The Church and The Land
Recently thinking about the ancient relationship between the Catholic Church and the land, reading some Wendell Berry novels and also the United States Bishops' Letter "Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy" (1986), I thought: "How would a modern, city-bred, liberal arts trained Catholic even begin to reconnect to the land?" Or if I wanted to support family farms and rural life, encourage creative and responsible local intiatives and businesses, or simply establish better urban-rural relations--what would I do?Here's the beginning of a running list. I have not made up my mind what I think of these, but they seem like good ideas. And I bought some locally made honey for my sore throat. I have always hated honey, but just changed my mind. I mean, just look at it!
Explore:
- Access to Farms (a British program that helps students and farms interact).
- American Farm School (in Greece! The high school program seems the best).
- Community Supported Agriculture from the USDA (with a wonderful set of resources).
- Eat Wild (with links to local farms state by state).
- Growing New Farmers (help for new farmers, unfortunately, only in New England so far).
- Indiana Beekeeping School
- National Catholic Rural Life Conference
- National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (with internships posted for those who want to learn to farm).
- Small Dairy.com (with links to local dairies and dairy internships--and this is no hobby).
- The Farm School (trains students and adults).