God’s Solution to Food-borne Illness

This is yet another idea that I got from the food safety forum last week (it sort of made an impression on me). One of the main causes of food-borne disease is improper sanitation, which I discussed a little bit in a previous snack (How to Change Your Mind). You could say that the point of that discussion, as it relates to sanitation in foods, is that people need to have a compassionate heart so that they care about the people that they are growing/packaging/preparing food for, and that this is the only way to ensure that they will observe proper sanitation standards. Another point accentuated in that post was that when God gives us His Spirit, He transforms our heart so that we will keep His laws. Of course God will ultimately eradicate disease of every kind, but the aim of this snack is to make the case that the current burden of food-borne disease could be greatly reduced if everyone would simply follow God’s law today.

And no, I’m not even specifically talking about clean/unclean meats - I’m talking about the second most important commandment that God gave us:

Matthew 22:27-40

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

If everyone would truly put this into practice in every aspect of their lives, the world would be a drastically different place. When Christ talked about loving your neighbor, He didn’t mean it in the typical cliché way that everyone should just get along and be nice. Love for your neighbor means looking out for their interests first in everything you do. As it relates to food safety, everyone would be washing their hands when they were supposed to, because they love the people that they make food for and they don’t want them to get sick. Farms wouldn’t use controversial pesticides or fertilizers to increase their yield – they would grow the food as though they were growing it for themselves for fear that they would harm their neighbor. Slaughter houses would meticulously clean so that no cross-contamination occurred, because everyone who worked there would be so concerned that their oversight could hurt someone else. Transportation services and retailers would be extra careful to make sure that the food was maintained at appropriate temperatures because they couldn’t stand the thought of someone buying something that had spoiled, let alone that someone might get sick from it! The cooks and servers at restaurants would make every effort to avoid contaminating your food. No one would dare use anything after its expiration date when preparing a meal for someone else.

Love for your neighbor means more than just a warm fuzzy feeling and no arguing. It even goes deeper than looking out for their safety and health. Consider that food companies would strive to make food as affordable as possible. The executives wouldn’t be making millions of dollars, because they would feel selfish if they did. Whatever extra profits the company had, they would pass it on in charity to the poor rather than in dividends to the shareholders. There wouldn’t be anyone starving to death, because if you saw someone hungry, you would give him something to eat because you would remember what was written:

Matthew 25:34-35

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.'

I hope that exploring the implications for the food industry gives you an idea of just how different society could be. That’s why God wants us to follow His law – it really is the best thing for everyone in every way.