Reprinted from UCC.org:
Fourth Sunday of Easter
May 7, 2006
John 10:11-18
FAMILY FARMERS
My father was a family farmer. Born into the hardships of farming life in Japan, he heard the siren’s call in the form of plantation owners’ promises of prosperity in work on the plantations in Hawaii. Like many an immigrant, my father and his five brothers accepted the offer to work on a pineapple plantation. Somehow he managed to save enough money to lease a small plot of land. He wrote home and asked his family to send a wife. They and my mother’s family arranged the marriage, and the resulting union lasted nearly fifty years and produced six children. Life was hard, and we were poor; but we managed. We always had food on the table, clothes to wear, and somehow managed to pay our bills. Today, the rich tradition of family farming continues globally. Here in the United States, family farms can often be thousands of acres–a lot larger than the two acres my family had, and much, much larger than the farms in developing countries. When I bring American family farmers together with their Philippine counterparts, it is remarkable to contrast the sizes of their farms. Still, they find they share some of the same challenges. All of them are finding it difficult to keep their vocation viable. On this Rural Life Sunday, even as we give thanks for the food that farmers produce, we must also ask some hard questions. Why is it that, while more food is produced in the United States than can feed the entire world, there are millions dying of hunger and hunger-related diseases? Why do we impose restrictions on farm subsidies for developing countries and still provide them for our own farmers? Why do our farmers in fact need government subsidies when they are producing more than ever before? And why is it that those who produce the food that graces our tables often find it difficult to put food on their own tables?
Rev. Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa
Justice and Witness Ministries
United Church of Christ
