New Religiosity and sustainable food cultures

A one-day sem­i­nar with hybrid par­tic­i­pa­tion
King’s Col­lege Lon­don and Online

This sem­i­nar exam­ines the plur­al respons­es, reac­tions and new direc­tions com­ing from reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al com­mu­ni­ties in response to con­tem­po­rary sus­tain­able food prac­tices.

Cre­at­ing a more per­fect world is a fun­da­men­tal aspect of reli­gious inno­va­tion and rein­ven­tion. Food cul­tures are often cen­tral to this project. What one eats, how the food is sourced, how one eats, and who one eats with are all fun­da­men­tal ele­ments in the way that human reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties define them­selves and seek to influ­ence out­side cul­tures. Reli­gious calls for more sus­tain­able, eth­i­cal food prac­tices are noth­ing new. But with the cur­rent cli­mate cri­sis, such prac­tices are reach­ing more into main­stream cul­tures.

The day aims to bring togeth­er aca­d­e­mics and reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties, ask­ing them to con­sid­er how do reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al com­mu­ni­ties respond to, address or indeed resist soci­etal tran­si­tions to sus­tain­able food. We are par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in the ways in which they inte­grate car­bon lit­er­a­cy con­cern­ing food in their teach­ing and prac­tices. More­over, we invite con­trib­u­tors to reflect on some of the cen­tral chal­lenges, devel­op­ments and trends that come with these trans­for­ma­tions.

Con­firmed speak­ers include:

Faith Veg­an­ism: Reartic­u­lat­ing Reli­gion through Sus­tain­able Food Prac­tice
Dr. Ellie Atay­ee-Ben­nett, PhD, Lec­tur­er in Soci­ol­o­gy at Southamp­ton Solent Uni­ver­si­ty

Root­ed in the Land: Jew­ish Agri­cul­tur­al Tra­di­tions for a Sus­tain­able Future (online)
Talia Chain, founder of Sadeh Farm

‘Ital is vital’ Rasta­fari sus­tain­abil­i­ty prac­tices in South Lon­don
Hilde Cap­par­el­la, PhD from The Open Uni­ver­si­ty

A vis­it to The Eustace Miles: explor­ing the con­ver­gence of veg­e­tar­i­an­ism, health and new ideals at the turn of the cen­tu­ry
Vic­to­ria Addi­nall, Inde­pen­dent researcher for­mer­ly at SOAS (MA Tra­di­tions of Yoga and Med­i­ta­tion, SOAS Cen­tre of Yoga Stud­ies)

Veg­an feasts or a bat­tle for oat milk? The impacts of ingroup norms on low-car­bon diets in the church
Gin­ny M. Daley, MSc Anglia Ruskin Uni­ver­si­ty

Yog­ic diets, per­son­al well­be­ing and sus­tain­abil­i­ty
Stephen Jacobs, PhD, Hon­orary Research Fel­low at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wolver­hamp­ton

Euro-Ani­mist Relat­ing to Food (online)
Rune Hjarnø Ras­mussen, pub­lic intel­lec­tu­al try­ing to recov­er reject­ed North Euro­pean tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge

Food For All: Pop-up Prasadam
Mar­tin Wood, PhD, Aca­d­e­m­ic Course Leader and Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Glouces­ter­shire