1 November, 2004
Land, Food and Faith: The Values at Stake in Canada's Agriculture Industry
A quiet revolution is taking place in the way Canadians consume their food. Not only is the $1 billion organic sector growing at 20% a year, increasingly consumers are demanding a relationship with the farmers who raise the animals, grow the vegetables and produce the dairy products that end up on our dining tables. The popularity of farmers' markets, and schemes for direct-to-door delivery of organic vegetables show that city folk are no longer content with mass-produced food distributed through impersonal supermarket chains. Are spiritual values influencing these consumer trends?
At a recent discussion forum organized by the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology (CFORE), Ted Zettel, an organic dairy farmer and president of Organic Meadow, Inc., spoke of a spiritual conversion that brought him to farm in an organically sustainable way. He asked: "Is there a spiritual truth that opens us up to a holistic, ecological point of view?"
For Jim Profit, well-known for his campaign against a Wal-Mart in Guelph, it is increasingly clear that farmers and consumers are demanding an ethical and even spiritual relationship to the land and the animals --sources of our food..
Ann Clark, a professor of plant science at the university of Guelph, told the forum how industrial farming externalizes many of the costs of farming, leaving governments and tax payers to pick up the tab for subsequent environmental costs such cleaning up the phosphates in our water supply. Organic farming is more intelligent, she said, because it helps prevent these environmental problems from arising in the first place. Industrial farming tends foolishly to ignore the reality that "nature bats last."
Sallie McFague, a well-known author and ecofeminist theologian, argued that we have much to learn from First Nations cultures about the value of the land: "Without good land, none of the other goods of human existence is possible."
James Miller, professor of religious studies at Queen's University and co-chair of CFORE, notes that government policymakers have tended to lag behind consumer trends. As the Ontario government draws up plans to protect Canada's best farmland from suburban sprawl, policymakers should pay close attention to the demand for organic products and the ethical and spiritual values that drive it. Ontario residents are urged to complete the Ontario government's greenbelt policy questionnaire by December 12, 2004 to let their views be known.
The Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology is a not-for-profit research, education and advocacy organization founded in 2004 by five Canadian academics. To learn more please contact Dr James Miller, co-chair of the steering committee at 613 533 6000 x 74320 or visit the CFORE website at http://www.cfore.ca