It's my pleasure to introduce to you
Jenny least Smith who will serve as

the facilitator and
respondent for this session.

Johnny Smith is an assistant professor
of history at the Georgia Institute of

Technology her work focuses
on food agriculture and

the environmental impact of farming and

food distribution her first book
works in progress plans and

realities and Soviet farms examined
the environmental legacy of agricultural

industrialization in the Soviet Union
her new project is a global

history of emergency famine relief over
the course of the twentieth century Please

welcome Jenny Lee Smith.

Hello everybody it's great to be here
today and a special thank you for

organizing this conference I was telling
her at lunch that as someone who has

organized workshops and conferences or
helped in that process she's sort of

putting the rest of us to shame this
has really focus has run very well and

she's just on a spectacular job so
thank you very much for making my job.

So I'm here today mostly
to do introductions and

I'll offer some brief comments at the end
I just want to say I'm really excited to

be here this I've really already gotten a
lot out of this day but my first job is to

to introduce our first speaker which is Dr
Jacob Wright who serves as the associate

professor of Hebrew Bible at the Candler
School of Theology at Emory University

as well as the director of graduate
studies in Emory's Tam Institute for

Jewish Studies and he's also an associate
faculty member at Emory Center for

the Study of Law and religion he has
received prestigious awards from several

different organizations and
I see that he has.

A fairly new book David King of Israel and

Caleb in Biblical memory which came out
in two thousand and fourteen among.

Other publications So
please welcome to Dr Wright thank

you and thanks again.

To Deanna for putting together what
has turned out to be a really.

Fascinating symposium rich discussions
as well as inspiring in the time

that it's a lot to me I just was asked
to speak about Judaism I'm not an expert

I don't have in contrast to my esteemed
colleagues projects that really run food

in the present contemporary context but
rather in the ancient context of how food

and eating and Cummins ality the eating
together the table fellowship worked

in the context of warfare and
peace treaties and alliances and

what kind of importance it enjoyed

in ancient societies and
the table to mentality around the king but

also around average people and
within Judaism we could say

that food is probably the most
central of all activities.

It really takes more space takes up more
space in the town mood and in the rabbinic

literature the really any other discussion
that might be pushing a bit Shabat is that

second one the Sabbath and today these
two activities of keeping the Sabbath but

also keeping in a certain very
regulated form of even practices

defines what it means to be a practicing
observant Jew And so within Judaism

today communities you'll see when they
go to eat if they're religious and

observant they wash their hands in
very specific ways before the meal and

they will say blessings and before each
kind of food they'll say a blessing and

then after eating they will also pray
at length and as well as with songs and

so forth so that the meal itself is
really not so much only about food but

about the fellowship and
the activities and the gratefulness.

And the blessings that food and
the table permits those who partake

and if you look at with food practices
within Judaism of course one

of the most distinctive features is the
strict regulations of what one eats and

what one doesn't eat and with whom
one eats there was a concern among

the rabbis that eating together
Jews with non Jews would lead to

a loss of communal identity they
understood very well the power and

potential of food to bring
people together and they

were very concerned as well then as they
were trying to consolidate their small.

Spork verst Spurstow communities that they

would put the table in the center of their
family and communal life and that and

eating with others would be a very well
reflected upon activity that happens but

it only happens under certain
circumstances the wine wonderings for

example that one doesn't drink wine
offered to idols what's really behind it

is probably the written sources make
clear that eating in wine of pagans

with might lead to fraternity and
fraternizing with Pagans as well and

a loss of kind of the central
features of what makes you a Jew.

And if we look back at where this comes
from it's really nowhere else than

at the beginning of Jewish
history within the Bible and.

I think that I have to say so much about
that because Professor crane has done

a wonderful job and laying out how food is
very central to already from the beginning

pages the verse chapters of Genesis the
commandment to eat from these trees but

not from these trees and that the real
change in the existential condition comes

with the failure to really
abide by those restrictions and

the last thing after one kind of fruit and
that leads to.

Then of a loss of the garden and
the ideal conditions under which one lives

with food and plants and trees and so
forth as well as a vegetarian diet.

And.

But some of the things I
would like to bring out and

if maybe they'll be helpful for discussion
maybe not but one of I think the most

important ones is the way that.

They Bickel traditions can be mined for

wisdom that is not necessarily bound to a
specific Jewish practice I think that one

of the things as we go forward as well as
perhaps what the end it will do with and

her colleagues within the lamp project is
to look at how religious traditions have

a real power to bring us to remind us
of things that have been lost and and

within a society that no longer has
strong rituals around the table and.

But as well as also the ethics in related
to food production in the Treatment of

Animals one of the techs that I worked on
and I found most fascinating was a law for

the book of Deuteronomy and
it relates to the cutting down of

fruit trees during the siege
warfare it's a very strange law but

it says when you go out into enemies and
the city won't capitulate you shall not

cut down their fruit trees Why is
that one of the probations all

kinds of other very practical things but
not through trees really devote so

much space to that what was behind that so
it says you can cut down

trees that do not bear fruit in order
to build around part or something but

what you don't do is go hacking down their
orchards what was behind it was a concern

among the besieging army to
facilitate the capitulation

to expedite it by saying look we're going
to tear down your life support system

life support system and orchards that took
many years to bear fruit where central

part of the life support systems so
that when you go to war that you cannot.

Tack a fruitarian it says at the very
beginning at the very end is the tree and

human that it comes out against you that
you should treat it in a violent manner

and that law is at its heart of a project
of war laws that gross years and

sixteen twenty five in his
writing in exile in France this

Dutch philosopher started to mind
biblical as well as Greek pagan sources

as well as other kind of philosophical
traditions in Indian traditions and so

forth to lay out some of the norms for
by which armies should.

Treat the life support systems of their
enemies and that law was very central

to it one could compare it to another law
in Deuteronomy into an Army has a lot of

beautiful wisdom we call legislative
wisdom kind of things that we take for

granted but it's put into legal form
not rather than just the proverb and

one of them is the treatment
of the mother bird and

the mother bird you're on the the law
says when you're on the road and

you come across to the nest on the road
you make sure way the mother and

take the eggs or take the fledgling but
don't do NOT take both.

So it's what is the concern that
you may live long in the land

that you go well with you and they may
live long in the land of promise land so

there's a concern for how one goes
about treating the natural structures

we might find that lost still difficult
and many still do but an intention and

a will to think about what will
be the best practice to enable.

Flourishing human flourishing
in the land in perpetuity

is really what drives that and.

These laws can be compared to a number
of other laws related to farming and

to the treatment of animals most very
prominent farming laws that we know

within the Christian tradition perhaps
many of you know are about the end.

It is of your fields that you leave
the borders of your field the corners

literally of the field not harvested and
harvested so

that what the poor among you may
go about and actually physically

do the act of harvesting and
take food for themselves and

in combination with those laws are the
laws that relate to animal rights and

a lot of work within the Bible that we do
at Emory and so forth is really mining

the biblical literature for
views of ecology and animal rights and

there's a lot to be done there the Bible
does not have a modern secular

very positivistic kind of approach
to animals as well as the land and

and the natural elements of the whole
biosphere but rather it sees them all

as coherent and that they all play have
a role to play and that somehow they're

conscious of their role so that with
animals for example they are commanded or

the owners are commanded to give them
a rest during shot during the Sabbath

they're not to work there's most to
keep the Sabbath just along with their.

Masters and

then you know of the maybe the scene where
Jonah preaches to the city of Nineveh and

we're told that the whole city was in
SAC often ashes as well as the cattle.

It's a funny scene but it really shows
that there is a society exist along with

animals that supports it and that when
they all come together to do something

the animals are naturally
thought with them.

And.

Think about also the story of the flood
as well that Johnson crane mentioned

the flood is not just the violence
of humans but of all living flesh

of animals as well that they're that the
world is destroyed because all of human

nature all of living things both
humans and non humans had given

itself to some kind of activity that we're
not really sure about the point in point.

Horten point here is though that.

The Bible at the core of these major
text places animals together with

humans in a kind of relationship
with the divine and

that is yes of course one of
the central Genesis text says

that human should watch over a rule
over the rest of creation but

that ruling over is unpacked
in ways that are not in strict

accordance with how the law of the minyan
has been developed within Christianity.

Now.

One of the things about Judaism is and
of development of Christianity and

I had an interesting discussion with
Beth Corey about this over lunch and

with regard to really the beginning of
Christianity was much less a theological

discussion as more of a question of table
fellowship and table fellowship became

the central kind of dividing line
between those who remain Jews and

those who are going to adopt
a Christian Identity and within.

Christian tradition once the laws in
the regulations of Leviticus of what one

should eat and what one should not eat and
when what you eat and all of these.

Very Minute dietary restrictions once they

were thought to belong to the old order
and that they no longer applied for

the Christian president there
was one last with that a body

of knowledge that was in Scripture
rated in a very progressive way

that many other societies do not have
the book of Leviticus is a gift and

of course it's very difficult it has all
these kinds of weird laws but nevertheless

the presence and the facility is attention
to what one eats and what one consumes and

how one creates a an environment for
the flourishing of one's foods.

Is what we gain through various
processes in the Christian tradition but

it doesn't have the same kind of.

Canonical primordial.

Scriptural status that we have within
Judaism and this perhaps something to read

get to learn from the Jewish
tradition in this regard and.

In just in closing I
would say that the vision

that a new creation that really
is not the Bible is only

concerned with fellowship and
identity in the Jewish people.

And keeping them separate from
other peoples but also a vision for

that the creation will be one and one day
renewed and there will be a new relation

of the human order to the natural order
to the to the animal order as the laws or

the prophecies that we know of the taking
of the sword and making to the plow share

can be aligned with those that
vision the perfect world order and

that is when everyone lives under
his her own her own fig tree and

lives in peace and that there is this
kind of I think very I couldn't help but.

Comparing it to individual farms that one
has and that's where the programs to.

For urban farming that we
heard about this morning and

I think that I want you to call all of
you to perhaps look at the Biblical

tradition within the Jewish tradition but
also other religious traditions in

the afternoon that we have
here as perhaps a powerful

memory of a way of a past way of living
a past way of relating to food thank

you.

Thank you very much Professor Right Next I
want to bring to the podium.

Dr Jennifer Ayres is an assistant
professor of religious education at

Emory's Candler School of Theology She's
the author of two books waiting for

a glacier to move practicing social
witness and also good food grounded

practical theology her current research
investigates the educational task.

Of cultivating Christian faith and how
it is rooted in an ecological context so

welcome very much to Dr Ayres.

Thanks.

I thought I understood
technology I think I don't.

Thank you so much.

For this invitation and
to all my colleagues I've enjoyed so

much this conversation and
it's given me a lot of food for

thought much of which I wish I'd had
before I wrote the book good food.

But better late than never.

But it matters it matters so much that
one can hardly think of a major life

event in which food is
not a central feature.

It is it often is a memorable main
character in film take soul food or

bad species store Julie and Julia for
example just on a human level

food nourishes bonds inspires
celebrates heals suits and

connects in my own Southern childhood
we take lazy suppers out on the back

porch wholly made of fresh vegetables
from plants in the backyard or

roadside produce and.

Family members would share laughter and
tell tall tales late into the evening

sunlight such meals would fortify the
effect AFAIK to bonds between sisters and

brothers between parents and children they
were a ritual of source and they remind me

that food shows us not only something
about our social relationships but

also something about our relationship to
a good God who provides these gifts for

us in many ways then the table is
a sight for a divine encounter.

And yet before we wax too
theological we are caught because.

Suffers from the farm stand
are not actually a simple and

accessible meal for so many in
the United States struggling farmers have

difficulty making a living growing produce
migrant workers are paid very little and

suffer difficult and sometimes abusive
working conditions in the fields

in many communities both urban and
rural even sorry excuses for

fresh vegetables may not even
be available or priced so

high that it costs more to buy a single
tomato than to buy a fast food hamburger.

And I haven't even touched on the other
crises in our food system abused animals

trips oil and abandoned rural communities
for example these also challenge

simple theological affirmations of
divine encounter in the food system.

So when we talk about food we
encounter both a God who creates and

provides as well as the broken
this an alienation in the system.

In the Christian tradition the site
of this confrontation is a table

a table around which Christians
orient themselves on a regular basis

whether they gather around
this table weekly monthly or

quarterly oldskool Presbyterians
Christians share a simple and

sacred meal together comprising the most
basic fruits of the earth bread and

wine which recalls and really instantiate

in gathered community the life and
resurrection of Jesus Christ

the World Council of Churches has said
that this meal which recalls the last meal

all shared by Jesus with the disciples
is Can textural lives by all of

the meals that Jesus share with people
including the feeding of the five

thousand which Dr Crane introduced
us to just a few moments ago and

I would add it also is contextualized
by a multitude of texts in both the he.

Bible and in the Christian New Testament
about food and

agriculture and animals.

This Food Matters that the earliest
Christian communities experience

conflict around the communion meal
suggests that for them as well as for

us for contemporary Christians the table
is the core of theological and

moral knowing it matters born as it is

in this central practice symbol and
practice.

How does this table theology then respond
to and make sense of our food system.

My own research and constructive work
as a Christian practical theologian

thinking about the food system brings me
to at least three core affirmations that

orient the Christian faith.

First when Christians refer to this
communion meal as the Eucharist they

acknowledge its literal meaning who
knows the literal meaning of Eucharist.

One.

Thanksgiving thank you Thanksgiving
they express their Thanksgiving for

God's gifts and in gratitude they also
promised to distribute those gifts

justly the principle of just distribution
means that both the benefits and

the costs of the food system
should be shared equitably.

It means that Christians cannot then
ignore serious issues of food insecurity

in poor rural communities or
poor urban communities or nor

can they ignore unjust wages and working
conditions for agricultural laborers.

Second Christians are reminded at
the Eucharistic table that the meals

that Jesus shared with his
friends served to proclaim and

enact the near innocence
of the Kingdom of God

signifying a vision of an alternative
future in which God restore.

It's relationships among persons
communities and the earth in

which death does not have the last
word not in the tomato fields not and

concentrated animal feeding
operations not in a so-called food

desert not in the global farming crisis.

I think this is a great challenge
quite frankly in the face of so

many challenges what prevents any
of us any person of conscience

from giving up and giving in to despair.

But today I want to think a little bit
more intentionally about the third

theological affirmation that the Eucharist
is at its core about belonging and

membership Christians approaching
the Eucharistic table might

in other contexts in other meals
express experience a great

a great distance between their eating and
the lives of farmers and

laborers agriculture and
even other people who are eating

eating is something we often do alone
perhaps out of a takeout can't container

and one could hardly identify
the origins of this meal or

the conditions under
which it was prepared.

But Paul reminded the Corinthians that
in this Eucharistic meal Christians

are bound to one another his
admonition to quote discern the body

immediately follows his description
of the church as the Body of Christ.

But when we think about food as
a commodity something we buy

then our responsibility goes no
further than paying a market price for

that commodity the Eucharist reminds
Christians in contrast that they are not

mere consumers they are together members
of the community members of Christ's

body of the global communion and
indeed members of God's body the earth.

In an alienating world which dismembers
all participants in the food system

the Eucharistic table is
a site of remembering and

that consciousness of membership in God's
household serves as a lens by which

Christians might understand
all their eating.

But this is the theological
imagination that is cultivated

I think Christians argue at
the Eucharistic table where

they learn three things that God
is the giver of all good gifts and

that we are to distribute those gifts
justly in this meal Christians are offered

a glimpse of the Kingdom of God God's
alternative future of abundance and

vitality and that Christians belong are
members of Christ's Body the Church and

God's body here of course is speaking
as a Christian practical theologian but

I think that these themes resonate across
religious traditions and I'm grateful for

my colleagues who are showing
us how that is the case.

I think this table theology gives
rise to for moral commitments and

I'll conclude with those.

First participants are convicted
of the priority of the hungry.

And look all norms regarding leaving food
for the poor as my colleague Dr Wright

just mentioned are at the center of
some of these texts about feeding and

abundant feasts such as
the one that we symbolize and

the Eucharist convicts I think religious
communities wherever whole communities

around their congregations have little or
no access to fresh healthy and

affordable food and
rural families living in the U.S.

agricultural heartland our food insecure.

Second participants must seek justice for
those who work the land when Christians

receive the bread and the cup they
receive in their bodies the fruits

of the labors of farmers and agricultural
workers in the U.S. and around the world.

Farmers and agricultural
laborers are however poorer and

more likely to face food insecurity and
nutritional related illness

than persons with other vocations.

Third participants receive a charge to
tend the earth Christians consume in this

sacred meal simple fruits of
the earth wheat and grates in so

far as the earth yields these
fruits that they bless break and

share it demands gratitude and
reverence and yet

we live in a time in which our
agricultural practices are anything but

restraint depleting the soil and
exploiting animals.

Finally all three of these moral
commitments depend upon one deeper more

fundamental orientation it requires
the cultivation of a keen sense

of the interdependence the
interrelatedness of humanity and the soil

if one receives no other moral demand
from the Eucharistic table it is this

one the radical gift of the membership.

In the Body of Christ.

Demands the Christians sacred
obligation to continually seek tend and

nurture the bonds of connectedness and
God's whole creation with other

humans with other living
creatures with the soil.

This work is hard in our alienated context
but in my research I've heard story after

story of practices of food justice that
embody this keen sense of connectedness.

Like farming in the churchyard in the
midst of what others have called a desert

or traveling to Mexico to
witness the struggles and

innovations of traditional farmers or
like hosting a farmer's market or

supporting the rights of workers or
touching and cultivating the earth.

And these practices hope is born
at their heart these instances up.

Gradual goodness and interdependent
stand as a witness to the sin and

brokenness that characterizes the system
that make truly good food a near

impossibility but they also serve as
windows of grace demonstrating care for

the poor dignity for the labor
reverence for all forms of life and

a way of life deeply related to
others to God and to the earth.

Thank.

You very much.

Next up we have.

Alan who is a certified perma culture
designer and urban agriculturalist and

an educator here in Atlanta.

She's earned her degree in environmental
science from Emory University and

she's currently completing a masters in
agro ecology at the University of Florida

as a promo culture designer she's worked
with systems design applying ecological

principles in the conscious design
of diverse resilient productive and

beautiful landscapes and currently
She works as a community agriculture

programming and design specialist
with Farmer D. consulting projects

consulting on projects across the United
States please welcome to my Alan.

Thank.

You all I am very honored and
grateful to be.

So I'm going to be really taking a
personal approach as to how certain faith

based concepts have informed my own
work in community agriculture so

I've spent the past.

Five years working in urban agriculture
and here in Atlanta various initiatives

and projects with for
example through having growers network.

But really my first experience in
sustainable organic agriculture was

about twenty years ago where I spent
a summer working on a reservation

on a project called the San Juan
organic agricultural cooperative

It was through that experience really
that I got hooked into this work and

was like This is what I'm going
to do the rest of my life.

Primarily because there was.

Basically I received this fundamental
understanding of Agriculture as a system

that was much more complete and
interdisciplinary

than what I had gone into it thinking So
initially you know I went into it as

many people go into it thinking about
it in this field based scale right so

this Gail of like how do we.

Produce more food right on on
a specific area of land but

really when you talk about
agriculture is not just the how tos

it's not just how do we do this how do
we do this to care for the earth but

also we have to think about
WHO ARE WE DOING THIS FOR WHO IS IT FOR

why are we doing this it's to feed people
and the people who are doing it who

is it that's actually doing the work
there's an honor of culture and

traditions that needs to play into that
whole system and that we need to we need

to really take to heart when we think
about agriculture again you can't remove

that culture from agriculture so you have
to take that and really understand so

that was for me to have that as my first
experience was really quite formative for

my future in really kind of
understanding the social dynamics and

cultural dynamics that go into
growing food so a few years after that

I began studying Islam and actually
converted to Islam around that time and

one of the concepts from early on
that really resonated with me was

the concept of hug and
that concept of is of earth guardians or

earth stewards in Islam and Islamic.

Addition man was given humankind
was given this intellect that other

creation does not have and with that
intellect we have responsibilities and

one of those responsibilities
is actually to care for

the rest of creation to take care of
it to tend to it and so assuming that

role now obviously like the way that you
know our post-industrial society now is so

many of us are so disconnected from the
earth from the natural environment that we

don't really understand what that role is
we don't really understand what it is to

take care of and to tend and to be
stewards of the earth because we're not

connected to it so this is really
kind of informed a lot of my work so

how can I better educate
others to connect and

to be involved and to be part of that
system that you can logical system because

we are humans are part of the food
chain or part of the greater ecological

system so how do we get back into that
how do we connect ourselves again so

I find this kind of influence in me and
driving me to do the work and

that I'm doing and
developing community agriculture and

trying to get people to connect
back to the natural world.

So.

The concept of basically translates again
and sister were chipper guardianship

we have there are the resources
that the earth produces are.

All to our I guess we can the best way
we can use these resources right we have

to use these resources God provided these
to us to humankind you know for food for

shelter all of these things we can gain we
can we can are produced from the earth so

we have to understand that the concept of.

It is that of using things
in a sustainable way so

I know it's kind of a tricky term there
but in a way in which we are moderate and

we're balanced with using the resources
of the Earth provides and.

So the concept of stewardship
is to be able to manage that you

without over using without exploitation
without degradation of land and

we see now today you know so much of the
agricultural land has been degraded we're

losing all the arable land because
we're just using using using and

we're not giving anything back so
there's no regeneration So

taking this concept into what it is
to provide for this regenerative.

Building of systems right so
as most of us are so

disconnected from not just
the natural world but

from our food system that it's
it's almost impossible I would

challenge anybody to say how can you
steward something that you're ignorant or

that you don't know the value of that
do we understand the intrinsic value

of nature or do we understand what
it takes to cultivate the earth and

to take care of the soil to produce
the food that we consume if

we don't understand this how
can we really take care of it.

So I strive to facilitate this connection
primarily I believe that through

connecting even just from an individual
point of view of like going into your

backyard and being able to recognise
what's going on back there observing

the natural world observing the habits
of different species that were

also were sharing our place in
space with that these types

cultivating these type of the experiences
will help us to become stewards and

help us to assume that role once
again of stewards of the earth and

by growing food that's like
one of the best you know most.

Easy ways I guess to really put
that into action you know as

we actually assume that role as a steward
when we cultivate the earth and

we grow food so by going out into a.

Backyard for example I'm growing food
in our backyard we're assuming that

responsibility already as a steward we
recognize when we plan to see that we have

to care for that we're going to have to
put some type of care and it's not we're

not removed from that anymore once we take
that step we're not removed from it so

we're already starting to connect we're
already starting to reconnect so we have

to care for it we have to see what does it
need is the soil healthy enough to help

sprout the seed you know once it starts
growing we start looking at the plant or

what are these insects that are on the
plant is it harming it is doing beneficial

good what is it doing and we start
researching it we start recognizing and

identifying insects we start looking up
all it has some type of disease what's

going on here is this something based off
of the soil so again we're reconnecting

to what it is that's producing that food
and in the end we get the fruits of our

labor right after we've helped and
we've cared for that piece of land that's

growing that food and we've cared for
that creation we've reconnected right so

the other thing in Islam there's also how
do the saying of the Prophet peace be

upon him and
which anyone who plants a tree or

so has a field and somebody or a bird or

animal eats of that they receive the
blessings of charity so this is another

concept that's that really sits with me
about you know why is it that we want to

do why is it that I want to do this work
why is it important to do this work this

is this concept of generational charity.

So establishing a connection
in this place based.

Education really is the key it's a kind
of assuming going back and assuming

this role of stewards of the earth.

Because if we can begin to.

Identify if we can begin to observe and
identify the natural world and

be part of that natural world and
we automatically we will start

feeling that connection again we will
start reestablishing that and it's and

you cannot once again I'd really challenge
you I mean can you care for something that

you don't know exists or you that that
you don't know the value of that so

once we begin to start understanding what
the value of the earth is what the value

of the soil is what the value of the food
that's produced from that soil is we start

really removing this veil of not just
you know what we're participating in but

then we start questioning well where is
this particular food Where's the coffee

that I'm drinking coming from you
know who's doing that growing and

is it degrading the earth is it is it
helping is a regenerating the earth or

is it degrading the earth and
the process of making this so

we start questioning we start wondering
and asking these questions about how

the food that we eat and we consume
how is it produced who's doing it and

we start becoming much more
concerned with that process so

that in turn I believe is really what kind
of brings people back into assuming this

stewardship this this role this active
role of stewarding the environment and

the earth so cultivating that
sense of place is really key

a sense of place cultivating
an understanding of where everything comes

from where our food comes from and
then therefore taking that local and

expanding its global is really where we
can we can begin to pay more attention and

be more conscious of what it is that
we what it is that we consume but

also that we start taking that role of
care and actually actively cult actively

stewarding actively being guardians
of the earth and its resources.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Sinead.

Next up we have primatologist
who is coming to us for

no reason the Nepalese Himalayan
foothills although I believe he's coming

from Arizona this time.

Professor Julian is an award winning
sustainability educator a visionary and

curricular and social innovator.

And.

He currently serves as
associate faculty for the Ph D.

program in sustainability education at
Prescott college in Prescott Arizona and

he's coeditor of the forthcoming book
religion and sustainable agriculture world

spiritual traditions and food ethics So
please welcome to professor who do

thank you yes that's.

Really want to thank.

You Ryan and.

City I also want.

To up my peers for the rest of.

You.

Yeah Prescott college in the very small
college is struggling to survive you

know kind of a massive part of.

What we have a good
twenty sense of students.

And their advisors visiting us.

And thank you but really.

What I'm sort of doing is
I have some slight but

I want to post read a paragraph so that.

I don't get lost in.

This like so I decided to title this talk.

Of the morning fear story of soil and

I asked sustenance for the good so I'm.

For the good and a lot.

And it's a logical perspective and
hopefully you will find friends this is.

What they say.

What is that Eugene's Hankin good for
the food that has come at

an unbearable expense to the world and
all the people.

This is a provocative question posed by no
other than of very religious person and

Christian and son of the soil when
known by many of you most of you all of

them Betty and he has been very
influential in my own work.

Then we have a French philosopher Bruno
looked good in the book we have never

been more than which resonates with
present part of me what use is it

to save our sure if we forfeit though our.

Asking or.

So I'm kind of inspired by these opening
from these two serious thinkers of our

trying indeed what is the fear in
what I call the soil to support

slash sustenance for the goodies
which you will see in the slides.

What about the existing fear if I am here.

Today Jim I slimey we heard a lot of
wonderful things about the stewardship

in all those traditions.

Existing France and even the INTERFET
all over it is collaborators.

While sitting there stories our own
learning gardens I wouldn't put a poor

a put pins i year there are six I don't

know what it is that I would like to.

Share with you.

But into ideas such it
is species rather than

humans Homo sapiens or even multi-species.

All.
Abounding Let's see how far I can.

Explain that and it will show
a regional if you wish for her city or.

I speak.

What if we imagine a food part of me and
the fear trio

in the wheat soils our reach and
our dancing with more light.

While only niggers have fully knitting.

And have enough to go around and
well people.

What if a second a fear binds and
meter and

culture of a couple and
who constitute people in this.

Here and a leg in design who does search
of food and garden based learning system

it's here I wouldn't beauty.

And it has been very.

The heart of me to jot down I
think we are in a period of

mass would transition about
not only what we eat but

how we are thinking or
how we might be thinking.

So let me propose to you
sixty grand designs.

First of all I think of who insecurity so
less hunger.

Less trying to discern from that
idea to the idea of a need generated

abundance not just abundance abundance but
of.

What he generates that human equality and
Vesper respectability with each other and

also regenerate the capacity of the up to
feed itself all the species including us.

The other one that I have been

really waiting to hear from my
colleagues is the word peasant

before part of what's going to be
present when I am one of them I'm.

Still a present in my thinking and

in my being because my family
still practices substance.

In the foothills of the Himalayas.

So yes there was a massive deep present
ideation remember the present too poorly

and we are all third generation
both innocent after that being.

But do you think what I mean you know.

Me.

Among the generation of so my island.

Among the Racine Newry this is we
are beginning to go back to the land not

as a commodity but is something we learned
in the years in four hours and way for

our life that I call the present ideation
and if you look at all over the world.

I think what is happening is reposition
daisychain where people locally will eat.

The hen on their own lives and
that's what my friend and

he was talking about and you should.

Have asked that and
I also work in the N.T. and

the others are in their
nation many Sure it is.

That's their parting field and they call
it a riddle and what is very exciting

today is the emergence of a new
class of people I call it.

Who follow our God I don't know
rooftop and your porch even

food is good or in cities.

You are going to.

Do the third one I would
like to see as a see if it

is that we were in the Nashville
food system we were.

Different seated between the producer and
the country and

not discussion has come a lot today but
what is the most it actually.

Brawled you much what we
eat should be a couple of.

Book the pollution.

And Vermont Girling then we're reminded of
one of the fascinating examples of that

where there are not only
community supported agriculture.

But actually community
supported rush towards.

And it feels like
the creation of the food sit

that is still worship in a sponge she
will ity between the producer and

can you murder and not a division
that I should also the producing and

I should also be congenial So
that's the third part.

The other one that is harried or
love and I think we have to really

figure out is OUR a culture the minister
making the culture of chemical

a concept of course climate
destructive now we want to do and

the culture that is climate issue.

Only and apps to the.

Getting you know whatever temperature.

What we can actually captures
that carbon dioxide and

turns that into the nutrient for
soil and food and

which if I have time I will explain to
you through a system called bio char

that many presidents are now
beginning to use them so

although with it comes a novel is
the mention of what does it all mean and

I have named it.

From the idea of what you need a city
which is humans are second kind of

a unified knowledge among
the mostly the European or

the Hindu scholars who like
very good fathers and mothers.

To Hershey who hear not only the human
species are learning teaching and

performing but all species.

But for.

I am our teachers are the students so

in a biblical way let us bring all
the species in that come in some people.

And how what kind of
learning would that be and

I see a little bit of a metre
of that in the learning gardens.

To the other one I have
come up to share with you

that is in America mostly
a many are still here and.

There is this idea out what bone we
got to where he needed from nature

let's go camping canoeing.

We have to see if that I
would suggest what about who

are the bone how to become
a good householder.

Not going out but going in
the household doing what you get from

you know word Down and
Out What about being a better household.

So these are the things I
want to share with you and

ship surely know we go how
do I just press the button.

That this is a learning guidance
laboratory in Portland Oregon I was there

for ten years and that's where most of my
work on learning organs began and now I'm.

Working continuing that.

In Kenya.

In the Amazon in Prescott and

I'll show you hopefully creating
that a new put in a polluted

an upper limits have you heard about our
newborn a mountain range all up you go for

breaking Let me two really means I
wouldn't look at the pile of snow and

I know and then.

We predict what kind of it is going to be.

So these are the thirty
three children in Portland

one of the element to the schools and
you can see why is it that the.

I really want to learn I just do.

So did I I think I did.

So here is one of the we
are looking at it is Wendell Berry

again has a sentence who
she is eating is in any

cultural act as an anthropologist and.

Educator I begin to say this.

But there is more sure I
extrapolated it if you consider

the act without the all ecological
grandmotherly no good agriculture right

then ecology.

And there they go tickle act can be
a transformational act should this is how

I'm combining the ecological
principles agricultural principles and

learning principles so
let me then go to the second.

Yes on the basis of that what I'm
thinking and I went through a lot of

revolutionary generals from
Che Guevara to lead to you know.

What finally realize come to
terms that it might be is.

We.

Who are worried that.

What not by fighting and
not going to the hospital or nothing.

But the heap Lee.

Working society culture and
your own life so deep and

a delicious pathway to show so
transformation that you are already

always wanted to achieve
I think through food.

Every culture garden.

Show I want to share with you

this is really happening how
that fight in Portland Oregon.

This way the fourth grade.

Here it's probably been eliminated is.

What I'm fascinated by.

They were given a lot to work on for
about six for each student and

then years biggest supporter in twenty
five students in a class when they

were digging it for
the agreed they found more but these are.

The big get up.

In the air.

And hands it twice now imagine
what would happen to three.

When they were what kind of life.

To lead their priorities were didn't
they become more it's no biologist

then they become much more oriented to
the life level or to read other then

conclude laboratory you see
there Mike kind of enjoy.

Doing regenerative work and that is why
I yeah I think I heard something that we

have to start this work early in
childhood joy and indeed that.

Now you see you can you can
have a how to best learning.

And these are the my team
of university students who

they became the guardian educators.

Now there is a freeze of Capra's
idea about what is life right

how does this is really what we
learn from nature if substance life.

But human social system we have
compromised that capacity.

We lost something that we do not
follow what nature can do show

how to he would be in human social
systems to be able to sustain life so

that's not how well your students
are working on that kind of model in.

During these two.

Now I am giving you a learning what
might happen to the learner a child

used in the gardens and here comes
the learning theory one is of course that

is made that the code need to park.

Important but not the only important
I want to emphasize that then

in act meant that in the hand and all the
other senses enablement the heart of joy.

And psyche if your client doesn't
grow if you're She to get right up.

And I'm going to bring something
from the Himalayas in a.

American I want to talk about the several
vigor of this here not the the v Stand

by for me there I think from here not
from here and that we should have vigor

needs to be activated and that that
happens with the food garden and.

That's I call it but
even then you feel like why are the saliva

is coming gooey stuff is coming
out of the simulators and

put it under the carpet we need to
bring it up to age alternative finding

the satisfying life then the empowerment
of course that is very important

that the child would insist that
this is a lot this is more.

Companion finding this is my merry go like
that and sense of place and then when and

of course you can any of the things that
are the things I am sharing with you.

And one other thing as anthropology
time bringing to the learning

Arden's curriculum is the idea
of biological diversity

linguistic diversity.

And I think they are very important
elements and in a city like Atlanta

where all these cultures are coming
from all over the world for you.

That.

We need to be renewed.

Cultural gardens not
only just the park early.

The cauliflower the carrot but

I do that experiment in Portland by
bringing in multicultural parents to bring

their own make their own garden in this
in this facility just to give you an idea

human she wall who evolved with
the five different types of plants that

doesn't just the rice is one of the eighty
five hundred eighty five thousand and

how many varieties of rice are there
who are hundred thousand and.

Five that's a great piece of what
it was I saw hundreds of them.

That are still alive that are one
hundred thousand but I have pink about

the deaf the vertical depth of her
geological and human history and

what agriculture our agricultural mind
has created in that level of diversity so

that I need to urge you to
bring it to your curriculum.

Same way the seeds you have to work up and
then to see what I'm a mother should

not be there many important work and
lastly I want to end up with this idea of

bio child and
I have a little sample in my bag and.

It just of charcoal but.

Meet the new we weed out holding season

when you are burning that biomass
either too early for brunch or

wouldn't or even a sugar cane.

Or a coconut and it has shut and

millipede even heat in
the soil to come a life.

And that most of the monoxide that we have
extra if we use this technology and other.

Technologies we can see
that extra carbon dioxide.

And it's unbelievable.

But we can actually it
all if we really do that.

And one example.

If someone does it because they're like
that all over the world video it was

all the kind of the next
site that US produces.

Because that's the kind
of capacity we have in

the genitive agriculture thank you so

much.

I finally speaker for
today because I thought

as Professor Bill Winters my colleague
here at Georgia Tech He's an associate

professor of sociology in the school of
history and sociology he studies national

policies social movements and
the world economy with a focus on food and

agriculture his book The Politics of food
supply US agricultural policy in the world

economy one the two thousand and eleven
Book Award for the political economy of

the world system section of
the American Sociological Association and

please welcome.

Thank you thank you Jenny and
thank you Deana for organizing this and

having me inviting me to be a part of it
I'm very pleased to have the opportunity

not only to have heard the fantastic
presentations that came before but

also to participate in this way in this
important and insightful some cozy and

what I'd like to do for the Brits brief
time that I have is to bring something of

a global perspective to the conversation
and focus on the issue of world hunger and

look at the ways in which world hunger.

Connects to what I would call in others
we call the political economy of grain.

That is of corn and rice and wheat the way
in which they're used the way in which

their trade it imported and exported
in the way in which they're produced.

In part because these grains are the basis
most diets around the world so

understanding their role in world
hunger or how they relate to it I think

is quite important but before I do that
before I talk about grains per se I want

to say a little bit about world hunger and
the first thing that I want to say is that

according to the World Food Program
of the United Nation.

There's an estimated twenty fifteen
there's an estimated seven hundred ninety

five million people who are categorized as
being undernourished Ramallah nourished

To me that's that's a lot right it's
more than double the population of

the United States but
this was actually something.

Not necessarily to brag about but this was
an accomplishment from the viewpoint of

some folks because it was the first
time in modern systematic

measuring of world hunger that
the number of people hungry

in the world fell below
eight hundred million.

And it's also an improvement over the last
twenty five years it's a decrease of about

twenty percent since the early
one nine hundred ninety S. And

as a percent of the world's
population suffering from hunger.

Sorry let me rephrase that the percent
of the world's population suffering from

hunger has fallen over the last twenty
five years from about twenty three percent

to thirteen percent nonetheless
world hunger eight hundred or

eight hundred million people
is a significant amount.

And world hunger or

hunger in the world is disproportionately
found in not surprisingly.

Poor countries developing
countries especially in.

Asia and Africa.

And there we can see.

We'll see in just a few minutes we
can see the link between hunger and

the political economy grains.

Had this great map of world hunger but
I tend to get easily distracted and

with only ten minutes I thought I
would get too involved with the map so

I went very bare bones for

this presentation suggest imagine a map
that has Africa and Asia highlight it.

Because I've already just wasted a minute
talking about why I don't have accurate

map the last thing I want to mention
is why write that is how people try to

explain or the factors that they cite when
they try to understand world hunger and

there's a variety of reasons
that play into world hunger and

that people focus on poverty
war political corruption

famine due to natural disasters
flooding and drought.

But there's one factor that's
very commonly cited and

that is agricultural production that
is the amount of food that we produce

in fact the Economist magazine a few
years ago I think in two thousand and

nine when my book came out they had as
special insert that posed what was called

The Nine Billion people question right how
would we be able to raise enough food to

feed nine billion people and some people
asked the same thing today that So

the thinking goes if only we the world
could produce enough food then we could

alleviate world hunger if this
particular country in Africa or Asia or

Latin America could produce enough food
then they could experience food security.

So this solution to world hunger then
becomes increasing the supply of food

often through mention this and swear at
Georgia Tech through the use of tech not.

Through hybrid seeds
genetically engineered C..

Chemical fertilizers and so forth.

But today I want to argue that
the emphasis that's put on production is

somewhat misplaced that while food
production is certainly important

right that the increases in food
production over the past forty to sixty

years have played an important role in
the state the decline of world hunger and

the relative improvement of food
security in countries around the world.

There's never the less some important
elements of food security and

world hunger.

That are not about production levels and
in some instances for example

food security and world hunger often occur
when there is adequate production and

in fact food security and and
hunger occur even when a surplus exists so

understanding those situations is
my focus today and in many ways

the basic question that I'm asking is how
does the market that is the world economy

shape grain production and distribution
in ways that contribute to hunger and

I'm going to do that I'm going to discuss
this by focusing on two examples and

the first example that I'm going to focus
on is food security in South Asia in

particular in India and Pakistan two
countries that have faced hunger and

food security issues for a number
of decades and look at the role or

look at the presence of exports of grains
in those countries and the second example

I want to look at is the example
of global meat consumption and

in terms of putting it in the context of
the political economy of grains looking at

the competing or I would just
say really simply the division

between food grains and
figurines that is how grains are used.

And both of these examples I hope

lead us back to one question
a question that has come up.

Before For whom are the grains produced.

For whom are the Greens produced.

And it's this question I think that
gets at more that takes us Beyond

the issue of production so
let me turn first to.

The example of food security and

grain exports in South Asia.

Who to curate in India and Pakistan
particularly is considered to be serious

I think serious problem
the International Food Policy and

Research Institute for the last twenty
five years has tracked what it's called

has tracked world hunger in food
security by using what it developed and

called the global hunger index the G H I
and the G H I the global hunger index

looks at three different factors it looks
at the percent of the population that's

undernourished the percent of children
under the age of five who are underweight

in the mortality rate children
under the age of five.

And according to the global
hunger index both Pakistan and

India are rated as having food security
issues that are quote serious and

as recently as two thousand and
nine they had food to they

had food security status as
they were termed as alarming.

And in each of the countries
approximately in two thousand and

thirteen approximately seventeen
percent of the population was.

Categorized as being under nurse
just categorized as being hungry and

it hunger in these countries is not and
food insecurity in these countries is not

a new issue but it is an issue that has
been faced for a number of decades.

But over the past few decades
over the past say thirty years.

We production and rice production the two
main grains consumed in Pakistan and

India have actually increased steadily.

And production or rice production rather
in India the primary grain in India is

rice and rice production at various

points over the last
twenty years actually.

Stripped has been greater
than consumption of rice in.

And in Pakistan.

No more along the line when I was in
graduate school I figured out how to

work Excel really well.

And you'll see I hang on to
grass like that or in Pakistan

we do is the main grain that's consumed
by I want to focus on rice for

just a moment because over
the last thirty years for

almost I guess almost fifty
years the production of rice

in Pakistan has increased.

The production of rice in Pakistan
have increased significantly

to the point of doubling over the last
since the early one nine hundred ninety

S..

So what has happened with this
grain rather than being consumed so

I should go back for just one second so
the green line here.

The grey line rather is
rice consumption and

Pakistan in the red line is
rice production in Pakistan and

these two countries which have experienced
significant food security issues for

several decades and in very recent
times have export it significant

amounts of the grains that they produce.

In particular in the midst of the most
recent global food crisis in two

thousand and eight two thousand and nine.

Pakistan.

Had seventy seven million people.

Who were categorized as suffering from
hunger which is approximately just under

half of its population but
during that time

Pakistan export it.

Record amounts of rice.

Got find it here.

It export it almost half of.

Let me just read it in Pakistan in two
thousand and eight seventy seven million

people suffer from hunger representing
almost half of that country's population

and a twenty eight percent increase from
the year before nonetheless Rice exports

actually increased in Pakistan exported
about half of the rice that it produced

in that year and in fact Pakistan's wheat
exports for two thousand and seven and

two thousand and eight reached record
levels at about ten percent of production

about two point two million metric
tons in each year that's nearly double

the most that it had exported prior
to two thousand and seven and so

the question that we need to ask then is
for whom are these grains this rice and

this week being produced right.

Let me switch quickly to the next example

which is that a global meat consumption.

Meat consumption in the world
has increased dramatically

over the last thirty years so
you can see the numbers there

that since one nine hundred ninety eight
increased by almost thirty percent and

since two thousand it's increased
by almost fourteen percent.

But because that's per capita the blue
line is total the top line there is total

meat consumption because it's per capita
doesn't really capture the the sharp

increase in the resources that
are dedicated towards meat production.

So if we look at meat
production in terms of mill.

Metric tons of different kinds of meat
in this shows cattle chicken pigs and

then the top line is total since between
one thousand nine hundred ninety and

two thousand and thirteen there is
a seventy three percent increase in

the amount to meet in terms of a million
metric tons that was produced and

there's been a sharp number
because I'm going to have to

state this there's a sharp increase in the
number of animals are killed for meat but

sixty billion chickens were killed
in two thousand and thirteen and

about one point four billion pigs
were killed in that same year and

this sharp increase in.

Its you pass this sharp
increase in meat production

leads to certain consequences in terms of.

The uses of resources such as land water
and how grains themselves are used and

I want to return very quickly to
the example of India because India

has been an unlikely source of
increased meat production and

slightly meat consumption especially
exports over the past twenty years so

this graph shows the top line
the green line is beef production in

India over since one thousand nine hundred
eighty but if we pay attention to the last

increase there it's since one thousand
nine hundred five and you can see for

exports and what I want to highlight
here is that in this country in India

where hunger and food security is
a significant issue what we find

is that India is now the world's
top exporter of beef it

exports more beef than Brazil Australia or
the United States not combined but

each of them individually and this has
implications for the use of land so

land had the amount of land
dedicated to food grains or

sorry grains has expanded by as
much as fifty percent over the last

twenty years in India.

Which leads again to the question of
who for whom the grains are produced.

So I may wrap up really quickly
by just making these last

two points.

I'm just going to read them because
my notes are a bit more jumbled and.

I put the text on it because I write it
better than I say so the two important

points I want to leave you with is that
the market shapes grain production and

distribution in ways that contribute to
hunger first we can see it in terms of

facilitating and prompting exports out of
areas that would otherwise use good use

those grains to help feed the hungry
population and second in terms of

giving the green production towards high
value meat production and and exports.

And this then leads us to leads me
to conclusions about how the market.

Shape for whom grains are produced and
where they and thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that.

Joe could you come up here and
the screen for

me I thought I would be able to do it but
it's not actually familiar so for

me.

All right so I'm just going to
offer a few brief comments and

then I'll call our panelists for
a question and

answer session I'd like to thank all of
the panelists in this in the session and

I just want to highlight for the audience
I imagine most of you noticed this but

the extremely interdisciplinary and
interfaith.

Origins that these speakers were coming
from I think we had five different sort of

faiths or perspectives represented
as well as at least four different

professional disciplines that our speakers
were coming out of so that makes my job

perhaps a little bit more challenging
to try to find some connections or

between these things but but nonetheless I
I saw a couple I also want to take sort of

a moderator's priority here or
privilege to.

To interject just a couple of historical
insights that that I think that

I thought of while while the panelists
were speaking that I think are germane or

related to what we want
to talk about today.

First of all you know agriculture is.

In some ways an ancient practice but only
if you think in terms of you know very

recent history so agriculture
has really only been around for

about the last twelve thousand years
whereas humans have sort of been more or

less acting like humans for
at least one hundred thousand years if not

up to a million years so agriculture
is a little blip in the longer timeline

of our civilization if the world
didn't have farmers there would still.

The humans here they would be hunting and
gathering or they perhaps would be nomadic

Pastore lists they would be defeated
doing different things there would be

definitely be fewer humans and they would
also be doing different things with their

time which I'll get to in a minute one of
the favorite my favorite facts to give

my undergraduates when I talk about the
development of agricultural societies and

the sort of central idea of agriculture in
many parts of human civilisation today is

that agriculture may have
been developed as a way for

humans to produce surplus grain not
necessarily to eat but to drink so

the production of alcoholic beverages is
actually one of the main theories for

why agriculture sort of caught
on as a cultural practice in

the Middle East eleven or twelve thousand
years ago when it was first developed so

so this idea you know as as.

As we were talking about sort of bread and
wine I was really thinking about how

how fundamental The wine is to there's not
really you know that actually might have

been one of the first thinkings was to
create a sort of sacred beverage and

the other thing that I wanted to point out
here is that monotheistic religions come

out of agrarian societies and
that that's you know that's a really

important this idea of having
a conversation about religion and

farming together really makes sense
because one of the things that agriculture

does is it frees up time for
some members of a larger

community of scholars to become religious
scholars or other forms of scholars and

it also settles people in communities
if you're a hunter gatherer or

if you are a nomadic pastoralists
you're really moving around you have

very few things very few possessions
you don't settle down in one place

if you're an agricultural ist if you're
a peasant or a farmer you need to do that

you need to be in one place to tend your
crops to guard them and that leads to.

First the creation of communities and
then to larger and

larger populations in those
communities larger cities literacy

standing armies all of these things so.

Scuse me so those are those are just
two sort of big picture ideas here.

Another thing that I was thinking about
as some of the speakers were thinking at

least was how this relates to my own
research which which I won't go into

in too much detail I promise but it's
about twentieth century famines and our

responses to them and one of the things
that I was really thinking about is when

you read accounts of survivors of famine
people who have lived through terrible

hardship where where you know ten twenty
thirty percent of their community died

in a widespread famine one of the things
they talk about besides just the trauma of

being extremely hungry have is suffering
from acute malnourishment is the trauma of

having the community breakdown and the
things that they remember often are people

don't eat together anymore even families
stop eating at a table together they

just you know if they acquire any food at
all they take it to a Better to a corner

of their house and they consume it their
people don't visit each other people hide

from their neighbors there's there's
no sense of neighborly Thai people stop

attending religious services and things
like that that that was actually for

most people's recollection of a famine if
they survived it that was really one of

the most traumatic things that they feel
like they became somewhat less than human

because of that experience and it had
everything to do with sort of community

and the communal Toews that these
once agrarian societies had that were

tested and sometimes severely broken
by the experience of famine and

I was also reminded of something that the
political scientist James Scott has said

which is just that peasants
living in extreme poverty.

Suffer from a kind of social death
where their poverty prevents the.

From hosting people at their house we
talked a lot about hosts and gaffes and

this idea of sitting down at a table and
just that you know perhaps these people

can't afford the surplus food to have
people in their house perhaps they're so

poor they don't actually even have
the furniture to offer people a chair and

things like that these are the kinds of
extreme poverty that also lead to a kind

of closing in of having not feeling like
you can be a full part of your community

in an agrarian society
because of extreme poverty so

our panelists here today
displayed a real Vers set

of interests and explanations for
us I had never really thought

of Deuteronomy as a sort of
quartermasters handbook but

I really liked that idea we heard about
the idea of stewardship the solidarity

of the table the same city of gardens and
their sort of healing power or

their potential for that in the world
especially for children and

also the sort of damage that
world markets can hold for

the globe you know thinking
globally about this.

I have a question sort of for
our panelists in general and this isn't

something they should answer now but
perhaps during the rest of the larger Q.

and A you like to think about this and
address this.

Which is just that I saw sort of two
big themes here that I think exist

in opposition to each other one of them is
some of you describe a sort of tradition

of fellowship the kinds of
sort of bringing together and

the joy really that that food
can bring to a community or

to people sitting down
at a table together and

then on the other side almost the exact
opposite is the suffering that

perhaps our modern agricultural industrial
agricultural system has causes for

people who work within it the suffering
that's caused by a law or.

The wrong kinds of food and so.

Well I want to sort of
oppose those two things and

sort of I think partially because
today has introduced this idea

of faith and the sort of ethical and
moral principles that we try to live our

lives by you know what should we do I want
to just challenges our panelists to sort

of pick a group that you really
think is in your own work

at least most deserving of this kind of
attention I understand we're all idealists

we're optimists we want to heal the world
you know that's I think that a lot of you

know one of the things about these talks
is that they were they were a little bit

general in part because we're trying to
address a pretty broad set of values here

but if you had to choose one group
would it be you know your community our

community here in Atlanta would it be
schoolchildren would it be you know

animals I'm just very interested to
hear what you know where where could we

start the process of alleviating
the most suffering and bringing

the most fellowship or the most joy to
the table to the collective table in

this in this set of tough So
with that as my sort of question I pose

I'd like to invite them
to come up here and

sit down if two of you don't fight over
them but there's two microphone sitting in

the dish there are two of you would just
grab those so we can be sort of ready for

the Q. and A session that
would be great and also when

you.

Have.

Probably come in and question for
Dr Wright I was really

struck.

In some of the things.

Or that have to do.

System.

But.

I was really struck by that especially in
the context of our current situation where

starvation has become a weapon where.

In the water supply has.

Been a chemical.

Weapon I just thought about that this.

Might have happened.

Over the.

Thank you for that it's a great
question we've moved from a.

Morality that opposes wanton destruction
destruction collateral damage

that was really codified by crochet
is in his book on laws of war and

peace and that he in turn drew upon the
literature as well as Greek sources that

I mentioned also in the in sources but the
Biblical tradition kind of remind the West

that this is what we have to do when we're
fighting against each other what happened

in terms of warfare is that one
has to remember that worse but

the European community were considered
of a different kind than those far

beyond Europe's borders so that there was
a different attitude towards the lands and

the soils and environments of ecologies
and populations of populations when we're

fighting abroad beyond the European
context and that really is.

A remarkable feature of the twentieth
century when when the West.

Was fighting and not Westerners.

But it's very much imbedded within
the Biblical tradition that here may say

that the very fact that you're fighting
means that you're fighting for

something for
life if you destroy the source of life for

which you're fighting why
didn't you fight anymore and.

You know I guess I should leave
it at that maybe some others want

to.

Help

and I thank you for
those presentations which really great.

Question about language.

Commonality in language because
it strikes me sitting here.

When I met church with Jennifer I
talk about these issues with

a different language and
when I'm here at Georgia Tech.

I use completely different language to
talk about exactly the same thing and

I'm wondering if.

I guess I'm just wondering your.

Language about them.

And if there's a way.

More successfully bridging.

Different disciplines looking at.

Around more ality.

Different perspectives
to talk to each other.

I guess work work is
words that are mutually

supportive.

I was really hoping someone
else was going to answer that.

So my approach has been to work
from within my own tradition and

to remain very specifically rooted in my
own tradition because I feel that that

grounds it in a way so that I can
bring in conversation partners for

example from environmental education
theory or from studies sources he ology.

And I think in terms of
interfaith collaboration

on these questions that's a really
important thing to hold onto.

And not just name isn't another space
in which I find myself trying to

figure out what kind of language she uses
when I and with environmental educators

I had an interesting experience at
the Environmental Education says she.

Asian conference in which
there was a pretty clear.

Perspective that adults in religious
communities were not necessarily a major

site of interest in terms of where we
should be doing environmental education.

And I'm not sure what that reflected
in terms of what people think happens

in religious communities but
I realise that.

My own theological language could
shut down conversation in that case.

But I do think that.

These sorts of issues
that sort of trans and

I'm religious tradition moral
tradition and cultures.

I don't really see a way around remaining
specifically rooted in our own traditions

and reaching out so I guess I'm just
saying I think it's a thorny problem and.

Every time I speak from from a Christian
practical theologians point of view I

always feel like I need to show that
I know these other languages and

which you kind of have to do this work but
but I am aware that it has sort of

a parochial sound to and some circles so
yeah it's not an answer so

much as an identification with
a challenge someone else.

Working with a school is children
what we found is that even the.

Not in one little religious
language very important and

also even the economic And
then what we did then years we

gave the camera to the children
to show and say to me.

Photo and film about what is
happening in this garden party.

And the kind of food is that they would
imagine and film it you will not do that

show we should relate to the children
invent new language and new.

Show it it would be multimedia and
I'll show completely multiple senses

then will one on one video wait even for
a human now is that they were

some banana peels in the road there and
then they don't either and

then flipped it and then laughed Did you
see they have a completely different and

as educator I would like
them to invent their one and

their we need to let go of what
we inherited from the Stanford.

Children.

And use multiple intelligence.

And all that so that has been
much more rewarding than imposing

outgoing.

Questions

from.

How I thank you all for your discussion
and I was curious thinking about it

from sort of a role of someone who
might make decisions that help others.

Have more food have more food security.

We were talking about specifically
food exports from other countries.

And sort of a local food movement and
appreciation for

the workers who are making the food.

Is that is that a path like Are you saying
if we more locally if we sort of where

does that go for
the personal consumer choice or is it.

Trying to speak more broadly.

That's from that that's for me.

That's a that's a very good question and
it's very tough.

Question for me to answer so
I'll do my best when I gave

a very similar talk at a local university
recently afterwards they say that

whenever I get this talk along these lines
perfectly willing to say that I'm big and

the number of animals are killed because
it's just astonishing to me sixty seconds.

And then afterwards the group that I
happen to be talking to is a business

school and some agricultural economists
and they immediately raise their hands

when I was done and said So do you want to
solve it become begin to think that that's

going to solve the problem and
I got on the defensive and I said no you

know I didn't say anything if you drive
that you know that your own conclusion.

But then later because I'm very
slow thinker later I thought

what I should have said was.

Because his point so I'm going to get
to your question his point was that if

farmers stop if his farmers in Germany
stopped focusing on selling livestock and

switch back to grains then they
wouldn't make enough money.

They would be impoverished and so I said
well you know that that's not really what

I'm saying but in essence that's
exactly what I was saying that

the problem you know regardless of our
individual choices which I come back to

the problem is really the market economy
and where the market guy production our

guy exports so we may.

So part of it is about the system so
the sociologist in me always

looks at at the system to try and
understand what the issue is so

if I was going to say so
if someone was to ask me.

What should we do what can we do
about that in terms of world hunger

there's some fundamental revolutionary
change that has to occur or

at least some recognition that.

Some food production should not be
geared just towards the market.

On an individual level.

Because I'm a sociologist I have much more
difficulty answering that question from

a sociological perspective because
like many sociologists I'm stuck

in a very extreme structural focus
where the power lies in the structure

but individually I do my best to.

One of the reasons why you don't consume
meat is because of the implications that

meat has for
the resources that are used globally.

That sharp increase in meat per
capita consumption globally

has profound implications for
the way in which food is used.

I try to eat locally but.

It's not it's not within.

My initial.

My initial.

Thought is to say it's not
within everybody's reach to eat

organic in eat locally economically
it's not within everybody's reach but

then again the panel this morning.

Like Rush Rush Nourie and
true farms locating in

communities that.

Benefit from that kind of
act from urban agriculture

could prove me wrong.

So I've meandered a lot.

And it's very difficult I think on an
individual level to say what to do I would

say I guess if I'm just going
before I just go big and.

Jump in on that as well
though I don't because I

think really those two issues
are like comparing apples to hard.

Because when you talk about
the local food movement we're not

we're not producing commodity crops
in the local food movement we're

not producing our rice we're not producing
our corn we're not producing our wheat so

when we talk about local food production
we're talking about where to cultural

crops we're talking about lettuce we're
talking about kale we're talking about

tomatoes we're not talking about sugar
we're not talking about these commodities

that which we have to get elsewhere so
unless the local food movement really

changes and begins to look at
production of those commodity crops and

how can I produce the grains that
I need the sugar you know the.

Commodities that we all have to have or
we all think we need to have I mean

unless we're going to go all food these
are products that we need to have and

they're not produced in
our local food system.

So I do think it's kind of looking at two
different things again the other thing

the other side of the coin when we
look at dealing with hunger and

food security issues internationally we
have to look at what are they producing so

like what Rashid had
mentioned earlier with the.

Largest sector of Agriculture and Georgia
being a place that is most food and

secure and the worst diet that's because
the food that they're producing is not

food for human consumption right so
it's for it's for commodity it's for

is for processing you know into other
things so that they're not going

out eating their peanuts out in their
field right they're eating there they have

to go to the grocery store to get their
food because what they're producing is not

something that they can directly consume
and the same thing can be said for

these international you know in
other countries like India and

Pakistan where they're producing these
grains that are for export use of for

processing not for consumption so it's
about diversification if we want to really

support and
I guess address that issue of food

security internationally we have to look
at supporting an agricultural agricultural

system Agricole logical system
that is producing food a divorce.

A group of a diverse array of food that is
providing nutritional requirements to feed

the people who are there so really
supporting that small scale agriculture.

And I guess addressing
grain production is a.

Monster.

Thank you very much I am have been
instructed to keep us on time here and

so it is time for us to end the Q. and
A part I'm sure the analysts would love to

make themselves available after our
closing remarks but but it is time for

those now so if I could invite you to
to step down and invite Jonathan crane

back here for just a few brief
remarks here at the at the end

of our symposium today please take it away
thank you could I have the projector again

please.

OK.

So thank you this is been such
a rich day of conversations and

one of the things that I think that we've
all highlighted is that food farming and

faith is so complex that no one
individual no one discipline and

no one school can adequately or
exhaustively treat these issues

that we only need to be at the proverbial
table having a mutual conversation

regardless of our discursive
differences the going back to the Ph D.

question that we have a certain language
in our community our theological

communities versus our academic
communities versus our active activist

communities regardless of
those language barriers but

perhaps challenges we nonetheless
need to all be working together and

I commend the lamp program for
bringing us all together it also

demonstrates what some of the themes that
we've been talking about today which is

what does it mean to be we need to re
narrate what it means to be consuming

creatures of this world and right now
we know ourselves as homo sapiens and

we should recognize that Homo sapiens
that term sub here a sub pins has

a two two valences on the one
hand we get from IT savvy and

so violent in other words we understand
ourselves to be that creature which is

really wise and knowledgeable such
Harry also has another term another

connotation which means to savor to
taste we are that creature which

is a tasting animal we
are a taste full creature and

that is how we want to understand
ourselves we want to literally cultivate

ourselves as in cultured people and that
term cultivate also has an agricultural

base as well from cult of which
means to till the soil so

a culture cultivates and
we are a culture rated.

Into that culture by literally tilling
the soil of our personas of our characters

what I suggest throughout all of this is
that perhaps we have cart a logic card to

graphical challenges and there are three
different cards a graphical challenges

that I think that that we are facing
in this conversation the first one is

theological which control which
creation story do we invoke

when we think about ourselves in
this cosmos do we invoke that story

of human exceptionalism that many of our
contemporary politicians like to invoke.

Or do we invoke that
theological story of human.

Human imbedded ness that
many here seem to champion

that we are embedded in a broader
messier world and we can't really claim

exceptional or exceptionalism in that.

And these choices locate us
in the cosmological map and

those choices then will frame and
constrain our moral choices our political

choices and
obviously our eating choices as well but

it emphasizes what kind of sense
of specialness we have for

ourselves this year is the O.T. map.

Circle with the T in the center and
you can see the three different.

Continents that were of
significance back then and

this is one way to understand
the world it locates

the center of the world is
certainly going to be Jerusalem and

here's another version of that map
known as the petal map the dominated

engine to medieval cartographers and
so then this gets to the second kind

of challenge cart a graphical challenge
that I think that we face here and

that is the sociological and political
map of the world in so far as we.

Maps of the world putting on them
those things that we consider to

be important those things that matter and
for

the most part the maps that we have been
creating of late civilizational are ones

that highlight economic
entities like industries.

Economies of trade those things
that matter we map communities and

classes and predominately we
map what human beings are doing

we map our cities we map our churches and
our mosques we map our countries and

our counties we map the stuff that is very
narcissistic we map us and perhaps what

we need to do is take a lesson from the B.
that we saw this morning they don't map

about where other beehives are they
map where their food is and

perhaps we need to redirect
the way that we map the world and

so in the twentieth century we really
dominated We changed the way that we map

the world again by looking at what
is out there very data oriented but

one of the challenges with such maps is
the granularity how far back do we go do

we go all the way up to the International
Space Station like this one or

do we go all the way down into
the microns in the grain of dirt so

it really depends we have to make some
hard choices those choices need to be made

at what level our maps are going to

be made where are the boundaries
of the maps and

those boundaries demarcate
our sphere of concern.

And we saw some maps also
earlier about Atlanta for

example the jungle the urban
jungle maps as well.

So that the so that's the second card
to graphical challenge the first one

theological The second one is
sociological political The third one is

the piston logical which is how do we
orient ourselves in the cosmos and

what we accept as pertinent
information to shape our

our production productive and
consumptive packed.

It says.

We are now in an era of egocentrism this
is the map of today just turn on your

smartphone go to Google Maps ways whatever
you are the center of your Cosmos.

What matters now more is not what's around
you not the terrain not terra firma but

your path your journey it's all
narcissistic it's we're we're now becoming

so bellybutton fascinated this is
what matters is right here me my ego

my instant gratification where can I find
this store and how can I get there fast.

And for better and for worse that's what
we're the kind of civilization that we're

working in and perhaps what we need
to do is create new all different

maps that reorient
ourselves in this world.

And again perhaps we need to take advice
wisdom from the bees to populate our

maps dramatically differently
perhaps we need to take our maps and

put other people on them not
the tenders of the world but.

The maps of the concern communities
of concern common concern and

reorient ourselves that way I think that
we also need to have other kinds of maps

maps of the kitchen for example Amy and I
cook and Mindy who is up here earlier and

Peggy we code teach a course where we're
teaching students how to literally

navigate a kitchen our college students
have come on not knowing how to shop or

cook or prep or plan a menu or anything
like that so learning how to navigate

the colony arts I think is a life skill
that has been lost in that we as educators

need to re cultivate in our students
we also need to have maps of our bodies

because many of us don't know basic
nutrition we don't know what our bodily

needs are and so we need to recall to
vait that notion of personal knowledge.

And I think that such maps need to be.

Written in two different formats one is
certainly an ink in public policy business

policy or cultural policy that certainly
needs to be those maps need to be

written I think another kind of map is the
kind that is found in the soil underneath

your own fingernails and I think many of
us here would welcome that opportunity

especially on a glorious day like today so
on behalf of myself at least thank you so

much for
organizing this amazing conference is so

enriching and
I look forward to furthering our

conversations.

I'm going to conclude our time this
evening with a brief word of thanks

we are grateful to our keynote speaker
Jonathan crane and for all the panelists

who have shared their insights with us
this evening I also want to recognize

the four students from Georgia Tech
who serve as our volunteers today

Elizabeth Kelly and Allison we wouldn't
have been able to do this without you and

also Joanna just.

From I mean on college as well.

The the symposium would not have
been possible without those and

others from the Emory in Georgia Tech
campuses to thank you to everyone who

contributed to this we hope that you'll
take a moment when you return home and

complete the online survey
that we're sending out to you

to offer us feedback on this event and
perhaps suggestions for

future events also turn in
to our website it's lamp.

Got tech edu And
we have a couple upcoming lectures so

an evening lecture on March twenty ninth
on faith and evolution and a lunch and

lecture on on April fourth on
the legacy of Gandhi King and

Mandela so we do have a few
other upcoming events finally as

a token of our appreciation and
a reminder of our conversations today we

invite you to take a small plant
from the registration tables as you.

Thank you again for

joining us for this second annual lamp
symposium and have a great night.