Pope: fighting hunger, "starting from each person and community and not from market trends"
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - People are "not numbers." Because of "their dignity as people, they come before any estimate or economic plan." For this reason, we can no longer "defend systems of production and consumption that exclude the majority of the world population even from the crumbs that fall from the tables of the rich." Indeed, The time has come to think and decide, starting from each person and community and not from market trends," especially when it comes to food.
Pope Francis issued this warning today in his message to the director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, on World Food Day whose theme this year is Family farming: feeding the world, caring for the earth.
"Again this year, World Food Day echoes the cries of our many brothers and sisters who, in many parts of the world, do not have enough to eat each day," writes the pope.
"On the other hand, it makes us reflect on the enormous amount of food wasted, on the destroyed products, on the price speculation done in the name of the profit god. This is one of the most dramatic paradoxes of our time, which we are witnessing with impotence, but often with indifference, "incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, [. . .], as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own"(Evangelii Gaudium, 54).
As we observe a general drop in official development assistance, "we see an aspect of the problem that has not yet obtained all due consideration when formulating policies and plans of action. Those who suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition are people, not numbers, and in the name of their dignity as people, they come before any calculation or economic plan."
"The theme proposed by the FAO for this year's World Food Day - 'Family farming: feeding the world, caring for the earth' - highlights the need to begin with people, as individuals or in groups, in order to propose new forms and methods of management for different aspects of nutrition. Specifically, it is necessary to give greater acknowledgement to the role of the rural families and develop its full potential."
"But, to that end, we must pay attention to their needs, not only their technical needs but also their human, spiritual, and social needs. On the other hand, we must learn from their experience, their ability to work, and especially from that tie of love, solidarity and generosity that exists between their members and that is called to become a model for social life."
"Indeed, the family promotes dialogue between generations and provides the foundation for true social integration, aside from representing that hoped-for synergy between agricultural work and sustainability. Who, more than the rural family, is concerned with preserving nature for generations to come? And who, more than the rural family, has at heart cohesion between people and social groups? Conversely, local, national and international rules and initiatives in favour of the family are far from real needs and this is a gap that must be filled."
"Never more than in this moment has the world needed unity between people and among nations to overcome the divisions that exist and the conflicts in progress, and above all to seek concrete ways out of a crisis that is global, but the burden of which falls mostly on the poor."
In view of the food insecurity that "affects first and most of other the weakest part of the world population", [. . .] "we have an obligation, first of solidarity and sharing". This cannot be limited to the distribution of food, "which a more or less constitutes an effective 'technical' action" that ends when the purpose ends.
"Sharing, however, means becoming close to all human beings, recognising their common dignity, understanding their needs and helping them to meet them with the same spirit of love that is experienced in the family. Such love leads us to preserve creation as the most valued common good on which the life of the human family depends. This has been entrusted to us, not the abstract future of the planet. This focus requires the kind of education and training that can integrate different cultural approaches, customs, and ways of working rather than replace them on the basis of some presumed cultural or technical superiority."
"To defeat hunger, it is not enough to meet the needs of those who are unfortunate or help through aid and donations those who live in situations of emergency. It is necessary, instead, to change the paradigm of aid and development policies, changing the international rules governing the production and trade in agricultural products, ensuring the self-determination of the agricultural market of the countries where agriculture is the backbone of the economy and the basis of survival."
"The time has come to think and decide, starting from each person and community, not from market trends. Consequently, it is also necessary to change how we understand work, economic aims and activity, food production and the protection of the environment. This is perhaps the only possibility for building a real future of peace, threatened nowadays by food insecurity."
"Such an approach, which implies a new concept of cooperation, should be of interest to and involve states, international institutions and civil society organisations as well as the community of believers who, through their many works, live together with those at the bottom and share the same situations and needs, as well as frustrations and hopes."
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