A candle burned quietly for the weekend of 16 -18th July throughout a conference on: ‘Our Daily Bread: Food Security, People and Planet’ at Swanwich in Derbyshire.
More than 400 people gathered for an intensive weekend of prayer, lectures, personal witnesses, workshops and discussions at the 32nd Justice and Peace Conference organised by the National Justice and Peace Network, Environment Working Group and the Lancaster Diocese Faith and Justice Commission.
The conference explored the food system and new initiatives to help individuals and groups reconnect to sustainable agriculture and food. It also highlighted insights into ‘our daily bread’ offered by faith and worship.
There were activities for young people and children, a food planting ceremony, an art installation, daily liturgies and more than one party on the last night in the sprawling conference centre. Food for the event was largely vegetarian and sourced locally.
At the opening session Dr Alastair McIntosh, a Quaker writer and environmentalist, warned that today’s society has become spiritually blinded by the love of money. “People have become richer, money has replaced relationships. The understanding of where food has come from and whether exploitation took place along the way has been lost,” he said, calling for a return to ‘virtuous cycles’ and frugal but fulfilling sufficiency.
A damning assessment of the Christian response to the ecological crises came during the conference’s concluding plenary. Dr McIntosh said that the Christian tradition suffered from a problem in its relationship with the environment because of a focus on God transcendent to the neglect of God immanent. He described this as heretical because it “violated incarnation”. He suggested that this “spiritual blockage” made it difficult to see God present in nature and stressed a crucial difference between pantheism, God synonymous with the material universe, and panentheism, God present in and interpenetrating created nature. He said panentheism was not heretical, using a quotation from Job to insist that “God’s concern is not just for mankind, but with the soul of every living thing.” Dr McIntosh urged Catholic delegates to build on their strengths and in particular to “embrace the Blessed Virgin Mary: the symbol of transformation and the face of the feminine in God.
Speaking after the conference, Mary Colwell, a freelance TV and radio producer and consultant on religion and the environment, said that while the Church would “magnificently” defend a populated rainforest, it had no idea what to think about an area uninhabited by humans. She said that there was a huge amount that the Church could do, observing that while it empowers people to be proactive for the poor, it had not yet applied that same power to the environment.
Keynote speaker Vandana Shiva, feminist, political activist and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi, insisted that technology was the “wrong tool” for agriculture. She rooted her criticism of genetically modified, or GM, crops in the wider context of India’s “green revolution”, and was sceptical about developments in seed technology and the widespread use of pesticides. “Pesticides are killing 220,000 people every year. They have converted agriculture into warfare against the land, against biodiversity, against farmers and against our bodies. These crude tools are not superior because they are violent. Violence is not superiority,” she said.
A food debate on the Saturday evening, chaired by John Vidal, the Guardian’s Environment Editor, addressed the subject: ‘Feeding the world: What are the roles for small-scale and industrial food production to achieve food security?’
Younger conference delegates, while concerned that there seemed to be a “missing age bracket” of attendees between 18 and 35, were enthusiastic about the conference’s ability to empower Catholics. Laura Atherton, 17, from Liverpool archdiocese, said that conferences like this could invigorate young, disillusioned Catholics who would be encouraged by seeing people motivated by their faith. She added that the conference had inspired her, saying that “the Catholic Church can feel very stale unless you see people like this. Faith has to lead to action, which leads to some kind of purpose. If it doesn’t lead to something else, then what’s the point?”
I was invited to offer one of the 20 workshops available to participants on the Saturday afternoon, each repeated twice. It was a disappointment to miss out on the choice of the other 19 but of course I had the privilege of being nourished, and hopefully transformed, by the rich fare of the whole conference. Congratulations to all concerned with the planning of this event. In the spirit of empowerment, at the end of the conference the National Council for Justice and Peace dispatched delegates with a list of action ideas, which ranged from avoiding food waste to lobbying on climate change (full list below).
~ Report by Catherine Brennan SSL, chairperson of Eco Congregation Ireland
‘OUR DAILY BREAD – FOOD SECURITY, PEOPLE AND PLANET’
ACTION IDEAS, LIFESTYLE
USE THE LOAF PRINCIPLES TO SOURCE FOOD
LOAF is food which is Locally produced,
Organically grown, Animal Friendly and Fairly
traded. Growing some food organically and
buying organic and free range food from local
growers protects soil and biodiversity.
http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/loaf.htm
PROTECT SOIL AND GROW FOOD IN URBAN AREAS
Fruit and nut trees can be grown throughout
our towns, gardens, and church land;
vegetables in window boxes.
AVOID WASTING FOOD
This means planning ahead, so that we buy
and eat only what we need for a limited
period; reducing the amount we buy and use;
and reusing leftovers.
REDUCE MEAT CONSUMPTION
Reflect on whether your diet is harming your
health, the environment, or other creatures? If
so, what needs to change? The European
Christian Environmental Network is
recommending to European churches that
bringing down meat consumption is an
important tool in combating climate change.
EAT GRASS FED MEAT
Meat and dairy products from animals largely
raised on grassland emit much less carbon
than meat from grain fed animals.
COMPOST YOUR GREENS
Green waste emits methane when it rots in
oxygen starved landfill sites. When
composted it emits CO2 – a less powerful
greenhouse gas. Rotted down compost adds
fertility to the garden.
PRESERVE GLUTS
Buy fruit and vegetables when they are in
season and cheap and preserve them to
enjoy in winter by bottling, drying, making into
chutneys, pickles, jams and jellies.
GET INVOLVED IN THE TRANSITION MOVEMENT
See http://www.transitionnetwork.org/about
POLITICAL/COMMERCIAL ACTION
LOBBY ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Support the local lobby of parliament on
climate change on 5/6 November.
www.cafod.org.uk/campaigns
FOLLOW PROGRESS TOWARDS MEETING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND TACKLING ILLEGAL LOGGING
www.progressio.org.uk
SIGN THE EUROPEAN FOOD DECLARATION
See: www.europeanfooddeclaration.org
SUPPORT WDM’S FOOD SPECULATION CAMPAIGN
The World Development Movement’s new
campaign ‘Stop bankers from betting on food
and causing hunger’ can be accessed at
www.wdm.org.uk/food-speculation.
SUPPORT GM NO! CAMPAIGN
A campaign of the Soil Association, which
uses the DVD ‘Food Inc’ available from
www.dogwoof.com. See
www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/GM, also
www.OrganicConsumers.org for 10 Things
Monsanto Does Not Want You to Know.
ACT AGAINST LARGE-SCALE DESTRUCTIVE MINING
Support the London Mining Network, which
exposes irresponsible investment of mining
companies listed on the London Stock
Exchange. See:http://
londonminingnetwork.org. Contact your
pension fund, diocese, bank, insurance
company, trade union, or local authority, about
their investments, asking them to report on
their investments in mining companies.
BOYCOTT ISRAELI SETTLEMENT GOODS
Look out for settlement goods when shopping
and avoid them. Discuss the issues with
retailers and/or their fund managers. The
current advice from the Ecumenical Council
for Corporate Responsibility can be found at:
http://www.eccr.org.uk/module-htmlpagesdisplay-
pid-65.html
Churches, communities and groups could
invite an ecumenical accompanier to speak to
them about the realities of the occupation.
AWARENESS RAISING STUDY GROUPS
CEL’s ecocell programme includes a module
on food, useful to follow with a study group.
www.christian-ecology.org.uk/ecocells.htm
MONITOR ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
The website of Ethical Consumer Magazine
offers a Free Buyers’ Guide to Food and Drink
on – www.ethicalconsumer.org
The UK Food Group – www.ukfg.org.uk – is
the leading UK network for non-governmental
organisations working on global food and
agriculture issues, and helps to enable civil
society to contribute effectively to international
consultations on food security.
MAGAZINES TO SUBSCRIBE TO:
Food Ethics Magazine
www.foodethicscouncil.org
The Food Ethics Council is a British charity,
promoting an improved food system. Its
website contains a ‘Hot Topics’ section and an
‘Ethical Shopping Guide’.
Science in Society www.i-sis.org.uk
Produced by the Institute of Science in
Society, which has the goal of reclaiming
science for the public good. Examines the
long-term risks of GM crops.
STUDYING LINKS BETWEEN FAITH, ENVIRONMENT AND FOOD
‘Paint the Church Green’ and ‘Becoming a
Green Christian’ use the pastoral cycle
process to examine faith and environment.
Both study programmes have significant food
sections. See www.kevinmayhew.com.
EXPLORE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
Learn more about CST and what it means by
visiting www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk
(going live in September 2010). And read
Progressio’s guide to this prophetic encyclical.
PARISH ACTIVITES, CHURCHES & WORSHIP LINKING EUCHARIST AND REAL FOOD
In worship, reflect on the relationship to food
as part of relationship with God.
Resources from
Christian Ecology Link www.christianecology.
org.uk
CAFOD http://www.cafod.org.uk/worship
Iona Community Wild Goose Resource Group
http://wgrg.co.uk/
PARISHES TO JOIN ECO-CONGREGATION
Eco-Congregation is an ecumenical
programme helping churches make the link
between environmental issues and Christian
faith, and respond with practical action in the
church, in the lives of individuals, and in the
local and global community. An element of
this is putting sustainable farming and food
production into the mission plan of the church
at local and wider levels. Conference
‘Growing Organically’ on 18 September.
www.ecocongregation.org. Also, a livesimply
award scheme for Catholic parishes will be
available from January 2011 – contact CAFOD
Campaigns.
SCHOOLS TRANSFORM THE FOOD CULTURE IN SCHOOLS
The Food for Life Partnership is a network of
schools and communities across England
committed to transforming food culture. Led
by the Soil Association, the Partnership brings
together the practical expertise of the Focus
on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the
Health Education Trust.
www.foodforlife.org.uk
CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS TO BECOME ECOSCHOOLS
Eco-Schools is an international award
programme that guides schools on their
sustainable journey, providing a framework to
help embed these principles into the heart of
school life. www.eco-schools.org.uk
SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES TO ADDRESS FOOD ISSUES
School resources at CAFOD
www.cafod.org.uk/landing/schools
Christian Assemblies ‘Our Earth, Our Home’
for Key Stage 1-2 are available from
www.kevinmayhew.com. They aim to help
children understand their relationship with the
environment and food as part of the web of
life and to develop respect for other species
and natural resources.
