Pope Francis today called for a comprehensive food system to feed all the world’s people.
The Holy Father’s call came in a video message, which H.E. Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States read, sent by Pope Francis to H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, and to the participants in the Pre-Summit of the 2021 Food Summit System, organized by the United Nations in Rome from July 26-28, 2021.
In the message, the Holy Father stresses the need to ensure the elimination of “food deserts” and insists that the world produces enough food to feed everyone.
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The Holy Father’s Message
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I greet warmly all those taking part in this important meeting, which manifests again how one of our major present challenges is to overcome hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in the COVID-19 era. This pandemic has confronted us with the systematic injustices, which undermine our unity as a human family. Our poorest brothers and sisters, and the Earth, our Common Home, which “cries out given the damage we cause it because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God has placed in it,”[1] calls for a radical change.
We develop new technologies with which we can increase the planet’s capacity to bear fruits and yet, we continue exploiting nature to the point of sterilizing it,[2]
Extending, in this way, not only external deserts but also internal spiritual deserts.[3] We produce sufficient food for all peoples, but many are left without their daily bread. This “is a real scandal,”[4] a crime that violates basic human rights. Therefore, it’s the duty of all to extirpate this injustice,[5] through concrete actions and good practices, and through bold local and international policies.
In this perspective, the careful and correct transformation of food systems plays an important role, which must be geared to making them capable of increasing resilience, strengthening local economies, improving nutrition, reducing food waste, offering healthy diets accessible to all, being environmentally sustainable and respectful of local cultures.
If we want to guarantee the fundamental right to an adequate level of life[6] and fulfill our commitments to attain the Zero Hunger objective,[7] it’s not enough to produce foods. A new mentality is needed and a new integral focus[8] to design food systems that protect the Earth and keep the dignity of the human person at the center; that guarantee sufficient food at the world level and promote fitting work at the local level, which will feed today’s world without compromising the future. It’s essential to recover the centrality of the rural sector, on which the satisfaction depends of many basic human needs, and it’s urgent that the agricultural sector must recover its priority role in the process of political and economic decision-making, oriented to delineating the framework of the post-pandemic rebooting process, which is being built. In this process, small farmers and farm families must be considered privileged actors. Their traditional knowledge must not be overlooked or ignored, as their direct participation enables them to understand better their priorities and real needs. It’s important to facilitate the access of small farmers and family agriculture to the necessary service for production, commercialization and use of agricultural resources. The family is an essential component of the food systems, because it is in the family “that one learns to enjoy the fruit of the earth without abusing it, and the best tools are discovered to spread lifestyles that are respectful of the personal and collective good.”[9] This recognition must be accompanied with policies and initiatives that satisfy fully the needs of rural women; foster the employment of young people and improve farmers’ work in the poorest and most remote areas.
We are conscious that individual economic interests, closed and conflictive but powerful,[10] hinder us from designing a food system that responds to the values of the Common Good, to solidarity, and to the “culture of encounter.” Primordial, if we wish to maintain a fruitful multilateralism[11] is a food system based on responsibility, justice, peace, and unity of the human family.[12] The crisis we are currently facing is, in reality, a unique opportunity to establish genuine, bold, and courageous dialogues,[13] addressing the roots of our unjust food system.
Throughout this meeting, we have the responsibility to realize the dream of a better world where bread, water, medicines, and workflow in abundance and reach the neediest first. The Holy See and the Catholic Church will place themselves at the service of this noble end, offering their contribution, joining forces and wills, actions and wise decisions.
I pray to God that no one will stay behind; that every person can address his/her basic needs. May this meeting, for the regeneration of food systems, put us on the way to build a peaceful and prosperous society, and to sow seeds of peace that enable us to walk in genuine fraternity.[14]
[1] Pope Francis, 2015, Laudato Si’ — On the Care of Our Common Home, 2.
[2] Cf. Paul VI, 1971, Octogesima Adveniens, 21,
[3] Benedict XVI, 2005, Homily on the Solemn Beginning of the Petrine Ministry, 710.
[4] Fratelli Tutti — On Fraternity and Social Friendship, 189.
[5] Cf. Pope Francis, 2017, The Holy Father Francis’ Message to the Participants in the 40th Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
[6] United Nations General Assembly, 1948: Declaration of Universal Human Rights.
[7] United Nations General Assembly, 2015, Transform Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
[8] Pope Francis, 2019, The Holy Father Francis’ Message for World Food Day 2019.
[9] Pope Francis, 2019, The Holy Father Francis’ Message for World Food Day 2019.
[10] Cf. Fratelli Tutti – On Fraternity and Social Friendship, 12, 16, 29, 45, 52.
[11] Cf. Fratelli Tutti – On Fraternity and Social Friendship, 174.
[12] Pope Francis, 2015, The Holy Father Francis’ Video-Message on the Occasion of the 75th United National General Assembly.
[13] Cf. Fratelli Tutti — On Fraternity and Social Friendship, 201-203.
[14] Cf. Fratelli Tutti — On Fraternity and Social Friendship, 2.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
[Original text: Spanish] [Exaui’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
