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Feeding the Hungry, Caring for Creation: A Two-Part Webinar on Fighting Global Food Insecurity in an Era of Environmental Crisis (Duke Divinity School)
February 1 @ 7:30 pm – 8:45 pm
The Gospel calls Christians to ensure that all have access to adequate nutrition. Humans produce more food per capita than at any other time in history, yet we find ourselves in an age when global food insecurity has emerged as a defining challenge of our time. The Bible also enjoins humankind to steward creation. Yet, even as we make enormous scientific advances in our understanding of ecological systems, we peer into an uncertain planetary future marked by vast environmental challenges and ecological decline.
These two challenges—global food insecurity and environmental crises—are joined by the nature of agriculture and the food it produces: the fruit of the earth, and the work of human hands. Agricultural practices and food processing and consumption behaviors have enormous impacts on the environment, and likewise, environmental conditions influence agrifood systems practices and policies. Given this reciprocity, how do the commands to feed the hungry and steward creation interact at this pivotal time? How can we make sense of our ethical responsibilities when t calls seem to come into conflict? What are the human roots of each of these crises, and how can we identify spiritual and practical remedies?
In this webinar series, we place two leading agricultural economists and two leading theologians on ecology and ethics in dialogue to grapple with four tough questions of ethics, food, policy, technology, and the environment. What can theologians contribute when agricultural economists get stuck at an ethical dilemma? What can economics offer to theological inquiry to help ground investigation in the incarnational realities of the current moment? While we may not leave with clear-cut solutions, our aim in this series is to forge a new kind of conversation among scientists and theologians of faith working on these issues: to “embark on a path of dialogue which demands patience, self-discipline, and generosity, always keeping in mind that ‘realities are greater than ideas’” (Laudato Si’ §201).
PARTICIPANTS
Christopher B. Barrett, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University
Sr. Damien Marie Savino, FSE, Ph.D., Dean of Science and Sustainability, Aquinas College
Norman Wirzba, Ph.D., Professor of Christian Theology, Duke Divinity School
Norbert Wilson, Ph.D., Professor of Food, Economics, and Community, Duke Divinity School
MODERATOR
Peter Casarella, Ph.D., Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School
Free
