The Ethics of Eating

Krista Tippett, host of Speaking of Faith, has created a fabulous webpage dedicated to the ethics of eating.

On that website you can listen to her interview with Barbara Kingsolver on the longings and lessons of a year in which she primarily ate what she could grow herself. Her book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, about that experience is now a staple in our cultural reappraisal of the ethics of eating. And food, she says, is a moral arena in which the ethical choice is often the pleasurable choice.

Preparing String Beans

There are stories by other gardeners, one of whom concludes…

“Spiritual” is not a word I use very much these days. It’s too nebulous, and encourages sentimentality. But I am interested in the actions that bring us back into balance, that make us whole human beings. And planting the garden with friends does that in two ways.

The most important way for me is how it brings us into a deeper sense of community and friendship. The garden is something we will share — the work of setting out the plants and tending them, as well as the pleasures that will come in a few weeks as we begin to eat the fruits of our labors. And it’s been made possible by two people who are intent on living a shared life with their friends.