In the beginning, on the sixth day of His work, God created man-as a consumer. And God blessed him, and said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding the seed; to you it shall be for meat … And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.” Those were the paradisean days, before the serpent beguiled the woman and Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that time on, God’s curse has been on the world: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Out of the knowledge of good and evil grew-the producer. And the ground ever since has brought forth “thorns also and thistles.”