About Young Catholic Farmers
Hi Folks! Welcome. My name is Max Becher. This site is an outgrowth of my desire to help young adults answer the God-given call to cultivate and keep the marvelous gift of creation, while providing a good living for their families and creating a thriving culture of life. Below I provide a short bio, and explain the intent for this initiative. Thanks for reading!
Short Bio
Let's keep this brief... I live in Southern California with my wife and two young children, and together we operate a small bio-intensive farm. My parents are not farmers, and I did not study agriculture in college. A life-long dream to farm was cemented in my heart when I first befriended my wife Deirdre, who shared my vision for a family farm. We both have degrees in Theology. While studying, I took interest in principles of agriculture scattered throughout various Catholic social writings.
This led to my Masters thesis "Agriculture in Catholic Social Teaching." My goal was to compile a concise summary of Catholic Agriculture by boiling it down to several basic principles. I was unaware of any such clear synthesis of Catholic agricultural principles at the time. I was a devoted Church-going Catholic, and I also wanted to farm. It was intensely interesting to discover what farming looked like when based on Catholic principles.
We began farming in 2014, and my enthusiasm and zeal for farming has grown many times over. This lifestyle and profession is a passion of ours, but most importantly, Deirdre and I consider it an answer to God's urgent call. Our country's farming population has dwindled to a small number in recent years, and young people like us who voice a dream to farm are often met with skepticism and discouragement, especially if we don't have a farming background. This is where we see our primary mission: to help our peers rally around farming as a Christian vocation AND a profitable, rewarding livelihood! Everything on this site is intended as a resource for aspiring farmers living lives of faith. Our prayer is that we can contribute to creating ripples of change throughout society, one farm family at a time!
This led to my Masters thesis "Agriculture in Catholic Social Teaching." My goal was to compile a concise summary of Catholic Agriculture by boiling it down to several basic principles. I was unaware of any such clear synthesis of Catholic agricultural principles at the time. I was a devoted Church-going Catholic, and I also wanted to farm. It was intensely interesting to discover what farming looked like when based on Catholic principles.
We began farming in 2014, and my enthusiasm and zeal for farming has grown many times over. This lifestyle and profession is a passion of ours, but most importantly, Deirdre and I consider it an answer to God's urgent call. Our country's farming population has dwindled to a small number in recent years, and young people like us who voice a dream to farm are often met with skepticism and discouragement, especially if we don't have a farming background. This is where we see our primary mission: to help our peers rally around farming as a Christian vocation AND a profitable, rewarding livelihood! Everything on this site is intended as a resource for aspiring farmers living lives of faith. Our prayer is that we can contribute to creating ripples of change throughout society, one farm family at a time!
The Vocation
The fundamental principle of Catholic Agriculture is that it is not merely an industry -- it is a vocation! This is true of any business, but agriculture has the unique status of being a vocation even before the mankind's fall into sin. The Church sees it as a primary industry and vocation in society.
The last several decades have seen a surge of interest in farming methods that differ from conventional agriculture as it developed over the last century. By and large, this has been a secular movement, although some of the main proponents of this movement have been fervent Christians (Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin). We think it's time that Catholics and Christians of all denominations step up to the plate, and claim ownership of a philosophy of agriculture that is a direct outgrowth of our faith. We need to join the growing community of farmers and farming enthusiasts passionately interested in changing the way we grow and eat our food. This movement tends to be associated more with New-Age Spirituality than with Catholicism and Christianity, but we hope to highlight the characteristically Catholic attributes of regenerative agriculture on this site.
In 2016, the International Catholic Rural Association collaborated with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to publish "The Vocation of the Agricultural Leader." This short manual outlines in a concise way what I tried to synthesize for myself when researching for my thesis. A year earlier, Pope Francis made very explicit in Laudato Si that farming is a key platform from which man answers God's call to care for creation. These are both tremendous resources, this site references them heavily, and takes them as the primary guiding light. Our mission is to take their message of vocation and stewardship, and outline practical plans for our generation to step up and answer the call in the context of modern society.
The last several decades have seen a surge of interest in farming methods that differ from conventional agriculture as it developed over the last century. By and large, this has been a secular movement, although some of the main proponents of this movement have been fervent Christians (Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin). We think it's time that Catholics and Christians of all denominations step up to the plate, and claim ownership of a philosophy of agriculture that is a direct outgrowth of our faith. We need to join the growing community of farmers and farming enthusiasts passionately interested in changing the way we grow and eat our food. This movement tends to be associated more with New-Age Spirituality than with Catholicism and Christianity, but we hope to highlight the characteristically Catholic attributes of regenerative agriculture on this site.
In 2016, the International Catholic Rural Association collaborated with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to publish "The Vocation of the Agricultural Leader." This short manual outlines in a concise way what I tried to synthesize for myself when researching for my thesis. A year earlier, Pope Francis made very explicit in Laudato Si that farming is a key platform from which man answers God's call to care for creation. These are both tremendous resources, this site references them heavily, and takes them as the primary guiding light. Our mission is to take their message of vocation and stewardship, and outline practical plans for our generation to step up and answer the call in the context of modern society.