wfn.org | Farm crisis persists throughout world, rural chaplains say

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 14, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-24-71B{514}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Sentimental images of life on the farm do not reflect
the realities of the year 2000, according to rural chaplains. Not in the
United States. Not in other parts of the world.

The decision-making power about the world's food supply has become
concentrated in the hands of a few companies whose allegiance is to their
stockholders, according to speakers at the Nov. 9-12 meeting of the Rural
Chaplains Association. 

The association has more than 200 clergy and lay members certified to do
ministry in rural situations. Created by the United Methodist Church, the
group also includes members of other denominations.

While encountering the joys and sorrows that make up human life, the
chaplains are trying to deal with the ongoing U.S. farm crisis. 

"In Alabama, we don't have family farms. We have sharecroppers," declared H.
David Rollins of Hennagar, Ala. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and its
policies do not recognize this, he said. The only jobs to fall back on are
in discount retail and fast food, and those usually offer no benefits and a
less-than-livable wage, he said.

The opening speaker, the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, suggested strong support
for organized farm labor is needed, even though that's unpopular in rural
communities. Wogaman, an ethicist, is pastor of Foundry United Methodist
Church in Washington. He said family farmers who do not want to pay a
livable wage are devaluing their own labor.

"If we insist that everybody work, we need to insist that there are enough
jobs and that the wages will sustain families," he said. Wogaman was
addressing ethical issues facing rural ministry in a meeting focused on
forging partnerships for rural people. He asked the approximately 70 rural
chaplains assembled on Capitol Hill to consider how the global community
could exchange resources in a way that would spread justice. 

"Governments have to be able to support their farmers," said James Grueff,
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The question is how they do it." 

He described current administration positions on barriers to world trade in
foods, such as limits on market access, export subsidies, domestic subsidies
and health-related barriers. New negotiations are set to start soon, he
said.

Bill Heffernan, a professor of rural sociology at the University of
Missouri, posed the question: "Do we treat food differently than all the
other products that are traded in the world today?" He answered that food is
more of a necessity than other products. 

"The real issue," Heffernan insisted, "is who is going to control the food
systems." As government barriers are wiped out, he said, agriculture is
becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of about five multinational
companies, which are trying to control all aspects of food production and
distribution.

The developing countries cited as potential markets for American farm goods
are competitors rather than markets, he said. "U.S. farmers are not the
low-cost producers."

The U.S. trend is toward a net import of food, he noted. In addition, $28
billion - half the value of food exports this year - are being absorbed in
subsidies and other supports to farm entities, again with the bigger
companies getting the lion's share, he said.

Several speakers mentioned that the new Congress will work on a new farm
bill that would replace the 1996 bill in 2001 or 2002. 

The current law is a substitute, written to favor corporate interests,
according to Christopher Schepis, lobbyist for the National Farmers Union.
Passed when commodity prices were at their highest ever, the bill is not
geared to support farms in the bad years, he said. In terms of prices, the
years since 1996 have been hard for farmers. Bumper crops have led to market
prices dropping below production costs. Emergency payments have been made,
costing the taxpayers billions and helping the corporations more than the
family farmer.

"Farmers have no control over their costs or sales price," Schepis said. As
a result, they are not sharing in the current prosperity, he said.  Instead
they are in pain.

The $3.50 or $4 box of corn flakes has only about 4 cents worth of corn in
it, Schepis observed. The farmer had no idea what he would be paid when he
planted that corn.

As the multinationals continue to consolidate, the family farm will
disappear, Schepis predicted. He urged the chaplains not to let that happen,
warning that the fabric of rural America would unravel. The nation needs the
family farm for more than food production, he said, noting that rural
America is important environmentally and as the bedrock of the country's
values. 

Schepis was one of several people who said there is no way to inspect every
bit of food coming into the United States, even as more and more food is
imported.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, chief executive of the National Council of Churches and
a United Methodist, emphasized to the rural chaplains the urgency of their
mission. He reminded them that more than half of all the people who have
ever lived on earth are alive today and that God uses ordinary people.

"God's calling us to this unique moment," he said. "We live in a world
different than the world we were born into." Edgar urged the chaplains to
tackle the systemic issues of poverty. 

The church may be the only safe voice to challenge capitalism, he said. The
chaplains should look at the moral questions of food production, care of the
earth and sustaining the planet, he said. What rights do children of future
generations have to oil and gas resources? he asked. What if churches were
open before and after school, and the elderly could get their flu vaccine
there? "Go is calling us to open the door."

Jaydee Hanson, a United Methodist Board of Church and Society executive,
declared that 200 rural U.S. counties have seen no improvement from the
current economic boom.

In other sessions, the rural chaplains learned about government programs and
the United Methodist Church's efforts to strengthen rural communities.

In its business session, the association decided to support the $6,000
Advance special for the work of Russia's sole rural chaplain, Alexander
"Sasha" Kominin, in its 2001 budget as it has done this year. The money will
be distributed through the church's Board of Global Ministries.

The members also agreed that nearly 1 million pencils will be transferred to
the United Methodist Committee on Relief to distribute to children outside
the United States. The pencils had been collected for schoolchildren in
Tadjikistan but could not be delivered because of conditions in that
country. More than $13,000 worth of pennies that were collected with the
pencils are being used by the church to meet the needs of children in
Tadjikistan.

The group's next meeting and educational event will be in Guatemala in
November 2001.

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United Methodist News Service
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