National Catholic Rural Life Bulletin

In this issue

MIDWEST RURAL ASSEMBLY set for August 10-11
REMINDER: Call for Papers due by June 1st
"Ten Commandments for the Environment"
AmpleHarvest.org connects gardeners to food pantries
CELEBRATING CATHOLIC SISTERS: Museum Center exhibit tells their story
Caring for Creation: Mountaintop Removal Revisited
Churches probe environmental impacts of Canadian oil sands
Good News for Farmworkers: AgJOBS back in consideration
USDA issues report on Beginning Farmers

Midwest Rural Assembly set for August 10-11
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

As a sponsoring organization, NCRLC is excited about the Midwest Rural Assembly happening August 10-11 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This regional meeting will build on the policy work of the National Rural Assembly and link grassroots groups and community leaders with members of Congress and USDA staff. This is also an opportunity to share information and strategies to advance a sustainable rural development agenda for the greater Midwest region.

FYI: Besides a sponsoring organization of the Midwest Rural Assembly, NCRLC also participated in last summer's National Rural Assembly. That Assembly's founding document, the Rural Compact, and its Policy Opportunity Snapshots (pdf) have helped to raise both the visibility and the volume of our grassroots efforts with Congress and the new Administration.

REMINDER: Call for Papers due by June 1st

"Renewing the Face of the Earth: The Church and the Order of Creation"

The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, St. Paul, MN, invites papers that bring the wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition, especially that of St. Thomas Aquinas, to the articulation of an adequate vision of responsible stewardship: one that is coherent, meaningful and faithful.

Saint Paul Seminary will hold a special conference on this theme in St. Paul, MN, on October 29-31, 2009. Paper proposals are due June 1, 2009.

Please submit to Dr. Deborah Savage at pdsavage@stthomas.edu
More details at http://www.stthomas.edu/spssod/events/environment.html

"Ten Commandments for the Environment"

We recently came across this item on Catholic.net, "Ten Commandments for the Environment, a Christian view of man (sic) and nature."

The online article points out that Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, summarizes the main points of the Church's teaching on ecological matters, basing himself on how the doctrine is presented in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. He argues, according to the Zenit news source, "that the Compendium steers a middle course between the twin errors of either seeing nature in absolute terms or reducing it to a mere instrument. Nature has been placed in the hands of mankind, but should be used responsibly and prudently."

The ten guiding principles, or commandments, are listed online at:
http://www.catholic.net/index.php?id=499&option=dedestaca

AmpleHarvest.org connects gardeners to food pantries

The AmpleHarvest.org campaign is a nationwide effort to provide a way for food pantries and gardeners with extra produce to find each other. AmpleHarvest.org gives food pantries the opportunity to be listed in a central directory so that gardeners can share their fresh produce and, garden-by-garden, help diminish hunger in America.

The initial goal of AmpleHarvest.org is to get as many food pantries as possible registered on the site as possible, so that when gardeners later this year start looking for somewhere in their area to donate their excess produce, a neighborhood pantry will be already registered.

This nationwide endeavor works with major faith organizations, service organizations (Rotary, Lions, boy & girls scouts), cooperative extension programs, and networking (Facebook and Twitter just came on line) to ask people who know of food pantries in their community to help the pantry register.

AmpleHarvest.org would much appreciate getting this information to local churches, especially those housing food pantries.

Celebrating Catholic sisters

Museum Center exhibit tells a story of contributions and creativity

We came across this Cincinnati news item and would like to share it with our network as a way of expressing our own gratitude to the women religious who generously support NCRLC.

Reporter Lauren Bishop writes: Since they first arrived in America almost 300 years ago, they have built and led schools, hospitals, orphanages and other social institutions that have served millions of Americans, even during times when most women had few professional opportunities. A new touring exhibit making its national premiere at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal on Saturday, "Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America," will share the story of Catholic sisters' contributions from the Civil War through Hurricane Katrina. The exhibit, the first of its kind, runs through Aug. 30 before moving to museums across the country over the next three years.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090511/LIFE/905120342/Celebrating+Catholic+sisters

{The Silver Spring, Md.-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 95 percent of Catholic sisters in the U.S., began planning the exhibit in 2004 to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2006. The conference raised $4 million for the exhibit from dozens of donors.}

Caring for Creation: Mountaintop Removal Revisited

Over the past two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has obliterated or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried more than 1,000 miles of streams. Now it appears that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is showing signs it plans to crack down on this destructive practice.

Journalist John McQuaid writing in Yale Environment 360, a publication of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, looks back over the decades of mountaintop removal mining and describes the damage to the environment and communities of Appalachia and suggests what the future may hold.

Read it at http://e360.yale.edu/content/print.msp?id=2150

Visit the NCRLC website to read Glenmary Fr. John Rausch's view of The True Cost of Mountaintop Removal

Churches probe environmental impacts of Canadian oil sands

Leaders of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Anglican Church of Canada, Mennonite Central Committee, Presbyterian Church of Canada, and United Church of Canada, among others, plan to tour northern Alberta this week to gather information on the environmental impact of oil sands development.

Alberta's oil sands are considered the largest deposits of crude oil outside Saudi Arabia and are seen as a major source of energy for the United States. Whereas industry is pushing for increased production, environmental organizations have organized major campaigns to highlight the impact of mining and processing the oil sands on air, land and water.

For a news story, visit http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE54D5E720090514

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Most Reverend Luc Bouchard, Bishop of St. Paul in northeastern Alberta, released a pastoral letter in January on "The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands". He writes: "It is impossible for me to ignore the moral problem created by the proposed one hundred and fifty billion dollars oil sands developments because these projects are in 'my own backyard,' and have aroused strong ethical criticism."

The pastoral statement presents rationale of why safeguarding the environment is a religious obligation, summarizes the effects that oil sands development has on the environment, draws religious and moral conclusions and recommends actions for consideration.

Good News for Farmworkers: AgJOBS back in consideration

This past week, Senator Feinstein (D-CA) and Reps. Berman (D-CA) and Putnam (R-FL) reintroduced a bill into the 111th Congress that can make a world of difference to the farmworkers in our country. AgJOBS, as it is known, has been before Congress over the past several years, and, in spite of support from a coalition of farmworker and grower organizations and broad support in Congress, it has failed to pass both houses, largely due to the anti-immigrant lobby that has been so vocal since 2006.

During the Memorial Day recess, contact your Senators and Representatives when in their home states and districts. Please ask them to support passage of AgJOBS to help the hundreds of thousands of men and women in this country who work hard everyday to give all of us an abundant food supply. Learn more about AgJOBS at Farmworker Justice

USDA issues update report on Beginning Farmers

USDA's Economic Research Service released a 32-page report on beginning farmers and ranchers. Among the findings: beginning operators (operating 10 years or less) make up about a quarter of all operators and account for about 10 percent of total production. Beginning farmers are more likely to be female, non-white, or Hispanic compared to more established farmers. Beginners are younger than established farmers, but still nearly a third of beginning farmers and ranchers are 55 or older.

Visit http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB53/ for the report.

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