May 7, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 9Oakland, CA

Religious groups call for reform
of U.S. food and farm policy

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops and several national Catholic organizations are joining more than a dozen other religious groups to propose major reform of farm policy they say would benefit farmers, rural community and Americans’ nutritional needs.

The organizations have coalesced into a body called the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill to advocate for legislative changes through the bill now working its way through Congress.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Policy, said the new farm bill is “is an important opportunity to reshape our agricultural policies to build a more just framework that better serves rural communities and vulnerable farmers in the U.S., overcomes hunger here and abroad, and helps poor farmers and their families in developing countries.”

The working group outlined a broad agenda for the farm bill that would:

• Increase investments that combat rural poverty and strengthen rural communities.

• Strengthen and expand programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the United States.

• Strengthen and increase investment in policies that promote conservation and good stewardship of the land.

• Provide transitions for farmers to alternative forms of support that are more equitable and do not distort trade in ways that fuel hunger and poverty.

• Protect the health and safety of farmworkers.

• Expand research related to alternative, clean and renewable forms of energy.

• Improve and expand international food aid in ways that encourage local food security.

The working group also said adjustments to the commodity payment programs would help address hunger and poverty in this country and around the world.

“The current system should be changed in ways that would strengthen communities in rural America, ensure all Americans an adequate, nutritious diet, provide better and more targeted support for U.S. farm families of modest means, and conserve the land for present and future generations,” said the working group’s statement issued April 20.

House committee and subcommittee work on the 2007 farm bill -- a reauthorization bill expected to set federal rural and nutrition policy for five or six years, is likely to begin early this month, said Robert Gronski, National Catholic
Rural Life Conference policy coordinator.

Joining the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as signers of the working group’s statement were Bread for the World, Church World Service, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the National Council of Churches, the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ’s Justice and Witness Ministries, and the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society.

Endorsers of the statement include Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Lutheran World Relief, Oxfam America, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, and Together for Hope: The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Rural Poverty Initiative.

Additional information is available on the following websites:
U.S. bishops’ position paper: www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/200702fbhn.pdf
Catholic Campaign against Global Poverty: www.usccb.org/sdwp/globalpoverty
National Catholic Rural Life:  www.ncrlc.com

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