National Catholic Rural Life Bulletin

In this issue

Catholic News Service takes rural life tour
Farm Foundation on "Animal Welfare in Production Agriculture"
USDA Announces Public Meetings on National Animal ID System
Farm groups offer their perspective on Climate Legislation
Multinationals and Activists convene separately on Water
ACTION ITEM: Support the Clean Water Restoration Act
VIEWPOINT: From Consumption to Sustainability
Faith and Food: Action strategies for Healthy Eating
Small town says goodbye to its church

Catholic News Service takes rural life tour

CNS reporter Mark Pattison spent a week in Minnesota and Iowa touring through the countryside and interviewing Catholic families on the farm. Here's a couple links our readers might find interesting:

Hog production: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902044.htm
(Related photo at http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/)

Blake's Family Farm: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902058.htm

Pattison also interviewed NCRLC Executive Director, Jim Ennis, at the end of his tour. We will share that link once it comes online at the Catholic News Service website. Let us know if you come across these stories in your diocesan newspaper. We would appreciate knowing that!

Farm Foundation on "Animal Welfare in Production Agriculture"

The Farm Foundation organizes public forums to engage stakeholders in informed dialogue on food, agricultural and rural policies. Meeting participants examine current policies, explore and analyze alternative policy proposals, and give voice to new proposals. The May 5th forum was on "Animal Welfare in Production Agriculture" and the presentation is now available online (see link below). Visit their website to click into the presentation materials by the expert speakers; you can also listen to the MP3 file of the forum. Previous forum presentations and audio links are also available; the regular forums have been ongoing since 2006.

By the way, the next forum, June 2, is scheduled to be "Carbon and Production Agriculture"
Forums take place at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, if you able to attend. Otherwise, materials and MP3 files go online soon afterwards.

http://www.farmfoundation.org/webcontent/Farm-Foundation-Forums-363.aspx?z=85&a=363

USDA Announces Public Meetings on National Animal ID System

Some of our members have asked about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and what the impacts could be on small producers. The USDA is seeking to engage stakeholders and producers to hear their concerns about NAIS, and to offer potential solutions. The information and ideas gathered will assist Secretary Vilsack in making decisions about the future direction of animal traceability in the United States.

A series of public meetings around the country will be held to gather feedback: Harrisburg, PA (May 14); Pasco, WA (May 18); Austin, TX (May 20); Birmingham, AL (May 21); Louisville, KY (May 22); Storrs, CT (May 27); and Greeley, CO (June 1). All people planning to attend must register before the meeting. USDA is seeking comments on cost, impact on small farmers, privacy and confidentiality, liability, premises registration, animal identification, and animal tracing.

For more information about NAIS - and to provide feedback via internet - visit the USDA website: http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/feedback

NCRLC will continue to monitor this controversial issue and provide information as we learn more.

Farm groups offer their perspective on Climate Legislation

The National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union recently gave House testimony on climate change legislation. Farm groups fear that passage of a cap and trade bill will raise input costs for farmers and are uncertain what the rules of the game will be with respect to carbon offsets that might provide a new source of revenue for farmers.

Most farm groups support greenhouse gas offset provisions, expecting that farms will qualify for payments for adopting conservation measures that sequester carbon in soils, plants and trees or that capture emissions from concentrated animal feeding operations. Many climate groups, on the other hand, believe that offsets could create unnecessary loopholes that allow firms to dodge real greenhouse gas limits. The draft bill being marked up in the House Energy and Commerce Committee does include robust offset provisions. However, that bill would give control over offsets and the detailed rules that will be necessary to administrate them to the EPA. The farm groups testified in support of turning over control of agricultural offsets to USDA.

NCRLC will continue to monitor this debate and offer our perspectives on cap-and-trade and a carbon tax. Please let us know if you have taken a particular position.For instance, here's an item we recently came across online:

The Carbon Tax: A Moral Issue
Paul Mayer, co-founder Climate Crisis Coalition, writes in the online Huffington Post: "The recent announcement of two pieces of important clean energy legislation in the Congress have put the carbon tax versus cap-and-trade debate on the national front burner. This disagreement as to the most effective remedy to confront the climate change crisis may seem like just another controversy among Washington energy wonks. It is, in fact, a vital moral question....

"The time has come for the communities of faith and for all those concerned about ethics to grasp the value of the carbon tax from this perspective. Exacting a financial penalty from those who are responsible for the scorching of the earth seems to be a requirement of any elemental morality."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/father-paul-mayer/the-carbon-tax-a-moral-is_b_183823.html

Multinationals and Activists convene separately on Water

As our bulletin reported a couple months ago, March 22 was recognized around the world as World Water Day (http://www.worldwaterday.org/). At that time, government representatives attended the 5th World Water Forum (http://www.worldwaterforum5.org/index.php?id=2076&L=5%25253Fref%252525 ) in Istanbul, Turkey.

At the same time across the globe, NGOs and activists for water justice participated in Peoples' Water Forum (http://pwf.foodandwaterwatch.org). Their activities were aimed at raising their claims of water being a human right and a central component of the global commons. They hoped to delegitimize what they referred to as a "false, corporate driven World Water Forum and to give voice to the positive agenda of the global water justice movements."

Read the resulting People's Water Forum Declaration at http://pwf.foodandwaterwatch.org/?Page=people%27s_water_declaration

To explore Catholic thought on Water: A Sacred Commons, visit our NCRLC website:
http://www.ncrlc.com/water_commons.html#2anchor

ACTION ITEM: Support the Clean Water Restoration Act

Recent Supreme Court rulings have called into question whether the Clean Water Act applies to certain water bodies. There is particular concern in the West that the Act does not apply to intermittent and ephemeral streams. These streams are the lifeblood of the West and make up between 46 and 90 percent of streams in Western states.

Your help is needed: The Clean Water Restoration Act would clarify that all waters of the United States are protected, including streams vital to the West.

Click here to learn more and express your support:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5706/t/4412/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=687

We also invite you to visit the Western Organization of Resource Councils:
http://worc.org/take-action-calendar/

VIEWPOINT: From Consumption to Sustainability

Irene Quesnot, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, offers this Viewpoint: "Going green is not a fad. It's necessary for the continued existence of life on this planet. Despite reputable scientific warnings of inevitable and irreversible damage, depletion persists. Perhaps we don't know enough about what we can do, or we don't care enough. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, sums up the next step: 'America needs a bold plan that ignites our collective imagination, sparks innovation and creates economic and national security.'"

Read in full at http://ncronline.org/news/ecology/consumption-sustainability

Faith and Food: Action strategies for Healthy Eating

According to a new report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Faith communities are putting their beliefs about food and healthy eating into action. Some offer healthier food at church events. Others host a farmers market, connect with local sources of halal or kosher foods, or grow food at a church garden to contribute to a local food shelf.

IATP is working to identify and expand opportunities for faith communities to support local foods, sustainable agriculture and healthy eating. They invite others to share the efforts of their own faith community to improve access to healthy food by visiting www.iatp.org/faith/ and adding their stories to complement the case studies highlighted in this report.

Small town says goodbye to its church

The Des Moines Register covered the closing of Immaculate Conception Church in the small town of Maloy, Iowa. Bishop Richard Pates (Diocese of Des Moines) met with parishioners and celebrated the last Mass at the church with them. The news article notes that priest shortage, along with rural population decline, is why this was the fifth Catholic church in the past ten years to close in the diocese.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090509/LIFE/905090301/1039

Nevertheless, we remember that rural America was blessed 30 years ago this October when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at Living History Farms in West Des Moines. This coming October, NCRLC is joining with the Diocese of Des Moines to commemorate the 30th anniversary celebration of the papal visit to rural America. Most Reverend Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, will join us as a keynote speaker and celebrant. Please plan on joining us!

http://www.ncrlc.com/NCRLC_Announcement.html

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