Jun 29 2008
Where Food Comes From
I find it a bit silly when believers bow their heads before a meal and thank Gawd for thy food.
One summer my wife and I enjoyed a pineapple – something we buy very, very infrequently. Before slicing into it we didn’t thank a pineapple god or a god of all gods. Should we have thanked the local supermarket for providing thy food? Or Dole Corporation? Or the farmers who actually work in the fields and operate the machinery? For it is by their sweat that we are fed.
We saved the top of the fruit and plunked it in the ground among some ferns. Presto! The next summer we had a home-grown pineapple. For that food, whom should we have thanked? The pineapple’s DNA that guided its re-growth? But that’s not a who. As a social species, we like to thank things that are most meaningful to us. Beings, not processes. As a convenient, short-hand catch-all, some people like to thank their gawd – he with his invisible hand who guides creation and feeds the poor and rich alike.
I still think the idea is wacky.
