Agricultural Concerns Committee

Title: MCC Ontario Agricultural Concerns Committee fonds

Physical description: 17 cm of textual records

Dates of creation: 1975-1996

Administrative history: In 1985, the ad hoc MCC Ontario Land Use Task Force became the Agricultural Concerns Committee, a standing committee of MCC Ontario. The committee's mandate expanded to include farm issues such as the environment, the changing farm economy, theology of the land, producer/consumer relationships, free trade and rural community. Gordon Hunsberger became the first staff person. He was a farmer and former MCC volunteer in Haiti who was working on development issues for the Peace and Social Concerns Committee. Orland Gingerich followed as staff person in 1989. Gingerich had a long history as a minister to rural congregations and a farmer. He was active in the land use task forces of MCC Ontario and the Mennonite Conference of Ontario in the 1970s and early 1980s. After Orland's retirement in 1996, Jamie MacDonald served as interim director.

The committee held periodic seminars for farmers and farm wives. It served as a conduit for dialogue between the Ontario government and Old Order Mennonite and Amish groups regarding legislative and regulatory farm issues. The committee built relationships with other faith-based groups in Ontario addressing agricultural and rural issues. The committee created a pamphlet called "Fragile: Handle with Care: An Earth Keeping Handbook" and aided in the publication of selections from Gordon Hunberger's "farm filosofy" column in The Elmira Independent. 

Due to a reorganization of priorities at MCC Ontario and the declining number of Ontario Mennonites involved in farming, the Agricultural Concerns Committee was disbanded in 1997.

Custodial history: Transferred from Mennonite Central Committee Ontario to the Archives in 2014

Scope and content: Includes minutes, reports, presentations and correspondence documenting the activities of the Agricultural Concerns Committee and its staff person, as well as the minutes, reports, presentations and correspondence of related outside groups. Also includes writings from Gordon Hunsberger's newspaper column.

Notes: See the MCC Ontario annual report books for reports from the Agricultural Concerns Committee (XIV-3.1).
Archival description created 2017 by Laureen Harder-Gissing

File list:

1. Agricultural Concerns Committee minutes, 1985-1996
2. General correspondence, 1985, 1987-1996
3. Fellowship Day for Farm Women, 1987-1995
4. Old Order groups (Mennonite and Amish), the Ontario Farm Registration System and the Farm Organizations Funding Act proposal, minutes and correspondence, 1992-1994
5. Old Order groups (Mennonite and Amish) and the regulation of cream production, correspondence, 1994-1995
6. Old Order Amish groups and the wearing of hard hats, correspondence, 1996
7. "Jam Session" sponsored by the Toronto Food Policy Council, minutes and correspondence, 1991-1992
8. "International Panel on World Food Security" with participants from Mennonite World Conference, correspondence, 1990
9. Inter-Church Task Force on Agriculture, minutes, 1986-1987
10. Ecumenical Farm Caucus, minutes and correspondence, 1987-1993, 1995
11. Faith and Agriculture Committee at the University of Guelph, minutes and correspondence, 1983-1996
12. Catholic Rural Life Conference, minutes and correspondence, 1991-1996
13. Agricultural Concerns Committee submission to the Region of Waterloo State of the Environment Report, submitted brief and correspondence, 1990
14. Workshop on the Churches and the Environment sponsored by the Task Force on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility, correspondence and reports, 1990
15. Miscellaneous meetings
    Stewardship of the Land Consultation Findings Committee Report, 1980; Waterloo Town and Country Farm Tour, minutes, 1995; Ohsweken visit, reports, 1992; Rural Church Network of the U.S. and Canada, minutes, 1992; Ontario Agri-Food Education, minutes, 1992; Agricultural Concerns Committee seminar, evaluation forms, [19--]
16. Reports and presentations
    "The Farmer and our Mennonite/Christian Heritage" / Orland Gingerich, 1975; "Proposed Brief on Land Use" / Mennonite Conference of Ontario Land Use Task Force, 1976; "Brief on Land Use in Ontario" / Mennonite Conference of Ontario Land Use Task Force, 1976; "Biblical Perspective on Land" / [?], 1978; "Exploring Rural Theology" / Paul Ross, [198-?]; "A Statement by the Church to Policy Makers, Politicians and Others Concerned About the Economic Problems Being Experienced in the Canadian Farm Community" / Gordon Hunsberger, [1984?]; "The Theological Basis for Stewardship of Land" / Waldemar Janen, 1980; "Future Directions for Ontario and Agricultural Industry" / Lorne Bolger, 1986; "Christianity and the Environment: A Biblical Basis" / Clare Schlegel, 1987; "Mennonites and the Ecological Crisis" / Linda M. Burr, 1987; "The Crisis in Canadian Agriculture" / Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1988; "Sustainable Rural Communities Program Outline" / [?], [199?]; "Mennonite Models of Rural Community" / Clare Schlegel, 1992; "Ethics and Sustainable Agriculture in a Sustainable Society" / Robert G. Good, [1995?]
17. Resources
    Brochure, Agricultural Concerns Committee, "Fragile: Handle with Care: An Earth Keeping Handbook" / Agricultural Concerns Committee, 1989; Lists of audiovisual resources
    Brochures, MCC Food Bank, "Wheat banking..." / Mennonite Central Committee Canada, [197-]. Note: The food bank was a forerunner of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
18. Newspaper columns by Gordon Hunsberger
    "farm filosofy" and "The Way I See It" columns by Gordon Hunsberger, Sept 1983, Apr-Dec 1985, 1986-Jul 1989
    
    "The Way I See It...: The Best of 15 Years of His "farm filosofy" Columns / Gordon Hunsberger. Winfield, B.C.: Wood Lake Books, 1989