Farm Bill Tuesday: Whose Bread Are We Eating?

posted by Fritz Gutwein

" ‘They who do not give to another what belongs to the other are not eating their own bread, but are eating both their bread and the other’s.’ (Meister Eckhart)

"The thousands of hungry persons in our cities and the millions of starving persons in our world question the quality of our bread; it is bitter because it contains too many children’s tears; it is hard because its substance embraces the torture of so many empty stomachs. It does not deserve to be called our bread. If the bread is to be ours, then we must transform the world and deliver society from the mechanisms that permit the wealth to be maintained at the expense of bread taken from the mouths of others.

"Bread calls us to a collective conversion. This condition must be fulfilled if our prayer is not to be vain and pharisaical. The gospel forbids me to ask only for myself, disregarding the needs of others known by me. Only our bread is God’s bread."
      — Leonardo Boff, from Praying With Jesus and Mary

As people of faith we are called to change broken systems. Today’s food system is broken and is in need of God’s healing, liberating touch. Join the struggle for “collective conversion”. Go to the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s site on Just Trade and Farm Bill Reform. Raise your awareness and become an activist for those who are hungry around God’s world.