Religious Food Movements Are Reshaping the American Food System

With food costs on the rise, the constant emergence of healthy eating trends on social media, and sweeping recalls occurring earlier this year, many Americans are relying on religion-informed diets to determine what to eat.

Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability and Religious Studies Adrienne Krone examines the history of such diets alongside modern populations' inclinations toward them in an article recently published by The Conversation U.S.

For her recent book, "Free-Range Religion," Krone studied four farm sites. Two - the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and the Pearlstone center - taught farming practices rooted in Judaism as a way to reconnect Jews to the religion's agrarian roots. Krone's third site of study was a health retreat for the "Hallelujah Diet," a primarily plant-based diet that emerged from the Christian God's teachings in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden. The last was Christian, family-owned cattle farm Baldwin Beef, which takes cues from older religions and contemporary advocacy movements in attributing high value to the welfare of its animals.

Krone writes that while all these diets come with disparate farming or food preparation methods, all of them seek to resolve a concern in modern food systems, be that food production, dietary guidelines, or the raising - and grazing - of livestock. The result of these practices are strengthened relationships between participants, the food they eat, and even those others walking the same path.

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