Just finished Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture by Ellen F. Davis. If you like biblical studies and you’re somewhat of a treehugger like myself, you’ll probably really like this book. Really got me motivated about eating local or organic produce and meats when possible. The book really demonstrates that a very large percentage of the content of the Old Testament was a prophetic or legalistic
reckoning against empirical (industrial) agriculture that stripped land and produce from the local farmer and turned him into a peasant or slave. It highlights the covenantal nature between God, land, and God’s people… that land and soil and its fruit are not merely commodities. Davis really captures Genesis, Leviticus, Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Song of Songs and shows how deeply agrarian the concerns of these books were, and how today, we continue to ignore their prophetic call. Conversely, it also offers a prophetic expose of current, ungodly practices of corporate agriculture that are destroying the soil and its corresponding ecosystems for future generations, while stripping local farmers and farm communities of their vocation, money, and dignity. Corporations are attempting to monopolize control of global crops by means of patenting “improved,” genetically modified organisms, while only looking for short-term profit and ignoring future ecological problems of their vast empires.
Check out Scripture, Culture and Agriculture!
