Vatican City, 31 January 2015 (VIS) -
“There is no humanity without the cultivation of the land; there is
no good life without the food it produces for the men and women of
every continent. Agriculture thus demonstrates its central role”,
said Pope Francis this morning, as he received in audience two
hundred managers from the National Confederation of Direct
Cultivators in the Clementine Hall on the seventh anniversary of its
foundation.
The name “direct cultivators”,
explained the Pontiff, refers to cultivation, “a typically human
and fundamental activity. In agricultural work there is, indeed,
acceptance of the precious gift of the land that comes from God, but
there is also its development through the equally valuable work of
men and women, called to respond boldly and creatively to the mandate
forever entrusted to mankind, the cultivation and stewardship of the
land”.
This task, which requires time and
energy, constitutes “a true vocation. It deserves to be recognised
and suitably valued as such, also in concrete political and economic
decisions. This means eliminating the obstacles that penalise such a
valuable activity and that often make it appear unattractive to new
generations, even though statistics show an increase in the number of
students in schools and institutes of agriculture, which leads us to
foresee and increase in the numbers of those employed in the
agricultural sector. At the same time, it is necessary to pay due
attention to the removal of land from agricultural use, to make it
available for apparently more lucrative purposes”.
This reflection on agrarian work led
the Holy Father to focus on two critical areas: poverty and hunger,
and the protection of the environment. “Vatican Council II
reiterated the common destination of earthly goods, but in reality
the dominant economic system excludes many people from their correct
use. The absolutism of the rules of the market and a throwaway
culture in which waste of food has reached unacceptable proportions,
along with other factors, have caused poverty and suffering for many
families. Therefore, the system of production and distribution of
food needs to be fundamentally re-evaluated. As our grandparents
taught us, you do not play with food! Bread forms part of the
sacredness of human life, and must not therefore be treated as a mere
commodity”.
With regard to the second theme, the
Pope underlined that in Genesis man is called not only to cultivate
the land, but also to take care of it. These two aspects “are
closely linked: every agriculturalist is well aware of how difficult
it has become to cultivate the land in a time of accelerated climate
change and increasingly widespread extreme meteorological events. How
can we continue to produce good food for the lives of all when
climate stability is at risk, when the air, water and the earth
itself lose their purity as a result of pollution? We are truly
realising the importance of timely action to safeguard Creation; it
is urgent that nations succeed in collaborating for this fundamental
purpose. The challenge is to achieve a form of agriculture with a low
environmental impact. How can we ensure we safeguard the earth as
well as cultivating it? Indeed, only in this way will future
generations be able to continue to inhabit and cultivate our earth”.
The Holy Father concluded with an
invitation to “rediscover love for the earth as the 'mother', as
St. Francis would say, from which we come and to which we are
constantly called upon to return. And this leads to a proposal: to
protect the earth, to make an alliance with her, so that she many
continue to be, as God intends, the source of life for the entire
human family”.
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