In Shetland’s Lerwick Harbor, the greystone buildings stand close together. Rows of houses line streets that march downhill in curving lines to meet the sea. They buttress against the cold winds that race across the northernmost fetch of the North Sea.
On the first Sunday of October, Saint Columba’s Church of Scotland fills with people bringing food items, canned goods, and large boxes of cereal. A fishing net holding paper cutouts of mackerel is spread before the pulpit. Like shallow milk crates, plastic fish trays are filled with the food items, brought forward, and placed to the left and right of the net.
It was Harvest Sunday. A woman leading the morning service spoke of mouse and man: a field mouse surprised to find people with children assembled in the barn praising God for the harvest, and Joseph farming in the desert. They sang, “Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently, nourish the life of the world in our care, gift of great wonder, ours to surrender, trust for the children tomorrow will bear.”
We also must touch the earth more lightly to quell the ravages of climate change and to cool the planet. The foods we choose to eat vary widely in the overall carbon emissions burdening the atmosphere.
Like the Shetland Islanders, we can develop ways to use more of the fish, resulting in more protein products and more value with less catch.
A climate-smart future features more seafood in our diet and the moderation of high-carbon-dioxide-emitting less sustainable foods, such as fewer fertilizer-dependent soybeans and more crab cakes, fish pies, and “chowdah.”
Together, let’s eat well to reduce our carbon footprints and “nourish the life of the world in our care.”
Steady on,
Rob
