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Editorial
This newsletter is one of startling contrasts. In some Westernised societies, obesity and its accompanying ill health are problems highlighted by the issue of food and the family - for example in Hong Kong. In UK too, doctors have warned that more children will suffer from diabetes, possibly resulting in blindness, as a result of being grossly overweight, and more parents will die prematurely of heart disease. But, as this newsletter makes only too clear, in very many parts of the Anglican Communion the problem is not obesity but malnutrition and starvation through poverty and lack of food.
The picture is not simple. Obesity can sometimes be the result of poverty as well as affluence. Research has shown that, in Western societies, some women become overweight as they try to tackle family poverty by saving the best food for the men and children in their families while they eat a starchy diet, poor in protein and vegetables. In some cultures in Africa, the tradition is that the best food is given to the men despite the needs of girls and young women, even if they are pregnant, with the consequent birth of underweight babies. In some Western countries, there is increasing awareness of eating disorders such as anorexia, a form of self-starvation, and two articles in this newsletter vividly portray the suffering involved for the whole family when children became afflicted.
A newsletter of contrasts: and these contrasts exist in our global world - a world of vastly improved transport and the communications explosion of internet and e-mail. Globalisation has many aspects. One is the expansion of trans-national brands - of food, clothing and lifestyles. The cover picture shows the queue outside a newly opened McDonald's in Moscow. Their logo is an international symbol. The author of a book on globalisation* tells of how as a child she was entranced by the attraction of such symbols, finding the reality of healthy cheese sandwiches, prepared by careful parents, a dull and unwelcome alternative. With the youth market frequently targeted by multinational corporations such as McDonald's, her view would probably be shared by many young people across the globe. Another aspect of globalisation is the international trade in food, with produce from Africa, South America, India and the West Indies filling the shelves of the affluent world. This can bring benefits to many in both developed and developing countries, as the article from Rwanda stresses, and globalisation needs to be harnessed by those of good will to lessen the polarisation between rich and poor.
A practical way forward is the Fairtrade movement and one article challenges churches and church people to buy fairtrade products to help ensure that food producers in the Two/Thirds world are adequately paid for their produce. The power of the great multi-national food corporations and super stores and the demand for cheap food can mean that prices are forced down to below the farmers' cost of production. This is true of farmers as far apart as Africa, Central America and UK. Many coffee farmers in Costa Rica and Kenya have been forced to sell their crop for less than it costs to grow, and a recent survey of Britain's farmers suggested that for many it no longer made economic sense to produce food.
For many centuries, the provision and cooking of food has generally been regarded as "women's work". With increasing understanding of the detrimental health effects of malnutrition and poor (or wrong) diet in both rich and poor countries, and with changing understandings about gender roles, it should become more of a shared task between men and women. We all need to take responsibility. But the main imperative for more sharing is between the rich and the poor nations, if the scandalous inequalities in the provision and distribution of food are to be tackled.
Jesus' second main commandment was "Love your neighbour as yourself". This involves taking responsibility for our bodies. On the one hand, it speaks against self-harm through obesity or over-indulgence. But it also enjoins Christians to take responsibility for their neighbours. Surely, in this globalised world, those suffering from malnutrition and famine are our neighbours.
*"No Logo" Naomi Klein (Flamingo 2001)
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