VATICAN CITY, MAY 22, 2004 (VIS) - Made public today was the speech given on May 20th by Msgr. Renato Volante, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture and head of the Holy See delegation to the 27th FAO conference for Asia and the Pacific, which was held in Beijing from May 17 to 21.
In opening remarks, Msgr. Volante said that the "the international presence of the Holy See is motivated exclusively by the desire to render a common service to the human family as a whole. She wishes in this way to testify to her constructive interest in the cause of human person, the attention to its fundamental needs, beginning with the primary right to nourishment that is an essential component of the right to life."
"It seems to us," he underscored, "that the situations of food security are becoming more serious, the growth of systems of production that are more and more linked to the large-scale methods, and the environmental degradation which for the world of agriculture concern 'inter alia' the land degradation and the water scarcity. This clearly lowers the levels of food security. In the perspective of these challenges, it becomes always more necessary to look to the future, to understand what can be the role of FAO in the coming years in this region."
Msgr. Volante then quoted from Pope John Paul's speech in 1996 at the World Food Summit: "It is to be hoped that your reflections will also inspire concrete measures to combat the food insecurity, which claims as its victims too many of our brothers and sisters in humanity, for nothing will change at the world level, if national leaders do not put into practice the commitments written in your plan of action for implementing economic and food policies based not only on profit but also on sharing in solidarity."
DELSS/FAO MEETING/BEIJING:VOLANTE VIS 20040524 (320)
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