Food as a Pathway to Peace

Join us for the Pathways to Peace: Food as Relationship Retreat Jan. 24–26, 2025. Learn more and register on our website.

“What would happen, for example, if we were to start thinking about food as less of a thing and more of a relationship?”

—Michael Pollan

Peace, as defined by the Earth Charter, is the wholeness created by right relationships with self, others, and the Earth.¹ If we think of food as relationship, and relationships are the foundation of peace, therefore food can be the essence of peace. In recent years, the food justice and food sovereignty movements have gained traction as ways to promote equity and autonomy regarding food, respectively. Food peace is a new concept aimed at promoting healthy relationships with food for the individual, community, and the Earth. With a shift in our perspective regarding food as “something to eat” to one grounded in relationship, a transformation in how we value food and what we choose to purchase provides a path to promote personal wellbeing and planetary health. This approach is in stark contrast to our historical understanding of peace and food.

Peace studies largely define peace as the absence of conflict or violence.² The relationship between food and peace has appeared throughout time, yet it has primarily been assessed through the lens of conflict and food availability. Interestingly, the United States Food for Peace program started in 1954 following decades of global food access shortages and the use of selective food aid as a means to control hungry people whose support was wanted or to prevent opposition.³ In 1974, Earl Butz, past U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, stated, “Food is a weapon. It is one of the principal tools in our negotiating kit.”³ This food conflict narrative maintains our focus on how food can be used to control others in the name of “peace,” attenuating progress that is germane to shifting our efforts to peacebuilding.

Peacekeeping, in the context of food, is the fulfillment of the basic means of physical sustenance to avoid or alleviate hunger (not for the purpose of controlling others), whereas peacebuilding describes food as a human right, a means of cultural awareness, and a societal responsibility for the health of people and the Earth.^4-6 In the realm of peacekeeping, we are consumers, food is transactional (e.g., energy in, energy out), and we eat to prevent a disease. Peacebuilding shifts our involvement with food purchasing to one with broader societal implications that extend beyond the individual. Additionally, the motivation for the food we choose to consume shifts to health promotion and values the welfare of food producers, animals, plants, and the Earth.⁷

We may be familiar with the many ways that food can “bring” us peace … a favorite recipe, comfort foods, or an early morning cup of coffee or tea. Yet one may wonder what does it mean to be in relationship with one’s food? To truly create a relationship with our food will require us to understand where our food comes from, why the food is important, who was involved in the process (e.g., seed to farm to retail to table), and how it was grown/produced including the consideration of upstream and downstream consequences. The consumer (peacekeeper) may purchase food based on taste, convenience, and cost, whereas the inspiration for the food citizen (peacebuilder) is to choose foods that promote health for not only their own being but those in their family, community, and the environment.

Food peace is a call to action, to awaken to the ways in which we can support our selves, families, communities, and the soil, water, and air that provide the building blocks for the food we eat.

To incorporate food peace into your daily life, consider these three principles:

Contemplate. How was the food grown/raised? What fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemicals were used to grow the food? Choose foods that were grown with minimal chemical and synthetic inputs to promote soil health and water quality. If you choose to eat animal products, investigate the living conditions for the animals. Does the food require many levels of processing? Is the food traditionally a seasonal food? If so, what resources were needed such as land and water to grow the food out of season?

Cultivate. Select whole foods to make simple meals. Carve out the time and space needed to prepare meals that nourish and sustain self, others, and the Earth. Offer up a note of gratitude at the beginning of a meal to honor the farmer, the plants, the soil or others to acknowledge all that transpired to bring this food to your table. Learn skills needed to prepare health-promoting meals. Grow food in raised beds or a community garden, or volunteer at a local farm.

Connect. Purchase foods from a local farmer, whether it’s sourced from a member-owned cooperative food store, a farmer’s market, or direct from the farm, this creates a connection with others in your community. Furthermore, the money spent on food produced in the community or region promotes the local economy. Advocate for policies that make healthy food grown in ways that support the Earth’s resources in your school districts, towns and cities, and states to assure these foods are available and affordable.

To be in relationship with our food is to select foods that are grown and raised in ways that supports the land, sea, and sky and honors those who have come before us with intention to co-create a future for those yet to come. Today, when you sit down to drink a cup of coffee or eat a meal, take a moment to consider where the food came from, who grew the food, visualize the land where the food was grown or raised, the water that maintained the life of the plant or animal … and where there are unknowns, begin to dig a little deeper to find the answers. This is food peace, a path forward that transforms our relationships in the context of food that allows for the flourishing of human and non-human beings, and the planet.

Consider reflecting on the following prompts:

1. How has the concept of “food peace” shifted your perspective about food and/or peace?
2. Create your personal “food peace” action plan with at least one item for self, others, and the Earth.
3. Participate in the Pathways of Peace: Food as Relationship Retreat at Prairiewoods later this month.

—Christina Campbell, associate professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University
(originally published in Peace Chronicle, summer 2024)

 

Endnotes

1. Earth Charter. Read the earth charter: Democracy, nonviolence, and peace. Accessed June 24, 2024 https://earthcharter.org/read-the-earth-charter/democracy-nonviolence-and-peace/.
2. Davenport C, Melander E, Regan PM. The Peace Continuum. Oxford University Press; 2018.
3. Science for the People. Accessed June 24, 2024 https://archive.scienceforthepeople.org/vol-11/v11n3/food-as-a-weapon/.
4. Boyce W, Koros M, Hodgson J. Community based rehabilitation: A strategy for peace-building. BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2002; 2:6.
5. Hoover E. “You can’t say you’re sovereign if you can’t feed yourself”: Defining and enacting food sovereignty in American Indian community gardening. AICRJ. 2017;41(3):31–70.
6. Ingram J. Nutrition security is more than food security. Nat Food. 2020;1–2.
7. Hansen RA, Campbell CG. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists’ Perceptions of the Relationship between food and peace in the United States Food System: A qualitative study. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2023;123(7):997–1010.