Pope Francis indicated the urgency of avoiding food waste and noted that “it is a scandal that large producers encourage compulsive consumerism to enrich themselves.”
The Holy Father said this on 29 September in a message addressed to the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu, on the occasion of the “International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste”. food”.
“ Food cannot be the object of speculation. Life depends on them. And it is a scandal that large producers encourage compulsive consumerism to enrich themselves, without even considering the authentic needs of human beings,” Pope Francis wrote.
In addition, the Pontiff affirmed that “both the loss and the waste of food are truly deplorable facts because they divide humanity between those who have too much and those who lack the essentials because they increase inequalities, generate injustices and deny the poor they need to live with dignity.
The Pope insisted on the seriousness of this problem “that we cannot let go by in this difficult time we are experiencing.”
He also lamented that ” crowds of human beings cannot access adequate food or the means to procure it -this being a basic and priority right of every person-, seeing food thrown away in the garbage or deteriorated due to the lack of the necessary resources to make it reaching its recipients is really embarrassing and worrying .”
Therefore, the Holy Father urged the entire international community to mobilize “to put an end to the unfortunate ‘paradox of abundance'” and recalled the speech of Saint John Paul II on December 5, 1992, during the opening of the International Conference on Nutrition.
“ In the world, there is the necessary food so that no one goes to bed on an empty stomach! More than enough food resources are produced to feed 8 billion people. The question, however, refers to social justice, that is, to the way in which the management of resources and the distribution of wealth are regulated,” the Pope lamented.
In this way, Pope Francis stressed that “the cry of the hungry, deprived in one way or another of daily bread, must resound in the centers where decisions are made ” because “it cannot be silenced or suffocated by other interests”.
“I have already said it in the past, and I will not tire of insisting, throwing away food is throwing away people! ”, affirmed the Pope.
In this way, the Holy Father pointed out that this matter “of such magnitude, we cannot be satisfied with rhetorical exercises, which end in declarations that later cannot be carried out due to forgetfulness, pettiness or greed” and added that “it is time to act urgently and seeking the common good.
“It is urgent for both States and large multinational companies, for associations and individuals – for everyone without excluding anyone – to respond effectively and honestly to the heartbreaking cry of the hungry who demand justice, ”he said.
Finally, the Pope said that ” each of us is called to reorient his lifestyle in a conscious and responsible way, so that no person is left behind and everyone receives the food they need, both in quantity and quality.”
“We owe it to our loved ones, to future generations, and to those who find themselves hit by economic and existential misery,” Pope Francis concluded.