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MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
FOR WORLD FOOD DAY 2024
Mr. Director General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
The 44th World Food Day invites us to reflect on the right to food for a better life and a better future.
This is a priority because it satisfies one of the basic human needs, namely to be nourished in order to live in accordance with adequate qualitative and quantitative standards that guarantee the dignity of the human person.
However, we see that this right is often undermined and not fairly applied, with harmful consequences.
In the interest of promoting the right to food, the FAO strongly proposes to consider a transformation of food systems that takes into account the plurality and diversity of nutritious, affordable, healthy and sustainable foods as a means of achieving food security and healthy diets for all.
This requires taking into account the inherent social and cultural dimension of the act of eating. In this regard, political and economic decision-makers at the international level must listen to the demands of those at the bottom of the food chain, such as small-scale farmers, and intermediate social formations, such as the family, who are directly involved in providing food for people to eat.
Effective solutions to address and solve the food problems of our time require that we consider the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity as the basis of our development programs and projects, so that we never hesitate to truly listen to the needs that come from below, from the workers and farmers, from the poor and the hungry, and from those who live in poverty in isolated rural areas. Jesus Christ taught us: “Whatever you wish others to do for you, do it to them; this is the law and the prophets” (Mt 7:12).
Humanity, wounded by so many injustices, urgently needs effective measures for a better life, acting together in the same spirit of fraternity and in the knowledge that this planet given to us by God must be a garden open to serene coexistence. This is what I had in mind when I proposed to consider the paradigm of integral ecology, so that the needs of each person and of the whole person are taken into account, so that their dignity is protected in their relationship with others and in close union with the care of creation. Only when our actions are guided by the ideal of justice can human needs be met..
This also requires that we allow ourselves to be challenged and moved by the condition of others, and that solidarity becomes the main focus of our decisions. In this way, the protection of future generations will go hand in hand with listening to and responding to the demands of present generations, through an intra- and inter-generational alliance that calls us all to fraternity and gives a new, more authentic meaning to international cooperation, a cooperation that must animate this Organization and the entire multilateral system.
On this path, which is full of obstacles and difficulties, but at the same time exciting and full of challenges, the international community can count on the encouragement of the Holy See and of the Catholic Church, which never cease to make their persevering contribution so that everyone may have food in adequate quantity and quality for themselves and their families, so that each person may lead a dignified life and so that the painful scourge of misery and hunger in the world may be finally defeated.
With these sentiments and wishes, I invoke upon all of you and upon those who work for this noble cause the blessing of Almighty God, who never tires of sustaining those who have at heart the good of the whole human race.
From the Vatican, 16 October 2024
FRANCIS
