Prayer Intentions for April 2016

Sprout Creek Farm

Sprout Creek Farm (USC) - G. Blaeser rscj

 
 
 
We join Pope Francis in prayer
for this month's universal intention:
 

– Small Farmers – 

That small farmers may receive
a just reward for their precious labor.   
 
 

 

Key facts about Small Farming
        from http://www.fao.org

  • More than 90 percent of the 570 million farms worldwide are managed by an individual or a family and rely primarily on family labour. 

  • Family farms produce more than 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms, confirming family farming’s central importance in world food security today and for future generations. 

  • The vast majority of the world’s farms are small or very small. Farms smaller than 2 hectares account for 84 percent of all farms and control only 12 percent of all agricultural land. 

  • Public policies that recognize the diversity and complexity of the challenges faced by family farms are key to end hunger and achieve inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems.

 
We recognize that in the Society of the Sacred Heart,
a few of our Provinces are working hard
to make their small farm initiatives sustainable and educative.
 
 
In his January 2015 address to small farmers, Pope Francis says:
 
"The name “coltivatori diretti” (small farmers) refers to “cultivating”, which is a form of work characteristically and fundamentally human. Indeed in the work of farmers there is the acceptance of the precious gift of the land which comes to us from God, but there is also its appreciation in the equally precious work of men and women, called to respond with audacity and creativity to the mandate that has been consigned to man from the beginning, that of tilling and safeguarding the land (cf. Gen 2:15). The word “cultivate” calls to mind the care which the farmer has for his land in order that it bear fruits and that they be shared: how much passion, how much attention, how much dedication in all that this demands! That familiar relationship is formed and the earth becomes “sister” earth.

Truly there is no humanity without the cultivation of land; there is no good life without the food that it produces for the men and women of every continent. Thus, agriculture shows its inalienable role."

 
 
 

April 4, 2016

JPIC |A Focus for Transforming Relationships: Care for the Earth, Our Common Home