Farm Women United

The land is God’s and all that dwell in it, all the cattle on a thousand hills. Farmers are stewards of God’s creation and the caretakers of land and animals.

Increasingly, farmers face economic, global, and pricing pressures. Apart from farmers who are able to sell directly to their customers, a large majority of farmers, realistically, function as merely producers for a utilitarian ag economy in which they have no say over the price they receive for their products. Farmers are pushed to produce more with less.

Local food processing has been largely destroyed and replaced by national and international brands. Natural food quality and diversity have been replaced by unnatural food uniformity. Perishable food is increasingly treated by various industrial methods which violate the integrity and safety of food.

Mom and Pop stores have been replaced by national chain stores. In some places called “food deserts” the elimination of the Mom and Pop stores means nutritious food is no longer available.

Globalism has taken away protections from farmers worldwide, decimating traditional family farms. An ever-increasing percentage of our food is produced on foreign soil or by foreign workers on American soil. Our own traditional, generational, family farms have been run out of business. Farmers are broken as they feel responsible for losing these family farms.

The farming culture, where young children grow up learning important life-skills and responsibilities, is being destroyed. Appreciation for a diverse family farm system of agriculture is being lost. Along with the loss of family farms, is the knowledge that our aging farmers pass on to their children about how to produce our food. 

The main streets of rural America have become ghost towns.

As farm numbers decline, so, too, does the public understanding of farmers. Many farmers feel overwhelmed, isolated, and misunderstood even to the point of despair.

American Baptist Resolution on Family Farm Crisis June 1987

"The creation, including the land, water, air, and all living beings, is a gift from God. We live in a fragile relationship to the land. As we care for the land it cares for us and other living creatures. We are called to be responsible stewards—to conserve, sustain and renew the land with the hope that future stewards will also manage and enjoy. 

Currently, many family farm operations in the United States are facing a severe economic crisis. The family farm involves a very large capital investment to realize a small net income. This potential income can quickly become a loss because of its vulnerability to economic, political and natural conditions.

The crisis is more than economic. It is also a crisis with psychological, social and spiritual dimensions that are having a profound impact on rural communities where farm families are the backbone. Issues of self-worth are being raised at the deepest level. Individuals, families and communities face the trauma of feelings of failure and forced change. Issues of faith and hope that sustain life’s meaning are being brought into question."

Auburn Baptist Church, Reverend Timothy Barnett 2000

The effect "...the loss of farms would have on a community is a moral one. Farmers generally raise the moral and ethical level of a community. Their families are generally stronger than average, which elevates the community...A fair base price to cover the cost of production is only reasonable. As a nation and individual communities, we are not prepared for the consequences that the loss of local dairy farmers would bring." 

Agriculture with a Human Face

A Value System to Sustain an Agricultural Rural People (Catholic Bishop George H. Speltz)

"In the food and agriculture section of the U.S. Bishops’ Economic Justice for All pastoral, the bishops take the position that 'moderate-sized farms operated by families on a full-time basis should be preserved and their economic vitality protected.' (n. 233)"

"If the rural way of life is to be sustained, it must see agricultural work as eminently worthy of a farmer’s time and effort. When this value is forgotten, rural culture will be impoverished and with it the land." 

"Unless the farmer is given fair prices for products, and is in other respects treated justly, he/she will be forced to compromise...values...and resort to a system of agriculture...driven by economic forces to the practical exclusion of values."

National Catholic Rural Conference 1995 Farm Bill Advocacy for a Just Farm Policy

"Infrastructure-encourage diverse and managed mechanisms for processing and marketing local/regional farm produce, capturing and retaining full production value potential at the community level..." 

Lutheran Bishops’ Statement on the Farm Crisis, May 1999

"Lutherans understand that farming is a vocation-a calling- and that agriculture is basic to the survival and security of people at home and throughout the world. Agriculture provides the grain for our daily bread as well as producing the rest of our food supply. Without a bountiful and affordable food supply Americans would not enjoy the quality of life we do." 

Excerpts from the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church 1996

". . . the relationship between farm products prices and incomes, farm debt and bankruptcies, forced land transfers and foreclosures, changes in the structure of agriculture, and tax policy continue to contribute to the loss of family farms... Many farmers have internalized the external cause of their losses, which has led to deep depression, spouse and family abuse, alcoholism, mental breakdown, divorce, suicide, participation in extremist groups, and, on rare occasions, murder." 

Excerpts From Overture 99-8. On Advocacy for Survival of Family Farmers, Ranchers, and Rural Communities

The Presbytery of South Dakota overture the 211th General Assembly (1999) of the Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.)

"Monopolistic practices in food processing and vertical integration by processors are holding down prices to independent food producers. Food producers receive a disproportionately small share of the consumer food dollar, especially in terms of risk involved and the time the commodity is held."

For the full text of these and other church statements about the agricultural crisis, please visit www.farmwomenunited.org and click on the St. Brigid Society Page.