TOWARDS A THEOLOGY OF FOOD!

1) Fast food is bad for you?

Not necessarily, but to produce 1kg. of beef (for burgers) you need to grow 7kg of grain for cattle feed.

2) Chocolate is naughty but nice?

Protein, calcium and vitamins, but also sugar and fat. In 1995 British & Irish people spent £215 million just on KitKats.

3) Third World people go hungry because there isn't enough food in the world for everybody?

814 million people go to bed hungry each night, but we produce one and a half times the amount of feed needed to feed the world adequately. Hunger is caused by defective sharing.

4) Teach poor people to farm and you will feed them for life?

But where is their food going? Brazil is the world's third largest exporter of food, but 100,000 Brazilian children die of food-related causes each year. If food is nearly all for export, local food becomes scarce or expensive.

5) There isn't enough land to grow food for everybody?

In Brazil, three quarters of the land is owned by less than 1% of the population, and so much of this lies idle that you could give enough to 4.8 million families to feed themselves without touching an inch of the hand at present in proper use.

6) What about dieting? Isn't that good for the world as a whole?

Not necessarily. Do we diet just to 'look good' and not actually do ourselves good? Consider;

- Since 1959 the average weight of 'Miss America has dropped by 0.5kg a year, while the weight of the average American woman has increased by 0.5kg a year.

- The World Health Organisation recommends 2600 calories a day for a healthy diet. In Mozambique the average daily intake is 1632 calories. But some people are on diets of only 1000 calories.

- "Slim is beautiful" is not an absolute truth. In Malawi, it is the custom for woman to fatten up for marriage.

Now let's read Mark chapter 8 verses 1 to 10!