Growers, farm workers, academics and organizers shared their concerns and hopes about just wages, quality food, farm sustainability and the need for reliable labor with the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Agriculture Issues during a two-day hearing in mid-June in Sacramento.

Participants told church leaders, including Sacramento Auxiliary Bishop Richard Garcia and Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire, the church has a role to play in bringing farmers and farm workers together to work out contentious issues, and in educating policymakers and consumers to develop alternatives to the dominant food production and marketing system in the United States.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Agriculture Issues, of which Bishop Garcia is a member, has more hearings scheduled this year in Amarillo, Texas, Ames, Iowa, and Washington, D.C. Committee members will likely issue recommendations on national farm policy and a variety of agricultural issues, to be approved by the whole body of U.S. bishops. The recommendations may also be presented to Congress when versions of the next federal farm bill are introduced in 2002.

“Our concern is about the family farm, which is threatened, and how much farmers are being squeezed,” said Bishop Blaire during a news conference June 20 at St. Anthony Church. “We are always concerned about the poorest of the poor, and we have a special concern for farm workers, many of whom are seasonal workers in California.”

During the two-day hearing, the topics of testimony ranged from economic concentration in agriculture to immigration and environmental sustainability. Committee members broke from panel discussions on the evening of June 19 to visit with some 200 farm workers at the Fred H. Rehrman Migrant Center near Dixon in Solano County, where Bishop Garcia celebrated Mass.

In a keynote address at the hearing, David Lighthall, director of the California Institute for Rural Studies in Davis, contended that no progress could be made in transforming the current agricultural system in California without a “broad-based social coalition” of institutions, including churches, working to bring farmers, farm workers, environmentalists and consumers together to “confront the challenge of sustainability.”

“Our analysis has for too long been fatally circumscribed and regarded as an agriculture issue,” he said. “But it is more fundamentally a food system issue and we need a more wholistic perspective.”

Some of the trends affecting the state’s agriculture, Lighthall cited, include:

• Growing foreign competition in specialty crops such as walnuts, citrus and raisins;

• A steady increase in labor intensive crops, especially fruits, vegetables and horticulture;

• An increase in labor availability, tied to ongoing immigration from Mexico and Central America;

• Ongoing deflation in prices for many farmers’ commodities because of increased domestic and foreign plantings;

• A steady decline in the number of small, commercial farms.

• Declining net cash returns for farmers and declining wages for workers;

• Heavy dependence on undocumented workers;

• Ongoing environmental impact from agricultural chemicals.

“Agriculture’s weak position within the food system contributes to problems for both farmers and farm workers,” Lighthall contended.

He also shared the results of a survey published by the California Institute for Rural Studies last year that showed the state’s farm workers are more likely than the general population to suffer health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and tooth decay.

The survey of nearly 1,000 workers in the prime of their lives also found that more than two-thirds of the state’s 700,000-strong agricultural work force lacks health insurance, leaving them with the volatile combination of poor health and poor health care.

Lighthall proposed that the findings of the survey point to the need for a state health insurance system for seasonal farm workers funded by a wholesale sales tax on processed foods. “The supreme irony is that we deny benefits to farm workers to maintain their health, but we assume enormous health care costs when they are facing imminent death,” he said.

In a session on the relationship between farmers and farm workers, representatives of the United Farm Workers and California Rural Legal Assistance traded disparate views with independent growers and the president of the Nisei Farmers League.

Rosalinda Guillen, UFW national vice president, argued that the voices of farm workers are missing “from the table” when agricultural policies are negotiated. “We all love the land—farmers and farm workers,” she said. “There are ways for growers and farm labor organizations to work together to represent all the interests of agriculture.”

Mark Schacht of CRLA contended that for many farm workers in the state “conditions are worse than they’ve ever been,” and employers must be held accountable for labor violations.

Manual Cunha of the Nisei Farmers League defended the farm labor contractor system, noting that it provides small growers with a dependable labor supply.

One surprising moment of agreement came when David Zollinger, a fruit and nut grower from Turlock, said he would support an immigration reform plan that some farm worker groups have proposed, calling for a blanket amnesty for agricultural laborers who are in the country without proper documentation.

“It’s time to lift the curtain on all the undocumented workers we use,” he said. “They are disenfranchised and they can be taken advantage of. It’s time we found a way to legalize their entry into the United States.”

Sorting out the divergent views expressed at the hearing will be the challenge facing the U.S. bishops’ committee in the coming months, according to Bishop Garcia.

“What many were asking of us to do as church is to bring all of the interests to the table to be able to discuss issues of common need and concern,” he said. “I think that’s the great role we can play as church.”

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