Celebrating Even if We Stumble to the Finish Line

By Mikaila Gawryn
Earth Ministry Outreach Associate

Congratulations!! We crossed the finish line!! Our Three Month 300 Mile Food Challenge was successfully completed yesterday!! I must say though, my part of the completion was not as successful as I had hoped.

Okay... to be honest I practically fell across the finish line. It was hard!! Eating only local food for three months was more challenging than I could have expected, but even the times that I messed up provided opportunities for learning.

Two years ago University of Washington Professor David Domke addressed members and friends of Earth Ministry at our annual Celebration of St. Francis. I was attending as a volunteer, and I remember standing outside the sanctuary where he was speaking, straightening up brochures and snacks for the reception. From in the lobby I heard him say something that I will never forget. Professor Domke said that in the environmental community all too often "we sacrifice the good on the alter of perfection".

Having spent the last three years in an environmental studies B.A. program I know exactly what he was talking about. In my program I felt like I was practically eating, sleeping and breathing environmental topics. Pollution, extinction and degradation were all around and it was easy to fall into legalistic patterns of control when trying to cope with the impending doom I was reading about.

"All too often we sacrifice the good on the alter of perfection."

- Professor David Domke

Not surprisingly, this legalism can be accompanied by a holier-than-thou attitude, and I know because I had it! I started to believe that if I did everything right I could actually avoid being a part of the degradation of our natural world. This belief is clearly contradicted by the teachings of our faith:

Romans 3:23 says, "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God."

It is also contradicted by the realities of our world. By participating in the systems of contemporary society, we become part of the injustice they bring about.

Unfortunately, I think it is this legalistic and arrogant attitude which keeps many people from getting involved in environmental action. I consider myself a part of the environmental community and I still hate it when someone makes me feel guilty.

Perhaps the greatest contribution the Christian faith community can make to environmental work is the acknowledgment that we are a fallen people. We don't have our act together, we unavoidably participate in the unjust processes in our world that victimize our fellow human beings and God's creation.

Yet, as Professor Domke explained, the inability to be perfect does not mean we should cease striving to do good. Our Three Months 300 Miles food challenge was just that, a challenge. But it was a good experience for me. It taught me to use muscles that I haven't been aware of before. Like the muscle of intentional meal planning that is required when I try to only buy seasonal produce each week. And the scheduling habits necessary for only shopping when the farmers markets are actually open.

Even though our food challenge is over the Earth Ministry staff is still still working to support local organic food. This week we'll be heading out to help bring in the harvest with New Hope Baptist Church! We'll be participating in the Clean Greens Project with a farm located in Duvall Washington. New Hope Baptist church has been working hard all season to bring in the crops that they planted themselves in the spring. If you're interested, please join us and New Hope members for a day of working in the earth and bringing local food to local people who need it.

Clean Greens Harvest Party
Friday, October 3rd, 9AM
Meet at New Hope Baptist Church, 116 21st Ave Seattle WA 98122
or at the farm, 20121 W. Snoqualmie River Rd. NE, Duvall WA 98019
Water will be provided, but please bring food for your lunch.

I hope to see you there!
Mikaila

Fear of Produce?

By Mikaila Gawryn
Earth Ministry Outreach Associate

I've come to realize that I cannot buy a piece of fruit alone. No, I have not developed a produce phobia. But as Earth Ministry's Three Months 300 Miles food challenge continues I have realized how difficult it is to live out my beliefs in on a daily basis.

The realization came after reading Field Maloney, of Slate online magazine, point out that not all organic is good organic. Slate's article Is Wholefoods Wholesome? articulates a critical weakness in the trendy organic and health-food movement: the promise of a silver bullet.

The typical Wholefoods' or Trader Joes' customer might ask: When organic tomatoes can be purchased from Chile and conventional tomatoes purchased from within 200 miles, which is the better choice? Unfortunately, it is complicated.

The reality, as Slate points out, is that the conventional tomatoes will involve far less carbon emissions, and probably be fresher than their organic Chile counterparts. With the complexities of food systems, it is not always easy to tell how environmentally or socially sound an item is by its label. We can't count on a quick-fix to the ethical food dilemmas of the day. And this is where it gets difficult, as people of faith seeking peace, justice and humility through the work of our lives we need to be informed about the complexities of the system. This will take resources, energy and a critical eye.

How many Christians does it take to buy a piece of produce?

Two at least, but ten is better.

"But who has time, and who has the money?" you may be asking. This is why we need community. We need help finding a loaf of bread that fits our ethics when we don't have the time or the money to research it. We need help finding empowerment when we face the mountains of newspapers reporting on the doom of Global Climate Change. We need help picking out our produce, because the world around us is impacted by our choices.

So as people of faith, and as communities of faith we need to put our energy together. We need to lean on one another in the work of service. At Earth Ministry we work to "Inspire and mobilize" people of faith in taking action on environmental issues. We are a part of your community, and you can lean on us. Here are a few suggestions that we've found helpful.

• Get started as a congregation: Earth Ministry's Caring for All Creation: At the Table publication will provide you with guidelines for liturgy, education and community activities focused on how to make faith-based food choices.
• Benefit from the work that has already been done: Consider joining a co-operative grocer that purchases along your ethical lines (they should talk about their purchasing guidelines in their membership information!) As a member you will benefit from the research, time and resources that they put into their purchasing.
• Know the lingo: A few minutes of vocab research can can help you understand what your labels are actually saying. Check out the Consumer Reports Greener Choices Eco-Labels Center.

Tilth and Tilth

By Jessie Dye

Tilth is a quality of cultivated soil, a loamy texture that means the land is fertile, healthy, and holds the right amount of water and nutrients. Gardeners and farmers want soil with good tilth, earth that is happy and productive. Locally, Tilth (www.seattletilth.org) is the name of a sustainable (often urban) agricultural organization housed at the Good Shepherd Center. It is also the name of a fabulous fine dining restaurant on 45^th in Wallingford http://tilthblog.wordpress.com. In both cases, Tilth brings joy to our neighborhood and to the process of growing and eating.

At Earth Ministry, as we live our 3 month/300 mile challenge (eating food produced regionally for July-September) we are grateful for our friends at allies at both of these Tilths! On Saturday last, Tilth of urban agriculture fame held its harvest festival at our local park. The perfect fall day was heartbreaking in its beauty, and the stacks of tomatoes, beets, greens and onions made me feel healthy and alive just being there. My signature companion, a huge Australian Shepherd name Rusty, joined me for a stroll though the worm-bins and civic organizations promoting environmental health and toxic free living. A shady booth housed several speakers through the day; my favorite was nutritionist Acacia Larson who explained why local foods are the finest for our palates and for our souls.

Meanwhile, back at Tilth the restaurant on 45^th, regional and organic eating isn’t only for nutrition. It’s an art form. Each Monday, the restaurant features a menu fixe of food grown by one local farm. Old friends treated me two weeks ago when Skagit River Ranch was the featured player. While not a foodie, I can tell you that every bite, from the gazpacho to the toasted zucchini bread French toast for desert was to die for. Tilth chef and owner Maria Hines promote the best food from local, organic sources. This is a deeper project than creating superb food (though it does that!); it is a way of living, a commitment to the community and to the Earth, to producers as well as consumers. It’s an education to eat there, as well as a delight.

Our Earth Ministry goal to eat regionally for three months is demanding. We’ve had to deal with sickness, surgery, a death in the family, out-of-town guests to be entertained, and kids wanting huge meals. It’s not a challenge most of us can meet by ourselves, no matter how well we garden. People from Tilth the agriculture organization and Tilth the restaurant on 45^th Street are our friends and allies. May we support and encourage these partners, and may we find others as we learn to live and eat in balance on this good, tilled Earth!

Thundering Hooves

By Jessie Dye

Have you ever seen that which is in your imagination, that which you have read about or heard tell of, come to full fabulous life as if by some miracle of God or mind? This has happened to me twice; may I live to see it happen again.

The first time, my little son lost his small stuffed wolf (Wolfie) under sad circumstances. One year later he found a tiny abandoned puppy, a Navajo res dog not four weeks old, dumped and alone in Monument Valley. That puppy looked just like the lost stuffed one. “Wolfie, you are a real dog now!” we said. He came home with us and he’s now 75 pounds of big, joyful and goofy dog-hood.

The second time I saw something of fiction spring to glorious life happened last week. LeeAnne Beres and I met Joel Huesbey of Thundering Hooves in his pasture during a warm sunset in the Walla Walla Valley. Joel spoke eloquently about the end of oil, the need for healthy agricultural systems, his grandfather’s farm ethic, and the Omega 3’s and 6’s of pasture finished beef. It was as if Wendell Barry’s Mad Farmer had sprung to wiry, handsome life in front of us and was extolling sustainable agriculture in real time.

Joel is one member of a multi-generation family farm in Touchet (pronounced too-chee), Washington. Their German Lutheran immigrant ancestors founded Thundering Hooves more than 100 years ago. It was a good farm, a team effort to raise the beef cows that supported them. The family worked hard and made a living for most of a century. They still do, but a new vision came to the ranch when Joes graduated from Washington State University in agriculture.

Water was scarce, petroleum based fertilizer expensive, and feed lots grew more inhumane. Joel realized cows could be raised for beef differently than the huge agri-business spreads that bought from his neighbors and paid the farmers darn little for their work. He decided to pasture-finish his cows, feed them what God and nature wanted ruminants to eat (author’s note: not corn), and preserve them from the heath risks and awfulness of feedlots.

To do this, the family had to market their beef differently; Clarice and Keith Swanson, Joel’s sister and brother in law, joined to manage the business end. I met Clarice seven years ago at the University District Farmer’s Market in Seattle on a clear Saturday morning in October. I’ve been buying their meat ever since, to the satisfaction of my coronary arteries and the spirits of the cows I eat.

T. Hooves continued in Jessie’s next blog; or see www.thunderinghooves.net

The Cowness Of It All

By: Mikaila Gawryn
Earth Ministry Intern

The "unadulterated cowness", as Billy Collins writes, grounds me. Or is it the "black and white maps of their sides" that captures my imagination? For a hundred reasons the image of a cow on green pasture under a bright blue sky tells me that the world is at peace.


Sadly, this image, though familiar to many American's is less and less a real representation of how cows actually live in the U.S. As you may know, most conventional diary operations (and conventional now means large-scale) are a industrial mix of laboratory and production line, appropriately dubbed factory farms. These factories turn out dairy products quickly and in huge quantities, but at what price and with what quality?

One of the best parts of our 3 Months 300 Miles Food Challenge so far
has been getting to know the fabulously "unconventional" Golden Glen Creamery located in Bow Washington. This family run dairy produces the finest milk, butter and cheese I've ever tasted and all with a commitment to healthy cows and healthy environments!

One aspect of this commitment is Golden Glen's choice to be rBGH free. Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone has been a controversial topic since its approval by the FDA in 1993. Physicians and nutritionists have made strong cases against its use for human and environmental health reasons. However, going against the flow can cost small dairies like Golden Glen Creamery a lot. In a 2007 press release Puget Consumer Cooperative explained that rBGH cows produce on average ten percent more milk than non-rBGH cows do.

Unfortunately, our country's farming policies don't help Golden Glen out either: “The use of rBGH has been banned by every developed country in the world, including Canada and members of the European Union, except the U.S. . . . this is due in part to the fact that rBGH has been proven to increase the amount of IGF-1, Insulin-like Growth Factor, in cows milk and that further research strongly links IGF-1 to colon, breast and prostate cancers". rGBH is not a safe option for human health, but what about the cows?

"The use of rBGH has been banned by every developed country in the world, including Canada and members of the European Union, except the U.S."

rGBH also affects the dairy cows that are injected with it. According to the same 2007 press release rGBH has been linked to higher udder infection rates and hoof disorders, causing pain and discomfort to the cows themselves. Supporting family run and rBGH free dairy farms strengthens local economies, protects human and environmental health and promotes treating God’s animals with care. Golden Glen Creamery also keeps their cows in the pasture as much as possible, meaning the cows are actually eating the green stuff they are supposed to!

So as a part of our 3 Months 300 Miles Food challenge I am committing to buy from Golden Glen Creamery. Their milk can be found all over Seattle at PCC Markets in beautiful glass bottles (that's right! Like the ones the milkman used to deliver!). Or check out one of the farmers markets where they will be selling in person! Just go to their website and check out their Calendar of Events.

What if you don't have Golden Glen Creamery products near you? Ask for them! As a small business literally churning out high quality products Golden Glen's success is dependent on you and I requesting them! So chat up your local super market and tell them that you want to see the milk from the green pastures and the blue skies!



Sources:
- Dairy Products rGBH Free. http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/.
- http://riannanworld.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/afternoon_with_.html

Our Planet, Ourselves

By Jessie Dye

"One can lie about the body, but the body will not lie about itself." Thus spoke a character in the powerful James Baldwin novel, Another Country, a favorite of mine from college. This line keeps coming back to me now that I am facing a health problem that can only be resolved by a greatly modified, low fat, healthy local foods diet (can you believe it?) at the same time as our beautiful Earth is facing a health problem that can only be resolved by human choices. In the spirit of the great series on women's health, I title this blog "Our Planet, Ourselves".

It is so simple; it makes me want to cry. We are made and nurtured by the Creator to live on this good earth; the limits of our bodies are the same as the limits of our world. If we put toxics into the air and water we do the same to our bodies. If we care for our bodies and steward what we have, we support our health and happiness. If we care for the earth, the animals, and each other, our world flourishes with all the good gifts of the Creator. If we do neither, we can hide from ourselves. We can believe the spin of those who want us to consume our lives away; but the earth and our bodies will not lie. We face catastrophe.

So I can go on overindulging and live a painful, foreshortened, medically-invaded and diminished life span (not to put too fine a point on it!). Or I can make the hard choices right now to give up some comfortable indulgences (fat and alcohol) but feel much, much better. If I feel my feelings and grieve my losses, the actual joy of making the changes and identifying my true needs comes flooding in to me. And lo, I actually feel better. The farmer's market calls me and I will indulge in the fabulous fresh fruits and vegetables of the season; this illness is a gift in disguise for me in many ways.

I can't help but think the same applies to our cultural life. Does driving everywhere and buying junk really make us happy? Somehow my own psyche isn't comfortable when I know others are truly suffering from preventable causes, like desertification and systemic poverty. Would not our whole society feel more peace and joy if we truly support the common good? "Me first, at your expense" is not a Christian social teaching I learned, and it feels rotten to boot.

So there it is. I committed to eating a healthy, local, sustainable diet for 3 months and the hand of God reaches down and impels me to do it for the rest of my life. May our leaders commit to sustainable energy and food policies as well as equity for the poor, to be shown by Grace of God that honoring the true needs of our world is the healthier, more joyful way indeed.

Three Months, 300 Miles Starts Today

By: Mikaila, Earth Ministry Intern

“Unseasonably anxious”, I noted to myself, “I am unseasonably anxious today, but why?” As a recent graduate summer is not predictably a time of high stress. Yet today marks the beginning of a very big project for us here at Earth Ministry. As Jessie Dye announced a few weeks back we are holding our very own Three Months, 300 Miles food challenge starting….today!!

If you’re like Jessie you’ve probably taken a food challenge of this sort. Thus today’s task may seem like the natural next step. But, as you already know, this challenge makes me…well anxious.

I have appreciated the fruit of regional food systems over the last few years, but never taken on a pantry makeover. Thankfully, I realized that many of you may be in the same position! With Regional Food Challenge Veteran Jessie Dye speaking for the more experienced participants I am ready to take my place as…

The Rookie

So here I am, prepared to talk about all of the obstacles and challenges of eating within 300 miles for three months for the first time.

I'd like to share some guidelines that I’ve set for myself:

- Start off slow: I will be working up to a full regional diet throughout the 3 months period which means I am not going to panic about that dusty can of condensed coconut milk in the back of my cupboard.

- Live the challenge with grace: I hope to see this as an opportunity to become more connected to regional food systems, and not a time to berate myself for the ways I “mess up”.

- Prepare for time, ahead of time: I anticipate the biggest challenge for me will be adjusting my expectation of how long it takes to go shopping. I will need to find local farmers markets and travel there for the first time as well as peruse for local products in stores. At first this will take more time, but I want to remember that it is an investment and will only get easier!

- Be available to YOU: Not sure where to start looking for regional cheese? Check out Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, located in Pike Place Market. Tell us about those difficult-to-find products and other obstacles and we’ll try to help you out!

As we enter July 1st and our first day of the Three Months, 300 Miles food challenge I am assigning myself some homework (forgive me…I seem to miss school already!) Feel free to take it on too, perhaps as a first step!

1) Find a farmers market near me with the 2008 Puget Sound Fresh Farm Guide.

2) Visit Sustainable Ballard’s website and see what great regional products they’ve already found.

3) Buy three regional products and share them with you!

Unseasonably anxious no more, I look forward to sharing this challenge with all of you!

Signing off until my next post,

The Rookie
Mikaila Gawryn
Earth Ministry Intern