to be well-fed
- Rose
- Jul 27, 2017
- 3 min read
The way we eat has shifted almost inconceivably quickly and dramatically in the context of human life on Earth. For most of the hundreds of thousands of years we've existed in this form as a species, we ate wild plants and animals from the place we were in.
What has changed so quickly (in only a few seconds on the timescale of human history) is not only the types of foods that we eat, but how we attain them, and our relationships with them.
Eating food is a sacred exchange. In exchange for the death of an organism, one receives life. Food consumption is one of the most potent ways that we are forced to remain connected and indebted to the Earth.
With such separation from the source of our food-- with little connection to place, little relationship with the living beings that are (at least the basis of) our food-- we don't feel the necessity of reciprocity within that exchange. Food becomes a static, dead commodity to own, use, and discard. Consumer culture promotes this image of food. The potential power of relationship is ripped away.
In terms of healing ourselves and our biotic community, our relationships with food are more important than what exactly it is that we eat. I have ultimately failed at any diet that involved control/ elimination of particular food groups (I was vegetarian, then vegan, for many years, and practiced the Specific Carbohydrate Diet when I contracted Lyme, tried the Body Ecology diet, raw foods diet, etc.). I didn't stop eating this way because I'm weak-willed. I think it's because I recognized the power of food to create change in myself and my world, but these dietary shifts only widened the gap between my food and I. My history of disordered eating patterns surfaced again & again in the form of control and fear over what I ate. My anxiety levels soared if I ate the "wrong" food.
Jessica Prentice, author of "Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger For Connection", writes:
"Most of the connections that we should have to the source of our food are loose, some are absent, and some have been severed. There has been a breakage in relationship-- between people and the Earth, between people and the animals and plants that we eat, between people and other people, and between people and the Divine-- the source of everything. We cannot heal ourselves or make up for this loss by simply taking supplements or restricting our diet. We have to heal the relationships and reestablish these primary connections if we want to be healthy and whole. It is not just about self-help, it is about cultural transformation and rebuilding community.... Ultimately, it is not something that any one of us can do in isolation. Once we begin to acknowledge our interdependence with others, it becomes absurd to think I am healthy but my community is sick, or I am healthy but the world is sick. We are too much a part of our community and our world is too much a part of us for that to be viable."
Healing my relationship with the world, my food, my body, and my place is a gradual, non-linear process. I often find myself frustrated, overwhelmed, and in grief. But the only thing that brings me the energy to continue with my work is the re-connecting itself! For me, it involves expanding my concept of what it means to be well-fed:
"Excellent nutrition includes pure water, controlled breath, abundant light, loving and respectful relationships, beauty and harmony in daily life, positive, joyous thoughts, and vital foodstuffs" (Susun Weed, "Herbal for The Childbearing Year").
Personally, my intention is to create rituals surrounding the cultivation, harvest, preparation, and consumption of food (for example, giving thanks and respect to a plant while growing or harvesting it myself; sitting down and taking time to savor & appreciate meals...). Wildcrafting local edible and medicinal plants and sharing them with others has been profoundly rewarding. Learning traditional methods of cooking and food preservation has been similarly exciting and nourishing. I hope to continue deepening my wounded connections to food and the Earth, and to facilitate that for others as well.
some things that have recently nourished me. pizza with red clover, dandelion greens, & tatsoi that i harvested.
squash soup with wild pea blossoms
wild roses, to be made into tincture
Can you identify with my experience eating food in late capitalist culture? Is it drastically different from yours? What does being "well-fed" mean to you? How do you relate to what you consume?
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