The sun is dappled through the cucumber leaves and the tomatoes are showing the first blush of ripening. We are entering into the season of harvest and are privileged to enjoy the abundance of our earth. The sweet scents of summer are yielding to the ripening of a golden autumn season.
Yet, we know, the harvest is not being shared equitably. As large corporations take over food production increasingly, small farmers are edged out. Agribusiness uses stealth and science to mask greed and control of the safety and diversity of our earth’s food supply. How did this come about? As human beings we have lost our connections to the sacredness of earth, denigrating in many subtle ways those who work with soil and hands. As we know the hierarchical, patriarchal systems of our Western culture and religions have served to sever the ties to the holiness of women and earth. In a recent Sisters of Earth conference in New York, the Indian food activist Vandana Shiva and her sister Mira, a physician, shared with us the systematic and often ruthless ways global corporations have run roughshod over the poorest and hungriest in countries such as India.
Modern global corporations see the world as something to be owned, a commodity for maximizing their profits. Egregious corporations such as Monsanto determined that seeds are “intellectual property” and have sought patents. Many thousands have demonstrated against classifying seeds as property with rights of patent, it is a battle still being waged. In India and in all documented cases, companies lure farmers with extravagant promises of increased crop yield from the use of these seeds. In fact, in India, the reality is that food production has decreased. Farmers who have saved their seeds for generations are forced to buy the GM (Genetically Modified) seeds and the now necessary Western commercial fertilizers. Monsanto claims that it “invented” wheat plants derived from a traditional Indian variety, which is nothing less than bio-piracy. Markets have been and are increasingly regulated so that only GM seed products are acceptable. Farmers in India have been incurring debt that has only deepened and spiraled each year, resulting in countless suicides. Such is the harvest in a de-sacralized world
There is, however, a different worldview, one of equality, diversity and respect for all beings. As Thomas Berry often noted, “the earth is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” We live within a sacred global commons where the rights of all beings, human, animal, tree, river and wind have a place in the web of communion. There is much about which to despair but in equal measure there is much from which to draw hope. We can each have a role in this time where the sacredness of all creation is threatened. Prayer is one deeply important response; our minds and hearts can chart a course each day toward healing of our earth. Key is an appreciation for and support of local farmers, advocating heritage seed saving, or growing a tomato plant. It is time to know that growing food for our sustenance is a holy task, a sacred agriculture.
As this reflection closes, the tomatoes are ripening yet and the harvest is still being gathered. The gift of a home-grown tomato sandwich is a celebration of deepest delight and a grace of holy communion. By this act we are reconnecting to our earth roots. May we bless all farmers and all beings for this gift of life.
See: Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainabilty and Peace, Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2005.
