The Church and the Current Crisis in Rural America: A Time to Act
Brother David Andrews, C.S.C.
The Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke, D.D., J.C.D.

In November of 1998, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference was joined by the National
Farmers’ Union, the National Farmers’ Organization, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office of the
State of Iowa, FARM AID, the National Family Farm Coalition and others in inaugurating the
Green Ribbon Campaign. The Campaign has been taken up as a common effort in various parts of
our nation, and in Canada and England.

The Green Ribbon Campaign is the effort of Christians to call attention to the plight of family
farmers, to support a safe environment for all, to advocate for humane treatment of animals, to seek
respect for the dignity of farmworkers and immigrants who work in food processing plants, and to
support healthy local communities. We wear a green ribbon to show our support for family-sized
farms. The green ribbon is a sign of our daily prayer for farmers. We care most for family farmers by
our daily prayer for them. The theme of the Green Ribbon Campaign is: "We care through prayer."

If the Christian community continues to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," should we not
consider carefully the economic, political, social, cultural, personal, and religious dimensions of
the food system? For example, consider the following questions which we are led to ask today
about the food which sustains us in life:

Milk: Did the dairy farmer inject with recombinant bovine growth hormone the cows who
produced the milk?
Bread: Was the grain, from which the flour for the bread was made, grown by an independent
wheat farmer struggling to stay afloat amidst falling commodity prices, diminishing federal
subsidies, and multinational interests which muscle him from all sides?
Bacon: Did the pig from whom the bacon comes belong to one of the massive hog producers
and packers who are gaining control of this sector of agriculture and are polluting rural
communities with unnaturally large quantities of animal waste?
Cereal: Does the cereal package tell me whether the grain from which the cereal was
made was patented and genetically engineered? Was the grain grown with the use of herbicides
and pesticides?
Eggs: Were the chickens who laid the eggs raised organically and allowed to range freely, or
were they penned in cages together with a massive number of birds?
Vegetables: If the label on the package of vegetables says organic, what does that mean?

Today, we must ask ourselves these and many other questions about the produce from the land and
plants and animals, upon which our life depends, because agriculture in our country is undergoing
rapid and radical changes. One of the most significant changes is the relentless loss of family-sized
farms.

The number of family farms has dropped precipitously in recent years, by 300,000 since 1979, as
multinational agribusiness corporations have gained more control over farm production,
commodities and markets. Genetically-modified organisms are increasingly being touted as the
wave of our agricultural future.

In January of this year, people in at least 13 states became ill and 16 died after eating hot dogs
contaminated with the bacteria Listeria. The Center for Disease Control has linked the dramatic
increase in food-borne illnesses to the industrialization of agriculture and the enormous size of
many processing facilities.

In his speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Conference, held in Albuquerque on
January 12 of this year, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Glickman declared that the growing
concentration in our agricultural economy was neither good nor bad. He asked: "Is this concentration
good or bad?" His answer was: "It is, and should remain, an open question. It’s important that
agriculture become more productive, more efficient, and more globally competitive. But it’s also
important that these changes do not come at the expense of family farmers and ranchers who also
deserve a fair shake in the marketplace." In reality, given the big farm bias at the United States
Department of Agriculture, Secretary Glickman’s statement is seems difficult to believe, for
government policies do not, in fact, give the "fair shake" to family farmers and ranchers, which
Secretary Glickman seemingly advocates.

Why should we, citizens of the nation and members of Christian churches and communities, have to
worry about the future of rural America? What is there about the future of agriculture in our nation
which is in doubt or is troubling and worrisome for us? Who is shaping the future of rural America?
How does Our Lord Jesus Christ’s prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread" relate to the statement
of Dwayne Andreas, former chairman of Archer Daniels Midland: "The food business is far and
away the most important business in the world"?

We must be concerned because our federal food policy is at best uneven in its support of a more
sustainable future for agriculture. Consider, for example, the following:

The United States Department of Agriculture has recently received an exception which
allows poultry to be sent to Mexico’s restricted zones (classified as such by the United
States government) for processing. These zones now have been declared free of
microbial illnesses, so that former restrictions on the shipping of whole carcasses from
the United States to Mexico for processing and reshipment to our country are allowed
by the United States Department of Agriculture.

In January of 1998, the USDA issued the report of its National Commission on Small Farms, A
Time to Act. The report states that 94 percent of the farms in the United States fit the definition of
small farms. Recently, most of the members of the National Commission on Small Farms joined
the "A Time to Act Campaign" and issued a report card to the USDA which gives several D’s on
various aspects of the implementation of the agenda of the report, including market access and
welfare of farmworkers.


The United States recently blocked a treaty on genetic modification of agricultural
products in Cartagena, Columbia. More than 120 countries supported the treaty. The
United States led less than ten countries in opposing it. The treaty would have limited
the market for genetically-altered foods, a direction upon which the United States has
embarked with little attention to the unintended harmful consequences of such a policy.

The Environmental Protection Agency has just concluded an agreement with the National Pork
Producers’ Council to allow environmental self-audits by hog factories. Such an agreement was
concluded behind the scenes amidst the convening of ostensibly public hearings which were to
determine how the EPA was to enforce regulations regarding Confined Animal Feeding
Operations. The film, "A Civil Action," tells the story of how two large corporations in eastern
Massachusetts fought identification as toxic polluters. Is there any chance that these hog factories
will reasonably and responsibly police themselves? The track record is not promising.

In Wendell Berry’s essay, "Conserving Communities," which appears in his collection of essays,
Another Turn of the Crank, Berry analyzes the forces at work in our globalized economy. He sees
a split between "locals" and "globals" or a movement toward a two-party system which divides
over the fundamental issue of community. On one side is the party of the global economy; on other
side is the party of local community. Regarding the party of local community, he writes:
_____"The natural membership of the community party consists of small farmers, ranchers,
_____and market gardeners, worried consumers, owners and employees of small shops,
_____stores, community banks, and other small businesses, self-employed people,
_____religious people, and conservationists. The aims of this party are only two: the
_____preservation of ecological diversity and integrity, and the renewal, on sound cultural
_____and ecological principles, of local economies and local communities." (p.18)

In Mexico City, in January of this year, Pope John Paul II clearly allied himself with the
"community party" when it comes to the support of local cultures and the environment against the
forces of "neoliberalism" and "homogenization." In his Apostolic Exhortation, The Church in
America, which the Holy Father promulgated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he states:
_____"However, if globalization is ruled merely by the laws of the market applied to suit
_____the powerful, the consequences cannot but be negative. These are, for example, the
_____absolutizing of the economy, unemployment, the reduction and deterioration of
_____public services, the destruction of the environment and natural resources, the
_____growing distance between the rich and the poor, unfair competition which puts the
_____poor nations in a situation of ever increasing inferiority." (No. 20)

The Holy Father underlined the moral responsibility of the Church before the growing
phenomenon of glolabization:
_____"The Church in America is called ... to cooperate with every legitimate means in
_____reducing the negative effects of globalization, such as the domination of the
_____powerful over the weak, especially in the economic sphere, and the loss of the
_____values of local cultures in favor of a misconstrued homogenization." (No. 55)

He goes on to indicate clearly the erroneous view of man which underlies certain social and
political structures in our day:
_____"More and more, in many countries of America, a system known as ‘neoliberalism’
_____prevails; based on a purely economic conception of man, this system considers
_____profit and the laws of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the
_____dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples. At times this system has
_____become the ideological justification for certain attitudes and behavior in the social
_____and political spheres leading to the neglect of the weaker members of society.
_____Indeed, the poor are becoming ever more numerous, victims of specific policies and
_____structures which are often unjust. (No. 56 ).

Loss of esteem for local cultures includes the loss of esteem for rural cultures. It is the result of
"homogenization" which flourishes when "neoliberalism" prevails. Legitimate means for
countering such "homogenization" and predatory economics include political advocacy, education
and pastoral care for the victims.

Wendell Berry and John Paul II are in significant agreement in their analysis of the situation.
Globalization is the economic and communications process currently being driven by multinational
companies through economic integration and restructuring. Wendell Berry’s "community party"
would be one of the forces which presumably would advocate for "local cultures" and resist
"homogenization."

In a country which increasingly takes for granted what we eat, who grew it, how it was grown, how
its growth affected the environment and the local community, how it got to us, and how it affects our
bodies, it is paramount to raise the questions about globalization’s negative impacts and to search for
more positive alternatives.

What can we do? The following are actions which we can take to foster sound agriculture in a
sound local community and culture:

We can oppose the industrialization of agriculture and animal factories, and the policies which
depopulate the countryside, erode security regarding our food, gambling with our food safety
and food production, put our family farmers out of work, and despoil our environment.
We can encourage Church leadership and grassroots organizations to speak out for family-
sized farms, and to act on behalf of family farmers.
We can work to introduce education about sustainable agriculture, in accord with God’s plan
for creation, into the curriculums of all our schools.
We can support an alternative food system which is sustainable or regenerative. We can use
our commercial quality kitchens in parishes, church halls, and other church institutions as local
processing centers and incubators for local food production.
We can use our halls and parking lots for farmer markets and direct agricultural marketing.
We can have our institutions buy locally and support a regional food system.
We can support policies which work against the loss of prime farm land, control urban sprawl, and develop balanced approaches to growth.
We can promote cook books for our local communities which contain recipes using local foods
and which celebrate special days, seasons and events expressive of the wider connection
between spirituality, and the land and the food and fiber produced on the land.
We can frequent restaurants in which food is produced by sustainable family farms of the region, farms on which a sustainable form of agriculture is practiced.
We can encourage and support efforts like pasture poultry, pasture pork and beef and locally-
produced vegetables.
We can encourage labeling which tells us who produced the food, where it was produced, and
how it was produced.
We can support anti-trust activity in the sector of food production.

We can do all of this and more to support an alternative to the industrialization of agriculture which
continues in our nation at an increasingly rapid speed. Christian churches and communities have
always prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread." It is time to focus our prayer more on how God
gives us "daily bread," according to His plan for us and for our world. For, at present, less and less
is "our daily bread" given without hundreds of negative consequences. The Church has the duty to
insist that quality be an essential element in the future of rural America. She can fulfill her
responsibility through moral leadership — expressed in preaching, teaching and public statements —
through the support of sound legislative policies, through the funding of pastoral remedies, and
through the promotion of grassroots on behalf of family-sized farms, activities like the Green Ribbon
Campaign.

A Time To Act, the Report of the National Commission on Small Farms states plainly:
_____"The pace of industrialization of agriculture has quickened. The dominant trend is
_____a few, large, vertically integrated firms controlling the majority of food and fiber
_____products in an increasingly global processing and distribution system. If we do not
_____act now, we will no longer have a choice about the kind of agriculture we desire as
_____a Nation." (p.9)

We believe that now is the time to act. Please join us in the Green Ribbon Campaign. Please join
us in supporting and promoting family-sized farms through prayer and action.