Let us thank them for our food. (editors' note).

While home for the holidays, I spent a few hours going through my parents' basket of Christmas cards to catch up on what's new with their friends and with relatives who don't want to waste a stamp on me. Every year there's a letter from one particular family that really moves me, and this year was no different. As the letter reports, they now have to pump and carry clean drinking water because the well on their land has been contaminated and they can't afford to fix it. The good news is that the husband got several deer during hunting season, so there will be meat on the table this winter. And even though he's retired and has a bad back, this man chops firewood for several hours a day to help make ends meet.

What did these people do to merit such poverty and hardship? They were farmers. Small family farmers. My dad "met" them several years ago when the wife was interviewed for a newspaper article about the plight of family farmers in Wisconsin. After reading the article, my parents, both of whom grew up in rural towns in northern Wisconsin, decided to help out this family by sending them an annual donation. It helps, but, of course, it's not enough.

What's really needed is to change the current system that gives unfair advantages to large factory farms and denies small farmers the chance to earn a decent living for their labor. As Bob Zyskowski reports in this month's cover story, "A tough row to hoe" (pages 12-18), the farmers who made your bowl of Cheerios possible this morning are hurting--and they need your help.

What can you do? In addition to advocating and lobbying for just farm policies, we offer a list of ways everyday Catholics can support family farmers, from buying locally grown produce at farmers' markets to remembering farmers in your before-meal prayers. It's not only our responsibility as Catholics, but as people who eat. Because, as Holy Cross Brother David Andrews, director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, reminds us in his interview (pages 20-23), "Eating is a moral act."

As Catholics and as American citizens, we also have a moral responsibility to challenge the massive arms-for-export industry in this country. Many Americans were shocked to learn that the Taliban in Afghanistan got a lot of its weapons with U.S. support. With more than $30 billion in sales each year, are we currently arming our next enemy? Kevin Clarke describes how the U.S. is sowing the seeds of war in "Arms for the poor" (pages 34-38).

If all these issues leave you feeling a bit hopeless, take heart. Spring is around the corner, and every year the Earth renews itself, reminding us that life follows death. That, in essence, is the message of Jesus' Resurrection, Joyce Rupp writes in "Hope Grows" (pages 39-42). Happy Easter!