Pope Francis says UN fight against hunger hindered by market forces

Pope Francis has told the UN’s International Conference on Nutrition that the fight against hunger is “hindered by market priorities”. The pope was addressing the second day of a Rome conference jointly organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

This conference is intended to “tackle the multiple burden of hunger, undernutrition and micronutrition deficiencies” in a world where 805 million people still go hungry. Welcoming the working agenda, the ope nonetheless outlined some major concerns, saying: “It is also painful to see that the struggle against hunger and malnutrition is hindered by “market priorities”, the “primacy of profit”, which have reduced foodstuffs to a commodity like any other, subject to speculation, also of a financial nature.

“The second challenge to be faced is the lack of solidarity. Our societies are characterised by growing individualism and division: this ends up depriving the weakest of a decent life, and provokes revolts against institutions.”

The pope called on every state to guarantee natural law and the “pillars of truth”. namely freedom, justice and solidarity, so that “the aim of feeding the human family becomes feasible”.

Pope Francis also said that the fight against hunger was based on certain “criteria”, saying: “These are criteria that ... include the relationship between rights and food, and the right to life and a dignified existence, the right to be protected by law ... and the moral obligation to share the economic wealth of the world.”

The pope made but the briefest of visits to the UN summit, held in FAO’s Rome headquarters, stopping only long enough to deliver his 15 minute long speech before returning across town to the Vatican.

As he was accompanied into the Conference by the FAO director general, Jose Graziano da Silva, the pope stopped to greet the Queen Letizia of Spain, who had spoken earlier yesterday morning and who was sitting in the front row.

Minister for Health

Just before lunchtime, the conference was also addressed by Irish Health Minister Leo Varadkar.

Recalling Ireland’s own traumatic Famine experience, he welcomed the “universal nature” of the Rome Declaration on Nutrition, the document due to be formally agreed by more than 100 Conference participant countries.

“In Ireland, our own history has ensured that we will always speak out for the poor and the oppressed, the malnourished and the starving,” Mr Varadkar said. “In the 19th century during the Great Irish Famine, one million people died over a five year period and another million were forced to emigrate.

“The life expectancy of children dropped dramatically and as our great poet Seamus Heaney wrote: ‘We were a people hungering from birth and hope rotted like a marrow’.”

The International Conference on Nutrition ends today.