Free-Range Religion

Alternative Food Movements and Religious Life in the United States

Adrienne Krone

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781469690322, 9781469690315
• eBook ISBN: 9781469684215
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION
• 1 Sustainable Agriculture at the Adamah Farm Fellowship
• 2 Live Foods for Living Bodies at the Hallelujah Diet Health Retreat
• 3 Cows, Chickens, and Certifications at Baldwin Family Farms
• 4 A Year of Rest and Restoration at Pearlstone Center
• CONCLUSION
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index