Concluding Sessions | Faith, Food & the Environment

Reflections, Conclusions & Next Steps

Jim Ennis explained that this final morning is an opportunity to reflect upon the last two days of what we’ve been discussing around the tables; what we’ve been hearing from our keynote presenter, regarding some of the challenges and complexities of our agricultural and food system; and also what’s happening around the world.

He reminded participants of the goal of this project: to create resources to help guide our future leaders, informed by faith, with wisdom drawn from Church teachings, in how to navigate through the challenges that leaders are facing in the agricultural and food industries. This is especially in regard to how to care for the human person as well as the environment, this creation, this earth that we have been gifted with.

So this morning is an opportunity to share insights with fellow participants, but he also noted that the hosts/organizers are inviting everyone “to continue to communicate to us over the course of this project, to communicate your thoughts and impressions in writing via email as we develop these tools, this series of resources through the vocation of the agricultural leader.”

Here are the three questions:

What impressed you most in what you heard during this symposium?
What important issues should focus our efforts in moving forward?
What is missing from this symposium (and included in the next one)?

Regarding the third question, Ennis noted that some important groups were missing from this initial symposium. One was farm workers: To that reconcile that, plans are underway to organize a focus group in the Diocese of Stockton, California, by March 2015 and meet with farm worker leaders.

Ennis also recognized too that more women leaders needed to be involved these discussions. Although he reached out, the women keynote speakers in had in mind were not available due to other commitments and scheduling conflicts.

Ennis said he was pleased that half of the symposium participants are farmers, “because this does need to be grounded from the grassroots.” But he recognized that agricultural leaders will also come from farm worker organizations, food processors and distributers, and even further along the food chain (e.g., nutritionists and local food advocates). “We were challenged with what is the definition of a leader,” he said, “and we are continuing to reflect upon that.”

Doug Peterson (president, Minnesota Farmers Union)

Peterson thanked everyone for their presence, their fellowship and their ideas, but noted “we still have further along the path to go.” Talk must now lead to action, and action means determining and advocating the right policies.

He said that Farmers Union objectives, including the sponsoring states of the Farmers Union Enterprises, and the objectives of international organizations such as the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization), the WFO, and the United Nations, the common focus and intent is where to take policy. “How we take information and how it matches up with our grassroots policy is terribly important within this conference and over the next few years as we develop with a message.”

The symposium brought forth important questions — questions that considered “the full weight of farming and the full weight of food.” Peterson thanked the faith leadership who helped to sponsor this symposium and provide the depth of theological spirit important to these discussions. “We have covered the ethics, the environment, and the economy. Now it is your time for what you have learned, for what you have shared.”

“As many of you know,” he concluded, “there is a shared public benefit to farming and food, and the weight of that public benefit cannot be carried fully by farmers.” The cost of transitioning to a different market place and to respond to different values, that is the charge that Peterson was asking the participants to address in their comments. “So as we move through this day, be mindful of the faith, and mindful of our family farmers, farming, and producing food.”

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On the final morning of the symposium, participants were invited to express their reactions, comments and concerns during a two-hour open session. Their remarks were wide ranging, but certain themes or “areas of concern” did emerge:

SUSTAINABILITY in its MANY FACETS

Besides environmental sustainability, the respondents identified economic, social, cultural and even spiritual sustainability. It is right to consider: What is the just and prudent way to sustain the land, our bodies, our communities, our cultural ways and our spirit?

Bishop Michael Warfel (Diocese of Great Falls/Billings; CRL board member)

The most important issue, and the word repeated many times during this symposium, was sustainability. How do we ensure sustainable development, “both in terms of an economically sustainable farm and sustainability of the development of industry, the development of food that needs to be sustainable or we go hungry?”

James VanDerPol (farmer; Minn.)

What’s missing at this symposium? A hard look at “carrying capacity” and the limits we will face to feed nine billion people on the planet. “We need to get our social teachings and our social activities in order so that we don’t add to the problem.”

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

We clearly have tried to take on a challenging task balancing the interest of those who produce food, those who eat food and all of those who are in the middle, namely farm workers and those in food service. He said it’s important to have this “holistic conversation” even if it’s a complex one. While it is helpful “to break things down into chunks” to examine them, we need a “symposium like this that attempts to span the whole gamut of conversation, all parts of the system, including those who are currently not voices at all in the system.”

“The issue of economics is not divorced from the issues of environmental degradation, economic sustainability, habitat improvement, all of these diverse topics that we’ve been talking about.” He criticized “capitalism run amuck or capitalism on steroids” that only attends to its own limited rationality. We need “an economy that works for all,” he said. “I think we need a fundamental re-discussion around the economic ordering of our lives. And I think that’s a contribution that the Church can make” and has tools, teachings and resources to do so.

Furthermore, “not only is it our role as practitioners to treat land as stewards of creation, ‘to cultivate and to keep it’ as we’ve been saying, but we also need to cultivate our voice and the ability to engage in conversation. I think that needs to be a part of the attributes of a good agricultural leader.”

MARKET STRUCTURE & CORPORATE POWER

How do we return fair competition to a highly concentrated agribusiness marketplace? Farmers must deal with agribusiness conglomerates which continue to squeeze them in higher input costs and tighter commodity prices.

George Boody (Land Stewardship Project; Minn.)

What’s missing: “We need to deal both with individual ethics and with structural and systemic” injustices. “We have to deal with power: who has it, who doesn’t, what it’s used for, who benefits, who’s impacted by it. How do we shift power to control the story of what’s possible, to control the flow of resources and redirect research.”

Steven Read (Shepherd Way Farms; Minn.)

He added to what George Boody said about market power: Farmers are in the middle. There’s a whole system of suppliers and input that set the direction in production and attitude, and then there’s that whole level of where the production of our hands is going; we don’t control those. Unlike farmers who “dance with God,” he said: “I don’t have the sense that commodity trades are an act of faith, or that marketing chemicals is an act of faith.” Agribusinesses are only thinking about “what can I sell to producers,” he said.

Missing during the symposium: “Making people uncomfortable.” He referred to the representatives from Cargill and General Mills: “I would have liked to have been made uncomfortable by them. I would have liked to have made them uncomfortable. That type of dialogue is something I would like to see happen here.”

Ron Rosmann (organic farmer; Iowa)

It’s vitally important that farmers are engaged with the Church on these discussions. He challenged the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, Pontifical Council of Justice & Peace, and other faith leadership to become much more informed on the particulars of farm operations and agricultural production.

A major focus should be the concentration of power: “That is what we are up against, that is why I am encouraged by what Msgr. Czerny said last night that Pope Francis said we have the need for reform, agrarian reform, and then all these issues around it that he talked about, labor and work and the environment and climate change.”

He warned that agribusiness corporations may say that they want to be in this conversation, “but they’re not going to give up what they want: profit.” It’s a natural progression in a worldwide economy to some extent, but if we don’t allow God and creation and diversity and all the ethics that we’re talking about, what is there? It means nothing. That’s my message.

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

“The issue of economics is not divorced from the issues of environmental degradation, economic sustainability, habitat improvement, all of these diverse topics that we’ve been talking about.” He criticized “capitalism run amuck or capitalism on steroids” that only attends to its own limited rationality. We need “an economy that works for all,” he said. “I think we need a fundamental discussion around the economic ordering of our lives. And I think that’s a contribution that the Church can make” and has the teachings to do so.

Mike Callicrate (rancher; Colorado)

“Let’s get the animal welfare group involved heavily in this; they’re huge, and they’re driven, and they need to be a part of this conversation.”

He spoke about his affiliation with the Organization for Competitive Markets and stressed the importance of “restoring competition to the market place and fairness to farmers who are otherwise driven from the land.” His organization looks at three ways to do so: litigation, legislation, and creating an alternative food system model. He cited a number of examples and concluded that we “have to address market power and it has to be more than a dialogue, it has to be action. Also, we have to recognize that the more pressure that we apply, the more resistance we’re going to face, so we really need to collaborate. So let’s restore economic fairness, equal opportunity, and social justice.”

Anthony Granado (USCCB staff member; Washington, DC)

In respect to the vocation of the agricultural leader, he talked about “wrestling with assumptions” — assumptions about the human person, about nature, about the person’s relationship to it. “What ought we to do? How should we be in relationship nature?” He suggested we talk about “pervasive injustice” in our future resources: “We can’t talk about fairness in agriculture without talking about fairness in other sectors of society because they are related. But, Pope Francis suggests that when there is such pervasive injustice, “the socioeconomic order is flawed at its root”.

So I would encourage the committee that is putting together this document, that at the beginning we start wrestling with the Church with these ideas, so that we can proceed when we talk about freedom, when we talk about nature, when we talk about the person, what do we really mean? And is it to our tradition and is it for the good of society?

Bob Kuylen (farmer; North Dakota Farmers Union)

“Are we going to rely on corporate America to do our farming? Do you think there’s greed right now in farming?! Wait till corporate America takes over the farm.” Therefore, we need to focus on greed. He added: “A lot of those farmers sitting in your churches are the greedy ones. They’re buying this land up when land comes up for rent, they’ll pay the highest rent and they will not let a young farmer start farming.”

He also mentioned the need to limit crop insurance subsidies; this type of federal support favors big operations. “We’ve got to get after our legislature and everything. We’ve got to have family farmers on the land: that is food security for our nation.”

FAIRNESS & JUSTICE

Anthony Granado (USCCB staff member; Washington, DC)

In respect to the vocation of the agricultural leader, Granado talked about “wrestling with assumptions” — assumptions about the human person, about nature, about the person’s relationship to it. “What ought we to do? How should we be in relationship to nature?” He suggested we talk about “pervasive injustice” in our future resources: “We can’t talk about fairness in agriculture without talking about fairness in other sectors of society because they are related. Pope Francis suggests that when there is such pervasive injustice, “the socioeconomic order is flawed at its root.”

“So I would encourage the committee that is putting together this document, that at the beginning we start wrestling with the Church with these ideas, so that we can proceed when we talk about freedom, when we talk about nature, when we talk about the person, what do we really mean? And is it to our tradition and is it for the good of society?”

Nancy Slattery (Wisconsin Farmers Union member)

What was missing? We’ve all heard about how oil is used as a weapon in many parts of the world where they have it, we want it, and they hold it back or they charge too much for it. I think the U.S. uses food as a weapon. The government has structured our policies to sell, give, and allow food to go to other countries only if they agree with us or they give us something we want. If food is a right; it is not ours to hold it back.

SENSE of CREATION & the CREATOR

Rather than defer to the economic rationalization and language of “property”, “resources”, “labor” and “valuation”, let us speak of the beloved land, living soil, animal welfare, and human dignity.

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

He was in agreement with the observation made about “the mysteries of creation found in soil science” and how that can be “a point of entry in a conversation about how we can transform our understanding of stewardship.”

Dr. Deborah Savage (St. Paul Seminary; Minn.)

She spoke about the environmental movement, particularly the young people in that movement, and the importance of connecting them to these the issues raised at this symposium. She also noted that we need to deal with the perception that the green movement is associated with the left/liberals/progressives. Conservative Catholics will dismiss us if we focus too strongly on the environment. Nevertheless, the Church needs to make the connection between care of the environment and sustainable food production explicit.

She talked about the “devastation” wrought on our culture by the Enlightenment period and thinkers such as Bacon, Descartes, Hume, and Kant. Their way of thinking “divorced us from the earth,” she said. “Can Pope Francis in his upcoming encyclical make amends and return us to a better sense of the created earth?” She expressed the hope that “the full force of the Catholic community and the Christian community around the world can be brought to bear on it.”

Dr. Christopher Thompson (St. Paul Seminary; CRL board member)

He reiterated the importance of paying attention to Creation: “paying attention to the Creator, his creatures, caring for the land in a thoughtful way, is, in my experience, a extremely easy way to love the Lord. And I would just invite that we keep that language of praise and gratitude toward our God and how we love.”

SUPPORT for SMALL FARMS

This must come through better public policies and greater consumer awareness; we must ensure that family farms remain the preferred type of food producers of a healthy and sustainable agriculture:

James VanDerPol (farmer; Minn.)

He stressed that small farms like his (and many others) “need access to markets; we need help with finding markets.” Small farms need the surrounding population and society in general to support the infrastructure and institutions for a local food system, “such as providing enough inspectors so that small processing plants can run.” He said seeds and breeding stock are all becoming proprietary and more costly.

Another important area to focus efforts: small farms need help with transitioning land and operations to the next generation.

He expressed gratitude to “people being very choosy about food and searching us out” — meaning organic producers and various kinds of alternatives agriculture. These smaller, more diverse farms are “where the innovation happens” and improvements made, leading to a new kind of agriculture.

Donald Bina (farmer; Wisc.)

He said his main concern is that we’re losing too many farmers. Farms are getting bigger, the production is staying stable, but there are fewer farmers. Where are we going in the future? We need to supply food, but that’s a part of our situation.

NEXT GENERATION of PRODUCERS

In tandem with support for family farms, we must assist those who can and want to farm in the years to come; this means overcoming obstacles that limit access to land, capital, technical support:

Mary Schlosser (farm wife; North Dakota Farmers Union)

“Our hope is in the younger generation, that they have the courage to step out and try some of these small farms, small enterprises, they’re entrepreneurs, they are probably are more willing to do that than some of us older generations.”

She made the connection to eating habits and the fact “there has to be a demand for what we’re growing, otherwise it won’t sell.”

Katelyn Roedner Sutter (Catholic Charities, diocese of Stockton, Calif.)

She reiterated the need to include women and farm workers in these discussions. “The other thing I would like to raise up though is our millennial generation. We’ve talked about all of the challenges of future farmers, but there are very few here as participants. And so I would just raise that up for the next symposium as this process moves forward that if this is going to be relevant to this growing generation then we really need to hear the voices of these millennials.”

Bob Kuylen (farmer; North Dakota Farmers Union)

The average age of farmers is 57 years old. What’s going to happen in the next 10 years when those 70-year-olds are gone from farming, he asked. “Are we going to rely on corporate America to do our farming?”

DEVELOPING FARMERS OVERSEAS

Along the lines of support for small farmers and new producers, the U.S. should increase technical assistance to small farmers overseas and improve food production in developing nations:

Deacon Gene Paul (National Farmers Organization; Minn.)

There is the prevailing idea that all additional food production has to come from American farmers. “Rather than trying to get (less developed countries) to buy all of our food, we need to help them in raising the food that is natural to their particular country.”

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

He agreed that we need to replace the message of “the need for more acres of corn, more acres of beans, more production per acre, etc., etc.” with a thoughtful and engaging voice that speaks to the need of small landholders overseas. A main focus, therefore, is to empower those small landholders in feeding themselves and growing their capacity to feed their neighbors.

Adam Kay (University of St. Thomas; Minn.)

“These problems that we are addressing here are gigantic, and I’ve heard a lot of people talk about their passion, their individual circumstances. We need to bear in mind that these are major issues around the world and will require scientific expertise.” He referred to closing yield gaps across the globe, identifying crops in tropical areas that can be modified in a way that can increase yields, dealing with environmental impacts that are extended far beyond individual farms.

INCLUSIVENESS of ALL VOICES

As this Faith, Food & Environment project moves forward, we need to hear the voices of farmers, campesinos, farmworkers, food workers, consumer advocates and other stakeholders along the food chain:

George Boody (Land Stewardship Project; Minn.)

He agreed with Fr. Czerny’s advice to be broadly inclusive, particularly of the poor and disenfranchised. This includes landless beginning farmers, women farmers, and low-income urban consumers.

Deacon Gene Paul (National Farmers Organization; Minn.)

It is important to capture the thinking of many people, not just farmers, but people all over the country, he said. We need to seize on relevant issues and put the right spin on it. One of these issues is how to feed nine billion people by 2050: we need to talk about what is happening with the food that we already produce (e.g., excessive waste, non-food use).

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

Ellen Linderman (farmer; North Dakota Farmers Union)

She said we need to keep these discussions going; to keep talking – including corporate agribusiness, small farmers, and everyone in between. She said “we need to hear the workers, we need to hear the women, we need to hear everybody.”

Adam Kay (University of St. Thomas; Minn.)

“So in going forward with this conference, if we can find a way to be as inclusive as possible not make it seem as if there’s a faith community and a secular community and they’re working in odds. We need to find common ground to work together.”

Jerry Hagstrom (agricultural journalist)

As a final comment, he mentioned the debate bubbling up nationally about the earning power of people in agriculture being extended from the farm workers to the restaurant workers. “On a national basis,” he said, “I see this debate going all the way from the farm workers, to the farmers, to the restaurant workers.”

He also mentioned that this symposium was very interesting because he had “viewed the Catholic Church as much more of an advocate on the nutrition programs than I have on agriculture (and) agricultural policy.” Presumably he will cover that aspect in his future reporting and media commentaries.

Getting the Message Right and Widespread

Deacon Gene Paul (National Farmers Organization; Minn.)

How do we spread this information? We can start in our churches by providing sample homilies, prayers of the faithful, Mass intentions, etc., to priests, deacons and parish groups. We need to change the way people think, he said. “It’s going to be a long process but we need to start somewhere.” (He mentions Ember and Rogation days.)

Kevin Edberg (farmer; Minn.)

In regard to producing a reflection, guide or document from these proceedings, he noted that “all people of good will and faith will need regular ways of engaging with it.” Fortunately, he said, the rich imagery of food (such as gathering at the table to break bread) is a way to change the conversation about agriculture and food production. By changing the language, we can connect back to the land and to all the workers who grow, harvest, and bring the many foods to our tables. We get beyond the price of food and enrich our conversation by all the values incorporated in our daily bread.

He made one last point: how do assist faith communities in bridging the urban-rural divide. In the past, some urban and suburban congregations would spend a weekend or period of time with their country cousins, and vice versa. Perhaps faith-based organizations like Catholic Rural Life, among others, can re-engage urban and rural communities. By bringing these human voices together, he said, there is the possibility of transforming this conversation.

Eric Bergman (farmer; Montana)

He wondered about the challenge to the faith community in working with the secular community. “How do we find the ethical language without scaring folks that maybe don’t positively associate Christianity in some fashion. We need the faith foundation, I see that more than ever, but how to we connect that with those who aren’t affiliated?”

Doug Peterson (Minnesota Farmers Union)

In his closing remarks as one of the Symposium presiders, Peterson reiterated the need for getting our message right. “Messaging is terribly important, so as we moved down this path and as we accept that challenge, we have to get it right. And we’re going to call on you to have input on that.”

“As many have spoken and articulated already, it is the relevancy of the family farmer…our very survival. And that should be the motivation and the spark for us to go forward, to carry that path, to carry that word, and to make sure that we put the pressure on the people that don’t quite see it our way. And what makes us right? Experience — experience that we’ve drawn from, support for others, and sometimes we might just think we have an answer, and the answer is guided by faith.”

Importance of Research

Peterson also identified Research and Education as key components in getting the message right and making it widespread. The research must be unfettered, he said. “There should be no quid pro quo in our university systems to the large agro-businesses that have the research dollars and command professorships and academics and buildings. That should not be allowed. Unfettered research.”

He went on to say that his experience as a former legislature of 12 years, he could see some of these trends within committee meetings and hearings. “You see how building and bonding dollars get spent and who gets them and who testifies for them. We need to have the research balanced between the small and the large, and we have to have the research in the public domain, not in the private domain. The research must be owned by the people that paid for it and that, in Land Grant colleges, are the taxpayers of every state. That is a must. So, make people understand that that research benefits the value of all public good.”

Peterson concluded his final remarks with the idea of shared value. “It’s a value that transcends all things. It’s food, it’s security, it’s national security, it’s international security and it’s peace within the world because if you have hunger, then there is nothing else but hunger. … And make sure that the people you are talking to fully understand the intensity, and the need and what the future holds because … the die has been cast by Wall Street on the commoditization of American farming. We shall not stand by idly and allow that to go forth.”