wfn.org | PDA helps Dakota producers beat the heat

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Note #7437 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

26-September-2002
02363

PDA helps Dakota producers beat the heat

$30,000 will help family farmers, ranchers deal with drawn-out drought

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Commissioned lay pastor Florence Hoff leads a small Presbyterian
congregation in northwestern South Dakota, where more than a year of drought
has devastated local farms and ranches.

The long dry spell is just one of the problems family farmers and ranchers
face in that corner of South Dakota and across the nation.

Hoff, who pastors 89-member First Presbyterian Church in Bison, SD, knows
first-hand how the drought and a long decline in the agriculture and
livestock industries have affected local farmers and ranchers.

"Even if it starts to rain tomorrow, this has long-term ramifications," says
Hoff, 62, a resident of nearby Lemmon, SD.  

Wanting to help, she called Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) officials
at the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) here.

"I visited with some people, thinking about what to do to help farmers and
ranchers," says Hoff, a pragmatic ecumenist who also consulted with
representatives of Catholic Social Services. "But everything that we came up
with required money, which we didn't have. So ... I said, 'I'm going to see
if we can find some money.'"

The PC(USA) disaster-relief agency responded this month with a $20,000 grant
to the Presbytery of South Dakota and a gift of $10,000 to the Presbytery of
Northern Plains in North Dakota, which also received $10,000 in PDA funding
last year.

Stan Hankins, PDA's associate for U.S. disaster response, said the agency "is
thankful for the opportunity to support the response of our Dakota
presbyteries to the needs of small farmers, ranchers and rural communities as
they struggle to preserve their way of life."

In South Dakota, the PDA funds will be used for consultants, counselors, a
food pantry and farm-appreciation events, all intended to help farming and
ranching families cope with adversity and stress. The presbytery will also
support parish nurses, who will get special training in identifying and
responding to stress in their communities.

The special needs of farm-related ministries in the state are not hard to
see, says the Rev. Peter Funch, executive of the Presbytery of South Dakota.

He said many ranchers have had to sell their herds, lacking adequate pasture
on which to graze them, and many farmers are in despair.

"The farmers are getting little or no crops," Funch says. "The result is,
there's no hay, there's no pasturage and so a lot of the ranchers are having
to sell off, if not everything, an awful lot of what they have, in order to
be able to make it and not starve their animals or have them die of thirst."

With little or no product to sell, some farmers are having trouble earning
viable incomes, he says. "You've got folks who are facing the possibility of
tremendous loss of their livelihood. The stress is just beginning to build
and grow, which means somehow they need to be helped."

In North Dakota, the Presbytery of Northern Plains is trying to help farmers,
ranchers and rural communities survive, launching an ecumenical agency with
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church and
North Dakota Catholic Dioceses.

"We're going to help people talk about what it means to transition off the
farm, and address issues of depression," says the Rev. Arabella
Meadows-Rogers, executive presbyter, "and begin to help small communities
look at asset-based development. ... We think there are people in small towns
and rural areas that can in an entrepreneurial way ... better their
situations, and that's partly what this ecumenical group will be doing."

What goes around comes around for the South Dakota presbytery and the growers
in Hoff's area, the beneficiaries of PDA funds from the One Great Hour of
Sharing, an offering to which Hoff's congregation generously contributes
every year.

"When I told them (my congregation) about the grant, I said, 'This is our One
Great Hour of Sharing money that's coming back to us,'" she says. "We've
given to that offering every year, always thinking it's going somewhere far
away, to some other disaster - never thinking we would be the recipient. So
we're very grateful."

The survival of the family farm in the United States is in question because
of an escalating economic crisis. Barring a miracle, a broad swath of rural
America may become a casualty of the farming industry's shift from family
operations to corporate mega-farming.

The PC(USA) has been active in responding to the problem, which many
Presbyterian farmers call an "agricultural revolution." In June,
commissioners to the 214th General Assembly adopted a report, We Are What We
Eat, that challenges the PC(USA) to get involved in issues relating to food
production and consumption. The paper was approved in response to a
farm-crisis overture enacted by the 1999 GA. 

South Dakota ranchers Carolyn and Jerry Petik helped draft and promote the
1999 overture, whose official sponsor was the Presbytery of South Dakota.
Also among the measure's originators were 40-member Hope Presbyterian Church
in Keldron, SD, and its women's group.

Diana Stephen, the denomination's associate for network support for rural and
small-church ministries, supervised the seven-member study group that
prepared the report, which calls on PC(USA) members to be faithful stewards
by supporting family farmers and ranchers. The paper reflects the complexity
of the issues affecting food producers, and urges Presbyterians to reflect
theologically on such matters and work to restore justice to farming and
ranching communities in this country and around the world. 

The report outlines connections among urban, suburban and rural communities -
connections that often go unnoticed.

Stephen says the grants to the Dakota presbyteries send an important message
about the relationship between the church and farmers and ranchers.

"How thankful we are that the Presbyterian Church (USA) can respond through
our One Great Hour of Sharing offering and the Presbyterian Disaster
Assistance program," she says. "This is tangible evidence of the ties that
bind us together."

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