'Access to food
is a basic
human right'
In his message to the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization for World Food Day 2026, Pope Leo XIV calls for food to be
recognized as 'a basic human right,' insists that bread must never be used as
'a weapon of war,' and urges the international community to show the 'moral
audacity' needed to combat hunger.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
"Regular access to safe, adequate and sufficient
food, in keeping with the dignity of every person, is a basic human right.
Guaranteeing this right is an obligation of justice that binds both individual
States and the international community."
Pope Leo XIV offered this reminder in the message he
sent to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the occasion of this
year's World Food Day, which takes place on October 16.
The Holy Father's message was read on Friday at a
commemoration event by Monsignor Fernando Chica Arellano, the Permanent
Observer of the Holy See to the FAO.
In the message addressed to FAO Director-General Qu
Dongyu, the Pope recalled that the theme for this year's Day is "Innovate
Today. Nourish Tomorrow" and thanked the organization for their efforts
internationally.
Intolerable that water be considered 'a contested
commodity' and bread 'a privilege'
Pope Leo stressed that despite technological
advancement being greater than ever before, "it is intolerable that bread
should be considered a privilege and water a contested commodity."
In his letter, the Holy Father argued "that
hunger cannot be considered a statistical anomaly, as it is caused mainly by a
lack of political will and collective charity," and criticized the notion
that food shortages are geographically unavoidable.
He observed that while innovations accelerate
production, distribution is being neglected.
"Grain markets," he lamented, "are
being optimized on stock exchanges, while the actual seeds that germinate in
the soil fall into the hands of monopolies that suffocate small-scale
farming."
Bread should not be an instrument of geopolitical
pressure or war
The Holy Father explained that ensuring tomorrow's
nutritional needs are met "requires freeing food production from a purely
speculative mentality."
"Bread," the Pope stressed, "should be
neither an instrument of geopolitical pressure nor a volatile financial asset.
Nor must it ever be used as a weapon of war."
"Indeed," he continued, "it is a
terrible offense against human dignity to prevent bread from reaching any
person or to destroy the means by which it is produced."
He said that bread is precious because it sustains the
life that God has given us and that, therefore, we must overcome the temptation
of short-term thinking.
Reaching a breaking point
The Holy Father went on to observe that "the myth
that growth can be endless when resources are limited" has reached a
"breaking point."
Today, the Pope suggested, innovation requires
adopting an intergenerational sense of responsibility that looks beyond annual
budgets.
Innovation, he continued, "means reconciling
technology with wisdom, including ancestral wisdom, while maintaining a vision
for the future."
"It is not a matter of rejecting technological
advances," Pope Leo said, "but rather of integrating them with the
wisdom of farmers who have deepened their understanding of the soil and the
climate through centuries of conscientious observation."
He said this also involves protecting water as an
inalienable common good.
Encouraging the FAO to continue contributing to the
universal common good
In the text, the Pope encouraged the Food and
Agriculture Organization and its member States "not to settle for abstract
analyses or declarations of limited effectiveness."
"Now is the time for moral audacity," he
said, stressing that "a new global food order is essential — one in which
technological innovation is unconditionally subordinated to respect for
God-given human dignity and the universal common good."
Furthermore, the Pope said there is "an urgent
ethical imperative to redirect resources invested in the war industry towards
sustainable agricultural research and the regeneration of degraded soils."
Courage to resist unethical innovation
Tomorrow, the Holy Father said, is "not an
abstract span of time that awaits us passively"; rather, he insisted,
"it is the harvest of what we sow today through our decisions."
"If we sow unethical innovation based on a desire
to dominate the earth and exclude the weak," he said, "we will reap
barrenness and strife."
"If, on the other hand," he observed,
"innovation stems from respect for the natural order and justice for the
hungry, tomorrow will bring a table spread wide for the nourishment of
humanity."
Vatican News
