From the Bittman piece Anne Laurie highlighted below:

[…] But as hungry as I may get, we know I’ll eat well soon. […] Many poor people don’t have that option, and Beckmann and his co-organizers are calling for God to create a “circle of protection” around them. Some are fasting for a day, many for longer. […]

Clearly, any social movement that gets Marc Bittman to write about them in the New York Times is doing something right, but this strikes me as a typically useless liberal political gesture, just like most of the time-and-money sucking gestures that have occupied white middle-class suburban and urban liberals for the past few decades. While they were visualizing world peace and boycotting Wal-Mart, Republicans took over the House, and a bunch of crazy governors and stage legislatures began to systematically destroy unions and abortion rights.

Boycott and fast all you want, buy all the eco-friendly local organics you please, and John Boehner will still be Speaker of the House. These efforts are diversions and sideshows, and they’d be harmless if people recognized they were about nothing more than making you feel good.

If you want to help a hungry person, donate food to your local food bank and donate cash to your local Democrats. If you want to feel good, create a “circle of protection” via prayer. There’s nothing wrong with feeling good, but your good feelings are not going to win the class war that Bittman writes about so eloquently in his column.