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Pastor Annette's Blog

"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC

Cheap, Healthy, Ethical

2/4/2020

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February 4, 2020
 
Beloved:
            Twice this week I’ve eaten toast for breakfast because I’m out of cold cereal and don’t want to make oatmeal.  I eat so many eggs for supper I don’t want them for breakfast too.  But mostly, because I don’t want to figure out a menu and go to the store.  Or, more accurately, I don’t want to figure out this $21 menu again.  That’s the lesson of this week:  a budget like this doesn’t allow the privilege of stopping on the way home from work to pick up something to make (or eat) for supper.  I think I have some vegetable soup in the freezer I can eat before deacons’ tonight and hopefully make the store in the morning.
            A food book I’ve finished and recommend is
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  The book both complicates and reinforces my intentions to each cheaply, healthily and ethically.  Last week I bought loads of canned food at Walmart and made plentiful meals.  Two avocados, a pound of carrots and a bunch of spinach added fresh vegetables.  I also had frozen green beans from my garden.  A small Aldi’s package of chicken drumsticks was good for three meals, and I ate eggs for protein the rest of the suppers.  Save my green beans which were planted in chicken poopy dirt and transported on foot no more than fifty yards from the yard to the kitchen to the garage freezer, nothing else I ate could possibly have qualified as ethically produced.  All of it was government-subsidized, industrially-produced, trucked for miles and shelved by minimum wage workers so I could buy it for .69 a can.  The system is terrible for the farmers, the animals, and the planet.  It’s not great for our bodies given that we eat what our food eats, as Pollan says, so we eat the pesticides in vegetables and the antibiotics in meat produced industrially.  Its only beneficiaries, as best I can tell, are the five enormous agriculture companies running the system.  Companies are free to make a profit, of course.  I just wish people, especially poor people, were equally free to choose their diet.
            Here and there, things are changing.  Local food is becoming more available to more people, though not cheaply.  Non-profits like
Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard are getting fresh healthy food to our neighbors who need it most.  Seems to me mission and ministry opportunities abound for a church that likes food as much as we do.  I welcome your ideas. 
~ peace and prayers this rainy day,
pastor annette
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    I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC.  It is also posted here. 
     
    Enjoy!  
    Pastor Annette

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    Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works.

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3740 East 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN 47401
812-339-1404
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  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading