A Vatican official has lamented the impact of war, recessions, climate events, and political instability on the world’s agrifood systems, calling for local food systems to keep human dignity at their centre. Source: Vatican News.
Msgr Fernando Chica Arellano, Permanent Observer to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, expressed the Holy See’s call for resilience in agrifood systems, which have seen significant disruption in recent years.
He spoke on Tuesday at the 35th Session of the UN FAO’s regional conference for Europe, held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Msgr Chica Arellano expressed support for the conference’s goal of promoting agrifood systems, so that no one may lack the food that “enables them to lead a serene and full life.”
He upheld the importance of concrete actions to foster food security in the wake of recent global crises.
“The combination of merciless wars, economic recessions, extreme climate events, political instability, and market volatility has given rise to a lethal combination for the world’s food systems,” he said.
In recent years, several conflicts have disrupted global food markets, including the Russia-Ukraine war that disrupted grain exports and fertiliser supplies, as well as the ongoing Iran-US war that has already pushed up the prices of fuel and fertiliser.
Other conflicts have caused catastrophic disruption to local food systems, such as the war in Sudan, which has led to severe food shortages in major cities and a spike in acute hunger.
In his address, Msgr Chica Arellano called on nations to combat this “very negative trend” by coordinating interventions so that countries can walk together “in fraternal harmony”.
The overarching goal, he said, is for all people to have stable and permanent access to sufficient, nutritious, and safe food.
Msgr Chica Arellano called on nations to combat this “very negative trend” by coordinating interventions so that countries can walk together “in fraternal harmony”, called for European countries to implement legal frameworks to move toward food models that integrate “social justice, environmental sustainability, and respect for the human person as guiding principles of all public and private action.”
Building resilience into the world’s agrifood systems is among the most urgent priorities of our time, he said.
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Holy See: Wars and extreme climate events have lethal impact on food systems (By Devin Watkins, Vatican News)
