Free-Range Religion: Alternative Food Movements and Religious Life in the United States

Ethical and moral concerns about food and diet commonly feature in individuals’ religious identities and expressions. These concerns extend beyond what one should eat to include how food should be prepared and produced. As Adrienne Krone demonstrates in this ethnographic study, participants in alternative food movements are developing new ways to see food preparation and production as religious acts. Following two Christian and two Jewish food organizations, Krone complicates our understanding of American religion as religious people come together across a range of differences to change the food system.

Free-Range Religion showcases the complex ways that religion lives and works within food production, marketing, and distribution. These ＂free-range＂ religious practices blend belief and practice with secular concerns and constitute a key, albeit understudied, part of the American alternative food movement.

Adrienne Krone is associate professor of environmental science and sustainability and religious studies at Allegheny College.