“The garden is our oldest metaphor,” Fred Bahnson writes in Soil and Sacrament, his new book hitting shelves tomorrow. “Our ecological problems are a result of having forgotten who we are—soil people, inspired by the breath of God.”

The book is an account of Bahnson’s search for answers to questions like what does it mean to follow God? How should I live my life? Throughout the book, Bahnson takes readers to four different faith communities—Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Jewish—to explore the connections between spiritual nourishment and the way we feed our bodies. Bahnson finds that, for him, working the earth and growing real food feeds his spiritual hunger.

“Everyone hungers for something. Some hunger for food. Others hunger for community. Or beauty. But we all hunger.”

Below, Bahnson discusses the book on TedxManhattan.

Emilie Dayan, our project coordinator, blogs weekly about issues of nutrition, sustainability, and food policy in the South