Harvest of Faith

SUMMER 2019

EARTH IS THE ONLY HOME HUMANS KNOW, at least during our mortal lives. Wrapped in a protective mantle of gases and warmed by the sun, it has protected us from cosmic radiation and the bitter cold of space. Its gravity anchors us, its soil nourishes us, its waters bring life.

It has not always been gentle. It can kill us in a hundred ways: a flood, an epic storm, an earthquake, an avalanche. But mostly, throughout recorded history, poets have written about how it sustains us, feeds us, shelters us.

The earth is our home and nature is our provider, but we do not own them. “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food,” according to Genesis 2:9. Then He “put [Adam] in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). Unfortunately, we have not always fulfilled this duty of stewardship.

The signs of a deteriorating environment are all around us – in melting icebergs, rising sea levels, the escalating violence of mega-storms – and much of the damage has been done through our own carelessness or greed. The Catholic Church has recognized the crisis: “If present trends continue,” Pope Francis has written, “this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us.”

Still, there is hope. “All is not lost,” Pope Francis writes. “Human beings … are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.”

In the Archdiocese of New York, many Catholics are committed to nurturing the environment through sustainable farming methods, smart management of energy consumption and responsible stewardship of the land itself. If each of us can mirror that commitment in our own lives, we can return to the confidence expressed in Genesis 8:22: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

“The earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor,” Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’, his 2015 encyclical calling on all of humanity to take action to reverse climate change and the degradation of our natural environment. Decrying the effects of consumerism and its “throwaway culture,” he wrote, “I urgently appeal … for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.”

At Sisters Hill Farm in Stanfordville, Dutchess County, that dialogue – and the work of caring for the earth coupled with service to the poor – has been going on for decades. In 1991, Sr. Mary Ann Garisto, a member of the Sisters of Charity of New York, took a sabbatical at Genesis Farm, a community garden founded by the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, N.J. She returned to her congregation with the idea that they should launch a farm of their own. “We had a small committee working on care of the earth,” she recalls. In 1995, the chapter wrote a Vision 2000 statement in which members committed to revere creation “in a spirit of interconnectedness with all that is, living responsibly.”

Sisters Hill is a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, practicing sustainable organic methods and training three apprentice farmers each year to carry the environmentally beneficial practices to other communities. “We started the farm in Stanfordville in 1998, on land that had been donated to the Sisters of Charity in 1917,” Sr. Garisto says. “Our priority was – and still is – to care for and nurture the earth and create a just and vital relationship between people and the earth. We felt that this was a great way to do that, to connect people with how food is grown and provide community-building activities at the same time.”

In the CSA model, community shareholders (Sisters Hill has around 300) get weekly portions of the harvest and help with the work of the farm. They pay up front, thus sharing the risks – and the bounty – with the farmer. Of every harvest at Sisters Hill, 10% goes to people in need. “That’s a very important part of our mission,” Sr. Garisto says. “We also have some free shares and some subsidized shares. We never turn anyone away who cannot pay the full amount. The mission of the farm is to grow healthy food that nurtures bodies, spirits and the earth, but it’s also an extension of our work for the poor.”

Dave Hambleton has been the farmer at Sisters Hill since its founding. “Our first year, we harvested 20,000 pounds,” he says. “Now our annual yield is 90,000 pounds on five acres, using hand tools and low-powered tractors and as little plastic as possible.” Beyond farming methods, Sisters Hill combats global warming through the use of solar panels, 40 of which power the barns and the apprentice quarters.

 “I value being part of an organization where it’s about empathy and caring for others,” Hambleton says. “Now we are moving more toward education. We train three apprentices a year here, and we’re spreading the environmental message online and through social media. We were one of the early CSAs and have been a model for other groups, not just religious groups but farmers from all walks of life. That’s really exciting to us.”

Elsewhere in the Hudson Valley – at Harmony Farm in Goshen, sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt; Pachamama Farm, run by the Maryknoll Fathers in Ossining; and the Peter Maurin Farm, operated by the Catholic Worker Group in Marlboro – the same focus on care for creation, sustainable agriculture and feeding the hungry is creating pockets of hope for the planet – not to mention tons of delicious fresh produce.

Amid verdant hills outside the Orange County town of Goshen, Harmony Farm is situated on land that the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt purchased in 1927 for a novitiate and school. The farm had its origins in 1993 as a community garden, part of a retreat center run by the Highbridge Community Life Center on the sisters’ land. It was a place where economically struggling families from the Bronx could learn, heal and develop life and social skills. The garden was a way to feed the families fresh organic food and teach them about their connection to the earth.

In 1994, Sr. Carole Keaney, OSU, returned to the U.S. after a 35-year mission in Indonesia with vast agricultural experience and a desire to live close to the land. Under her direction and still working with the Highbridge group, the sisters began expanding the farm and initiated a CSA program. Eventually, when Sr. Carole retired and the Highbridge center closed down, the sisters faced a choice. They decided to continue to farm the land and provide a CSA to families. “We sisters have been blessed with the stewardship of our Goshen lands,” says Sr. Didi Madden, OP, the farm’s current director. “Continuing the farm was integral to our mission.

“Blauvelt Dominicans are committed to serving the poor and excluded,” Sr. Didi says. “As awareness of the connection between faith and care of creation grew, we developed a land ethic as well as an appreciation of how our Goshen lands could connect people to nature and build ecological awareness and action.”

Today, Harmony Farm produces a wide variety of fresh vegetables, harvesting 40,000 pounds a year on nine acres using organic and biodynamic farming methods. It provides shares from early June until mid-November to 35 member families and distributes additional produce to pantries and soup kitchens and at local farmers’ markets.

In the words of the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt’s land ethic document: “We believe … that the earth is our home and each one of us has the responsibility to preserve the web of life.”

In Westchester County, Pachamama Farm produces more than seven tons of food per year on a one-acre plot, most of it distributed to local food pantries. Pachamama’s director, Fr. Fern Gosselin of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, who started the farm in 2000 along with fellow Maryknoller Fr. John Hudert, grew up on a dairy farm in New Hampshire. Pachamama uses no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, enriching the soil with grass clippings and leaves in fall, and occasionally mixing in some horse manure (when they can get it). The main focus is on feeding the hungry. “We serve food missions in Ossining, Peekskill and Katonah,” Fr. Gosselin says. “This is delicious, wholesome food for people who are very poor.”

At the Peter Maurin Farm, members of the Catholic Worker community are continuing and extending the work of Maurin and Dorothy Day, working a small plot of land to supply the Catholic Worker soup kitchens in New York City. It was part of Maurin’s vision that Catholic Worker communities would include self-sufficient communal farms that served as “agronomic universities” to foster knowledge about food production. There has been a resurgence of Catholic Worker farms in recent decades, and their added emphasis on sustainability is perfectly aligned with Day’s mission to serve the poor while also glorying in the beauty of the natural world.

Meeting the challenge of Pope Francis to nurture our planet back to health will require work, prayer and sacrifice from all of us. The work being done at these sustainable farms is important for its physical impact, but even more because it serves to inspire and educate. “Education is very important,” Sr. Garisto says. “That’s the biggest need that we have. We are an integral part of God’s creation. We were born of the earth. We are to care for the earth. We need to make these principles a core part of our lives.”

Click here to learn more about the Sisters of Charity of New York, and here to read about Religious Oganizations Along the River (Roar), a consortium of Catholic groups dedicated conserving nature in the Hudson Valley. 

MINDING OUR FOOTPRINT

There are more than 1,900 buildings under the purview of the Archdiocese of New York Energy Department, and at least two good reasons to make them as energy-efficient as possible.

“Our goal,” says Martin Susz, the department’s director, “is to reduce our carbon footprint and save money on energy costs. Why give the money to the energy company when you can redirect it to the needs and goals of parishes?”

The department’s LED upgrade project, replacing outdated lightbulbs and fixtures, has now been completed in 72 parishes, with another nine in progress. Subsidized by the utilities, upgrades generally pay for themselves in 15 months, after which they save parishes thousands of dollars a year. Work also continues to “tighten the envelope” in buildings that leak warm air in winter and cool air in summer.

But perhaps the most exciting developments have come with the use of solar energy.

Since last June, the Energy Department has installed solar panels in five parishes. “The panels were operational as of January 1,” Susz says, “and this summer we will do installations in two more parishes and two high schools.” In addition, he says, “We are installing a solar array in the Gates of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne, which will yield five megawatts of electricity.” The power will be fed directly into Con Ed’s grid, and parishes in central Westchester will receive corresponding energy discounts.

“Solar and LED are great ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” Susz says. The effort will also make all our dollars go farther and will continue, year after year, in all 10 counties of the archdiocese. “It’s not a commitment with an expiration date.”