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CRL Executive Director, Jim Ennis, was interviewed for a Catholic News Service article featuring the current challenges facing family farmers in the US. The article, entitled \”Family farmers facing worst financial stretch since the 1980\’s\”, has been syndicated and featured in many publications and websites across the country.
Many family farmers in the United States are facing the worst combination of events since the \”farm crisis\” of the mid-1980s.(…)
The toughening times aren\’t restricted to crop farmers. \”A lot of our dairy farmers have called us and said you\’ve got to do something about this milk pricing structure,\” said James Ennis.(…)
Ennis has visited eight U.S. dioceses this year, making nine presentations on Catholic Rural Life\’s new document, \”The Vocation of the Agricultural Leader,\” which was presented in December to Pope Francis at the Vatican. On those visits, Ennis has been getting an earful from farmers and ranchers.
\”Farming is a unique vocation because of our dependence upon food for life,\” he told CNS. \”Therefore, I think we do need to see farming and that culture as a unique industry. It\’s not simply another industry that we let market forces control everything: \’If we can\’t be competitive, we just import from somebody else.\’ That creates all sorts of food insecurity issues.\”
