As farmers and rural communities prepare once again for spring planting, the economic crisis affecting agriculture continues to devastate farm and ranch families and our rural society. In recent years, North Dakota farmers and ranchers have faced an extended period of commodity prices at well below the costs of production, in addition to unusual weather conditions and disease problems.

While there have been many caring responses from churches, community groups, and other institutions, we recognized from the outset that such responses could not begin to meet the needs of the families who were being devastated by this crisis. Our existing social infrastructures simply have not had the capacity to meet the overwhelming needs created by this ongoing crisis. Unfortunately, neither private efforts nor current public programs have thus far been able to stabilize or restore this sector of our society to community health and economic viability.

Family farmers and ranchers and rural communities continue to struggle for survival. The declining number of farms and ranches and the loss of rural businesses and residents, combined with a rising concentration in the processing, marketing, and distribution of agricultural commodities and ownership of agricultural resources are signs of both social and economic injustices that are becoming institutionalized in our national fabric.

As churches we must do more than to just help the victims of these injustices to pick up the pieces of their lives. We must address the root causes by creating a just agricultural system that appropriately
compensates the producers of our daily food, while ensuring proper
distribution of food resources to meet basic human need, and enhancing
the long-term stewardship of our land and water resources for the
future.

Ultimately, the test of any agricultural or economic policy is a
moral one. Public policy must put human needs ahead of economic
profits. It must recognize the dignity of humankind and preserve the
integrity of God's creation. It must foster community accountability
and responsibility and self-governance to give the rural community
greater control over its own destiny. It must create broad-based
ownership and opportunity for all. It must strengthen the family, the
community, and the society.

These goals are not easily accomplished, but they reflect the
essence of our Christian beliefs and our hopes for both today and the
future for rural America.

Rural America, its farmers and ranchers, businesses, churches, and
communities, deserve justice. In seeking justice for rural America, we
are seeking justice for those who toil on the land to produce food for
humankind, for all those who eat at the table of humankind, and for the
creation which God entrusted to humankind to steward.

Concurring in the actions of the Rural Life Committee are:
American Baptist Churches of the Dakotas
Church of the Brethren, Northern Plains District
Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Eastern ND Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Western ND Synod
Presbyterian Church, USA, Northern Plains Presbytery
Religious Society of Friends
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bismarck
United Church of Christ, Northern Plains Conference
United Methodist Church, Dakotas Conference