Pope Leo calls for ‘new global food order’

October 16, 2026

Pope Leo XIV said that “new global food order is essential—one in which technological innovation is unconditionally subordinated to respect for God-given human dignity and the universal common good.”

The Pontiff issued his call for a new global food order is his message for the 2026 World Food Day, whose theme is “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.” The papal message was dated October 12 and released today.

“We currently find ourselves in a paradoxical situation, in which global progress is advancing at an ever-increasing pace, while hunger and poverty continue to persist,” Pope Leo wrote in his message to Qu Dongyu, the director-general of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. “This is not a technical or financial problem, but rather a profound anthropological and ethical crisis.”

“Genuine innovation does not displace creation but involves reverently inquiring into the complex laws that guide the work of the Creator’s hands,” the Pope continued. “Using appropriate technology to cultivate the land is an expression of the human person’s role as God’s collaborator in the work of creation. However, when modern technology is used in agriculture in ways that strip the soil of its natural fertility or drives farmers from their land, motivated solely by financial considerations, this cannot be regarded as progress, but instead a sophisticated form of destruction.”

Pope Leo added:

In an era of greater technological advancement than ever before, it is intolerable that bread should be considered a privilege and water a contested commodity. Regular access to safe, adequate and sufficient food, in keeping with the dignity of every person, is a basic human right. Guaranteeing this right is an obligation of justice that binds both individual States and the international community ...

Bread should be neither an instrument of geopolitical pressure nor a volatile financial asset. Nor must it ever be used as a weapon of war. Indeed, it is a terrible offense against human dignity to prevent bread from reaching any person or to destroy the means by which it is produced.

“I encourage the Food and Agriculture Organization, and its member States, not to settle for abstract analyses or declarations of limited effectiveness,” the Pontiff told the director-general. “Now is the time for moral audacity.”

The Pope explained:

A new global food order is essential—one in which technological innovation is unconditionally subordinated to respect for God-given human dignity and the universal common good. Furthermore, there is an urgent ethical imperative to redirect resources invested in the war industry toward sustainable agricultural research and the regeneration of degraded soils ...

If we sow unethical innovation based on a desire to dominate the earth and exclude the weak, we will reap barrenness and strife. If, on the other hand, innovation stems from respect for the natural order and justice for the hungry, tomorrow will bring a table spread wide for the nourishment of humanity.

 

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Further information:

• Message of His Holiness pope Leo XIV for the 2026 World Food Day (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 10/16/26)
• Message of the Holy Father for World Food Day 2026 (Holy See Press Office, 10/16/26)
• Pope to FAO: 'Guaranteeing access to food is a basic human right' (Vatican News, 10/16/26)