Imagine, a small factory being built here in Bluffton, or on Hilton Head, very near the water. The factory brings jobs and tax revenue to the area and the impact on the environment is actually quite minimal, given that is largely self contained. And to top it all off, the product the factory produces is seen by most as being necessary and beneficial for human health and happiness.  It is a win/win/win situation. 

The factory, though, to survive in an ever increasingly competitive market, must expand and grow just keep up. But with this growth, some sacrifices had to be made.  For one, the factory ceases to be self-contained, requiring significant amount of resources being trucked in from distant places and is pumping more and more fresh water form an already depleted aquifer.

Included in those shipments are an incredible amounts of phosphates and nitrates that are required for production. Strong smells start emanating from the factory, it’s closest neighbors finding it impossible to spend time in their yards on most days. Over time, rumors arise. Some say that runoff from the factory is killing fish and other wildlife in nearby streams and creeks. Some say that waste from the factory is even making its way into the groundwater. The nitrates and phosphates that were trucked in must be going somewhere, right?

Business is booming at the factory.  Their product almost sells itself, everyone’s convinced it is not only necessary but healthy.  The government even supplements the factory because it is seen as vital to the health of the nation and the economy of the nation. But you are starting to find that you no longer want to go the beach, the smell is just too bad.  In fact, you’ve heard from a friend that real estate values have dropped considerably due in large part to the factory.  Stories of fish kills in local creeks are no longer news.  Beach closures after large storms are now routine. 

Stories from the workers about conditions in the factory are alarming at best. Workers are being exposed to toxic chemicals, and you start to wonder just what you’ve been breathing in just a mile down the road. Given this situation, what would you do? You have been forced by this factory to give up all contact with the natural beauty that brought you to this area in the first place.

What would you do?

Would you protest this factory?

Maybe boycott its product?

Sign petitions to have it shut down?

What would you do?

What if the same factory were not in your back yard, but instead was located North of the Broad? What would you do then? What about if it were in Jasper county?  What about across the river in Georgia. Would you still advocate for its closure? Would you still boycott it’s product?Does it make a difference knowing the product being produced at this factory is protein for human consumption. Doesn’t matter what kind of protein really, it could take the form of eggs, milk and other dairy products, pork, beef, chicken.  The story is pretty much the same any more. 

The factory I described is a CAFO, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, not to be confused with a farm in any way shape or form. A CAFO holds unnaturally large numbers of animals in confined spaces, with little or no access to natural light or with enough space to practice normal, instinctive behaviors. Thousands of animals can be housed under a single roof, chickens could number in the hundreds of thousands.  

Animals are given preemptive doses of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease. The waste products are often stored in lagoons and/or sprayed on crop lands, often producing runoff to local streams and seepage into underground aquifers. The excessive nutrients and bacteria create conditions that are dangerous not only to humans but to entire river and ocean ecosystems.  If our little factory was producing plastic widgets and was polluting the air and water, chances are we would all agree it should be forced to clean up its act or be shut down. But it seems that because we are emotionally attached to the products produced in CAFO’s, we are more willing to accept greater and greater amounts of pollution that we would not accept otherwise. At least, we are willing to accept it so long it does not have a direct effect in our own lives.

Regardless of how one may feel about the treatment of animals on these so called Factory Farms, their affect on the environment and on human health alone is cause for concern. It is not my desire to convert anybody to a vegetarian or vegan diet by pointing out the many problems of CAFO’s, tt is not my place to tell you what you should eat. My purpose instead is to point out the extreme problems associated with the objectification of Nature, the objectification of all non-human animals.

For the past several hundreds of years, Western philosophy and science has advocated a mechanistic understanding of Nature, an objectification of nature. No longer do we see spirits living in nature that require appeasement, no longer do we see judgment cast down from the heavens in every bolt of lightening, no longer do we cower in fear and guilt when the earth quakes or when the hurricanes blow.  Because science has shown us the true cause of such things The material benefits of this objectification of nature are countless, life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past few centuries. We are enormously safer and more comfortable than previous generations could ever imagine. The material benefits of the objectification of nature are just beyond measure.

And please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.   However, it is necessary to question the true costs of our comfort and alleged safety.  The first Earth day 40 years ago was an attempt to educate the public on the true cost of our estrangement from nature. And it is important to note the incredible progress we have made in the past 40 years. The Burning rivers and lead filled air have been cleaned up. The motto, Reduce, recycle and reuse is memorized by elementary students all around the country. We’ve made progress, but as evidenced by the growing number of CAFO’s, the growing reduction of our Rain Forests, the increasing demand for natural resources in developing nations, we are not done. I’m not suggesting  that we as a congregation or we as individuals need to do more to reduce, reuse, and recycle; that goes without saying I think. What I am suggesting however, that we as a spiritual community, as a religious organization, that we set some serious goals for ourselves that directly challenge us as a congregation and as individuals to explore the spiritual connection we have with the planet and the Universe that has given rise to our species.

I want to draw your attention to our the first principle of Unitarian Universalism.   “We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person” Why?What is the source of that inherent worth and dignity? For me, that source is the knowledge that we recognize in our fellow humans the same interior depth that we ourselves experience.   We recognize not only a physical resemblance, but also a spiritual resemblance. We not only share a physical resemblance, but also a subjective resemblance. You are a subject.  I am a subject.  WE are all subjects. That recognition is the source of our inherent worth and dignity.

The spiritual task ahead of us, I believe, is to awaken in ourselves that same awareness of inherent worth and dignity in all living things, for the whole of the planet. We must begin to recognize that all living things are subjects and  not merely objects. The simple fact of our large brains and opposable thumbs and a conscious and subconscious awareness of own impending deaths, does not make us fundamentally more important than any other species on the planet.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? 

That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the 

sons of the earth.vThis we know: the earth does not belong to man,

man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood 

that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely 

a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

We have demystified and explained the natural forces that in previous generations were cause for fear and trepidation.  This is a good thing. However, the continued objectification of nature that helped us understand it, can only lead to further degradation of the Earth, degradation of ourselves as beings of the EArth. In ten years, Earth Day will celebrate its 50^th anniversary. Where do we hope to be by then?

We can continue to address the environmental and social and personal problems of our time as though they are merely objects to be repaired like a flat tire or a loose wire, and we might actually make some additional progress in repairing some of the  damage caused by our insatiable desire for physical comfort and social status. However, if we do not do anything to address the underlying cause of insatiable desire for comfort and social status, any progress we make will only be temporary. What can we do as a congregation, as individuals, that will make Earth day more than a day to teach the virtues of reduce, reuse and recycle, and become a day to celebrate our spiritual awakening to the inherent worth and dignity of all beings, the inherent worth and dignity of the Earth.

Will it take a CAFO being built in our own back yard to help us see it?

So be it! Amen! Blessed Be!