Newspaper Page Text
JANUARY 27. 1172
PAGE 5
THE MERCER CLUSTER
Health Food
by Kenneth Krakow
At the beginning of the Fall quarter there w as quite a stir among a
small group of students interested in liaving nealtn foods served at
Mercer. There was some discussion about how this could be brought
about, proposals were brought before the student government, and
later some of the proponents became disgruntled that nothing was
done. Some of the un-initiated approached me and asked just what
was meant by health food, so I'll address myself to that question in
this article.
To begin with, I personally am completely sold on the concept of
health food, and was introduced to it over fifteen years ago in
Soathern California. And incidentally, a number of the faculty and
staff members here are also health food advocates. Furthermore, it
is my feeling that all of the students cl Mercer would benefit in many
ways if they shared these concepts and were equally concerned
about the nutrition of everything they consume.
To answer the question of what is meant by health foods or natural
foods, this generally refers to organic foods. To be truly organic, tbi
fruits and vegetables must be grown in soil receiving the full organic
treatment that is not deficient in any element, is nch in humus and
biologically composted natural fertilizers, without the use of syn
thetic argicultural chemicals, dusts, or sprays. The meat and poultry
must be fed on natural spray-free food only, without the use of
stilbestrol, antibiotics, vaccines, and dressed without the use of
chemicals. Processed foods should be free of what are considered
dubious chemical additives, whether for color or flavor or preser
vation.
“A mind to stay here”
profiles Will Campbell
*>. by Felice LaMarca
This was the question asked
by John Egerton in his profile of
the man, Will Campbell in A
Mind To Stay Here. He is a
farmer, writer, theologian,
Baptist preacher and leader of
‘The Movement”. But who is
he? What is his theology and
how is be relevant in our lives?
John Egerton tells us that Will
Campbell was born on a cotton
farm .became a Baptist, went to
Louisiana College for a year,
served three years in the army
as a medic, got an A.B. degree
in English at Wake Forest
'College, put in a year of
graduate work at Tulane, went
to Yale far three years and then
became preacher of a three-
hundred member Baptist
Church in the lumber mill
community of Taylor,
Louisiana. That lasted two and
a half years. Then came two
years as director of religious
life at the University of
Mississippi.
In 1956 he opened a Southern
office for the'* Racial and
Cultural Relations Department
of The National Council of
Churches, and seven years later
became director- of the Com
mittee of Southern Ciurchmen.
But Will Campbell was his own
man, belonging to no one, and
highly effective He says that.
"My role shifted drastically
when the churches began to join
the marches. Tne NCC became
another "God is on our side”
faction just like the white
segragationists. I didn’t want to
be identified with a white
liberal-dominated movement.-
I was and I am a preacher.” His
boss once told him, “We can’t
pay a man a salary just to
preach,” and Will’s response
was, "Then you can’t pay me a
salary to do anything."
Elbert Jean says In thejame
profile, "He has this sensitivity
that kinda says it’s enough to be
a person. This is his faith, his
theology, if you please. He
believes God loves us as much
when we’re bad as when we’re
good. He doesn’t worry very
much about folk’s morals. The
reason Will hasn’t joined the
civil rights movement-or they
haven’t joined him-is that he’s
too radical for them.”
The key word is “reconciled”.
Katallagete, a Greek word
meaning, "Be reconciled"-or as
'Will translates it, "Be what you
are "4s the name of a magazine
which he and his amorphous
committee publish
sporadically. The committee
itself is a reincarnation of The
Fellowship of Southern Chur
chmen, which was born during
the Depression of the 1930’s.
Will is the voice, some sav the
heart and soul of it. He is the
director of this non-
denominational alliance of
clergymen and laymen.
As time passed, Egerton says
that-Will’s reputation as
mediator, strategist and ad
visor grew among such
A question asked by many
coU?ge students today is, "What
do the churches (that is the
institutions) do to warrant my
coming back.” This is a
question these “institutions”
should consider. To long these
so called churches have dabbled
with social and political issues
.and ignored the teachings of
Christ which supposedly set the
example to be followed by the
church. It’s a sad day when
politicians, as deceiving as
they sometimes are, have to set
precedence for open door
policies which are later
followed by the church (or
rather some Churches) As
Clarence Jordan, founder of the
Koinoia Farms in Araericus
Georgia said, ‘It just burns me
up that we Christians have to be
forced to sit around Woolworth’s
tables and yet still segregate
Christ's table. The sit4ns never
would have been necessary if
disparate groups as SNCC,
SCLC, NAACP, the church, the
press, and the power structure
of a score of Southern com
munities. Will was a confidant
of Negroes on the firing line, a
trusted source for the wen-king
press, a man who could sit on a
cabin porch and rvay with
troubled parents as easily as he
could sit in the Establishment’s
paneled board room and tell the
powers how to end the troubles.
Will Campbell speaks to the
mass of Christians and tells
them that their church has
become a club and will collapse
of it's own weight. "The Church,
must concern itself not with the
laws or humanism but with the
gospel. The Christian must first
of all be concerned with souls.”
"Our problem is that we have
spoken too much of man’s worth
and dignity and not often
enough of his insignificance in
God’s scheme of things.”
Christians had been sitting
down together in Church and
Christs table all these many
years. If anybody has to bear
the blame and the guilt for all
the sit-ins and all the demon
strations and all the disorder in
the South, it's the white-washed
Christian who have had the
word of God locked up in their
heads and have refused to do
battle with it.”
The Church has mistakenly
identified with Brylcreme-they
seem to think a little dab will do
it—IT WONT
Until the "churches” see
what it means to be the church-
the body of Christ and begin to
live the ethical teachings of
Jesus-nothing will warrant the
students "coming back”. If a
change does not occur im
mediately, these same students
will observe these institutions
as they mire in their own ex
crement.
Church compared with Brylcreme
by Tom Gordy
When Ralph Nader was on our campus last month, he was baited
by some students to give his criticism of the cafeteria food at Mercer.
After eating all his lunch enthusiastically, he stated, "The liver
tastes good and appears to be nutritious. But it depends on what’s in
it; I couldn’t tell in the eating.”
He was referring to the chemical additives which are placed in
cattle feed as well as inoculations of questionable substances which
are used primarily to generate greater profits to the livestock
producers, meat packers, as well as the chemical companies. But
studies have indicated that over a period of time the chemical
residues remaining in the meat can be hazardous to the health of the
consumer.
Over the past decades, the small group of individuals concerned
with the way the commercial food industry has been recklessly
devitalizing our groceries have been laughed off as food faddists and
nuts. It is only in the past year that health food has become
respectable, and today the natural health food industry is one of the
fastest growing in the nation. In 1971 the number of retail health food
stores in the United States increased from the previous year by fif y
per cent, to a present total of over 2,100.
The organic food movement got underway partly as a reaction
among some groups who got hurt from the drug scene and went for
what they called "head repair,” or a health food kick. Then many are
influenced by such as Ralph Nader and also Adel Davis who was the
first writer able to make nutrition sound vital and exciting, as in her
1954 book Eat Right to Keep Fit.
The movement is slow in arriving to this part of the country. For
example, the Organic Food Directory published in 1971 lists only 12
sources of organic food in Georgia as compared to 354 in California.
Those in this state include a herb farm, a worm ranch, a honey farm
and a potato farm. An active health food store is located across the
street from Emory University, and around the corner from the store
is a cafe that serves only health food.
Because this movement is now growing so fast, it is becoming
extremely difficult to find adequate sources of organic food to supply
the demand. It has also caused some unscrupulous growers to charge
the higher prices for organically grown foods, when in fact they are
not. The legitimate growers are now app .aling to the government to
establish standards and grades which will assure the buyer of
organic foods that they are as represented.
Even if it were possible to find the necessary sources of supply of
all organic foods needed to serve in our cafeteria, I would hesitate to
inflict this on the board students-just the same as I would not dare to
introduce my Yankee ideas of what foods to serve and how to prepare
them. It is already difficult enough to try and prepare foods to suit
the many varying tastes of such a large group of appetites without
getting away from what are believed to be the normally accepted
foods.
There has been some talk of the possibility of trying out a separate
health food line to see how it would work. It must be remembered
that we are presently staffed and equipped to produce two or three
main choices of meats, etc. And also the procurement and
preparation of organic foods is a great deal more time consuming
than is required by the traditional convenience foods. For instance,
the more nutritious natural brown rice takes three times as long to
cook as the regular white polished rice. The whole grain health
breads co6t about 50 percent more than the standard loaf, and the
delicious granola cereal costs about four or five times as much by
volume as conventional cereals. The organically grown fruits and
vegetables are just about non existent in this part of the country, as
are chemically-free meats.
One idea in the back of my mind is that we might conduct a poll or
survey of the board students to determine the degree of interest, and
if there seems to be sufficient favorable response, some kind of
program can then be worked out.