HOW TO DO A CONSENSUS FORMATION ACTIVITY WITH
A CHURCH COMMUNITY AUDIENCE

1. Optional: READ THE DRAFT CONSENSUS DOCUMENT called Creating a New Vision of Farming. This is a long document (17 pages), from which pieces of use for consensus formation are taken for use in the workshop./activity. (Download the PDF version.)

2. Download and print from the Tools page (items 4a and 5a) two documents: 1.) The Process of Stating Farming Values and 2.) The Process of Stating Ethical Principles and its Rationale.

[Notice in these two documents the distinction between the values, which are nouns and ethical principles which are whole sentences. As an example, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, God and neighbor are supreme values. VALUES are nouns, like God or neighbor. PRINCIPLES are complete sentences telling us to protect, honor, or construct those values. E.G. "We must love God" and "We must love our neighbors."

3. FORM A GROUP of two or three members of your church community, under the auspices of any standing local church committee,and with the knowledge of your denomination's farm supporting office (e.g.for Catholics, the diocesan office of National Catholic Rural Life Conference) or other group which considers this kind of activity within its responsibility. Get your people to draw up lists of all the values and corresponding ethics of family managed farming they can think of, using the two documents mainly as a model of how to cast values and principles and so that, where possible, similar language and lengths are used. Do not fail to use the wealth of your church's traditional and recent writings both directly and in footnotes ("Don't hide your light under a bushel"). Strangers and Guests is a good source for Catholics as is The Church and Farming by Denis Fahey, Omni Publications, P.O. Box 900566, Palmdale CA 93500. For a list similar brief publications for Lutheran, Presbyterian, Church of the Brethren, and others see a list included in "In Search of First Principles for an Agricultural Ethics" (by Stan Dundon) in the book Agricultural Ethics, edited by Charles Blatz, University of Idaho Press.

4. CALL A MEETING OF THE LARGER COMMUNITY, with appropriate permissions and sponsorship, to get a broader input. If your group is mainly farm families, try to include those who have special known expertise or interests such as direct marketing, environmental issues, farm animal welfare, sustainable agriculture

5. CONDUCT A CONSENSUS FORMATION EXERCISE, starting with the lists of values and corresponding ethical principles developed by the smaller group Determine an appropriate method to insure openness, creativity and consensus but with efficient use of time. Determine democratically a means to establish the outcome of your consensus formation exercise as a "practical consensus". E.G. a two thirds vote, a period of time to allow fundamental or language-based differences to be ironed out, the use of minority reports or footnotes containing reservations or any other agreeable means.

6. WRITE UP A POLISHED VERSION of your consensus statement and publish it for your local church first for comment and possible reform, then to your regional church. It would be best not to seek "official" endorsement of your work until extensive comment has occurred. If, as is common with many churches, there is a regional democratic decision making process, try to get your work considered for passage through that process. Try to get the broadest exposure possible and recommend it to other denominations locally and regionally.

7. KEEP SOUL OF AGRICULTURE INFORMED OF YOUR PROGRESS AND NEEDS.

Finally, remember the goal: A Consensus Statement on the multiple values and ethics of family managed farming so broad, so rich and so diverse in its supporters that: