Faith, Food and the Environment (FFE) - Catholic Rural Life

Faith, Food and the Environment (FFE)

  • Can our farming methods give back as well as take from Nature?
  • Can we rediscover a more intimate, conscious and respectful relationship to Earth, its biodiversity and its creatures?
  • Can we organize economic enterprises in such a way to sustain us while also broadening our awareness of the ecological whole?

Purpose

Faith, Food and the Environment is a project devoted to the vocation of agriculture—and especially directed to those who show leadership in producing nutritious foods and essential agricultural goods, such as fiber, feedstocks and renewable fuels.

Through this project we express our gratitude to farmers, ranchers and food producers: Yours is a blessed way of life that provides our “daily bread” and calls you to care for the land and the integrity of Creation.

Fruits

Vocation of the Agricultural Leader is a 30-page document, published in 2016, that was generated by the Faith, Food and the Environment Symposium in 2014. It offers a faith-based reflection on today’s modern agriculture and food production practices, as well as affirming the noble vocation of farming as a God-given calling. This calling comes with certain moral and ethical responsibilities and the document helps us to explore and reflect upon these.

One of the comments we hear often when presenting the document across the country is that the acknowledgment of agriculture as a vocation is refreshing, new and welcomed, as this vocation is not often affirmed. One participant in recent workshop commented:

“We’ve never heard this before, and I wish I would have known. I would’ve invited all of my neighbors—Catholic and non!”

Going Forward

Faith, Food & the Environment seeks to deepen the dialogue with agricultural leaders who are grappling with world food issues and environmental tipping-points. We hope our faith-based approach provides a moral and meaningful perspective that will inspire and guide a new generation of agricultural producers and leaders.

We travel across the country giving presentations and workshops on Vocation of the Agricultural Leader. To request a workshop in your area, please email Info@CatholicRuralLife.org. We are looking forward to meeting you!

National Conference

In March 2018, we hosted our second national conference dedicated to the Vocation of the Agricultural Leader document. The conference was titled, A Noble Vocation: Integrating Faith, Food and the Environment. See below to access videos and materials from the event.

Affirming the noble vocation of farming as a God-given calling.

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Vocation of the Agricultural Leader

Access videos and materials from the March 2018 conference.

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2018 National Conference

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