The Holy See laments 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 center.
By Devin Watkins
Msgr. Fernando Chica Arellano, Permanent Observer to the FAO, IFAD, and WFP, has 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 Food and Agriculture Organization’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 fertilizer supplies, as well as the ongoing Iran-US war that has already pushed up the prices of fuel and fertilizer.
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.
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer 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.
Rather than employing the same production methods, Msgr. Chica Arellano called for the way food is produced to be transformed, moving away from greedy exploitation to increased investment in the most vulnerable and forgotten rural areas.
“The agricultural sector,” he said, “should be supported by wise economic and political decisions, enabling young people to devote themselves enthusiastically to agriculture and not to abandon the countryside in discouragement in order to migrate to the cities.”
Finally, Msgr. Chica Arellano said agrifood production must keep the dignity of the human person at the center, meet food needs without compromising the future, and promote decent work at the local level.