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RURAL ROOTS - BROTHER DAVID ANDREWS, CSC
Visions of the Farm Bill's Future
The next farm bill is scheduled for 2007. Already many groups are working on the shape of that farm bill. NCRLC is a part of a number of collaborative partnerships to work on new farm bill and food policies.
We have already been putting out materials on our e-bulletin and our website. We have already been on many conference calls and in meetings around the country with many of these partners. We have been consciously linking the farm bill efforts with global food and agriculture issues including the WTO which will take place in early December of 2005 in Hong Kong. NCRLC will be present there. On February 11th of 2006 at the annual Social Ministry Gathering in Washington, DC, NCRLC will host a farm bill summit to explore the burning issues of the farm bill debate. We will be in the midst of much farm bill activity from now until 2007. As part of this educational effort for our readers and supporters we are happy to publish this issue of Catholic Rural Life.
This issue of Catholic Rural Life is devoted to educating about the next farm bill. We have invited a number of thought leaders to write short essays on their vision for the farm bill. These are vision statements, not policy articles. These are meant to introduce our readers to an array of thoughts and ideas about the farm bill. As vision statements they point in a direction, articulate the "big picture" and leave the details to later opportunities and to other written materials. Our thought at NCRLC is to begin to lay the ground work for the possible, the new, the next stage of legislative creativity, if that is not a contradiction in terms.
We hope you read each article. Each comes with a set of assumptions and implications which remain to be further elaborated, but we expect you’ll get the distinctions in vision by a reading of each paper.
As part of the dialogue I’ve included a 1937 article from one of the most visionary leaders of NCRLC’s history, Father John Rawe, SJ, a frequent writer for NCLRC. His essays are indeed visionary. A short piece he wrote on social policy in 1937 resonates with many of our contemporary writers and thought leaders in its concern for farmers, communities, the growing industrialization of agriculture, the dangers of concentrations of power in the hands of a few food companies. This was part of the vision of NCRLC already in its early days. As we have celebrated our 82nd birthday, it is our hope that we can contribute to a meaningful public dialogue about the future of food and farm policy. I hope you find this issue of Catholic Rural Life helpful reading. I believe it is a necessary resource in these farm bill debates.
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
4625 Beaver Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50310-2199
(515) 270-2634
email address: ncrlc@mchsi.com
website: www.ncrlc.com
This article was published in the Winter 2005 issue of Catholic Rural Life©. No portion of this article may be reproduced without written permission from The National Catholic Rural Life Conference. To purchase the Winter 2005 issue of Catholic Rural Life, please contact The National Catholic Rural Life Conference office at 4625 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50310-2199, call (515) 270-2634, or e-mail ncrlc@mchsi.com. The cost is $2.50 an issue plus postage and handling.
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