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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 29, 2001

ELCA HOSTS U.S. FARM SUMMIT
01-070-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Sixty-five leaders from church and farm
organizations shared their thoughts and concerns about the current
conditions of U.S. agriculture and their hopes for the future.  They
gave a representative committee the charge to draft a vision statement
and to circulate it for their approval.
     The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) hosted the Rural
Summit here March 26.  Sandra A. LaBlanc, ELCA director for rural
ministry resources and networking, Des Moines, Iowa, and the Rev.
Russell O. Siler, director of the Lutheran Office for Governmental
Affairs, Washington, D.C., coordinated the event.
     "We are here grappling with a set of problems that are complex,
that are constantly changing before our eyes, that are so comprehensive
that they reach into all areas of our own society and have global
connections and consequences," the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA
presiding bishop, told the gathering.
     "With such a variety of forces and consequences to reckon with, we
must realize from the beginning that to find some simple solution is
probably going to mean that everybody is somehow disappointed," said
Anderson.  Even when it seems a balance has been achieved, it is the
result of inequities in power and influence, he said.
     "Thank you for coming here to deal with an impossible task," said
Anderson.  "In the long run, God's grace and spirit will help us to know
each other better, hear each other better and eventually discover in one
another the words and concepts that can bring change for the better."
     LaBlanc said the summit brought together leaders from Lutheran
social ministry organizations and Catholic charities, ELCA and Catholic
state public policy offices, low-resource and "minority" farm groups,
traditional farm and commodity groups, rural life groups, women's church
organizations and rural specialists in several Christian denominations.
     Summit topics included "fair pricing" of U.S. farm products, "free
markets," agricultural legislation, rural society and the treatment of
farm workers.  A general consensus was that faith groups need to
continue calling the various farm groups together, so they can hear each
other in neutral settings, especially in smaller gatherings addressing
limited numbers of topics.
     "This event seemed to rise up out of possibilities some of us
began to consider last fall," said Anderson.  He met Sept. 27 with
leaders of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), Park Ridge, Ill.;
National Farmers Organization (NFO), Ames, Iowa; and National Farmers
Union (NFU), Denver, Colo. -- all Lutherans.  The summit was an outcome
of that meeting.
     "We want you to know each other and to find out where we can work
together to build consensus on some policies that we can advocate, some
direction for rural America," said Anderson.  He said he hoped the
gathering could develop some steps toward mending "the torn social
fabric of rural life in this country."
     Anderson reminded participants that Congress is taking a fresh
look at farm policy this year, and he called it a "critical time" to
frame that discussion.
     "We must seize the moment.  It is not too late.  If we fail to
seize the moment, it will be too late," warned Paul Olson, NFO president
and member of Taylor Lutheran Church, Taylor, Wis.  "The so-called 'farm
crisis' is becoming an 'American citizen crisis,' and few realize it."
     In 1969 there were 22 active dairy farms in Taylor, Wis.  Now
Olson's wife and he operate the only dairy farm, he said.  "In my
travels across America, I have seen tens of thousands of 'Taylor,
Wisconsins.'"
     "Farmers are forced off the land because they have not received a
fair price for what they sell," said Olson.  Multinational corporations
have taken the profits of the land and driven the farmers away, he said.
     "The family farm structure in this country is by far the most
efficient food producing system in the world, bar none," he added.
     "We want to fix problems and not assign blame," said Bob Stallman,
AFBF president and member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Columbus, Texas.
"Consumer choice is driving the system we have today."
     "The 'gloom and doom' makes for good news conferences and good
rhetoric, but we have to look at the promises that are out there now,"
said Stallman.  Among hopeful signs for the future, he included
biotechnology and information technology.
     Technology has brought change to almost every aspect of life,
including agriculture, said Stallman.  "The technology is not evil," he
said, saying it can help produce healthy crops at a volume that can feed
a hungry world.
     "I'm the last Stallman actively farming rice, and there used to be
about 10 of us on the Gulf coast of Texas," said Stallman.  "Is that
evil?  I don't think so.  It involved choices."
     "Perhaps the role of the church community in the local area should
be to provide the thing that churches do best ... emotional support,
counseling, outreach ... help people get through tough times.  There are
people going through tough times.  Make no mistake about it," said
Stallman.
     "We have a crisis in rural America ... a crisis that goes far
beyond the farm gate.  It goes into the heart of the whole structure of
rural America today," said Leland H. Swenson, NFU president and member
of Lutheran Church of the Cross, Evergreen, Colo.  He cited teen suicide
and drug abuse levels comparable to large-population areas of the
country.
     "Change is inevitable," said Swenson, "but is change good for the
elements of our resources -- be they human or natural -- or is it
effective change for the purpose of greed?"  He said, "The structure of
change is what's important and how we influence that direction of
change."
     "The depopulation of rural America affects our churches, our
education system, our health care system -- from what's affordable to
where it's going to be delivered," said Swenson.  People in rural areas
are left with little or no choice, he said.
     "When we take a look at why agriculture in this country is so
great, it's because of our investment in infrastructure," said Swenson.
"We had a government partnership with people that made the success of
agriculture in this country."
     "Then we got away from that," he said.  "We said, 'Others can do
that.'  That change has not always been good for the people and the
resources."
     "We have those who say, 'Less government.'  I'm saying there is a
need for a partnership in the government," said Swenson.
     Other presentations were given by:
 + Betty Bailey, executive director, Rural Advancement Fund
International - USA, Pittsboro, N.C.
 + Sue Bertrand, U.S./Canada and Mexico program director, Heifer Project
International, Little Rock, Ark.
 + Catherine I.H. Braasch, executive director, Women of the ELCA,
Chicago
 + Bishop Raymond L. Burke, president, National Catholic Rural Life
Conference, Des Moines, Iowa
 + Barb Determan, president, National Pork Producers Council, Early,
Iowa
 + Chuck Hassebrook, program director, Center for Rural Affairs,
Walthill, Neb.
 + the Rev. Sue Larson, director, Lutheran Office for Public Policy in
Wisconsin, Madison
 + Veronica Meneses, action coordinator, National Farm Worker Ministry
 + Diana Stephen, director for rural ministry, Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), Louisville, Ky.
     The facilitator of each of six small group discussions will serve
on a representative committee to draft a vision statement from concerns
raised at the summit.  That draft is to be circulated among the
participants for issuing at a later date.
-- -- --
     The ELCA rural ministry resources and networking desk maintains
information at
http://www.elca.org/do/ruralhome.html on the Web.

Related stories:

Lutherans Meet with U.S. Farm Leaders to Discuss Rural Crisis
http://listserv.elca.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0010&L=elcanews&P=R505

Lutherans Host Summit on Rural America March 26 in Chicago
http://listserv.elca.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0103&L=elcanews&P=R1825

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html