Why Chik-fil-a is worse for America than gay marriage

“It is possible, I think, to say that... a Christian agriculture [is] formed upon the understanding that it is sinful for people to misuse or destroy what they did not make. The Creation is a unique, irreplaceable gift, therefore to be used with humility, respect, and skill.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

“Eating at fast food outlets and other restaurants is simply a manifestation of the commodification of time coupled with the relatively low value many Americans have placed on the food they eat.”  - Andrew F. Smith

I've just returned from a blissful week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where newspapers were scarce and the Internet even scarcer, so I'm just now learning that today is the day when Chick-fil-a supporters are supposed to flock to their local outlets and spend money, while opponents of the owner's views on "traditiona;l" marriage have apparently planned to picket and engage in what's euphemistically known as same-sex "public displays of affection." One of the many things I appreciate about living in America is that everyone has the right to express their opinion no matter how foolish or bigoted it might be, and I have the right to publicly disagree with those statements. The owner of Chick-fil-a has the right to open as many locations as he can responsibly afford, and I have the right not to give him even further opportunity to give money to groups that work against my self-interest by refusing to patronize his restaurants. Democracy and free speech: it's a good thing.

However, today's post is not about the current hullabaloo over gay marriage. As much as I think the "one man + one woman = biblical marriage" argument is a bit thin, I think the true danger of Chick-fil-a has not been addressed: Chick-fil-a is bad for America because it serves up heapin' helpins' of food that contributes. to the serious health problems that plague many Americans. I know, I know: Mickey D's and Burger King have a much wider reach, but Chick-fil-a is having it's day in the press, so I'm writing about them.

Consider this: a classic chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-a has 440 calories, 16 grams of fat (of which 4 gr. is saturated),  60 mgs. of cholesterol, and 1400 grams of sodium. Since a fast food sandwich is lonely by itself, let's throw in a small side of waffle fries and a small sweet tea. Here's the total nutritional damage from this nice little lunch:

830 calories

32 gr. fat

60 mg. cholesterol

1525 mg. sodium

 30 gr. sugar

An average adult woman consuming 1800-2000 calories per day will have used 50-75% of the recommended fat intake for an entire day while consuming nearly half the recommended calories needed to maintain healthy body weight. She has also consumed most of her recommended sodium intake (2300 mgs.) and 90% of the recommended amount of sugar. That's one meal, and the sugar and carb crash is going to be huge, leading to fatigue and loss of productivity. If the typical female consumer of fast food eats a meal at a Chick-fil-a restaurant only occasionally the damage is fairly insubstantial, but since 25% percent of Americans eat some type of fast food every day while 68% eat it once a week, chances are a meal like this is more than an occasional splurge. Obesity, along with its typical co-morbidities (Type II diabetes, hypertension, increased risk of stroke and heart disease) is running rampant through American society, so I raise the question: why do Christians who knowingly peddle food that shortens the lives of millions of people get a free pass while a couple of guys who've fallen in love and want to spend their lives together constitute such a freaking danger to American society? 

Now let's move away from the danger fast food poses to the individual and take a look at its effect on our land. Scripture commands us to be stewards of the good earth that God has given us, yet our dependence on fast food is creating havoc on our ecosystem because the requirements of industrial livestock production are simply unsustainable. This situation is dangerous for American society because the requirements of the fast food industry has meant that, as Michael Pollan describes it, the logic of nature has been overcome by the logic of human industry, and this imbalance is causing disruption up and down the food chain. If we look beyond the American landscape we find that in our never-ending quest for new fast-food sensations we have created ecological imbalances that will prove catastrophic for developing nations in the short term.  I don't know about anyone else, but I find this disregard for the planet and for humanity to be a lot more biblically problematic than same-sex marriage, but when I listen for a Christian critique of Chick-fil-a's complicity in harming the health of Americans and participation in an industry which undermines the ecosystem of a planet God created... hello? Bueller? Bueller?

So, all you Chick-fil-a defenders, please feel free to head on over to your local outlet and order up a Spicy Chicken Deluxe and enjoy! while doing your part to defend traditional marriage. It's a free country - God bless America! But don't kid yourself, because the meal you're eating is a lot more of a threat to you and your family than my girl-girl marriage to Miss Claire.

More firsts

The season's first tomato posed alluringly against the season's first spaghetti squash

It's small, but it's ripe! The first tomato of the season is finally ready to be eaten, so it will be carefully washed and added to tonight's salad. A spaghetti squash is also ripe and ready, and since we're leaving for vacation tomorrow morning we're going to cook and eat it for dinner. 

I'm kind of surprised that we've got late-season veggies already, but it's been a very hot summer so far and everything is growing and ripening fast. By the time we get back next week I expect that at least some of the corn will be ready and there'll be another big load of zucchini and green beans, too. I don't want to think about how much these vegetables actually cost, but I guess a new garden is expensive to put in. Although I have plans for expanding the planting beds for next year I think it'll be less costly in terms of purchasing tools and compost and in making mistakes that require do-overs. I'm pretty determined to take growing food beyond the realm of expensive hobby and into a life-sustaining, soul-nourishing spiritual practice that connects me more firmly to creation.

In the meantime, Miss Claire and I are heading off for a week in one of the most beautiful places in America, a place of big waters and small Internet, so no blogging until I get back.

When tomatoes attack

Today my car spent the day getting serviced, and the lack of wheels plus the cooler temperatures meant that today was an ideal day for doing some housekeeping in the planting beds. One zucchini plant was discarded, weeds were pulled, bugs were picked off, and dead leaves were stripped off vines. By far, though, the most time-consuming and difficult task was re-staking and pruning the tomato vines, which had gotten quite out of control. Vines heavy with fruit were sagging towards the ground and getting tangled with the other plants, and sucker branches were so dense that air couldn't circulate properly. At one point I lifted up a branch that had obscured one of the cucumber vines and found a ready-to-pick cucumber that I had never noticed before. The very hot weather that lingered for over two weeks has  kept me pretty much out of the garden, but now the plants are thinned, staked, and tidy.

In the meantime, Miss Claire has a new homesteading project: yogurt! She's come into a yogurt maker and at this moment there's a quart of the stuff cooking. We've got some raspberry and peach jam leftover from last summer's canning experiment, and I bet it will be fabulous mixed in!

What I picked today: a few green beans, one zucchini, and a cucumber.
Ready soon: corn, tomatoes, spaghetti squash

Theme of the day:

Say cheese

Several years ago, when we were living in northern Nevada, Miss Claire took up cheesemaking and began working with raw goat milk. We made the acquaintance of a woman who kept a small herd on the outskirts of town, and the abundance of milk that we were able to obtain meant that through Miss Claire's efforts we were always well-stocked with delicious homemade chevre, fresh mozzarella, and an occasional wheel of aged cheddar. When we moved to Michigan we lost our goat milk source, and I clearly remember feeling downright grief-stricken the first time I had to actually buy chevre at Trader Joe's. It's illegal to sell raw milk in Michigan, so finding a source is probably similar to setting up a drug deal. We had to find a farm that offers goatshares which entitle the owners to a portion of the milk produced, and it wasn't easy. Small farms with dairy goats were a pretty far drive from where we live, so we've continued to exist in a cheese-deprived state for several years now.

Fortunately, a renewed interest in producing homemade food propelled us to do a new search through the interwebs, and we discovered a small family homestead called Sunshine Meadows Farm. It's about 20 miles away, offers a CSA plan for organic produce and eggs, and keeps a herd of dairy goats. Miss Claire has already made several trips there, and yesterday I was finally able to go with her. I wanted to meet the source of the cheese I love so much and thank them for their efforts.

When we arrived at the farm we made our way carefully down the driveway, avoiding chickens, bicycles, and children. As soon as I got out of the car the bleating began - a score of baby goats were running up to the fence and demanding that I come closer. While Miss Claire wandered off in search of her milk I patted little goat heads and watched in amusement as they proceeded to untie my shoes and stick their noses in the pockets of my shorts. One little fellow attempted to pull down my zipper, while another got up on her back legs and gave me a hot-breathed goaty kiss on the nose. I immediately fell in love, and if it weren't for fear of being branded a goat thief I would have put one of the babies in the back seat of my car and taken her home. Finally, I tore myself away so that I could see more of the farm and walked away from the pen to the indignant cries of the doelings.

I enjoyed my quick tour of the farm with it's spacious planting beds, chicken runs, and flowers. I got some ideas of what I'd like to accomplish in my own garden next year, and as we drove away with a cooler full of raw milk and a bag full of goat manure for composting, I was grateful to have glimpsed what is possible with hard work and an appreciation for the land.

Dinner, or, how to reduce the odds of a zucchini outbreak

How can you tell if a Midwesterner has no friends? They're buying zucchini in the market during the middle of the summer.

This morning the zucchini vines were thick with blossoms, which potentially means more zucchini than we can possibly eat. We also don't want friends and acquaintances to avoid us for fear of being laden with unwanted squash, so Miss Claire decided to pick a bunch of blossoms and make a meal out of them.

It was quite simple, really: wash the blossoms and evict any ants who had taken up residence. Chop up some garlic, onions, and fresh basil and get them sautéing in a bit of olive oil. Add some salt and pepper for flavor.

In the meantime, boil some water and cook some whole wheat spaghetti. When the onions turns soft and translucent, add some sliced zucchini and continue cooking on medium heat.

Drain the spaghetti, return to the pot, and stir in some pasta sauce. While the sauce and spaghetti is heating up, toss in the blossoms for a quick saute. Be careful not to overcook them. Serve the veggie mixture on top of the spaghetti and sauce. A little grated parmesan and cracked black pepper for added flavor.

Low fat and vegetarian. Vegan if the cheese is omitted.

Growing Hope

It's been much too long since I last posted, which is never a good idea for a blog just getting off the ground. I've actually been away at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and although I had a great time and learned a tremendous amount about how my church governs itself and makes decisions, I also spent 10 days in a hermetically sealed, over-air conditioned environment that not only cut me off from being outdoors but helped bring on a nasty summer cold.

Despite the sniffles and sneezes, I spent yesterday afternoon with Bill and Billie Hickey of the Detroit Bioneers. The Hickeys are champions of the urban sustainability movement, having moved to the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit about two years ago with the intention of taking part in community  building and food justice through urban farming. Brightmoor is a blight-ridden neighborhood with high unemployment and many abandoned buildings, but there is also a spirit of hope here through the urban gardening initiatives that have taken hold. After a delightful lunch, much of which came from the community garden that the Hickey's have planted, we toured the neighborhood and had a good look at the backyard gardens, community plots, and pocket parks that now dot the area.  Despite my raging cold I was thrilled to see all that's been accomplished here and how growing food and tending animals have given this community not only a sense of pride, but access to healthy food and some economic independence as well. To read more about the Brightmoor urban farming project, clicky here.

In the meantime, my own garden is really pushing out the green beans and zucchini. The tomato vines are heavy with green fruit, the spaghetti squash are coming along nicely, and the first stalks of corn are starting to appear. Unfortunately, the resident groundhog has been enjoying the watermelon and cucumber vines and I'm not sure how well the plants will recover. I'm trying not to get too worked up about it because animals will do what they do, but it is a bit frustrating to see all my hard work get eaten up by critters.

Friday dinner

I don't eat meat on Fridays and I'm still on a pretty strict weight loss plan, so I wanted to make something that was healthy, lowfat, and vegetarian, so dinner was a warm lentil salad:

I cooked a half cup of lentils with a little salt and a bay leaf, and then mixed it with some leftover brown rice. I sliced up some red bell pepper and zucchini* and tossed them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. I roasted the veggies in the toaster oven, and when they were soft and just beginning to blacken I added them to the rice and lentils. I chopped up some scallions, cherry tomatoes, basil,* and parsley,* and mixed those in as well. Finally, I made a dressing of red wine vinegar, a little Dijon mustard, and some good olive oil and stirred it into the salad. Feta cheese for protein. Vegetarian, vegan with the cheese omitted.

 * indicates ingredients from my garden

Becoming Simple-Minded

Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you,  and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.  - Isaiah 5:8-10


As a follower of Christ I consider myself an apprentice to the Master, which means that not only do I believe in his teachings and his purpose, but I try to emulate his life to the best of my ability. Not the easiest thing in the world to do, but the spiritual life I've developed for myself is more about discipleship than membership. At least that's what I strive for, even though I've been known to trip and fall over my character defects.

Let's face it: one of the things Jesus excelled at was living the simple life. This was someone who said of himself, "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20). Homeless, with few belongings, wandering through the countryside, Jesus taught the virtues of love, patience, friendship, faithfulness, and most importantly, the message that the Reign of God was imminent.  This reign as preached by Jesus is a vision of a radical transformation of both humanity and human institutions so that they become visible expressions of the nature of God, which is a nature of mercy and justice. The reign of God is most clearly visible when its values are made manifest in the social relationships of God's people.

In case you're wondering what this has to do with farming a backyard garden, the answer is: plenty! Making a commitment to a way of life that is based on Jesus’ teachings of compassion, love, and service means embracing a way of living that does not conform to our profit-obsessed consumer culture, but rather frees us to enjoy a simpler, more compassionate lifestyle, and to contribute toward a more peaceful, socially just, healthier, and environmentally sustainable world.

Now that my hands are in the dirt every morning and most evenings, I have a close-up view of what it means to make choices to do violence to the land or to spare it from an onslaught of pollution.  The garden is alive! Worms wriggle in the dirt, fertilizing and mixing the soil, while birds carry off the seed they find. Squirrels bury nuts (and grab strawberries!), and ladybugs rest on the huge zucchini leaves. Of course, there are the pests: weeds, aphids, beetles, but instead of giving everything a blast of pesticide I just pick off the aphids, reinforce the anti-squirrel fencing, and pull the weeds by hand. This is my stewardship.

My goal is also to disconnect as much as possible from Big Food, where one company owns almost all the genetics of the worldwide corn and soybean crop and has bioengineered seeds so that they cannot be preserved, an act which has brought economic devastation to farmers in the developing world. Simplicity means being as responsible as possible for the food that is eaten in our household, and what better way to control the means of production than to raise it myself? Besides, with all the time and attention given to home-work, there is less money and time for being plugged into the consumer-driven culture that produces fleeting enjoyment while also ensnaring households in debt.

Here's a list of books compiled by a fellow blogger who writes about Christian simplicity, food, and the environment. I've read some, and some I intend to read. I hope you find the list useful.

Dirty theology

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. 

― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

It seems as though I've quickly moved from being a casual gardener with an interest in nice-looking flowers to getting serious and excited about the prospect of creating an urban homestead. Actually, I find this rather funny because I really am a city girl, and the idea of having anything more than a hobby garden is an idea which I've never seriously thought about before. I had a small veggie patch at my home in California, but it was never big enough to supply most of our household's produce. It was fun to beam over the few ripe tomatoes and peppers as if they were precious newborn babies, but I still had to get in my car and drive to the local farmer's market to make up for the tiny output. When we moved to Reno for a couple of years I didn't even bother trying to grow food since the soil is so poor, so it's been a long time since I've given food a try.

So what's changed? Well, for one thing, I love to read books and websites which push back against my Western, urban middle-class worldview, and Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle began the process of tickling both my curiosity and conscience about how I have been living in a way that is really quite disconnected from creation. Since then, I have been profoundly influenced by reading Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan as well as a variety of websites that deal with issues such as sustainability, environmentalism, peak oil, and the locavore movement. This was all good and valuable reading, but I still hadn't gotten my hands in the dirt.

Ultimately, what moved me from thought to action, and from hobby to the stirrings of a new lifestyle, was theology. I am an Episcopal priest and parish minister, and although I am not a professional theologian by training I believe that thinking theologically is an important lens for any person of faith who wishes to view their life and their surroundings in a new context. There are serious theological conversations to be had on the issues of simple living, sustainability, food justice, and humanity's relationship to the rest of creation. These are the topics to which I return in both my reading and prayer life as now I now plunge my hands into the rich soil of southeastern Michigan.

In the next few posts I will take up each of these issues individually. I hope that you will join in the conversation.

Fences and Fierce Squirrels

Perhaps you've heard the expression "good fences make good neighbors," but one thing I learned very quickly is that good fences don't necessarily mean that the strawberries won't get stolen by our non-human neighbors.

After Miss Claire and I planted our seedlings we thought all we'd have to do was keep them watered and relatively free of weeds. I vaguely mentioned something about deer, but because I hadn't seen any deer wandering through the neighborhood I promptly forgot about it. As the strawberries began to flower and produce fruit and the tomato vines began to grow, I decided that putting up some chicken wire fencing would be a good idea. My friend Lisa gave us some of the fencing she wasn't going to use this year, and we supplemented it with an additional purchase from Home Depot. After much sweating, cussing, and struggling, we successfully surrounded the two new planting beds with a fortress of wire. The thing is that we didn't have enough fencing left over to cover the strawberry patch, but we were out of time and money for the rest of the week and decided to wait.

Needless to say, by the next day the strawberry plants had been stripped bare of fruit. There was a squirrel sitting on the fence directly above the planting bed, and I swear he grinned at me as if to say, "that was a great snack! Thanks!" I also suspected the robins ... or maybe the local groundhog. Whoever it was, the strawberries were gone. It was a devastating blow to my newfound confidence as a suburban gardener, but I promised myself that I would be victorious. They're just squirrels, right?

The Accidental Gardener, Part 3

The yard already had a planting bed that was in sorry shape, overrun with weeds and the skeletons of long-dead tomato vines. It was also partially shaded and I wondered how successful the previous owner had been. If I wanted to grow summer vegetables I was going to have to dig into the sod and rip it up. Miss Claire and I determined the sunniest spot and marked it off into two 4x16 beds. We then stood there silently, each of us no doubt contemplating how much muscle it was going to take to dig up all that grass. I could already feel my muscles aching and I hadn't even gotten the garden spade out of the garage.



Finally Miss Claire spoke up. "I'm calling Jack," she said and whipped out her cell phone. Jack is the husband of one of my parishioners, and I do believe that he owns every tool in the world. Since he only lives a few blocks away he was at our house in no time and soon we were rolling towards the equipment rental place in search of a sod cutter. Once at the shop, Jack stood there looking at the machine and thinking out loud. Finally he said, "I have a better idea. Let's go!" So it was back to the house, and within 30 minutes Jack reappeared with a small tractor! The sod was neatly scooped out in less than 15 minutes, leaving two large gashes in the lawn. Naturally, we didn't want to waste all that good topsoil, so we cut each piece of sod to a manageable size, shook the dirt back into the beds, and carefully plucked each worm out of the cut sod and placed it where our garden would be. By the end of the day I was filthy, exhausted, and aching in places I didn't know could hurt.



We weren't finished, of course. It was off to the garden supply center for compost and peat moss, which we tilled into each bed. Then it was off to the farmer's market for seedlings, and that's where I first had an inkling that I was either going crazy or discovering a new vocation. I bought 3 kinds of tomatoes, beans, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, corn, and cucumbers. Meanwhile, Claire had taken over the weedy old bed and had prepared it for planting. This bed received watermelon, rhubarb, and strawberries, which were donated by Jack's wife Gail. After another exhausting day, I gulped the maximum recommended amount of Aleve and staggered off to bed.

The next morning we learned about the critters.

The Accidental Gardener, Part 2

After a little over three years in Michigan it was time for us to get serious about buying a home. We had lost our shirts in our short sale on our home in the West, and then went through several failed offers, disagreements, twelve steps of recovery and a return to sanity. We were here to stay, and it was time to set down some roots.

We had become enamored of a small community on a lake just west of the church where I serve, and we began looking. A small housing stock and deflated home prices made the search challenging, and after nearly 9 months of looking we came back to a place we had initially rejected - a plain-looking colonial that needed a little TLC. The thing that really stood out about this house was the enormous backyard:



It measured 10,697 square feet, which is nearly 1/4 acre.

I have to admit my initial reaction wasn't: yay! I can have a really big garden! It was more like damn, that's a lot of lawn to mow. But we put an offer on the place, and after some nail-biting negotiations we were the proud owners of a Plain Colonial With a Huge Backyard. We moved in shortly after Easter, which means that this minister had to pack during Holy Week. As God is my witness, I will never, ever do that again.

And then spring came, and Michiganders began to talk about gardening. One thing I've learned is that as soon as it gets just a little bit warm, Michiganders obsess about gardening and lawn care. You can hear blades being sharpened all around, while people drive out to the farmer's market to dream of seedlings. The seed-growers have been busy since early March, and as their electric bills skyrocket from Gro-Light use, they draw up their meticulous garden bed plans on fresh sheets of graph paper. Meanwhile, I looked out at my lawn with dread, filled with the knowledge that mowing would soon commence.

And then I had an idea: rip up some sod and plant tomatoes! Less grass to mow, fresh tomatoes in the kitchen. It was a concept filled with win, and I got busy with my own plans. The Plain Colonial With a Huge Backyard wasn't yet The Suburban Farm, but the seeds of change had been planted.


to be continued ...

The Accidental Gardener

One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.  - Wendell Berry


It all started when I lost a few pounds.
I have been overweight for over 20 years. At one point I managed to diet down to a healthy weight, but the success did not last, and by the time I had lived for a year in my present location I was heavier than I had ever been. A combination of stress, back pain, and getting used to that first Michigan winter made for a deadly combination of sedentary living and over eating. I've never been a vain sort of person and didn't care that much about looks, and because I've always been pretty strong I was able to drag around the extra poundage with not too much effort.
But then I turned 50 and the effects of obesity began to wear my body out. Lower back pain from scoliosis became unrelenting, my gall bladder began to complain loudly, and I was tired all the time. My blood sugar began to rise, and the blood pressure numbers began to creep upward. Oh yes, and my knees hurt, too. The Vicious Cycle had begun: chronic pain meant no exercise, and no exercise meant more sitting. My headaches became fierce and cyclical, and I found that eating carbs gave me temporary relief. My moods became darker from pain and frustration, and my work suffered. When my doctor asked me if I wanted the stroke in five years or the heart attack in three, I knew it was time to do something. So I did.
With the help of a local clinic's weight loss program the pounds began to slide off. I was encouraged to exercise and joined a gym. I worked with a trainer and got stronger. The pain in my knees went away. My blood pressure and blood sugar dropped, and my headaches vanished. My mood improved. I gave most of my clothes away because they didn't fit and tentatively bought some new ones. I looked nice.
I won't say how many pounds I've lost, but last year I wouldn't have been able to lift it. I still have more weight to lose and the journey to health will probably never stop, but I'm OK with that, because it was on the journey that I met The Suburban Farm.


to be continued...