As Abrahamic faiths fast, let us consider food ethics; National Catholic Reporter, February 18, 2026

 SHMULY YANKLOWITZ, National Catholic Reporter; As Abrahamic faiths fast, let us consider food ethics

 "What is shared between these three Abrahamic traditions is the idea that food is never just simply food. Rather, food provides opportunities for moral education, personal discipline and collective memory. When we eat (and fast) together, we build community around shared values.

Never has it been more relevant for us to think about food ethics. In the United States alone, 48 million people live with food insecurity — that includes 14 million children. Worldwide, in 2023, about 1 in every 11 people faced hunger: well over 700 million people. Food ethics is about who is fed, of course — about the accessibility of healthful, nutritious foods. But it doesn't stop there. It is about workers, and farmworkers in particular, their dignity and safety; so often made invisible, the people who grow and harvest our food deserve to be seen. It's about animals — their sentience and our mandate to be their guardians. It's about the land and the sustainability of our food practices.

Given the inherent spiritual dimension of food, I believe that food ethics movements need to be spiritual movements. Note that I did not say religious movements. Indeed, while religion can play a role in actualizing the deeper meaning of food, we should not let faith be a barrier to entry. People of other faiths, and of no faith at all, have a place in the conversation.

This year, let us renew a discussion in America around food ethics. On a personal level, we can feel the push toward taking on an issue of food ethics to integrate into our own lives more deeply — not just during Lent or Ramadan or Passover, but all year long. On the national and communal level, let's use this energy to rejuvenate the discourse on the ethics of food: how it is produced, harvested and consumed.

As we sit around the table — be that for Seder, iftar, Easter dinner, or something else entirely — we might ask ourselves, what would it look like to build the world to come here and now, one meal at a time?"