Yesterday I did a two-hour guest podcast for SCATTERED SEEDS, co-hosted by Tom O'Boyle and Nathanael Devlin, and we dug into my book THE MARVELOUS PIGNESS OF PIGS.

 That book emphasizes the Christian part of my self-proclaimed title:  Christian Libertarian Environmentalist Capitalist Lunatic Farmer.  Back in 2019, Devlin wrote a piece for the March/April issue of TOUCHSTONE:  A Journal of Mere Christianity, using my book as a launch pad for a profound observation about Christianity specifically and culture more broadly.

 His basic thesis in the piece is that the current war on real food and the ascendency of fake and manufactured food-like substances create a deep soul-level mentality that we are not dependent on food.  Just like Jesus presented Himself as "the bread of life" so those of us in the authentic food and farming tribe present our protocols and production as life-giving rather than sickness-giving--economically, emotionally, and ecologically.

 When we refuse to ask about the habitat and diet necessary to respect the pigness of the pig-- what allows the pig to express and affirm its distinctiveness and fill its role in the ecological niche-- we withdraw nature from nurture and are left with mechanical structure.  Nutrients diminish; pathogens increase; manure that should bless becomes a curse--all of this from factory farming that at its most fundamental level refuses to ask how to honor the essence of pig.

 As our culture has assaulted the most foundational expectations of animals, plants, and soil, it has unmoored itself from dependency, from reliance on basic biological function.  Unfortunately, the Christian community has largely adopted this worldview, scoffing at compost, celebrating cheapness, and circumventing stewardship.

 As the church community withdraws from both responsibility for and dependence on this biological design, it subconsciously withdraws from hunger toward the true "bread of life."  Church becomes mechanical, just like the factory farmed pig.  Inner hunger for spiritual truth gives way to an egotistical non-dependency.  A pastor friend of mine says that in the last 20 years, the phrase "regularly attend church services" has changed from meaning four Sundays a month to now only one per month.  That's a violent expression of independence.

 Unfortunately, the broad church community, rather than militantly opposing Monsanto and Bill Gates et. al., has largely embraced that view toward fabricated, laboratory-infused fake meat, robotic farms, synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms.  And experimental RNA injections into human cells.

 My thesis in THE MARVELOUS PIGNESS OF PIGS is that the physical universe is an object lesson of spiritual truth.  In this TOUCHSTONE essay, Devlin takes my launchpad to a deeper indictment of the modern assault on food to be an assault on the "bread of life."  It's a powerful match and I honor him for daring to speak that truth into the conservative church community.  We need thousands like him.

 If and when people could see the assault on food integrity as a softening-up opening act to eliminate spiritual yearning from the human soul, it would add valuable gravitas to the questions "how should we then farm, and what should we then eat?"   Honoring the glory of the pig is a seamless philosophical thread that links honoring the glory of God.  Seen in that light, the assault on real food is an assault on real spiritual life.  That's profound.

 What percentage of church-going homes have soft drinks, Velveeta cheese, and Hot Pockets in the refrigerator?