Gaping Gates and Precarious Paths

Matthew 7:13-20

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

            Here’s the honest truth, if you’re willing to read it.  I watched a food documentary in May of this year.  It changed me like not much I’ve seen ever has before.  I’ve since watched several documentaries, all of which I take at their word (these professional fact-finders who spend their livelihoods investigating food industries and writing/filming about it).  Some books I’ve read have helped me understand more about the farming industry in this nation that I knew very little about and still find myself grasping to understand. 

            In reaction to a food industry that is more business-driven and technologically supported than it is people-driven and ecologically motivated, our family has been eating locally as much as we possibly can and supplementing with organic foods or at least well-researched brand names of meats and eggs.  And I still go grocery shopping and market browsing with little confidence that I am putting my dollar to its best use.  What qualifies to me as the “best use” of a dollar when buying food?  This is complicated:  several factors have to be balanced out.  I don't want to put my dollar where huge food processing companies who have no regard for the workers they exploit or the earth they abuse can reach it.  I want to feed my family healthy food.  I want to actually get something for my dollar.  And I want to support local farmers who are up against giants in the food world.

            Here is a concrete example of how hard it is to balance all of these desires and still have time to do my job, go to school fulltime, and mother my two girls.  We were out of town for the Saturday and Sunday local farmers markets in our town this weekend.  So we did not stock up for the week on grassfed beef from Tink’s or get Darby Farms chicken or Riverview Farms’ sausage links.  This means the protein we eat this week is going to have to come from another source.  Which means more research is involved in finding something that is humanely raised and is not exposed to antibiotics or growth hormones. 

I want to support local food, which is difficult to do when lots of the chain grocery stores do not advertise their brands genuinely and the salespeople do not know how to answer questions like, “Where is this raised?  How was it fed?”  Springer Mountain Farms raises chickens in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, less than 2 hours away from us.  I know about them and how they are American Humane Certified, receive no antibiotics, and are fed only a vegetarian diet.  So the only grocery store chain I know of where Springer Mountain Chicken is sold is Publix.  So after I drop the girls off at preschool, I drive up to the Publix where just two weeks ago I was pacing back and forth with a sign that read, “Fair Food!”  I protested with a group of Columbia Theological Seminary students and faculty and hundreds of others with CIW (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) for Publix to raise the price of their tomatoes by 1 cent per pound in order that the workers on the tomato farms of Immokalee, Florida could earn a living wage. 

I park my car and guiltily glance over my shoulder as I dart in to pick up my chicken.  My local, healthy, humanely treated chicken that I can only purchase at the place I just picketed against.  And I tell myself, “Well, I’m not buying tomatoes…” 

Nothing about food choices is easy.  If I opt out of corporate foods and support local farmers, how do I weigh in amidst the chaos of grocery store aisles?  When I buy my butternut squash from the farmer down the road, how do I give my vote that were I buying butternut squash at Publix, I would choose organic over pesticide treated crops?  By opting out of lots of grocery store foods, am I missing out on an opportunity to change how food is grown?  I know I’m giving myself a lot of power in this scenario, like it matters a whole lot where my grocery budget goes every week.  But I think it is what the huge producers of monocultures of crops are most scared of and what would change the food system the fastest:  educated, dedicated, picky consumers who demand fairness and quality. 

In reading this text from Matthew, I think gates are not so recognizable as narrow or exceptionally wide when we are faced with the “choosing.”  I think gates are tricky, the latches don’t always catch behind you.  It’s not all bad to not have the energy one week to squeeze your way into the crack of the narrow gate (especially while juggling toddlers and grocery bags all at once).  But I am more and more convinced every day that there are in fact false prophets, with brightly colored labeling and evasive (and persuasive) wording.  And there are diseased trees that we somehow are convinced still produce good fruit. 

Lord, help us to sort out this mess.  Help us to take one step at a time, and reveal to us the path you would have us take.  And while we jiggle the latches of rickety gates, guard our hearts from despair and confusion.  Fill us with new hope and fresh food as we journey through life in this 21^st century.  Amen.