'Seeds of Change' forum focuses on hunger, poverty, aiding farmers

The Hutchinson News

By Clara Kilbourn

An organization formed to alleviate world poverty and a program aimed at reducing hunger in the United States by reprioritizing the 2007 Farm Bill hosted a "Seeds of Change" forum Sunday.

Session presenters Jim French, representing OxFam, a relief program that followed World War II, and Elise Young, from Bread for the World, shared the views of their groups to an audience that met at the United Presbyterian Church parlor in Hutchinson.

"Christians are called to serve," Young said. "We ask people of faith to write to their senators and representatives to fight hunger and poverty and improve the farm bill to help struggling farmers."

Their organization wants a change in the priorities of the 2007 Farm Bill to a balanced farm policy that supports greater diversity in farm crops, she said. She asked for support for nutrition programs, conservation and rural development and away from a narrow focus on commodity crops.

Young suggested greater support for a variety of alternative crops, naming pecans, broccoli and pears as examples.

"The greatest concentration of farm payments in the United States goes to the areas of the greatest population loss," she said.

OxFam, now in a consortium of 13 countries around the world, addresses poverty while helping the economy of those countries grow, French said.

Seventy-five percent of the world's poorest are involved in agriculture or live in an agriculture-based nation.

"OxFam America believes one of the best ways to help developing nations improve or address poverty is to allow their economies to grow and for people to engage in livelihoods that can support their communities," French said.

OxFam's mission statement seeks long-term solutions to hunger and poverty worldwide.

"That means we are focused on how do we enable people to provide their own livelihood," he said. "It's a matter of truth that U.S. policies create barriers for the poorest to be able to market their crops and provide for a decent means for support."