Healthy harvesters: Good News for everyone

Hello FU3Led friends!
Did anyone try out mindful eating this past week? If so, leave a comment or send an email! This week I wanted to highlight an article that brings about the topic of food justice. I'd like us to reflect on how stewardship affects our bodies, our communities, and our environment. There will be more posts on this issue but today we'll with the term "fair trade." It is easy to become cynical and assume that this label is yet another ploy to cash in on the trendiness of being Green. How is "fair trade" coffee different than conventional - and why should you care?

Let's start with the definition. Fair trade refers to food produced in a way that the workers are given a living wage for their labor and the food is harvested sustainably. And yes, this means in order to pay the workers a fair wage the food will cost more. We should care about the people who provide our daily bread as stewards of this earth but if you have a hard time translating heart motive to your wallet, consider how unfair trade must affect the quality of your food. NPR's food blog, The Salt, recently published a piece on the health of the food workers (Read Full Article). Think about your own career: how do you perform at work when you are unwell? If you are EATING the literal fruits of labor of workers with poor living conditions, how is that going to taste?

The Good News transforms our world for believers and non-believers alike. How we care about our food preparers will redeem the quality of life for them as well as the quality of food for us. Stewardship is not sacrifice if you take the time to think about how we are all lifted up together by demanding justice for others.