food for the whole human
December 25, 2007 by hortstudent
The very final component of the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening program was hosted at the new FoodShare building in Toronto. With a December session focus on nutrition, we began with a question posed by a student of Rudolf Steiner who asked, “Why…is the will for action, for carrying out of the spiritual impulses so weak?” In Agriculture, we read Steiner’s response that reflects concern for the impact of modern agriculture on the spirit. Over 80 years ago he had the insight to suggest that, “This is a problem of nutrition. Nutrition as it is today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action. Food plants no longer contain the forces people need for this” (261). One is left to wonder what he would conclude in regards to the quality of the majority of food we produce and ingest today.
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Hear hear! I am allergic to tartaric acid which is a toxin found in yeast/mould/fungus. I’m also hypersensitive to rancid fat. I’ve found that 90% of the food I buy has already started to mould or turn rancid, especially the “convenient” foodstuff. I have resorted to a whole-foods diet consisting strictly of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit to minimize the amount of tartaric acid I’m exposed to. The VERY FEW food products I do buy in a jar, box or package are by companies that I have discovered, through trial-and-error, live-up to their word of valuing quality versus mass manufacturing. I’ve long had this misconception that companies which produce organic products were more socially conscious and valued quality over the others—I found I was really wrong about that.
There is more to it than that I think. It’s about how we’ve lost our connection—spiritual connection—to our food and how we no longer consider how it feeds our mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. One of the oldest war-tactics is to cutoff food supplies to the enemy, not with the objective of wiping out an entire army via physical starvation but to incapacitate them mentally and emotionally—to break THEIR SPIRIT.
We seem to just consume our food like we consume everything in this world–with the delusion of infinite resources and our immortality! How is it that we’ve become so irresponsible in the production and support of what we put into our bodies? OUR bodies! I tell you, I’m VERY close to buying a farm and raising/growing my own food. What stops me is it’s self-serving; that my role in this is more to serve others than myself. I don’t know how yet but I’m sure the opportunity will present itself when the time is right.