Title: ELCA Deepens its Advocacy Efforts Surrounding U.S. Agriculture
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 13, 2001

ELCA DEEPENS ITS ADVOCACY EFFORTS SURROUNDING U.S. AGRICULTURE
01-229-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- As the United States Congress considers
legislation this month that will determine the nation's agriculture
policy for the next decade, the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding
bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has written
to ELCA leaders in an effort to strengthen the church's advocacy efforts
surrounding independent food producers and their communities.
     In a Sept. 5 letter, Anderson asked bishops of the ELCA's 65
synods to make farm policy "a priority issue for prayer, discussion and
advocacy."  He requested bishops to encourage pastors and lay leaders to
write letters, meet with senators and members of the U.S. House of
Representatives "to stress the importance of farm issues."
     The Lutheran Office for Government Affairs, the church's federal
public-policy advocacy office based in Washington, D.C., and the ELCA
rural ministry resources and networking desk are directing an advocacy
campaign to encourage and empower Lutherans to urge their U.S.
Representatives and Senators to reform farm policy, Anderson said.  He
added that bishops are in "a good position to help this effort."
     "Our church has long been distressed by the continuing decline of
independent, family-scale farming and the suffering that our rural
communities have endured as a result of agriculture's restructuring,"
Anderson said.
     The 2002 Farm Bill of the United States "offers a unique
opportunity for [the] church to advocate for farm policies [that] will
enable independent farmers and ranchers to compete in today's
agricultural marketplace, thus helping to assure the safety and security
of our food supply," Anderson wrote.
     Last fall the ELCA convened a meeting at the Lutheran Center here
in which presidents of three leading farm organizations in the United
States --  American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union and
National Farmers Organization -- agreed to an eight-point agenda on the
future of agriculture and rural communities. The agenda included topics
on insuring a safe food supply, providing financial resources for rural
communities and emphasizing conservation.  A second summit took place
last spring that "further defined the common ground among the church,
rural advocates and farming interests," Anderson said.
     "Memorials and statements of support for rural communities have
consistently found overwhelming support among the [ELCA] Church Council
and at synod and churchwide assemblies," he said.
- - -
     The ELCA rural ministry resources and networking desk maintains
information at http://www.elca.org/do/ruralhome.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html