Educate Yourselves “"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name." Psalm 100 Food and Farming and Faith Food, faith and farming are inextricably linked to the human experience. This includes the act of eating food as well as the planting, growing and harvesting of food. The connection is quite obvious. Food is essential to life. In creating life, God provides enough food to sustain all of creation. Because of food's importance to life, all of the many activities associated with food (planting, harvesting, preparing, eating, etc.) connect us to the Creator and should therefore be honored. It is no surprise that food and agriculture comprise some of the most powerful images and metaphors in the Bible. Food is used to describe God's love for humanity, humanity's sin against God, and the responsibility humans have to take care of one another and to feed the hungry. Jesus uses food to show God’s power and love when he feeds the crowd, when he directs us to feed the hungry, and when he breaks bread to form a new covenant. In Christian practice today, we say prayers before meals, come together as a community during church dinners, feed the hungry in our midst, and have communion as a sacrament. In many instances, the Bible uses food to portray community, togetherness, and right worship of God. Sometimes, however, food is used to show where the human community has failed in responding to God’s grace and used the table unjustly. Several of the biblical prophets, especially Amos, speak out passionately against those rulers who use food for evil by keeping the poor hungry while increasing their personal wealth. Amos excoriates those who tax the grain of the poor (5:11) and sell to the needy "the sweepings of the wheat" (8:6). Jesus also shows great impatience with those who abuse the power of food. In one of his parables, for example, he rebukes the rich man who denies crumbs to Lazarus (Lk. 16:19 ff). With food (and the production and distribution of food) as one of the more prominent images in the biblical text, we must be careful not to take the food we eat for granted. It is important that church communities maintain gratitude for the food that God provides, and speak out when the production and distribution of food becomes unjust to the poor, unsustainable for future generations, and a pollutant to God’s good creation. Click here for a great article on the biblical perspectives of food and faith. Environmental health 'Environmental health' refers to the aspects of human health that are determined by the environment. There are many factors in the environment, caused by preventable human action, that can drastically endanger the health of the surrounding community. Soil contamination, water pollution, air pollution, light pollution, and poor waste control can have extreme impacts on the health of all life, both current and future. Concern for environmental health on farms is important because it affects the food that is harvested and shipped to stores, the workers on the farm who harvest our food, the land that needs to be sustainable for future generations, and the community that lives around the farm. Toxic gases, pesticides, hazardous agricultural chemicals, high levels of dust, infected animals, parasites, and molds are all environmental health concerns connected with farming. Exposure to dangerous gases from fermenting crops in silos can cause fluid to build up in the lungs, and even cause death. Repeated exposure to molds on hay or other stored crops can cause “farmer’s lung,” an allergic inflammation of the lungs that can become life-threatening. Exposure to high levels of organic dust can cause Organic Dust Toxicity Syndrome, which causes cough, fever, chills, and muscle pain. Farm animals can be a source of parasites and diseases that can be passed on to people. Pits of animal manure can generate deadly gases, causing oxygen depletion, asphyxiation, and death. Other agricultural health threats include work-related lung diseases, cancers, nasal inflammation, arthritis, asthma, dermatitis, and respiratory diseases such as bronchitis. Potential health hazards are tied to sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production, and pesticide and nitrate contamination of water and food. Farm workers are poisoned in fields, toxic residues are found on foods, and certain human and animal diseases have developed resistance to currently used antibiotics.   For More Information: Environmental Health Journal National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Environmental Health Association Environmental Health Coalition   Pesticides Pesticides are toxic organic compounds that include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides whose presence in the aquatic environment can be particularly dangerous. The widespread use and disposal of pesticides by farmers, large plantations and the general public causes environmental contamination. It is estimated that the 68% of such contamination is a result of agricultural uses. Following release into the environment, pesticides may give rise to different consequences. Pesticides which are sprayed can become airborne and may eventually end up in soil or water. Pesticides applied directly to the soil may be washed off the soil into water or may percolate through the soil to lower soil layers and groundwater. Pesticides also affect the food we eat. An analysis made by the Environmental Working Group of more than 110,000 government-tested food samples and detailed government data on children’s food consumption found that multiple pesticides known or suspected to cause brain and nervous system damage, cancer, or hormone interference are common in foods many children consume. It is estimated that more than a quarter of a million U.S. children aged 1–5 ingest a combination of 20 different pesticides every day, more than 1 million preschoolers eat at least 15 pesticides on a given day, and, overall, 20 million children aged 5 and under eat an average of 8 pesticides every day. Pesticides are a public health concern and have been linked to a range of diseases and disorders. Many chemical pesticides are known to cause poisoning, infertility and birth defects, they can damage the nervous system and potentially cause cancer. For More Information Environmental Protection Agency-Pesticides Pesticide Action Network Sustainable Table-Pesticides   Land, Water, and Air Agriculture profoundly affects many ecological systems and can cause significant damange to the land, water, and the air. Non-sustainable methods of farming can affect the land by ruining the soil. Decline in soil productivity can be due to wind and water erosion of exposed topsoil; soil compaction; loss of soil organic matter, water holding capacity, and biological activity; and salinization of soils and irrigation water in irrigated farming areas. Desertification due to overgrazing is a growing problem, especially in parts of Africa. Agriculture is also the largest single non-point source of water pollutants. This includes sediments, salts, fertilizers (nitrates and phosphorus), pesticides, and manures. Pesticides from every chemical class have been detected in groundwater and are commonly found in groundwater beneath agricultural areas; they are widespread in the nation's surface waters. Eutrophication and "dead zones" due to nutrient runoff affect many rivers, lakes, and oceans. Reduced water quality impacts agricultural production, drinking water supplies, and fishery production. Furthermore, overuse of surface and ground water for irrigation has led to water scarcity in many places. . Agriculture's link to global climate change is just beginning to be appreciated. Destruction of tropical forests and other native vegetation for agricultural production has a role in elevated levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Recent studies have found that soils may be sources or sinks for greenhouse gases. Organic and Sustainable Farming Organic farming is a form of agriculture which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. As far as possible, organic farmers rely on crop rotation, crop residues, animal manures and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant nutrients, and to control weeds, insects and other pests. Some of the essential characteristics of organic systems include: design and implementation of an "organic system plan" that describes the practices used in producing crops and livestock products; a detailed recordkeeping system that tracks all products from the field to point of sale; and maintenance of buffer zones to prevent inadvertent contamination by synthetic farm chemicals from adjacent conventional fields. The role of organic agriculture, whether in farming, processing, distribution, or consumption, is to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings Methods of organic farming vary. However, organic approaches share common goals and practices. In addition to the exclusion of synthetic agrichemicals, these include protection of the soil (from erosion, nutrient depletion, structural breakdown), promotion of biodiversity (for example growing a variety of crops rather than a single crop or planting hedges around fields), and outdoor grazing for livestock and poultry. Within this framework, individual farmers develop their own organic production systems, determined by factors such as climate, market conditions, and local agricultural regulations. Although it is common to equate organic farming with sustainable agriculture, the two are not synonymous. Sustainability in agriculture is a broad concept, with considerations on many levels, such as environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. With regard to organic farming methods, one goal of sustainability would be to approach as closely as possible a balance between what is taken out of the soil with what is returned to it, without relying on outside inputs. An organic operation that imports the manure it uses to replace the nutrients taken out of the soil by crops, must factor in the resources required to produce and transport that manure, when calculating sustainability. Organic farming today is a small part of the agricultural landscape, with a relatively minor impact on the environment. As the size of organic farms continues to increase, a new set of large-scale considerations will eventually have to be tackled. Large organic farms that rely on machinery and automation, and purchased inputs, will have similar sustainability issues that large conventional farms do today For More Information: Organic Farming Research Foundation National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Local Food Local food is a principle of sustainability relying on consumption of food products that are locally grown. It is part of the concept of local purchasing, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. The concept is often related to the slogan "Think globally, act locally." Those supporting development of a local food economy consider that since food is needed by everyone, everywhere, everyday, a small change in the way it is produced and marketed will have a great effect on health, the ecosystem and preservation of cultural diversity. They say shopping decisions favoring local food consumption directly affect the well-being of people, improve local economies and may be ecologically more sustainable. Local food tends to increase in food quality and taste. Locally grown fresh food can be consumed almost immediately after harvest, so it may be sold fresher and usually riper (e.g. picked at peak maturity, as it would be from a home garden). Also, the need for chemical preservatives and irradiation to artificially extend shelf-life can be reduced or eliminated. Local food is often organic, or produced by farmers who adopt sustainable and humane practices. As such, local food (as opposed to global food) reduces or eliminates the costs of transport, processing, packaging, and advertising. For more information: Local Harvest Food Routes-Where Does Your Food Come From? Local Food Works Climate Impacts Agriculture's link to global climate change is just beginning to be appreciated. Destruction of tropical forests and other native vegetation for agricultural production has a role in elevated levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Recent studies have found that soils may be sources or sinks for greenhouse gases. One goal of a local food system is to minimize food transport distance, known as food miles. A consumer report published in 2003 by The Guardian newspaper in the UK found that a selection of 20 fresh food items purchased from British supermarkets had travelled an average of 5,000 miles each; in North America, an average fresh food transport distance of 1,000-1,500 miles is often cited. Transport costs must consider weight as well as distance. If food is processed, it may lose weight compared with unprocessed food. To the extent it is processed nearer production, less weight is transported a longer distance. If it is processed by the consumer, more weight may be transported, though the trip from production to processing can be avoided. The amount of fossil fuel consumed and CO2 emissions released in the atmosphere of more local, unprocessed food compared with less local, processed food are thus ambiguous. This issue is addressed by the field of regional science. Policy Solutions The Farm Bill...