Can We Really Be Thankful to God When We Waste Food?
As Food, Garbage, and the Environment notes, about 103 million tons of food, or 40% of all food produced, was wasted in America. This level of waste reflects modern American culture. Our approach to the things around us is purely transactional: If we like them and see value in them, we retain them; if we don’t, we discard them. Food waste reflects one of the excesses of a consumerist culture.
As Christians, we are called to imitate Christ in our lives. This means that, when non-Christians look at us, they should see some revelation of God. This implies, as What’s So Spiritual about Doing the Laundry? argues, that all our actions can be interpreted spiritually. This means that, if we are Christians and we waste food, our waste not only reflects a societal and environmental problem; it is also a spiritual and theological problem.
In beautiful poetic language, Psalm 104 describes how God is the ultimate source of provision for all his creatures, including humankind. The psalm reminds us that it is ultimately God, and not our own efforts, that sustain us and nourish us. Wasting food, however, makes a statement of a very different kind: although we may pay lip service to the fact that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1), we insist on our ownership of that which the Lord has entrusted to us and provided for us. When we waste food, we indicate that, although we may profess gratitude to God for his provision, we don’t believe it; we insist that we have an absolute right of ownership and control over that which God, through his abundant kindness, has given to us.
The problem becomes more acute when we say grace before meals and then fail to eat or otherwise waste the food set before us. In this case, our actions directly express to God that His provision is inadequate, that he needs to do a better job of meeting our needs and catering to our preferences. In other words, God has been an unfaithful servant.
In wasting food, we not only dishonor God; we also express our lack of regard to our neighbor. While God is the ultimate source of all food that we receive, that food is also the product of human labor. When we waste, we devalue the labor of others, and we elevate our own needs and our own preferences over those of others. Waste is a practical expression of our loving ourselves rather than our neighbor.
In wasting food, we also express our contempt for the poor. A significant portion of the food on our tables is imported, much of it from the third world. In a supply-demand economy, our waste creates an artificial demand that producers try to meet. Because waste occurs throughout the process of production, processing, and distribution, our consumer waste is responsible for additional waste throughout the production process. This in turn means that resources that could be used to support the poor in the exporting country are instead devoted to producing resources that are exported and wasted. In wasting food, we indicate that we are better and more deserving than those who are poor.
Finally, in wasting food, we also dishonor God’s creation. Much of the food we eat is the product of living beings. Plants have either been sacrificed or have given up some of their bounty so that we may be nourished. Animals have given up their lives to sustain us. As Christians, we are called to recognize that we are eating something that was once alive, into which our God has breathed life. Each of those lives has an intrinsic value, a value independent of us and our calculation of convenience. Rather than taking those lives for granted, we should be grateful to God for creating them and grateful for the sacrifices of the plants and animals that we are consuming.
Our food waste is the ultimate expression of our consumerist society. As disciples of Christ, we are called to honor God and give thanks for his provision. We can express this gratitude by rejecting waste, by being very careful to not waste and misuse the food that God has given us, and in the process to make a prophetic statement that we stand outside and apart from the rampant consumerism of our culture.