This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: It's getting harder and harder to figure out what to eat. A scroll through social media raises many questions.
Why is food so expensive? Am I getting enough protein? Should I be making all my bread at home?
What foods were recalled this week? These questions make trips to the grocery store and mealtime decisions more difficult. For centuries, some people have turned to their religious texts and traditions for answers.
In "Born Again Bodies," religious studies scholar R. Marie Griffith traces how Protestant Christian ideas on faith and the body shaped the development of American diet and fitness culture. Through my decade of ethnographic research on religious food movements, I have found that many Americans are still turning to religion as they decide what to eat.
I analyzed four religious alternative food movements in my 2025 book, "Free-Range Religion." I argue there that these movements aren't just changing what they eat; they are working to reshape the American food system from the ground up. Two of the sites I studied were Jewish farms that were providing experiential education opportunities for the local Jewish community. It was part of their larger mission to reconnect Jews to the land and to the agrarian roots of Judaism.
They often point out that the ancient Israelites were an agrarian people and that many Jewish laws, values and holidays were shaped by that context. At the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, I worked alongside young Jewish adults participating in a three-month program, the Adamah Farm Fellowship, as they planted, harvested and prepared produce for their weekly community-supported agriculture program. The fellows begin their days with a morning prayer session and take time away from their work on the farm to celebrate Shabbat together.
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