Using our resources wisely

By Br. Steve Herro

	Stewardship Stewardship: A Way of Life is the diocesan thrust. It invites Catholics to acknowledge that all of life is a gift of God and to respond through prayer, service and sharing. This series will look at ways to do that.

Jesus received the crowd and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.

Br. Steve Herro

As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."

Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of (about) fifty."

They did so and made them all sit down.

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

When I heard this reading and Fr. Gary Neville's homily recently, I thanked him for preaching and humbly asked for a copy of his sermon. Indeed, the light bulbs were blinking in my head during Mass that day, connecting the reading and the religious holiday that we were celebrating, the Body and Blood of Christ, with the Farm Bill.

I read that U.S. farmers produce more food than we can consume, yet rural America has higher rates of poverty and hunger than urban areas. Furthermore, unemployment, underemployment, substandard housing are higher in rural areas than non-rural areas. The Gospel reminds us to utilize the resources that we have to ensure that all receive adequate nutrition. Is there a disconnect when our farmers are producing more food than ever, yet hunger and poverty are on the rise in our rural areas?

In the Gospel, everyone had "enough." Is our agriculture price support system broke when only nine percent of all farms receive 54 percent of all price supports and one-half of all commodity dollars go to families with incomes over $76,000? Do the big get richer and the small get poorer according to the existing structure?

Half the world's population relies on agriculture to make a living and 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 per day. Will the 2007 Farm Bill help ensure that small scale farmers in the developing world are not drummed out of a livelihood by overproduction and dumping of U.S. crops at rock bottom prices by multinational agricultural entities?

We have the highest rate of obesity in the developed world. Due to poor diet and lack of exercise, how can our 2007 Farm Bill help cut obesity by offering more financial support for healthier food in our domestic hunger programs and more support for farmers who produce necessary fruits and vegetables, so deficient in the diets of the poor?

Jesus challenged his followers to feed the hungry crowd with the resources that they had in hand. Jesus challenges us today to feed the hungry and bring about a more just farm, food, and nutrition distribution system by applying our agricultural know how and advocating to Congress and the president so that no one in our world of plenty has to go bed hungry and that every food producer receives a fair price and reward for his or her work and produce that help provide for a healthy world population.

(Br. Herro, a Norbertine, is Social Concerns director for the Diocese of Green Bay.)