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SIGHT-SEEING: THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF FOOD

DAVID ADAMS looks at World Council of Churches’ head Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit’s ’10 Commandments of Food’…

Food is a gift from God and essential to our lives but with almost one in nine people in the world chronically undernourished at the same time as one in 12 people are suffering from the consequences of obesity, there’s a need for ongoing discussion about the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Such was the theme of a session at the World Economic Forum last week where Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the general-secretary of the World Council of Churches, presented what he called the ’10 Commandments Of Food’.

PICTURE: Claudia Peters/www.freeimages.com

“Coming from a Christian perspective, the 10 Commandments of Food underline the ‘sacred’ nature of food – provided, as Tveit later said, as ‘a gift of God to sustain our lives through sharing, celebration, gratitude, sacrifice and renewal’ – and the mandate Christians have been given to work to ensure that all have access.”

The ‘commandments’ are worth taking a closer look at, as they encourage us to look again at how we view the food that so many people around the world simply take for granted but which others simply can’t get access to.

Coming from a Christian perspective, they also underline the ‘sacred’ nature of food – provided, as Tveit later said, as “a gift of God to sustain our lives through sharing, celebration, gratitude, sacrifice and renewal” – and the mandate Christians have been given to work to ensure that all have access.

The 10 Commandments he listed are as follows:

1. You shall give thanks for the food you eat.
2. You shall provide food for those who have no food.
3. You shall eat mindfully and in moderation.
4. You shall be grateful to those who grow and prepare food for your table.
5. You shall not waste food.
6. You shall reduce the ecological footprint of food production and supply.
7. You shall protect the biodiversity of the sources of food.
8. You shall support fair wages for farmers’ efforts.
9. You shall strive for all people to have access to affordable and nutritious food.
10. You shall rejoice and share the sacred gift of food with all.

They make for a challenging read and while they may seem overwhelming for the individual, it’s in fact individual actions, joined with the actions of others, that will transform the way in which we as humans interact with food around the world.

But it’s in making us more consciously aware of the food we consume – being grateful for what we eat, not wasting food, learning to better share what we have – that these 10 commandments can really impact us as they make us look again – particularly in the West – not only at our own consumption but at the bigger picture of food around the world.

And that, surely, is a great challenge for us all to embrace in 2016, both individually and collectively!

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