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Summary Findings
Trade
- We value trade, appreciate the goods and services it provides, and a variety
of foods off-season
- There are concerns about free trade, especially who controls and who benefits
- Competition has positive and negative aspects
Community
- We value local community
- We value rural/urban relationships, like farmer’s markets which foster
relationships between producers and consumers
Faith community
- We need different values
- Churches need to take leadership in providing forums for discussion and new
models
Sustainability
- Food system needs to be sustainable economically and environmentally
Well-being for all
- Right to food (justice for all)
- Healthy food
- Our prosperity should not be at the expense of the poor
Need accurate information
- Science and technology are not necessarily bad but are not automatically to
be trusted - take time to understand implications
Additional concerns:
- In food and food systems, we recognize that everyone is involved, not just
producers.
- We are concerned about the concentration of power in the hands of a few corporations,
especially as it relates to controlling the production and marketing of food.
—Reported by Harold Penner and Ray Hamm
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Food System Resolution passed by Delegate Assembly
Whereas
- food and the food system involve all of us, not only producers;
- food is an important question not only for us, but for all people;
- Making Peace with the Land was strongly affirmed as a good beginning;
- there is need for faith-based initiative and leadership in these areas,
Be it resolved that
- the General Board of Mennonite Church Canada find ongoing ways to encourage
and facilitate reflection and action, and the creation of new models, about the
production and distribution of food, with a view to strengthening community and
well-being.
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A Pre-Assembly Event
A two day conference dealing with Canada's food system from a faith-based
perspective.
Who: People from rural churches, urban churches, and in between. Food
growers, producers, consumers - all are needed for this dialogue.
What: Join in two days of dialogue, discerning and visioning together as
we look at Canada's food system with the goal of aligning ourselves with God's
purposes across the street and around the world.
When: July 2-3, in conjunction with the Ministers' Conference and the Annual
Assembly.
Where: Osler Mennonite Church - 20 minutes' drive northwest of Saskatoon.
Sponsored by:
Mennonite Church Canada Peace & Justice Office, Mennonite Central Committee
Canada, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Featuring:
- Dr. Chris Lind - President, St. Andrews College, Saskatoon, social ethicist,
author.
- Cam Harder, PhD - farm bankruptcy/farm crisis specialist, theologian, professor.
- Laura Rance - former editor, Manitoba Co-operator, free-lance farm writer/researcher
on Canada's food system,farmer.
- Nettie Wiebe - social ethicist, professor, former president of the National
Farmers Union, farmer.
- Representation by MCC Canada Food Disaster Service, Canadian Foodgrains Bank,
World Food Summit.
- "Community Dialogue" - a 'grass-roots' designed opportunity for
producers and consumers, rural and urban, to come together in a guided process
that explores Canada's food system and international trade. These dialogues are
taking place throughout Canada in the year 2002, and this event will be the only
faith-based dialogue in Canada.
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