Who do you thank for the food on your table?

[DancesWithHorses]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else.

Around here you see a lot of bumper stickers that read "Farmers Feed Cities," "If you ate today, thank a farmer," and "Eat Canadian _(insert pork or beef)_" I could also write what's written on some of bumper stickers my friends' trucks have but some of it highly offensive to the non-farming population.

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

[veggiewolf]

...

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

 
I thank my gods before eating, and I buy local, seasonal products.  We're fortunate in my town to have amazing outdoor markets from May through December.

[Maps]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else.

Around here you see a lot of bumper stickers that read "Farmers Feed Cities," "If you ate today, thank a farmer," and "Eat Canadian _(insert pork or beef)_" I could also write what's written on some of bumper stickers my friends' trucks have but some of it highly offensive to the non-farming population.

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

 
If I eat meat, I always try and remember that a living thing gave its life to sustain me. If it's veggies and grains, I should ideally like to keep in mind the earth, rain, and gods of sustenance, but... I don't, lol. If I want to thank farmers for their work, I try to make sure my money goes directly to them by buying locally, but that's not often feasible for me.

[Marilyn/Absentminded]

So just curious, who do you thank?

 
I suppose if I thank anyone it's my husband's employers for paying him, or him for earning, enough to afford to buy food.  It's not like anyone's giving it away.

My mother's family were farmers.  They sold their crops for money and bought things with it, just like all workers do.  This romantic notion that farmers are some big heroes who selflessly feed an unappreciative world while starving themselves was looked on by them as a sales technique.

There are good years and bad years in every business.  On those years when construction is down and municipalities aren't hiring a lot of heavy equipment operators we don't eat nearly as well.  But we still pay for what we get, and I still thank the job market for it.

Absent

[Kasmira]

 
I say the Tendai Buddhist Meal Gatha before anything I eat as a way to remind myself what went into the production of that food and what my responsibility is in using the sustenance it gives me.

The Tendai Meal Gatha is approximately identical to the long version written out here. The first line refers to the labor that went into creating the food, the second to what the eater is doing with their life (and thus will use the food for), and the third to the need avoid greed (in my mind this also translates to the need to share and help ensure others have access to food). There's not really any thanking of a god involved. It's more to do with a commitment regarding how you are going to take the fact that you are lucky enough to have access to food and make sure you use that to do something worthwhile.

That said, the same is true for having a roof over one's head, an education, a job, etc. Very much in line with what Absent said, I don't consider food to be fundamentally different from the other resources that allow me to live my life the way I want to live it. I do, however, consider eating a convenient juncture to be thankful - in general - and to remind myself that I have a commitment to turn the resources I receive into useful output. Does this make sense?

On a side note, I also eat primarily local, organic, and free range. This, however, has more to do with the aforementioned output than with the food itself. I am taking the output of the job I am lucky enough to have and using it to invest in businesses which practice a form of farming which I believe is beneficial to the environment, the community, and the general improvement of the welfare of both humans and animals.

[LiminalAuggie]

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers?

 
I'm in a not-very-rural area, so my "local" farmers end up being four to five hours away downstate, so I'm limited to what "local" stuff gets featured at the grocery store, with the accompanying huge price hike. I try to buy local and seasonal food when I can, but my economic situation atm makes it not very feasible.

As far as at-the-table thanks I direct mine to the Sun/the solar deity I honor, for providing the energy through which the food was created, and the Land for growing it. The humans involved in the process can't exactly hear my thanks but I like to thank them with my money and my votes.  I also try to compost as much as possible so I can give nourishment back to the Land in return.

[Elani Temperance]

So just curious, who do you thank?

 
We try to buy local as much as possible but I thank the Gods for the food I receive. I would like to grow more of it myself but that's not possible right now.

Also, I sacrifice a bite of every meal to Hestia.

[monsnoleedra]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else

.

I thank the god / goddess that I pray to and honor but I also thank the spirits of the things that gave thier life to sustain mine and my families.  For me that spirit does not matter if it be animal or vegitable only that it was alive and its life force fed into my body and that of my family.

I thank and think of the farmers but honestly at times its a love / hate relationship.  I appreciate the long hours and the things they experience in doing thier livelyhood.  Yet at times I also despise, well not truly despise but get frustrated with them when they are spreading various "things" on their fields and it hangs so heavy in the air that I can't breath.  When I move at a crawl behind one of their tractors as it bounces down the main road with thier loads of hay or other items.  Nothing like coming up behind some vehicle that is blowing smoke clouds and you see the "Farm Use Only" tag on the thing and know it doesn't have to be inspected to be on the road because of its usage.

When I can I purchase from local farmers.  Usually mostly vegitables or fruits though we have menonitte farmers in our area that also sell meats, eggs and dairy items.  Honestly though purchasing a side of beef or whole beef or pig takes some planning so its not an everyday occurance.  We have quite a few road side sellers with thier booths but it takes a bit of checking to see which are acutally selling locale produce and which are selling produce grown elsewhere.

[DancesWithHorses]

I thank my gods before eating, and I buy local, seasonal products.  We're fortunate in my town to have amazing outdoor markets from May through December.

 
All the way to December? That is impressive.

I suppose if I thank anyone it's my husband's employers for paying him, or him for earning, enough to afford to buy food.  It's not like anyone's giving it away.

My mother's family were farmers.  They sold their crops for money and bought things with it, just like all workers do.  This romantic notion that farmers are some big heroes who selflessly feed an unappreciative world while starving themselves was looked on by them as a sales technique.

There are good years and bad years in every business.  On those years when construction is down and municipalities aren't hiring a lot of heavy equipment operators we don't eat nearly as well.  But we still pay for what we get, and I still thank the job market for it.

Absent

That is another way of looking at it. Jobs are important. We sell hogs and milk. A bit more difficult as we often don't receive a price that covers the costs (for example, if your mother's family was doing well, mine probably wasn't). My dad always jokes that if nobody wants to pay for our pork and milk, he might as well eat it himself.

I say the Tendai Buddhist Meal Gatha before anything I eat as a way to remind myself what went into the production of that food and what my responsibility is in using the sustenance it gives me.

The Tendai Meal Gatha is approximately identical to the long version written out here. The first line refers to the labor that went into creating the food, the second to what the eater is doing with their life (and thus will use the food for), and the third to the need avoid greed (in my mind this also translates to the need to share and help ensure others have access to food). There's not really any thanking of a god involved. It's more to do with a commitment regarding how you are going to take the fact that you are lucky enough to have access to food and make sure you use that to do something worthwhile.

That said, the same is true for having a roof over one's head, an education, a job, etc. Very much in line with what Absent said, I don't consider food to be fundamentally different from the other resources that allow me to live my life the way I want to live it. I do, however, consider eating a convenient juncture to be thankful - in general - and to remind myself that I have a commitment to turn the resources I receive into useful output. Does this make sense?

On a side note, I also eat primarily local, organic, and free range. This, however, has more to do with the aforementioned output than with the food itself. I am taking the output of the job I am lucky enough to have and using it to invest in businesses which practice a form of farming which I believe is beneficial to the environment, the community, and the general improvement of the welfare of both humans and animals.

That is really cool, thank you for the link. I think I really like this approach. I can't remember the last time I bought meat in a store, I usually end up trading for it with neighbours (one raises Belgian Blues, best beef ever!). I've never bought organic, I know what goes on behind the scenes there and it disgusts me. I find it wrong to trick the consumer like that.
 

I'm in a not-very-rural area, so my "local" farmers end up being four to five hours away downstate, so I'm limited to what "local" stuff gets featured at the grocery store, with the accompanying huge price hike. I try to buy local and seasonal food when I can, but my economic situation atm makes it not very feasible.

As far as at-the-table thanks I direct mine to the Sun/the solar deity I honor, for providing the energy through which the food was created, and the Land for growing it. The humans involved in the process can't exactly hear my thanks but I like to thank them with my money and my votes.  I also try to compost as much as possible so I can give nourishment back to the Land in return.

I'm sorry that local is not possible for you, I hadn't realised that sort of situation actually exists, even when I'm living in the city part of the year, there are lots of local produce available.
 

We try to buy local as much as possible but I thank the Gods for the food I receive. I would like to grow more of it myself but that's not possible right now.

Also, I sacrifice a bite of every meal to Hestia.

[Shine]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else.

Around here you see a lot of bumper stickers that read "Farmers Feed Cities," "If you ate today, thank a farmer," and "Eat Canadian _(insert pork or beef)_" I could also write what's written on some of bumper stickers my friends' trucks have but some of it highly offensive to the non-farming population.

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

 
Interesting question. It's made me realize that I don't thank anybody explicitly for food; however, just about every meal I eat is offered to the ka of Bast (and, lately, Anpu). At the heart of it, it's me realizing that without the gods there would be no food (let alone farmers, supermarkets, etc), and so they get the proverbial first dibs. Or something like that.

Local isn't possible where I live unless I care to subsist on nothing but chiles and pinon seeds. If there were some local markets around, and the food wasn't insanely expensive (which it often is in areas like mine), I'd get at least some of my groceries there. It's nothing religious. Just trying to support the local economy, y'know?

[MadZealot]

I suppose if I thank anyone it's my husband's employers for paying him, or him for earning, enough to afford to buy food.  It's not like anyone's giving it away.

 
My wife thanks God for the providing the food, me for buying it.  If she cooked it I thank her in return.
I'm just thankful in general to be in such a position that I can feed my family, especially now when so many cannot.

[Juniperberry]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else.

Around here you see a lot of bumper stickers that read "Farmers Feed Cities," "If you ate today, thank a farmer," and "Eat Canadian _(insert pork or beef)_" I could also write what's written on some of bumper stickers my friends' trucks have but some of it highly offensive to the non-farming population.

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

We garden so there's definitely a sense of a mutual relationship between the gods, land wights, and I. I'll take what I make from the garden (like zucchini bread for instance) and leave a slice for an offering just to say we're in it together, thanks, etc.

We also raise some small animals, like turkey. And, yes, they become Thanksgiving dinner. It's a whole different awareness for your food when you raise it ...I wouldn't go so far as to say it's uber sacred...but there's a different level of awareness and dignity given to the meal. And we also purchase whole pig for butchering, and though we didn't raise it, it has the same solemn effect.

So, it's not really a thanking thing but more of a working relationship between my family, life and earth.

Just a note: I was a food inspector in the Army (think USDA) so I'm well-aware of safe handling, meat cuts, and all that jazz. We aren't just hacking away at things over here.

[DreamWalker1]

I'm very curious about this. Do you thank your gods/goddesses for the food on your table or do you thank the people that work for it (this may include yourself)?  I know that the vast majority on here are educated, well-informed persons... who know that food does not appear on the grocery store shelf without the hard work of someone else.

Around here you see a lot of bumper stickers that read "Farmers Feed Cities," "If you ate today, thank a farmer," and "Eat Canadian _(insert pork or beef)_" I could also write what's written on some of bumper stickers my friends' trucks have but some of it highly offensive to the non-farming population.

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

 
I'm lucky enough to live in an area with lots of farmer's markets around mine and the surrounding counties.  When I consider all the different running times for each market, we have access to local foods for most of the months out of the year, which is a blessing that not many people have.  We used to go to the farmer's market weekly, but that hasn't happened in the last couple of months.  

As far as prayer or giving thanks, I make sure to thank my god/dess(es) for my food, but I also like to thank the food itself for their sacrifices.  I know a lot of people who will thank the animal that gave its life for their dinner, but I also like to thank the vegetables and plant matter too.  I mean, plants are living things, and just because they don't walk around and make noise and have faces like animals do, that doesn't mean that their sacrifice is any less important.

[manihar234]

I thank my gods before eating, and I buy local, seasonal products. We're fortunate in my town to have amazing outdoor markets from me

[Juniperberry]

So just curious, who do you thank? Do you make an effort to support your local farmers? I was reading on another forum where they had a thread about how great the weather has been this summer, sunny and warm, no realising that such weather is a serious issue.

Personally, I thank my gods because my family does grow a lot of what we eat.

Hm. I don't really thank anyone but I do share it. If it's grown from our garden then I return some of the finished product to it. If its some of our poultry than I'm very mindful of the animal and share of it. Every few weeks I share a portion of something from the grocery.

Occassionally (because my husband is Catholic and my ancestors Christian), we do say grace at the table. Mainly on holidays, but we also share offerings on these days, as well.