Pope says everyone should commit to agricultural sector
Benedict’s address marks World Food Day 2010
If the world wants to be united against hunger, then poverty must be fought through “authentic human development,”using the fact that a person is a unity of body, soul and spirit, Pope Benedict said in his 2010 World Food Day address to Mr Jacques Diouf, Director General Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
While much has been achieved through the FAO, there’s still much to be done, especially in the area of solidarity, the pope said.
He continued:
“Too often, attention is diverted from the needs of populations, insufficient emphasis is placed on work in the fields, and the goods of the earth are not given adequate protection. As a result, economic imbalance is produced, and the inalienable rights and dignity of every human person are ignored.
The theme of this year’s World Food Day, United against Hunger, is a timely reminder that everyone needs to make a commitment to give the agricultural sector its proper importance. Everyone – from individuals to the organizations of civil society, States and international institutions – needs to give priority to one of the most urgent goals for the human family: freedom from hunger. In order to achieve freedom from hunger it is necessary to ensure not only that enough food is available, but also that everyone has daily access to it: this means promoting whatever resources and infrastructures are necessary in order to sustain production and distribution on a scale sufficient to guarantee fully the right to food.
The efforts to achieve this goal will surely help to build up the unity of the human family throughout the world. Concrete initiatives are needed, informed by charity, and inspired by truth – initiatives that are capable of overcoming natural obstacles linked to the cycles of the seasons or to environmental conditions, as well as man-made obstacles. Charity, practised in the light of truth, can bring an end to divisions and conflicts so as to allow the goods of the earth to pass between peoples in a lively and continuous exchange.”
You can read the address in full, HERE.
