Rick Mockler
Executive Director, Catholic Charities of California
For Catholic Diocesan Newspapers (reprinted with permission)

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Early fall is special time of year for people who like to eat.  Vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil, sweet corn and eggplant tempt our senses and reward the work of farmers throughout the year.  When you spend as much time as Catholic Charities does feeding people, you think about these things.  It was with food on the mind that I recently spoke with Brother Keith Warner, OFM, on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis.

A Franciscan for the past ten years, Brother Keith’s life has become intertwined with nature and farming on the one hand and feeding people on the other.  Prior to his joining the Franciscans, Brother Keith spent several years farming as part of a Christian community in the Northwest.  He watched other farmers firsthand as they struggled with the increasing pressures of the marketplace.  After joining the Franciscans, his formation included a three year stint at the St. Anthony Foundation in downtown San Francisco, which helps to feed thousands of hungry people daily.

Relating his experience in inner city San Francisco, he talks about seeing “people disconnected from mother earth.”  He contrasts the world today with life a hundred years ago, where people grew their own food.  He connects the tragedy of family farmers going out of business to the alarming decline in America’s health and diets. 

The next step in Brother Keith’s journey was to join the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), based in Davis, California.  CAFF assists family farmers throughout California to reduce their reliance on chemicals and to sell directly to consumers in a variety of ways.

In addition to traditional venues like Farmers’ Markets and U-Picks, CAFF promotes “Community Supported Agriculture,” an arrangement where families subscribe to weekly deliveries from a particular farm.  CAFF strives to rebuild the relationships between farmers and consumers that have been lost over the years. 

This summer, the U.S. bishops held listening sessions around the country on agriculture, in preparation for the farm bill advancing in Congress.  One speaker after another spoke to the globalization of the ag industry -- the ascendance of powerful food retailers that set the price paid to farmers.  Just a handful of retailers, enjoying generous profits, have driven down wholesale food prices so far that many farmers can no longer operate.

CAFF is responding by building a rural-urban bridge, helping farmers and consumers circumvent the retail food industry -- at least for fresh produce.

Buying from local farmers also gives one a taste of seasonal change.  Karrie Stevens at CAFF describes the box of food delivered to one’s door as an “expression of what is growing.”  Spring deliveries include apricots and plums, broccoli and freshly dug potatoes and carrots.  Summer evolves from peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers and  eggplants, to grapes, squash and onions.  Winter includes greens, lettuces, beets, cabbage and storage produce. 

For Brother Keith, who is now working on a doctorate addressing sustainability issues of California agriculture, the design and success of initiatives like Community Supported Agriculture confront critical issues:  financial pressures on small farmers, heavy use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and the skyrocketing obesity and malnutrition among adults and children.

For Brother Keith, these issues are too important to be left to the global economy.  He envisions churches and schools as central to reconnecting farmers with consumers, and has helped CAFF to link farmers and churches.  Churches are venues for enrolling parishioners, for mini-farm stands, or for receiving extra produce for the hungry.

Schools are another natural ally.  Having been targeted by soda and fast food vendors for years, some California schools have begun to connect with local farmers to offer healthier food to students.  Promoted as a “crunch lunch,” salad bars stocked with locally grown organic produce have begun being offered.

Issues of farm livelihoods, of hunger and health are simultaneously global and local.    While the national farm bill deserves our attention, so does local action, and CAFF offers ways to become personally connected (www.caff.org or 530-756-8518 ext. 14). 

For Catholic Charities’ part, we will continue to nurture the body and spirit of those who are hungry.  And in the Franciscan tradition, Brother Keith reminds us that each one of needs a connection with the earth to maintain health in body and spirit.

Rick Mockler is Executive Director for Catholic Charities of California.  Visit the Catholic Charities of California web site for more information.  Rick Mockler’s e-mail address is rmockler@cacatholic.org.

For more information on rural life issues, visit the web site of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, which serves the mission of the Church by communicating a Catholic perspective and urging public action on rural life and environmental issues.