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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.