September 21, 2007

Agriculture for the future: a spiritual perspective

The Rev. Dr Robyn McPhail, President of the International Rural Christian Association, and Karen Pearce from the CSIRO were keynote speakers at the Agriculture for the future, spirituality with the land one-day workshop held in Dubbo in September.

Some of the ideas presented need to be heard.

Dr McPhail used as a base her experiences in New Zealand where she ministers.

New Zealand has gone th rough a rural decline in population, then “Rogernomics” in 1980 when the government withdrew all subsidies and trade p rotection f rom rural areas.

“Community sustainability has taken second place to financial viability,” she said. “Now we have ‘environmental sustainability’ driven by the urban majority of armchair critics who don’t know how hard it is to be ‘green when you are in the red’.

“The practical Christianity many of us grew up with had difficulty dealing with issues that were seen as only peripheral to ‘the authentic project of the message of salvation’. What was Christian was how you farmed and how you lived in the community.”

Robyn then used some scriptures to illustrate how biblical and Christian thinking can bring a sustainable attitude to farming, creation and community. All of these elements are in a relationship with God.

“The story of the tower of Babel is a lesson in sustainability when the urban empire grows too big. The prophets like Isaiah, Amos and Hosea point out that living God’s way involves an economic system that keeps society and land in balance all the time. Matthew 5:3-12 illustrates through the parable of the wealthy landowner that when a g rower begins to consider only himself and no one else in the community, he loses the plot as well as his life.

She also cited Genesis 2 and 4, Hosea 4 and Joel 1 as useful readings, and referred to the work of Roman Jurigo, an Orthodox Christian in the Czech republic, whose ecotheology is based on the premise that all of creation, including “creation as a neighbour”, is interconnected — which means “that creation should expect f rom us the same (love and mercy) that we expect f rom God and that God expects us to give our human neighbours.”

We all intrinsically know this, so why don’t we do it?

Robyn suggested three reasons:

Robyn finished by illustrating f rom Joel how Christians could approach such attitudes, by having a sustainable faith in times of trials and difficulties.

“Joel 1:12 says get together and share your sor rows, lament this suffering and its pressures and get spiritually connected again,” she said.

She added that keeping the Sabbath is a critical emotion and psychological aid to all creation. “Work then pause” is the rhythm of Sabbath creation with God. The pausing gives time for wisdom’s reflection.

Karen Pearce, Communications Officer at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Melbourne, spent some time illustrating that climate change is not a “maybe” or a “possibly” but a reality.

“We are not just going through another dry cycle; there are too other indicators to p rove that something really significant is going on affecting rainfall and temperature,” she said.

Since the 1950s the maximum temperatures in New South Wales have risen 0.15 degrees per decade, and minimum temperatures have risen 0.19 degrees per decade. The number of hot days and nights is rising per decade. New South Wales rainfall has fallen by 14.3 mm per decade and there have been more extremes.

There are a number and range of scenarios describing what will happen ac ross New South Wales over the next 30 and 70 years, depending in some cases on levels of greenhouse gas reductions. The greatest warming will occur west and north of the Blue Mountains and least along the coast. Most warming will occur in spring and summer and least in winter. Rainfall in winter and spring will decrease the most.

The difference between rainfall and evaporation will be greatest in the far north a round Moree and the Glen Innes area over winter.

For more detailed information about each regional area go to http://www.greenhouse.nsw.gov.au/.

One of the biggest issues is going to be water and the increase in fires, hot days, droughts and intense storms.

Irrigation orchards and viticulture will possibly not be able to maintain existing levels of production with existing species and reduced water availability.

For more information, visit the CSIRO website, http://www.csiro.au/, and look out for updated CSIRO report coming out in October.

The church people who were able to attend this conference had a discussion about how to help get a message of hope about the changes that are happening a round New South Wales out to farmers and community peoples.

These included: