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RSSThe Fruit to the Farmer
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
7/10/2005
Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain... -- Matthew 13:8
The world's farmers are experienced partners of God's creation. Many have been on their land for generations, and know it well. But many are poor. Why? And what can be done to change this?
Episcopal Relief and Development works in partnership with the Anglican Church of Brazil to support the formation of farming cooperatives and improvement of current marketing strategies. It has even supported the creation of a community garden in a desperately poor neighborhood in the city of Santa Maria. The land for the garden belongs to the church. The people of the neighborhood, in which hardly anybody can find paid work, cultivate the land together and produce vegetables for their own families, with enough surplus to sell for cash.
There was plenty of local wisdom in El Salvador, too, but the years of war drained the reservoir of farming knowledge in many villages, and some of the farmers who are left -- many of whom are women -- lack the technical knowledge that would enable them to get more from their land. Low levels of land ownership, no money to buy seed and tools, lack of local marketing support -- here, too, a combination of micro-loans and agricultural training have increased the self-sufficiency and nutritional quality of life in a number of rural communities.
Good seed. Sun. Rain. God makes these things. Our role is to see to it that they are used wisely, so that the earth might bring forth food for our sustenance. War, poverty and plain old greed sometimes interrupt this gracious process, but we have the power to put things right.
