agriculture

Randy and Amanda Hartung are the hosts of this year’s event. Mass begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by guest speaker Joe Gill, Catholic Century Farm Awards, lunch and entertainment by the Slew Foot Family Band.

The movie’s focus is on organic farming — specifically, biodynamic farming, in which the soil is continually replenished without the use of chemical fertilizers and crops are grown without artificial pesticides.

The farm bill that passed both houses of Congress by wide margins doesn’t have money in it to protect endangered species, but it did preserve one that had been on the threatened list: bipartisanship.

110 participants from 18 states were drawn together through concerns about “what’s happening around agriculture and family farms, what’s happening in our rural communities and our rural life, concerns about food security and how we’re going to feed the world in the future, while caring at the same time for our environment,” Catholic Rural Life executive director James Ennis said.

“This Blessed Earth” chronicles all the challenges of farming and more, while delving into the rapidly changing world of small family farms.

With health conscious consumers are demanding high-protein foods, especially in snacks, responding to these market expectations is a smart move by farmers.

Many family farmers in the United States are facing the worst combination of events since the “farm crisis” of the mid-1980s.

While today’s family farmers worldwide are tested as never before, the church believes they can contribute to a more just ordering of life, said a new document issued Dec. 7.