Speakers stress sustainability

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Two women from different walks of life but similar viewpoints spoke to several dozen people at the United Church of Christ Tuesday night.

Sister Mary Tacheny, a School Sister of Notre Dame and the Mankato Center for Earth Spirituality and Rural Ministry, talked about personal choices and spiritual values that support us.

Granite Falls farmer and Land Stewardship Project Program Organizer Terry VanDerPol spoke about sustaining and improving our river environment with food production and consumption choices, a western Minnesota model.

"We need to fill our spirits as well as our bodies. We haven't paid enough attention to forms of life other than humans," Sister Tachney said. "Nature is another way God is revealed to us. If we destroy one part of it, we start a destructive process."

The Native American philosophy comes into play here, she said. "How will what we do today impact seven generations from now?," she asked.

Sister Tachney said the produce being grown, animals being raised, foods purchased, and the water we drink will affect the health and well-being of all who eat them.

The belief in the value of cheap food is a problem, she said.

"I'm praying for a better understanding of bio diversity by those that work the land and eat what they produce," Sister Tachney said. "I don't think this work is honored sufficiently."

She said understanding the complexity of the web of life demands an awareness and understanding in our physical world.

VanDerPol called sustainable farming a dance with biology.

"All creatures are important in the web of life," VanDerPol said. "Seek the development of a more ethical food system. We are not only participants in the web of life, we are also accountable for it. If we regard all of it as sacred, each of it has spiritual worth and directly affects our relationship and interaction with all forms of life, now and well into the future."

VanDerPol stressed the importance of intentional, sustainable human activity and how it relates to the quality of life, healthy communities and ecosystems.

What we have in rural America is as close to a colonial economy as it gets. In a nutshell, value-added products are imported. Cheap labor is extracted by distant power brokers that know or care little about the local people, culture or natural resources.

VanDerPol scoffed about a recent meeting at the Minnesota Extension Service in Morris which promoted the development of factory farms in the I-29 corridor and creating a cooperative effort making Minnesota and North and South Dakota a "livestock friendly area."

"They said there is virtually nobody in western Minnesota, so we might as well have more hog barns," VanDerPol said. "They used maps, showing where huge hog and dairy factories should be built. They talked about troublesome township and county organizations and the need to create a lobbying organization to help factory farming deal with opposition."

She stressed the need for small producers to get market access.

"They've lost it for poultry and hogs. Beef is next."

VanDerPol promoted the Conservation Security Act--paying farmers for actual benefits they provide society.

The Midwest Food Alliance is labeling certified, sustainable food including pork, beef, apples and cheese that is going to Coborns and Hy-Vee grocery stores. She urged the audience to ask grocery store managers to get sustainable food if they don't already have it.

VanDerPol said there is a movement at the University of Minnesota at Morris urging that the cafeteria sell locally-produced food.

"We've got to walk before we run. We're trying to get the cafeteria to cater locally-produced food first," VanDerPol said.

The Pride of the Prairie, established within an 80-mile radius of Morris, will create community food systems from the ground up. It will focus on relationships between farmers and consumers, build networks among producers, processors and retailers, marketing food with a compelling story and bringing diversity back to Minnesota agriculture.

VanDerPol said a consumer survey at the Stevens County Fair showed most people are willing to pay $2 more on an $8 restaurant meal if it can guarantee it served sustainable food.

The Land Stewardship Project is working on a virtual, online, sustainable food warehouse for consumer use, she said.