Orthodox Christian View on Ethical Food Production

I ran across OUR RELATION TO LAND AND SEA: AN ETHICAL REFLECTION ON OUR FOOD SYSTEM on the Public Orthodoxy blog and think it deserves attention - however few readers make it to this blog! Years ago I read something to the effect that the Eastern Church differs from the West in how it views its relationship to the natural world. The Eastern Church sees us as stewards for the natural world, not its masters. You will find some of this thinking in the original post. You will also find the Eastern Church's emphasis on asceticism.

With the fifth Halki Summit on the environment scheduled to take place in June 2022, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect upon the ways in which we, as Orthodox Christians, can more fully embrace the ecological message that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has repeatedly delivered for more than thirty years. The Patriarch has called upon Orthodox Christians and people of goodwill across the globe to recognize that the environmental catastrophes that we have caused, and continue to perpetuate, are sins and that we ought to be repentant for having committed them by engaging in a transformation of our mindsets and daily lifestyles....

The writer details the dangers created by agriculture and aquaculture in response to our demands. He then mentions how Orthodox communities have acted to provide examples of sustainable practices 

In addition to offering the laity insights into ancient spiritual wisdom, monastic communities that are still operative today can be a source of inspiration and may help cultivate a eucharistic ethos to guide our production and consumption practices. This is because many monastic communities are currently engaged in sustainable production and sell their wares to visitors or even through the internet on platforms such as Etsy. For instance, in Anatoli Larissa in Greece, the Nuns of the Hermitage of St. Paul of Timios Promodromou are an excellent example of the way in which a monastic community embodies a Christian ecological ethos. Since 1986 these nuns have been engaged in ecologically sustainable forms of agricultural production as well as animal husbandry and sell their products to the local community as a means of maintaining economic self-sustainability. Another contemporary example of a monastic community engaged in ecologically and socially conscious production is the White Field Farm project managed by the nuns of the All Saints Greek Orthodox Monastery in Calverton, NY. Employing female survivors of human trafficking they produce and sell all-natural, locally-sourced and cruelty-free body products. These nuns have partnered with the non-profit HOPE (Housing, Occupation, Potential, Empowerment) project by donating all of White Field Farms profits to philanthropically serve survivors of human trafficking (this is also an area in which the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has been actively involved for a number of years). Given our current ecological crises, and the role that the global food system plays in perpetuating it, these examples of monastics engaging in ecologically and socially transformative endeavors can serve as a source of inspiration for Orthodox Christian communities around the globe to become more active and play a greater role in enacting an ecological transformation of our relationship to food.

About the  Halki Summit mentioned above:

We are convinced that reversing climate change and the depletion of the earth’s resources requires first and foremost a radical change shaped by the ethical and spiritual principles of environmental sustainability in people’s lives and practices.

The Halki Summits are a vital step in this critical dialogue inasmuch as they assemble focused groups from diverse religious and social, as well as civil and corporate sectors of our communities in order to discuss ways of effecting positive and constructive change in the world. We pray that you will join us in this journey.

Prayerfully yours,

+ BARTHOLOMEW

Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch

 Information on these summits are here.

All I can say is we either join together to save one another or we will surely destroy ourselves.

sch 5/30/22