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Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System
Climate disasters, tariff wars, extractive technologies, and deepening debts are plummeting American food producers into what is quickly becoming the most severe farm crisis of the last half-century. Yet we are largely unaware of the plight of those whose hands and hearts toil to sustain us.
Agrarian and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan--the father of the local food movement--offers a fresh, imaginative look at the parables of Jesus to bring us into a heart of compassion for those in the food economy hit by this unprecedented crisis. Offering palpable scenes from the Sea of Galilee and the fields, orchards, and feasting tables that surrounded it, Nabhan contrasts the profound ways Jesus interacted with those who were the workers of the field and the fishers of the sea with the events currently occurring in American farm country and fishing harbors.
Tapping the work of Middle Eastern naturalists, environmental historians, archaeologists, and agro-ecologists, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers is sure to catalyze deeper conversations, moral appraisals, and faith-based social actions in each of our faith-land-water communities.
Agrarian and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan--the father of the local food movement--offers a fresh, imaginative look at the parables of Jesus to bring us into a heart of compassion for those in the food economy hit by this unprecedented crisis. Offering palpable scenes from the Sea of Galilee and the fields, orchards, and feasting tables that surrounded it, Nabhan contrasts the profound ways Jesus interacted with those who were the workers of the field and the fishers of the sea with the events currently occurring in American farm country and fishing harbors.
Tapping the work of Middle Eastern naturalists, environmental historians, archaeologists, and agro-ecologists, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers is sure to catalyze deeper conversations, moral appraisals, and faith-based social actions in each of our faith-land-water communities.
196 pages, Hardcover
Published March 30, 2021
About the author
Gary Paul Nabhan
75 books91 followersGary Paul Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, seed saver, conservation biologist and sustainable agriculture activist who has been called "the father of the local food movement" by Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, Carleton College and Unity College. Gary is also an orchard-keeper, wild forager and Ecumenical Franciscan brother in his hometown of Patagonia, Arizona near the Mexican border. For his writing and collaborative conservation work, he has been honored with a MacArthur "genius" award, a Southwest Book Award, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, the Vavilov Medal, and lifetime achievement awards from the Quivira Coalition and Society for Ethnobiology.
--from the author's website
--from the author's website
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 21, 2021
This book is a faith based look at food marginalization and insecurity. In the coming months, because of COVID-19 ,this will become an even bigger issue.
I liked the way how the author was able to draw in the use of Parables into the narrative. Using a modern agricultural perspective, it makes you think of the Parables in exciting new ways. Ways that make the teachings even more important.
Give this one a good and thoughtful read.
I liked the way how the author was able to draw in the use of Parables into the narrative. Using a modern agricultural perspective, it makes you think of the Parables in exciting new ways. Ways that make the teachings even more important.
Give this one a good and thoughtful read.
April 13, 2021
I had high hopes for this book and was deeply disappointed. Nabhan did a fine job of drawing parallels between the first century and our own time, but his exegesis of the biblical texts was unsatisfactory and sloppy. At the end of each section I would be thinking, "But wait a minute, that's not what the text actually said . . ." And there were so many relevant texts he could have talked about but didn't. He'd read a few scholars like Crosson and Borg and Hansen, but there's some really excellent scholarship out there on economics and the parables and contextual readings of the texts about money and debt that really do relate to farming that he didn't even get to. I was surprised by the fact that there are so many texts which talk about justice for farmers, and which suggest how that justice can be enacted that he didn't talk about. How can you talk about justice for farmers and not talk about the parable of the unjust manager? Or the story of Zaccheus, returning all the land that he had foreclosed on? Or the guy who built bigger and bigger barns? There is nothing about any of these texts. Nada on any of them. The title of the book feels like a con.
What really ticks me off is that the title is so alluring and the book just looks so good and Wendell Berry and Bill McKibbon and Norman Wirzba (all of whom I love) endorsed it and what were they thinking? If you do not know anything about food injustice, this book might teach you something new. But if you are looking for insight into the biblical texts, this book will not help you imagine what justice for those marginalized by the food system looks like. It will just assure you that Jesus cares for everyone, including those marginalized by the food system. And while that is good news, it lacks the gritty imaginative reconfiguring of our systems that the gospels actually point to.
What really ticks me off is that the title is so alluring and the book just looks so good and Wendell Berry and Bill McKibbon and Norman Wirzba (all of whom I love) endorsed it and what were they thinking? If you do not know anything about food injustice, this book might teach you something new. But if you are looking for insight into the biblical texts, this book will not help you imagine what justice for those marginalized by the food system looks like. It will just assure you that Jesus cares for everyone, including those marginalized by the food system. And while that is good news, it lacks the gritty imaginative reconfiguring of our systems that the gospels actually point to.
July 23, 2021
What perspective Nabhan has. He shows us a Jesus grounded in a world we easily recognize today. All through the book, he ties the lives of those who now grow and harvest our food to those who did so in the years when Jesus walked the shores of Lake Galilee and the farms around Jerusalem. This brings new life to both his world and ours.
May 6, 2021
Nabhan offers a refreshing exploration into Jesus’s agrarian parables in order to identify both theoretical and practical guidance for how we can address environmental concerns dealing with farming and fishing and with feeding the world’s marginalized populations. He explains how the challenges facing farmers and fishermen during Jesus’s time reflect many of the concerns we struggle with in the modern world. He is convinced that a return to embracing Jesus’s message can provide us with direction and hope for the future with ensuring that farmers and fishermen are supported and that food will be available for everyone. I admire Nabhan’s passion, honesty, and purpose, but it will take committed effort both from activists like himself and from those in positions of political power to ensure that we head in the right direction with our lands and seas remaining plentiful for those who work them in order to provide sustenance for every section of the world. The teachings of Jesus certainly can offer the type of guidance we should take in order to make that goal a reality.
June 13, 2021
The author had good insights and unique point of view. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.
January 17, 2022
How. Interesting. Jesus is my guy so I really loved these (time) relevant explanations of his parables. Reading the parables and getting a deeper knowledge of the times they occurred in and the importance of knowing this kinda history right now… well I appreciate this book is all I’m tryna say. From it, I took a greater love for the people who fish and farm ( and all the other greats) to make sure we can enjoy the great gifts from this world.
December 30, 2021
Very enjoyable. Could hear some of my favorite people (Wendell Berry, Alan Watts, Brennan Manning, Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day being echoed). Was refreshing and hopeful- feels like I know Jesus better after reading.
January 11, 2023
I wanted to like this book. I really, really, really wanted to like it. I was so excited to read it. I have a ton of respect for Gary Paul Nabhan and his impactful work for the environment and our food system.
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But I didn’t really like it. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t really worth reading. It’s supposed to be about Jesus for farmers and fishers, but Nabhan’s take on Jesus’s parables felt contrived. It’s supposed to be about justice for those marginalized by our food system (which is a legitimate issue I am passionate about), but it was really just a call for justice, not a discussion of it or ideas about it or possible solutions for it. I suppose if you’ve never thought about our food system and how broken it is, this could be a book to start with. But if you’re already somewhat educated on the subject, I’d say skip it.
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But I didn’t really like it. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t really worth reading. It’s supposed to be about Jesus for farmers and fishers, but Nabhan’s take on Jesus’s parables felt contrived. It’s supposed to be about justice for those marginalized by our food system (which is a legitimate issue I am passionate about), but it was really just a call for justice, not a discussion of it or ideas about it or possible solutions for it. I suppose if you’ve never thought about our food system and how broken it is, this could be a book to start with. But if you’re already somewhat educated on the subject, I’d say skip it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews