Joel Salatin - The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All Gods Creation

Im a Christian. Jesus is my Lord. Joel Salatin is a Christian. That makes him my brother. But should Joel, or someone like him, be my farmer? Does it matter who grew my steak or my potatoes?

Most Christians dont know how to begin to answer this question. We dont know what the Bible has to say on the subject. Weve not had a sermon on the biblical ethic of food. We cant articulate the theology of eating too much of the wrong things or too little of the right. Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, and temperance is the cardinal virtue that counteracts it. But how many Christians think about what the Bible says when they walk into a grocery store or restaurant and cast a vote with their wallet for what they want the world to be like? How many know about the curses placed on Levi and Simeon in Genesis because they maimed a farm animal? How many of us have had a sermon on agriculturenot a reminder about how the Bible is set in an agrarian culture, but agriculture today?

This book is a clarion call to connect what you ingest three times a day with what you say you believe in. Like me, Joel believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and he looks to the Good Book rather than corporate America for directions. For many, both inside and outside the church, it will be eye opening to find out that theres a sustainable and unchanging farming ethic to be found in Scripture. But again, one might ask, Does it matter who grew my meal? Dont Christians have bigger things to worry about right now? I would answer that the Bible says God will give us great things to look after if we are faithful in the little things.

Three-quarters of Americans are overweight. Obesity isnt something that happens to us in our sleep. It comes from eating too much or working too little. In religious terms these issues have been talked about using the terms gluttony and sloth. They are not pretty terms, but ignoring them is literally leading us into large problems.

And weight isnt the only problem that comes from bad nutrition and industrial farming. On several occasions, Ive asked people in a congregation to raise their hands if someone in their family has had cancer. A sea of hands go up. Then Ive asked how many have heard a sermon on cancer. No hands are raised. Theres a disconnect between what were dying from and what were hearing about in church. The book youre holding connects your faith and your food.

Its not just physical health that results from un-anchoring ourselves from Gods plan for our lives. When all we do is look for the most at the cheapest price, we lose track of the world that can surprise us with its beauty. Joels vision of the world is alive! Its a picture of wonderment. As he says, One breath gets recycled through an apple tree leaf and then into an earthworm and then into a red clover leaf and then into your teenager. His insights act as an antidote to the increasingly mechanistic world that threatens to reduce the meaning of human life to that of profit and loss. Joels dream of what our world could be seems to be much more in keeping with what I read in Scripture.

God could have worked His plan through the builders of ancient Egypt or the scientists of Babylon. Instead, He chose the tribe of Jacob, who traveled with their sheep and cattle. He brought their descendants to farmland and gave them agricultural laws that included rest for the animals. God didnt leave sustainable agriculture to chance for His people. He even gave His nation of farmers ordinances on pruning fruit trees, for heavens sake! Joel asks, and I wonder with him, How did the people of God get so disconnected from Gods plan?

Jesus wasnt born by accident. He was the most planned baby in history. It is not by chance that the Son of God spent His first night surrounded by farm animals and visited by shepherds. The Bible says that all creation groans as a result of human sin and failings. How appropriate that the baby Jesus should be attended by the creatures He came to restore to the right relationship with us. Ive visited modern factory farms and Ive been to Joels Polyface Farm; there is no question in my mind which farm is in Gods will for us and His creatures. There is no question which offers a picture of dignity and hospitality.