Students Sisters and Sustainability: Local Activism
Pierson: This is the first episode of a radio here original series titled students sisters and sustainability and Rocky Pierson.
Steffens: Thank you. I'm Cathy Steffens, Sister of St. Joseph. Before people get into the individual projects that we can each do in our local area, I want us to always keep remembering the bigger possibility and remembering other people and how we are in this together we're all on one earth.
Pierson: During National Catholic Sisters Week 2017, a panel of Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet gathered in the St. Catherine University ballroom to share with students their efforts and missions centered around sustainability and food justice. Sharing this insight, I have compiled some of these topics into a four episode long series covering the topics of activism, food justice, gardening, and composting. These sisters talk about the issues on both micro and macro levels, sharing their work and how students can join in the efforts to conserve the environment and food resources. Kicking things off is Sr Cathy Steffens discussing topics of government policy and local activism.
Steffens: How many are from a rural area? Anybody one up here? Well, that's interesting to me because I've always said when when there's an article or an action for the farm programs or the farm bill or something like that, I think, “why don't they call it the food bill?” Then they would get us city folks roused because we need to pay a lot of attention to what's happening. If we're not paying attention to it, things end up being just voted in and then we say, “how did that happen?”
Steffens: This is just one example: Some of us went to the Land Stewardship Project Breakfast. Then, went to the legislature. After that, they gave us information that we all need to be attentive to because pretty soon we're saying, “well that doesn't concern me.” There were things about young farmers, new farmers trying to get land and how can that happen. That if you can't even inherit it from your father, there's got to be some possibility of being able to start yourself to buy land. So, there is an incentive that the government will offer to the seller to be able to have a tax credit if they sell to a farmer that hasn't been practicing for more than 10 years. So, we might think well that doesn't really concern me. I couldn't buy a farm. But, you never know maybe you would want to.
Steffens: But, the other thing is, where are we getting our food? This concerns all of us. And, if we think about the factory farms where animals are just kind of stacked up together, there's a bill right now in the legislature that says that the owners of the biggest farms can, if this passes, go from 1,000 head of animal to 2,000 before there needs to be any inspection. So, when you count, what does the term animal mean? It does not mean that the pigs and the cows and the chickens get counted the same one animal unit or 1,000 animal units. If you're talking, about hogs, there would be 3,300. So, if you have a farm right next to yours that can house 3,300 hogs with no oversight, how are those animals living and does it matter to me? And, does it matter to to the neighbors in the country. And, if they move that to 2,000, so then you can have 6,600 hogs next to your farm without anybody checking. So, it makes a difference that the city folks here care about some of these things.
Steffens: How many have heard about the oil pipelines coming across Minnesota? Has that on your radar? That oil is not going to even be here. It's crude oil from Canada that wants to just go from Canada somewhere through Minnesota onto something else. And of course, the big, noticeable problem right now that came to light, was that the pipeline was going to go under the river which was right near the lake that is the basis of drinking water. So, that's just one pipeline we know about. One area that we wanted to say, “is this the only way we can do things?”
Steffens: When we talked about wind possibilities, solar possibilities, another bill that's in the legislature is credits for solar. There are things called farms solar farms where, for instance, if St. Kate's put solar panels on the flat roofs on let's say three buildings, the people around here could buy into that without having themselves to put up solar panels on their roof. So, if something like that passes, if our legislators think that people want this . . . and, you know send them an email or send them a text. So that's all. I just wanted to give you some background here to say, “let's pay attention to the whole to the bigger picture of yes our city, yes Minnesota, and also the U.S.”
Steffens: May I throw in one legislative piece? St Paul doesn’t have curbside composting, because the choice was to get people engaged who were really going to use it. Minneapolis just did it. So, it happens in Minneapolis. But, the question is, “are people really doing it?” “Do they know that the trucks go by?” “Do they know what day they're supposed to do?” You know, “are they are they part of the system?” And, St. Paul wants people to vote for it and it has lost twice, I think. So, when you see that come up again . . . you know, that if there is going to be a percentage of a small part of tax that goes to homeowners to have these trucks come by and pick up your compost, we might be able to influence other people to say yes we want to do that. So, watch for it in your newspaper or legislative action.
Pierson: Thank you for listening. In honor of Earth week at St. Catherine's University this has been Students Sisters and Sustainability. For more info on the work that the sisters do and to learn how to join them, go to CSJStPaul.org.
This is the first episode of a radio here original series titled Students Sisters and Sustainability by Rocky Pierson.
