'The most violent weapon on earth is the table fork.' - Mahatma Gandhi
T
his book is an attempt to illuminate our culture's
its members a reduction of essential feelings and
story and to present the outlines of a more
awareness – and it is this process of desensitisation
empowering understanding of our world. The
that we must understand if we would comprehend
key to this understanding lies in comprehending the
the underlying causes of oppression, exploitation, and
far-reaching implications of our food choices and the
spiritual disconnectedness. When we practice eating for
worldview they both reflect and mandate. At first glance
spiritual health and social harmony, we practice making
it may seem unlikely that such a potent key could be
certain essential connections that our culturally induced
found in the pedestrian place that food occupies in our
food rituals normally require us to block from awareness.
culture, but if we look closely, we begin to realise that
This practice is an essential prerequisite for evolving to
our shared cultural reality is profoundly affected by the
a state of consciousness where peace and freedom are
attitudes, beliefs, and practices surrounding food. There
possible.
are amazing unrecognised social, psychological, and
spiritual consequences to our meals that ripple through
Cultural change
all aspects of our lives.
We are in the midst of a profound cultural transformation.
Intimate food
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the old mythos
underlying our culture is collapsing. We are realising that its
Food is actually our most intimate and telling connection
core assumptions are obsolete and, if followed further, will
both with the natural order and with our living cultural
result not only in the ecological devastation of our planet's
heritage. Through eating the plants and animals of this
intricate and delicate systems, but in our self-destruction
earth we literally incorporate them, and it is also through
as well. A new mythos, affirming co-operation, freedom,
this act of eating that we partake of our culture's values
peace, life, and unity, is struggling to be born to replace
and paradigms at the most primal and unconscious levels.
the old mythos based on competition, separateness, war,
As children, through constant exposure to the complex
exclusion, and the idea that 'might makes right'. Food is a
patterns of belief surrounding our most elaborate group
critical key to this birth, because our food habits condition
ritual, eating food, we ingested our culture's values and
our mentality profoundly – and because meals are the
invisible assumptions. Like sponges, we learned, we
primary way our culture replicates and promulgates its
noticed, we partook, and we became acculturated. Now,
value system through us. Whether this birth of a new
as adults, finding our lives beset with stress and a range
mythos and more evolved spirituality and consciousness is
of daunting problems of our own making, we rightly yearn
successful will depend on whether we can transform our
to understand the source of our frustrating inability to live
understanding and 'practice of food'.
in harmony on this earth. When we look deeply enough,
we discover a disturbing force that is fundamental in
The practice of connecting
generating our dilemmas and crises, a force that is not
Our cultural predicament – the array of seemingly
actually hidden at all, but is staring up at us every day
intractable problems that beset us, such as chronic
from our plates. It has been lying undiscovered all along
war, terrorism, genocide, starvation, the proliferation of
in the most obvious of places: It is our food.
disease, environmental degradation, species extinction,
Diets, food & consciousness
animal abuse, consumerism, drug addiction, alienation,
stress, racism, oppression of women, child abuse,
While debates rage over which diets are best in terms
corporate exploitation, materialism, poverty, injustice, and
of health and longevity, this book is not about diet in
social malaise – is rooted in an essential cause that is so
this usual sense, but is an exploration into the profound
obvious that it has managed to remain almost completely
cultural and spirit X[