Saying grace before eating—a portal into our food system
In awe, honor, and gratitude of our global supply chains
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Today’s piece → saying grace before a meal: a portal to connect with our global food system 🌎
A little preview of the journey:
Supply chains my food travels through
Tuning into my food through mindful eating
Different ways to give thanks
Gratitude for our undeniable interconnectedness
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I’ve come to be the one at Christmas who says grace before we eat. It’s a nice honor to step into. To hold space and offer words of gratitude for my aunts and uncles and cousins before we break bread.
It’s something Anees and I do at home. We take a moment to slow down and tune in before we eat. To use that moment in the day to spiritually connect with all we’re blessed with. A practice of devotional gratitude to God, the land, our spirit guides, families, and the greater web of life.
The supply chains my food travels through
As a systems thinker and international development nerd, I think about the systems that make up our world a lot. The highly intricate web of people and entities and natural resources that go into producing any one of the many things I’m surrounded by.
Especially my food.
Any time I sit down for a meal, I see the crazy-elaborate supply chain every ingredient on my plate traveled through to make it to me.
From the farmers’ hands who worked the land, to the checkout girl’s who scanned and bagged my groceries. There are so many steps a carrot goes through before becoming yummy curry.
At a high level it looks like this:
But in reality, it’s more like this:
The journey of food is crazy! From storage facilities and packaging, to processing plants and distributors. Not to mention geopolitics and global markets. There are so many moving parts to tune into:
The farm staff,
engineers,
operations managers,
truck drivers,
procurement heads,
store clerks.
All of their families.
Sun, soil, rain, air.
Microbes and earthworms.
Animals.
Subatomic particles.
Computer systems.
Zip ties, crates, plastic packaging.
Logistical spreadsheets.
And so. much. more.
Saying grace before a meal gives me an opportunity to tune into all of this and show it some love.
Tuning into my food through mindful eating
In a day and age when we’re being invited to have an expanded view of ourselves as a world, saying grace with the larger supply chain in mind helps me do so. It gives me a way to stabilize this expanded consciousness within myself. It puts texture and corporalness to something abstract, and grounds the web of life into the web of systems that make my life possible.
So many of us are disconnected from where our food comes from, the land, people, time and energy involved. This simple act of using my plate of food as a portal for reflection helps me connect a bit more.
Mindful eating is a practice that invites forward a gentle attentiveness to the act of eating itself—the texture of your food, how it feels in your mouth, what shifts happen in your body as you take it in.
It can also be an invitation to tune into the food itself. Can you sense the soil where this green bean sprouted from? Or the hands who picked it? Or, more likely, the machine that plucked it?
Where did this orange come from? How far did it trek to make it to my home? How many minds and hands and hearts did it pass through to arrive here?
How many trucks and boats did you travel on, dear potato? Who were your fellow travel companions on your way? Other boxes of potatoes?
Different ways to give thanks
Giving thanks before a meal has such a universal feel to it because you can find it across cultures and history. Here are a few1:
Indigenous traditions - thanking Great Spirit, Mother Earth, the Land, Sister Wind. Jibwaa Gi’wiisinimin (Before We Eat) is a short prayer of the Algonquin people, thanking Creator and the Great Spirit, calling on the Four Directions, and more.
Christianity - longform and traditional or short and sweet, saying grace looks different across denominations and countries, all offering thanks to God to sanctify the meal and receive its bounty.
Buddhism - different traditions have different prayers before a meal. In Japanese Zen, the Five Reflections, Gokan-no-ge are chanted before and after meals, including saying “Itadakimasu” (“I humbly receive”) before eating.
Islam - “Bismillah” (“in the name of God”) is said before meals and other acts throughout the day to acknowledge what God has provided. A more in-depth supplication is often offered before eating, said individually by each person.
Judaism - Berakhah or blessings are offered before a meal based on the category of food eaten. It is an acknowledgment of and gratitude towards God as the source of all blessings.
Hinduism - food plays a big role in worship. Traditional prayers from the Bhagavad Gita cleanse the food and it is offered to God as Prasāda before eating.
Gratitude for our undeniable interconnectedness
In this day and age of industrialized systems that span our entire world, this act of grace and reflection takes me to so many corners of it. From the naturalness of the Earth to the technology and computer systems that coordinate and transform. There are so many hands and so many resources that go into this singular meal that I’ll finish in the next 30 minutes (or 10 if I’m really hungry).
Joanna Macy invites us into the lens of “the world as self.” That I am the world and the world is me. As I take in this food, I take in all that went into making this meal possible. I absorb the chicken and rice and tomatoes and herbs and salt. We merge as one. And I also absorb the larger supply chain, web of life, and global orchestration of production and commerce and ingenuity and coordination. It’s truly incredible.
Part of me feels flabbergasted by the amount of resources that go into a singular meal. “This seems like such a waste.” But another part of me feels absolute awe. Inspired and moved by this world and the moment we’re in. The undeniability of our interconnectedness, and the constant opportunity to reflect on that through the everyday act of eating.
What ways do you pray before a meal? Or what prayers of gratitude particularly resonate with you?
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No doubt I haven’t done these justice. Chime in to offer more depth or corrections!
Beautiful 🤩