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The Art of Food Rituals
FIGURE 18.16 FieldTable manifests in 2016 as a convivial, local and agroecological narrative to counter the
1976 Union Carbide advert promising synthetic and genetically modifed solutions to world hunger. (Image
credit: Eva van Niekerk.)
CULTIVATING SYMPOIETHICS
The food ritual FieldTable responds to Merleau-Ponty’s call to artists to ‘awaken the experiences
which will make the idea take root in the consciousness of others’ (Merleau-Ponty, 1945: 8). As a
ritual and an edible intervention, FieldTable emerged through relationships between people, matter
and the habitats of place. By making visible the abundance and natural fertility of regenerative farming methods through its local harvests of colourful, seasonal produce, and the health of well-reared
animals, FieldTable was a space for awakening, inhabiting and re-imagining agroecological futures
for the region. As noted above, during the ritual, two questions were asked: at the start of the meal,
‘What are you hungry for’? and, at the end, ‘How has your hunger been satisfed’? Here follows a
selection of participants’ responses which shares the diversity of perspectives from women and men
of different occupations, ages, cultural heritages and ethnic communities.
The return of the sacred to the table has created time, space
and thinking partners to look at this hunger,
to imagine its voice, its sounds, its texture, its feeling and
fnd out how to hear it, how to respond to it.
Understanding what my belly inherently needs and wants
to be fully nourished – re-awakening intuition.
I am starving for revolution to our food systems. Starving to see farmers doing away with the systems
that harm the mother earth. I want food to be accessible to everyone because food is life.
This is my love for life, my sanctuary, my home.
A sense of freedom, a chance to engage.
A society where diversity is treasured, where food is not wasted;
where Nature becomes and is the most revered
or ‘desirable’ thing, asset, goal; where food and conversation serve
to respect the farmer, the cook, the soil, and ourselves.
I am searching for beauty … a new beauty.
A beauty that emerges when time is taken to appreciate and experience
and rediscover what feeds our soul and what we need to do
in order to build resilience to the true challenges of today.
You are re-igniting culture and coming back to what it means to be community … community along
the lines of land and food.