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The last two books I read could not have come from two more different sources, and yet their messages are alarmingly similar.  What could a religious biographer of Christian historical figures and a seated professor of journalism at UC Berkeley possibly have in common?  The same thing any other two human beings would have in common: Food. What both writers were trying to tell me is that we have to be very conscious of the greed that is devouring the farmers and food producers of the world, and we have to be conscious of how we consume food as not just a dietary concern but also a moral one.

The first book is one by Joseph Pearce titled Small is Still Beautiful (Economics as if Families Mattered). Having truly enjoyed Pearce’s biography of J.R.R. Tolkien and having an interest in theoretical economics (what other kind is there?), I was excited to start this book.  It starts off as a reflection on a collection of essays by E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, first published in 1973.  

Schumacher, a convert to Catholicism in 1971 was concerned that the idea of infinite progress was incompatible with the finite number of material resources that the Earth could provide.

In a time of economic uncertainty, this book reminds us that economics is not guided by its own principles but by “meta-economic” principles.  When speaking of supply and demand, demand is nothing other than desire, and it is our own desires that make or break peace and justice in the world.  When we are satisfied with less, society becomes stronger.

Much of this book addresses the current state of food production in Europe and how farmers are pushing the land to its limit in order to maximize short-term profits.  As world-wide food prices increase, the religious/ethical analyses in this book are helpful to create a sane and whole opinon of the situation.

The other book is In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. Stange title, right? It is one of the most eye-opening books on how to eat in the 21st Century.  Pollan defends food, in the sense that much of what we eat is not really food at all, but an artificial simulation of food processed to the point of having no positive nutritional value.

There is an epidemic of obesity in America and the Western world, due to human greed and quasi-scientific experimentation, for which you and I are the guinea pigs.  This book offers the solution of learning from our past, from a time when obesity was not such a problem.  Pollan summarizes the book in the first sentence: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”

What I found most useful is the history behind how we as an obese nation got to this point.  “Nutritionism,” the “ism” that believes that the wholeness of food can be understood by isolating its parts into vitamins and nutrients, has been limited to the principles of science which pull food apart to study it without fully putting it back together before new theories and marketing campaigns and government policies are created.

I recommend both of these books.  The common thread running through both of them is that bigger is not always better and that politics and economic greed are ruining society and health through the production and marketing of food.  If we are not careful, the land that is available to grow food will slowly diminish and the prices will continue to increase in the same way that gasoline, another limited resource, has more than tripled in the past 8 years.

People who know me know that I have always been a bit on the heavy side (”under-tall,” I like to say), so this is not to say that I am good at all of the recommendations about which these two gentlemen write.  But I hope to incorporate their wisdom into my life.  The fact that there is agreement between a secular academic and a Christian biographer should tell you that it is a very important issue.  A lot of us have hang-ups and mental blocks about our weight and our health, but it really comes down to the decisions that we make.

If you agree that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then you (as do I) need to take the health of your body and the future of food more seriously,