Food for thought

My mom (the ever-faithful newspaper clipper) sent me an interesting article this week about a farmer named Joel Salatin in southern Virginia who sees sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship as an issue of Christian duty. As Salatin states in the article,

"We should at least be asking, Is there a righteous way to farm and an unrighteous way to farm? ... The first goal is to at least get people to appreciate that how we farm is a moral question. Once you get to that point, then you can actually discuss: What is a moral farm?"

For Salatin, "righteous" farming means using agricultural practices that are sustainable ("We believe that the farm should be building ‘forgiveness’ into the ecosystem. What does that mean? That a more forgiving ecosystem is one that can better handle drought, flood, disease, pestilence.") and respectful of the dignity of every living creature ("A culture that views its life [commercial livestock] from such a manipulative, disrespectful stance will soon view its citizens the same way and other cultures the same way. It’s how we respect the least of these that creates a moral-ethical framework."). Its farming that acknowledges the blessings, but also the frailties, of Creation.

Food for thought, certainly, that adds another dimension to the sustainability debate. As the ARI farm manager said this week, "Sustainable farming is farming for the seventh generation... We did not receive the land from our ancestors, we are borrowing it from our children." When you place agriculture and environmental stewardship in that perspective, it does become a moral issue.