The famine in Gaza where people are actually starving to death serves as a reminder that for most of human history getting enough food to eat was a major pre-occupation. Advances in human history parallel the growth of food supply. Biblical people were obsessed with food. The book of Numbers: Now we are famished. And Jesus feeding the multitudes was so remarkable that the gospel writers tell the story six times. The fact that we can go to the grocery story and pick up any food that we want is a new development for our species. (And as the popularity of the Food Pantry attests a luxury that many people cannot afford.) That we don’t pay much attention to the close connection between Mother Earth and the food that we eat is one of the reasons that we have abused the planet so blightly. Food does not come from a plastic wrapped cellophane container but from the toil and swear of farmers and farm laborers.
