Let Them Eat Dirt

Geophagy. This is defined in Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary as the following:

: the practice of eating earthy substances (as clay) that in humans is performed especially to augment a scanty or mineral-deficient diet or as part of a cultural tradition -- called also earth eating

It is curious that describing it as 'part of a cultural tradition' is included in this definition. It would be hard to imagine anyone here in Valencia seeing a child chew on dirt as anything other than something that must be fixed.

Cajeunes,11, shows his tongue after eating a mud cookie in Cite Soleil, Friday, Jan. 18, 2008. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Read the following Associated Press article on the art of the dirt cookie here.

For what we as Christians should be doing about this consider reading Tim Keller's latest book: Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road.