Narrow Results

The Loretto Community (historically known as the Sisters of Loretto) is an organization of both traditionally vowed Catholic Sisters and also co-members, who are women and men who share values with these Sisters. Some of the co-members of the Loretto Community (LC) take values-based vows as well, committing themselves to simple living, non-violence, solidarity, and/or ecological sanity as an alternative to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Together, these women and men live out a common mission to “work for justice and act for peace because the Gospel urges us.” They are located primarily in the United States, with several Sisters in Pakistan, Sister communities in both Ghana and Guatemala, and connections all around the world. The LC has always been forward-thinking, has sponsored a Loretto Earth Network (LEN) for over 25 years, and has been responding to the climate crisis in several creative and important ways. Examples of these responses include divesting from fossil fuels, activism in several campaigns against fracking, and educating the entire community about how to move towards carbon neutrality in daily life. The LC provides one important example of how a faith-based organization (FBO) can effectively advocate for Earth justice and contribute to solving the climate crisis.

Social enterprises are not-for-profit or for-profit organizations that work for the development of the community in different ways and are sustainable through their products or services. One such initiative of social enterprises is supporting and promoting agriculture and agricultural products. This chapter focuses on two social enterprises, Uravu and Buffalo Back, which work with farm products and their role in promoting sustainable agriculture practices. The primary data are collected through personal interviews with top-level managers, and secondary data are collected from websites and other published documents. This study looks at the concept of sustainability in terms of finitude, fragility and fairness. These two case studies explain how social enterprises promote the development of agriculture. The former organization ensures the community’s livelihood through farming support, upgrading local knowledge, technologies, skill development and marketing their commodities. The latter focuses on promoting farmers to focus on sustainable organic farming techniques and selling their products to customers. This study can help future entrepreneurs understand different models they can use to develop the agricultural sector through their social actions.