USA

A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer

Search the website for Portland Mennonite Church in Oregon, USA, and you can find recipes for vegan borscht and black bean burgers.

Why? Rod Stafford, the church’s lead pastor, explained that when the congregation’s Climate Change Justice Committee was formed in 2017, “We focused on food.”

“We talked a lot about ‘what do you do with this existential challenge?’” Rod said, “because it’s so big but it’s also deeply personal.” After consulting resources like the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming published in 2017, the committee decided that one of the most impactful things church members can do is change their eating habits.

According to Drawdown, animals raised for meat (using unsustainable farming practices) are responsible for somewhere between 15 and 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. If people in countries that consume a lot of meat, like the United States, transition to a plant-rich diet, the potential for lowering greenhouse gas emissions is huge.

Equally important is reducing the amount of food that is wasted, as Drawdown reports that a third of all food produced currently doesn’t make it to the fork and instead produces methane in landfills.

The Climate Change Justice Committee addresses these issues at Portland Mennonite Church by sharing resources on the environmental impacts of different diets, hosting workshops on how to cook with what you have, encouraging people to shop locally and eat seasonally and providing a space for church members to share their favorite vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Vegetarian potlucks have been especially successful, Rod said. “It’s hard to imagine being a vegetarian until you taste some really good vegetarian food.”

For Rod and the rest of the committee, grounding climate action in Anabaptist values is important.

“It’s easy to be pessimistic when it’s not clear how much difference it makes if I give up beef or not,” Rod said. That’s why he believes it’s critical to find “grounding in something deeper than just the ability to successfully roll back the impacts (of climate change).”

An article written by David Garen and published in The Mennonite (now Anabaptist World Magazine) in 2019 has helped the congregation find a connection between its Anabaptist faith and climate justice.

The article, titled “Mennonite values in a warming world,” explains how the values of simplicity, community, justice and peace can provide a framework for diagnosing and solving the root causes of environmental degradation and climate change. Rod encourages all Anabaptists to read it.

In the end, Rod said, “You do this stuff because it’s right, because it’s what we’re committed to, even if it’s not going to be as effective as we may hope.”