Pope Benedict has decried an approach to agricultural production based solely on profit, and called for steps to protect family farming, as he met on July 1 with leaders of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He spoke of hunger born of selfish behaviour.
He said persistent world hunger was a “tragedy” driven by selfish and profit-driven economic models, whose first victims are millions of children deprived of life or good health.
“How can we be silent about the fact that even food has become the object of speculation or is tied to the course of a financial market that, lacking definite rules and poor in moral principles, appears anchored to the sole objective of profit?” he said.
“Poverty, underdevelopment and, therefore, hunger are often the result of selfish behaviors that, born in the human heart, manifest themselves in social life, economic exchange, in market conditions and in the lack of access to food,” the Pope said.
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