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for agriculture and love for what they do. “I don’t think any
farmer in the world will tell you that they just farm because
it’s a job,” she said. “For most farmers, farming defines us.”
CSAs will help connect a rapidly urbanizing world population
to the people and places that grow their food, said Schneider.
“The more we can get people sitting face to face and having
honest and open relationships with farmers, the better off we’ll
all be,” she said. “Anyone who is interested in using this model
can go to to find out more.”
Clearly, new approaches that help individual farmers
produce better food with fewer inputs and in an ethical and
fair manner, all while better managing their environmen-
tal footprint, are needed. These challenges will need to be
addressed if we are going to be able to raise enough to feed an
ever-expanding global human population, set to hit 10 billion
by 2090. But what are these new approaches, new ways of
looking at food production and those who work in it, and new
parameters by which to judge success or failure?
A national symposium, sponsored by Catholic Rural
Life and a host of other groups including five Midwest
Farmers Unions (Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Wisconsin), provided some of those answers.
The symposium, titled ‘Faith, Food and the Environment’,
studied the intersection of agriculture and religious tradi-
tions and delved deeply into the ethics of food production,
hunger and environmental stewardship in America and the
world. It brought together a large swath of religious leaders
and theologians, members of the five Midwest Farmers
Unions, and environmental activists, in hopes of creating
new synergies and finding new ideas from the intersections
of these three disciplines.
The three-day event was held in St Paul, Minnesota and
provided thoughtful and provocative ethical frameworks to
examine these issues. “The seminar was inspired by a discus-
sion and the pursuant letter the US bishops wrote 10 years
ago, challenging Catholics in their lack of awareness of food,
farming and farm worker related issues as seen through the
lens of the Catholic social doctrine,” said James Ennis, execu-
tive director of Catholic Rural Life.
Ennis noted that the inextricable link between food and
agriculture, the increasing concentration at every level of
agriculture and growing globalization mean that a few people
are making food production decisions that affect more people
than any time in history. “Because of the corrupting influences
of injustice the church cannot remain indifferent to agricul-
ture matters,” he said.
The national symposium will be followed by an inter-
national symposium in Italy in 2015. The findings of both
symposiums will be used to develop The Vocation of the
Agricultural Leader, a set of resources that Catholic Rural
Life is developing with the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace in the Vatican. Ennis hopes these resources will
provide present-day farmers and food industry leaders with
the practical wisdom rooted in faith traditions that is needed
to overcome the ethical challenges facing agriculture today.
“Maybe history will show us that this new global paradigm
began in St Paul, Minnesota,” he said.
Doug Peterson, president of Minnesota Farmers Union,
said that the symposium was a natural fit for farmers union
members, many of whom are people of faith but all of whom
are seeking to maximize their agricultural production in a
sustainable and responsible manner. “Family farmers are
ethical, hard-working people, and injecting them into a
conversation about the larger issues of global hunger, food
production, ethics and the environment helped participants
in this symposium come up with insight into steps that can be
taken by each and every farm family to address these issues,”
said Peterson.
Peterson noted that swaths of rural America and rural areas
around the globe are struggling to survive and thrive, dealing
with the high costs associated with getting started in farming,
the ongoing effects of climate change and the increasing
concentration in American agriculture. “We cannot ensure
a safe, affordable and sustainable food supply without plant-
ing the seeds for the next generation of farmers, ensuring
they have the risk management tools they need to deal with
increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and fewer and
fewer buyers of commodities,” he said. “Clearly, people exam-
ining these issues from a religious point of view have offered
valuable insights and guidance on how small family farmers
can best handle these issues and overcome some challenges
that have been placed in their paths.”
NFU members know that while they can’t provide all of
the answers facing world food production, sustainability and
helping family farms to thrive so that they can underpin rural
economies, they are certainly part of the solution. And that
is why NFU and its members in all 50 states will continue to
advocate for the economic and social well-being and quality
of life of family farmers, ranchers, fishermen and consumers
and their communities through education, cooperation and
legislation. NFU advocates sustainable production of food,
fibre, feed and fuel.
Hilltop is run entirely on renewable energy using low-cost methods that are
adaptable anywhere in the world
Image: Ian Aley, Hilltop Community Farm
Deep Roots