World hunger calls for new economic approach, Pope tells FAO

November 16, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI delivered the keynote address at an international summit convened by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) opening in Rome on November 16.

"Hunger is the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty," the Pope told the FAO meeting. Having observed that the world has the wealth and ability to provide adequate food for all her people, he continued: "Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions."

Pope Benedict based his argument on "the known fact that the world has enough food for all its inhabitants." He noted in passing that the abundance of food available is proof that "there is no cause-and-effect relationship between population growth and hunger." The real problem, he said, lies in the failure to provide political and economic arrangements that ensure the distribution of food to those most in need. He called for "new parameters-- primarily ethical but also juridical and economic ones-- capable of inspiring the degree of co-operation required."

Throughout his address the Holy Father repeatedly assailed the influence of avarice on the world's system of food distribution. He condemned the deliberate destruction of foodstuffs to prop up prices, the attempts to wring profits from emergency-relief efforts, and the failure to answer the pressing needs of the thousands facing starvation or malnutrition. Today's prevailing system, he said, "demeans the person disrupts the environment, and damages society."

The Pope placed heavy emphasis on the environmental costs of current practices, decrying excesses of consumerism and greed. "The desire to possess and to use in an excessive and disorderly manner the resources of the planet is the number one cause of environmental damage," he said.

Pope Benedict called for new attitudes toward agricultural economics, and new systems to promote an approach based on solidarity. He mentioned that aid to needy countries should not merely provide immediate relief for their needs, but also help those needy countries to become self-sustaining in the longer term. The Pontiff strongly objected to "the tendency to view hunger as structural: an integral part of the socio-political situation in the weakest countries." He said: "It is not so, and it must never be so!" He cautioned, therefore, against "those forms of aid that do grave damage to the agricultural sector" in the recipient nations.

 

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Further information:

• Holy Father Addresses World Summit on Food Security (VIS)
• Pope to FAO: Protect Environment to Aid Development (AGI)
• Facing hunger, pope demands an end to 'opulence and waste' (National Catholic Reporter)