Food Crisis, Agribusiness Accountability & Pigs

Whether or not you are taking part in the PC(USA) churchwide fast, July's fast materials are right on target for helping to understand issues related to food here in the U.S.

The fast materials explore the role of agribusiness in the food system and its relation to the food crisis. Pigs will be the teachers as we reflect how they are produced. By the end of this minicurriculum,
prayer, and discussion, you should be able to answer questions such as:

• Does agribusiness (large companies which increasingly control more and more of the
industry) produce them sustainably and humanely?

• Are there other models of production? And what are the positives and negatives?

• How do we engage to make our food system better?

Next Monthly Fast October 31-November 2

Presbyterians around the country are engaging in monthly 40-hour fasts to help discern responses to the Global Food Crisis. The fasts typically take place on the first weekend of every month, beginning on Friday evening and ending with Communion or a communal meal on Sunday. The next fast is October 31- November 2. Resources are available (PDF) that explore the country focus for the month is Haiti and the theme focus of food aid.

A new take on eating out.

On Friday night Paul and I decided to go to a local restaurant for dinner. We were tired of chain restaurants, we find the food is always too salty and we wanted some variety. So we headed out with Italian in mind. After some suggestions from my sister we found a nice Italian place that was family owned in Point Pleasant. It was an amazing experience. Our waitress I believe was one of the owners of the place. Everything including the salad dressing was homemade. That was very refreshing and some of the best salad dressing I have had in a long time. Salad for me was followed by some of the best stuffed shrimp I have ever had, there was nothing frozen about them and there was actually real crab meat in them nothing imitation. Paul went with chicken Parmesan which he thoroughly enjoyed. We ended with a homemade Cannoli. The waitress warned us there was no processed cream in it and we may not like the texture because it was made from real ricotta cheese. It was delightfully refreshing and not as heavy as your typical cream filled dessert. The waitress was so kind she even told us how to make them at home.

To be honest it reminded me of eating at my Grandma’s house. Everything was fresh and homemade and the waitress made us feel like we were family. She even pointed out the weekly specials for what we ordered so we could come back again and save money. Paul and I decided not only would we go back again but that from now on our dinners out will not be at chain food services. We had much better food and service. I am the daughter of a long time small business owner so it made me feel good to patronize someone local. I even remarked to Paul that we should use small local businesses more often. So I guess you can say this is day that I wrote off the big chain restaurants for dinner and replaced them with smaller places and better food and service.

~Becca