I went and saw Joel Salatin speak at theJanuary Series on January 17th. I was very interested in what he hadto say because I’d seen him speak in the documentary Food Inc. and also because I’m at an age where what I eat isbecoming my choice for the first time. In the coming years, I’ll be in chargeof purchasing my own food and I’m interested in what ethical food looks like. Ithought his message was a great groundwork for beginning to think in thoseways.His speech, entitled “Dancing with Dinner”talked about how alienated we’ve become from our food. Out of a past wherefamilies came together around food, cultures defined themselves by what theyate, and seasons were reflected in our pantries; we now live in an age, Salatinsays, where food is “just a bothersome pit stop between what’s really importantin life.”In the absence of a community or familyrelationship towards food, corporations are stepping in to fill the role offood provider. Tellingly, these corporations’ advertisements reflect thistrend. Meat packaging giant Tyson’s slogan is “feeding you like family”. Thishas become a self-fulfilling prophecy as more and more family meals consist ofthings like reheated Tyson chicken nuggets. “We used to eat together,” Salatin mourned,“now we just graze.”
“Dancing with Dinner” is an image Joel Salatinused repeatedly. In the whimsical metaphor, he referred to our food as a dancepartner that we could delight in and know. “Food isn’t mechanical!” he reiterated.Salatin was clearly passionate about his topic from the largest aspects to thesmallest. “Some people just see a handful of dirt,” he said, “but it isn’t, it’ssoil, and people don’t realize that soil is alive!” He began to move about onstage, acting out a drama where a “narwhal-type” organism was attacked by a “centipede-like”organism. Afterwards he exclaimed incredulously, “this is the real world! Thismakes Steven Spielberg look like a kindergartener: and this kind of stuff ishappening every day!”Another concept Salatin repeated was that ofhonoring his animals and even his vegetables. He cares, he says, about the “pigness”of a pig. He farms in a way that lets the animals do the things for which theyare created. Responding to questions of whether it was harder to eat a pig thatyou cared for and knew, he said “the way that we create sacred ness is food andeating is to value the animals in a way that makes their sacrifices meaningful.”In other words, as Wendell Berry says in his essay, “The Pleasures of Eating”, “Asignificant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousnessof the lives and the world from which food comes.” In the case of an ethicalfarm like Salatin’s, Berry says that “the knowledge of the good health of thegarden relieves and frees and comforts the eater.”
The obvious joy throughoutSalatin’s speech reflected the Kuyperian idea of “every square inch” of ourculture being redeemable. Though some might think slaughtering chickens andfiguring out the best way to spread manure is not a worthy task, Salatin showsa way to honor Creation in what he does, to be a part of the ecological ethicthat Walsh and Keesmaat discuss in ColossiansRemixed. When I see someone living like that, reveling in the good thingswhich God has given us and ensuring that these good things will last, I see glimpsesof the Kingdom.
“If God knows every sparrow that falls,” Salatinconcluded his lecture, “don’t you think he would care about the “pigness” of apig?” Walsh and Keesmaat agree with, “When fellow creatures, whether they beparticular animals or complex ecological systems, are in distress, when theycry out in anguish, a compassionate community responds.” What we eat has graveimplications for our planet and our fellow inhabitants. Armed with the knowledgewe’ve been given by films and books and speakers like Joel Salatin, we allshould seek to honor what we eat, to introduce ourselves, to learn from it; tofind so much joy in our food that it overflows into a dance.
