In light of the upcoming 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to FAO, IFAD & WFP, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and the Vatican COVID-19 Commission alongside its partners working in food security, will launch a series of webinars entitled Food for Life, Food Justice, Food for All.
Inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’, this webinar series will showcase how an integral ecology – a paradigm that considers the interconnections, among others, between social systems and ecosystems – can inspire the regeneration of food systems in the post-COVID future. It will highlight how Church and other actors can contribute to this transformation of food systems towards the care for our common home, the eradication of hunger, the respect of human dignity, and the service of the common good so that no one is left behind.
This three-part series, which will begin during Laudato si’ Week (May 16th – 25th), will privilege the voices of women, indigenous communities, people living in crisis settings, small scale farmers, and others – in order to learn from their experiences and traditional wisdom and to inform global debates and action plans.
The first webinar, co-hosted by the Rome Forum, titled “Food for Life: The role of women in the promotion of integral human development”, (May 17th, 14.00-17.00hs CEST) will feature a dialogue about the unique role of women in development, with emphasis on how to support their leadership in shaping resilient food systems across the globe. The second webinar, “Food Justice: Jobs, innovation, and finance at the service of food justice” (May 26th, 14.00-17.00hs CEST) will emphasize the importance of dignified work, finance, and innovation in rebuilding sustainable food systems, particularly in the post-COVID future. The final webinar, co-hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and titled “Food for All: Food conflicts and the future of food systems”, (May 31st, 14.00-16.00hs CEST) will explore different responses to food conflicts, and how the Church can best contribute and collaborate to address hunger and food inequality around the world.
Guided by the values of Catholic Social Teaching, the daily experience of local Church actors, and the moral imperative to eliminate hunger, this webinar series aims to: i) listen and nurture dialogues within and beyond the Church; ii) connect best practices across the world that promote sustainable food systems and; iii) elevate traditionally excluded voices to inspire a call for food justice. The series will be completed before the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit gathering to be held in Rome (July 2021) and its outcomes will be shared as part of the Summit process to help guide individual and collective action towards a future of food that is sustainable, equitable and secure.
