Listen to 11 year-old Birke Baehr of Asheville, North Carolina, share where he finds brokenness in our food system. Where do you feel or witness the crosses of global food production, distribution, and consumption?
Our food system is meant to bring life and nourishment to all, but in reality it has many victims. Our Earth, God’s great gift to us as our source of food, water, and air, is losing precious topsoil for growing food from industrial grain and soy production, waterways are contaminated from industrial contained animal feeding operations waste run off, and contaminated air from industrial processing centers brings respiratory illness to our brothers and sisters. Despite industrial efforts to overproduce crops like grain and soy to help feed the world, people are still hungry and others are overfed but undernourished and suffer from obesity related illness. We often sit behind the veil of our food system and don’t witness Earth’s suffering, don’t witness communities plagued by hunger or obesity sickness, don’t witness farm workers who toil to harvest for our families. We don’t witness the crosses that are borne in our food system.
– from The Abundant Table Earth Day Stations of the Cross by Erynn Smith and The Rev. Julie Morris
Prayer
God of gift and abundance, Jesus took up the cross so that a broken system could be transformed. Yet, the crosses we bear in our food system perpetuate its brokenness. Help us bear witness to the crosses taken by Earth and our brothers and sisters who suffer in our food system. Help our hearts feel the weight of these crosses so that we may bring light into the system and make choices to support a healthy food system that can shatter the unjust crosses. Amen.