sure about their arguments for animal rights:

Is God a Vegetarian?: Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights, Richard Alan Young

Good Eating: The Bible, Food and the Proper Love of Animals, Stephen H. Webb

(While we're on the subject of dieting, those of you who are devotees of the Atkins Diet, may want to read this article: Was Dr. Atkins Right?, by Dean Ornish, MD, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April 2004).

Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do (Deut. 24:19; cf. 24:18-22)

Sadly, in our global society, food production and distribution has become highly politicized, often to the detriment of developing nations. Most recently, heated debates have centred on GMOs.

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Marion Nestle

Dinner at the New Gene Cafe: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food, Bill Lambrecht

Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food, Daniel Charles

Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, Vandana Shiva

Food: Cultural and Historical Aspects

Food certainly holds a lot of fascination for us; there are even academic journals devoted to food and culture:

• Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment
• Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
• Anthropology of Food

Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World,Greg Critser

Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It, Kelly D. Brownell

How We Eat: Appetite, Culture, and the Psychology of Food, Leon Rappoport

Much Depends on Dinner, Margaret Visser

In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food, Stewart L. Allen

Feast: A History of Grand Eating, Roy Strong

Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America (rev. ed.), Harvey Levenstein

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser

Super Size Me

Slow Food: The Case For Taste, Carlo Petrini

In reaction to the "fast food" takeover of the world, the Slow Food Movement was born. In an interview in The New York Times, Carlo Petrini makes some insightful comments:

Conviviality is one of the most fundamental aspects of eating together, and I'm hard pressed to think of something sadder than eating alone, without that social rite. Breaking bread is an enrichment, and it's very important to keep alive the social aspects. When people don't eat together, they lose that element of the event. They lose an important aspect of the eating process.

Eating together and drinking together at the end of the day is a kind of sign of friendship or communion, and when that doesn't exist, it's a sadder, less cohesive society. And that can be seen perhaps here in America.

"Endangered Species: Slow Food: An interview with Carlo Petrini" (NYT; July 26, 2003; p. 9)

Finally, for some of my thoughts on the Lord's Supper, click here.