The Pontiff addressed the importance of food security in the context of the health, economic and social crisis generated by the disease in an address to participants of the 42nd FAO Conference, read by the permanent observer of the Holy See to FAO, Monsignor Fernando Chica.

The Pope stated that despite advises, ‘many of our brothers and sisters don’t have access to the necessary food yet’, and specified that the number of people exposed to stark food insecurity, needing immediate support to subsist, is at its highest in the last five years.

Conflicts, extreme meteorological phenomena, economic crises, coupled with the current sanitary situation, constitute a source of poverty and hunger for millions, the Pope pointed out during the opening of the Conference of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which takes place once every two years.

In the Pontiff’s words, that is why it is fundamental to adopt policies capable of addressing the structural causes of growing vulnerabilities, in order to develop ‘resilient, inclusive, sustainable’ food systems, ‘capable of providing healthy and affordable diets for all.’

In the Pope’s view, the fundamental factor to recover from the crisis ‘that lashes at us’ is to set up an economic structure to serve people, ‘not geared solely for profit, but anchored on the common good, friendly to ethics and respectful of the environment.’

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