The 117th Congress, now in lame-duck session, has a last-ditch opportunity to approve the first significant agricultural worker reform bill in a generation.
Agriculture
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Finding our way back to the farm
Half memoir of farm life, half manifesto against modern agricultural practices, James Rebanks’s ‘Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey’ urges us to return to our agrarian roots.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Dear Catholic vegetarians: Eating fake meat isn’t going to save the planet.
If it depends on supporting the fake meat industry, vegetarianism is not a superior ethical or moral stance. But there is an alternative in the “ideal kind of farm” described by Pope John XXIII.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Rep. Joaquin Castro: It’s time for a Latino secretary of agriculture
Congressman Joaquin Castro writes that Arturo S. Rodriguez, former president of the United Farm Workers, would be a champion of social justice as U.S. secretary of agriculture.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Understanding America’s wheat farmers
From bleeding sunsets in Texas to golden wheatfields in Oklahoma to the rolling plains of western Nebraska, Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s new book documents every stop in the wheat harvesters’ odyssey with striking lyricism and intricate detail.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Farms may depend on water — but they are also polluting it.
In “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis called drinkable water a human right. But as Nathan Beacom writes, our methods of farming and raising livestock are degrading our soil and polluting our waterways.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Italy grants temporary residency to migrant farmworkers
Mindful of how migrant farmworkers are often exploited, the Italian government has granted temporary residency to those agricultural workers who do not have proper documentation.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
U.S. bishops issue statement in support of migrant farmworkers during coronavirus
The bishops’ statement said that “conditions of their immigration visas can make them unwilling or unable to speak out about a need for protection due to the threat of losing their job.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
For Lent, let’s give up a treat that exploits child labor
The production of chocolate still depends on millions of child laborers in Africa, writes Christie Klimas. Fortunately, both popular and premium brands are moving toward justice for cocoa farmers.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: How can Christians care for creation?
In his new book, Christopher Steck recommends a relationship of kinship to animals rather than one of dominion or stewardship.