Life Requires Death (Joel Salatin Notes)

In Chapter 4 of Joel Salatin's book"The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs' he provides some powerful Biblical perspective on why eating animals is o.k. in light of the Christian's desire to honor animals and treat them with reverence.  I meant to post this a couple of months ago and it sat in draft form!   I'm basically just posting this section verbatim.  Please enjoy.  

"Perhaps a big issue we need to deal with at this point is the push back that if life is so special what gives us the right to kill and eat? 

How does killing the pig honor it's glory? How is the "pigness of the pig" reverenced when we enjoy bacon for breakfast?  That's certainly a valid question. 

First let's look at this Biblically.  Nowhere does the Bible even hint that eating animals is wrong. The Patriarchs ate animals.  The Prophets ate animals.  The kings and peasants all ate animals.  The feasts included animals. Jesus ate animals. The disciples and apostles ate animals.   

How does killing and eating animals add strength to their glory? Because life requires death. 

While it's true that killing a carrot in the big scheme of things is no different from killing a chicken; when the blood flows and the eyes go dim it's far more graphic and real. 

The typology of sacrifice preceding life occurs throughout the old testament and culminates of course in the ultimate sacrifice of God's son as the perfect lamb to take away the sins of the world.  Every time we kill something whether seed embryo (wheat) vegetable or animal in order to live, it should remind us not only of the sacrificial death of Jesus that enables us to partake of eternal life but also how precious life is. Life is so precious that it requires death. 

The goal of radical animal rightists working through research scientists to grow non-living meat like substances from human feces or primal slime in petri dishes is a denial of this foundational principle that life requires death. 

Jesus uses the principle of seed being planted and dying before sending forth the new shoot.  Unless it dies the new shoot can't come forth. Everything, everything, everything requires death in order to create life. And lest anyone think I'm skipping the Edenic period when nothing died -we're not in Eden anymore Toto!  We don't have perfect bodies.  We live in a fallen world in which bringing glory to God includes appreciating the cost of life in him. It is precious enough to require death.  Eating reminds us of that with every chomp of our jaws.  

Our sustenance is completely and utterly dependent on taking life; be it plant or animal.  That alone should drive us to appreciate the sanctity and precious value of life. That means we don't hurt people and things unnecessarily.   

We are all one step away from our last breath. Every breath is a gift borrowed or snatched from the hands of death. 

That's the biblical part.  Now let's go to the ecological part.....

...I would suggest that what makes the sacrifice of any being sacred is how it was honored in life. To take that one step further, I would even suggest that only when we've honored the life do we have the right to make the sacrifice.  In other words someone who has abused the life, disrespected the life, looked at it as just inanimate stuff does not deserve to kill and eat.  

The right to participate in that sacred act must be earned.  

Think about the worship surrounding Biblical sacrifices.  Every one entailed a hush -a God-centric demeanor.  Sacrifices were not a place to exalt the dominion of man but a place to humbly appreciate the cost of life.   And of course alter sacrifices show the cost of forgiveness which is the door into eternal life. Viewing life as mechanical like industrial farming does cheapens it, which in turn cheapens the death. 

Is it any wonder that our culture is wrestling with increased violence among humans when we cheapen life through CAFO's and a cheap food policy -which is actually a cheap life policy.  

Food is life.  Food must live in order to die. 

families who spend extra on high quality food, who emphasize sacrificial value in food  create a beautiful platform for explaining the cost of salvation. If our food goal is the cheapest stuff available, what does that say about the cost of physical life?  By extension what does it say about the cost of eternal life. 

Please don't construe my meaning beyond it's intent.  I'm not suggesting that we be careless about shopping and comparing prices but price is definitely not the number 1 criterion.  Glory. Does this food honor life's distinctiveness is the number 1 criteria.  After that's been met, then be frugal! 

What does Salt do?

Tonight, my mom and I were taking care of my dad, and we were brushing his teeth and gums with a saline solution.  (He can no longer eat food because of his advanced sickness and thus he requires special mouth care.)   He is currently fighting a gum infection.

This set me again to reflecting on Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 5 where he calls his followers "the salt of the earth."   It's a powerful and profound word choice because salt does many things.

Tonight we were using salt to help fight infection.  My dad's gums are deteriorating from lack of use and an inability to adequately take care of his mouth.   Harmful bacteria have invaded and he is now suffering from a painfully irritating condition.  Since it's onset a few days ago, he's been constantly grinding his teeth.  (He can't talk, so I'm assuming this means that it hurts.)  And today, tragically, one of his teeth popped out!   The doctor has prescribed an antibiotic, but along with it we are using a most primitive antiseptic -salt.  Salt will help to bring healing and health to my father's mouth.  That's what salt does, and that's what Jesus followers are meant to do.

Christians are to help bring healing and health to a world infected with sin, full of suffering and tormented by pain.  

Related to this, salt is also a powerful preservative.  I learned this most impressively when we lived in Spain.  We've all heard that our forefathers used salt to keep their food fresh before modern refrigeration came along, but most of us don't do that any more.  In Spain however, one of the most popular foods is salt cured ham or Jamon Serrano.

To make this ham you take a whole pig leg and bury it in sea salt for over a week and then hang it up to dry for a few months.  Without the salt bath the meat would rot within days or even hours if it was hot outside!  A leg of ham left to itself will become a rotting, stinking, disgusting maggot infested chunk of biomass fit only for the trash.  But with salt, it's a whole different story.  Carnage gets redeemed.  The salt preserves the ham and enables it to be edible -not to mention delicious for months!

Commenting on Jesus' words here, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says:
But now Jesus calls them the salt of the earth -salt, the most indispensable necessity of life.  The disciples, that is to say, are the highest good, the supreme value which the earth possesses, for without them it cannot live.  They are the salt that sustains the earth... (The Cost of Discipleship chapter 7)


Salt brings life, salt fights death.  The preservation of the world and it's inhabitants continues as long as there is salt!   Without Christ's followers (the body of Christ!)  sharing God's love, serving, helping and blessing, the world would only be rotten sin filled carnage.  Redemption comes thru the salt, the disciples of Jesus.

And obviously, as I've already mentioned, salt makes things taste good.  Not much Jamon Serrano in the States, but we sure know about bacon!  One of the best foods ever; it's full of salt!   And bacon makes everything taste better.  (First century Jews unfortunately never got to experience this blessed gift...I love the New Covenant!)  Salt eradicates blandness, makes food enjoyable and completely improves it!  Christians are likewise supposed to make the world better by bringing the goodness and joy of Christ to life.  

Christians help to make people's lives taste better!

Jesus certainly had these things in mind when he called us the salt of earth over 2000 years ago.  I have one more thought that Jesus' desert dwelling 1st century followers could not have imagined, but is still (I think) quite applicable.

Each year the state of New York (not to mention private businesses and even home-owners) spends millions of dollars a year on salt for the purpose of road de-icing.  Without the dedicated and efficient salting of our roads life as we know it in the Northeast would be stopped by the harshness of winter.  Without salt we wouldn't be able to see the roads much less drive on them!  Our health would suffer, our economy would suffer, our fellowship would suffer!  But we travel clean beautiful roads all winter long.   Road Salt makes "the way" accessible.  Likewise, as salt  Christians proclaim Christ and enable the world to see, travel, understand -and "know" THE WAY. (John 14:6)

In short, God created salt to heal, preserve, improve, and make life accessible to the world.

Here's our friend Adam Hilker plowing snow in Ithaca.