Faithful Harvest Campaign “To live, we must daily break the bread and shed the blood of creation. The point is, when we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament; when we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration…in such desecration, we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to want.” Wendell Berry The Faithful Harvest Campaign is a challenge to people of faith everywhere to regard the acts of eating and food production as sacramental. Faithful Harvest is a way of life - a new framework for making choices, it is living out a new consciousness of the importance of food in your faith life and in our society. Faithful Harvest is a groundswell to transform the U.S. food system into a food system that rights the injustices of current practices. Click here to read more about why people of faith care about food and food production. Take Action! Ask your legislators to support a strong conservation title in the 2007 farm bill! Faith-Based Resources Our Daily Bread: Harvesters of Hope and Gardeners of Eden Click here to learn more about the resource. Click here to download. Register your Earth Day Sunday celebration with the Eco-Justice Network NEW! Faithful Harvest e-newsletter! Click here to see the inaugural issue of "A Faithful Harvest for All." To subscribe, email Adam Bray at abray@ncccusa.org The National Catholic Rural Life Conference boldy proclaims: Eating is a Moral Act! This site is a treasure of information and reflection on what Christian teachings tell us about eating. Food As Sacramental is the introductory essay to the anthology, Food & Faith, edited by Mike Schut. This is an excellent, accessible, and compelling essay on the intersections of food and faith. Sacred Foods Project is an interfaith effort to promote the marketing and production of food in accordance to religious teachings. Check out their wonderful Resources section. Food and Climate is a resource from the Presbyterian Church that links global warming and agriculture. "Farming By The Book: Food, Farming, and the Environment in the Bible and in the Qur-an" by Gary W. Fick "Sustainable Agriculture: A Christian ethic of gratitude" by Mark Graham, assistant professor of theology and religious studies, Villanova University Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table is a powerful resource of the Presbyterian Hunger Program that examines five key aspects of our relationship with food using Scripture, prayer, and stories. People of Faith Take Action Real Stories from Real Congregations - Add your story to list by emailing abray@ncccusa.org What We Can Do Worship - Earth Day Sunday Resource now available! Use our recently released worship resources to raise the awareness about the intricate connections between food and faith. In Your Congregation - Plan a hunger banquet in your congregation, place articles about food and farming in your church newsletter, invite members of your congregation to buy shares to a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, start a vegetable garden on church grounds, switch to fair-trade and shade-grown coffee for your coffee hour, buy from local producers when you are planning church dinners, or host an adult education study group using the Food & Faith Study Guide . At Home - The choices we make everyday about which foods to purchase, and where we make our purchases from, are moral choices. Choose locally grown, organic food whenever possible. Community Outreach and Ministry - Organize a farmers market on church grounds for your community, promote CSA membership in your neighborhood and become a dropoff point, buy CSA shares and distribute them to social service organizations as a part of your food pantry ministry, partner with other community organization to sponsor a community garden, or hold community education forums about social and environmental justice issues in our food production system Advocacy - The upcoming Farm Bill is possibly the most important piece of conservation legislation that we will see in Congress in the next few years. As you and your congregation become more mindful of how your faith instructs your food choices, think about how your new awareness of the food system should be reflected in a new Farm Bill. Learn More The Basics About Farm Stewardship and Environmental Programs, and Capitol Hill Basics (the different steps the farm bill must pass through before becoming law) from American Farmland Trust