Caritas urges G-8, G-20 to address food crisis

(June 25, 2010) The Catholic Church’s international aid agency Caritas Internationalis is urging world leaders meeting in Canada to focus on the rising food crisis. In a statement released Wednesday, it affirmed the urgency of the food crisis, and urged the Group of Eight and Group of 20 representatives to tackle the problem during their meeting in Toronto, Friday through Sunday. "Decades of misguided economic and agricultural policies have finally become too much for farmers and people around the world to withstand," the Caritas statement affirmed. "A record 1 billion people are now chronically hungry. One in every seven does not have the food needed for basic life." The aid organization asserted that the G-8 and G-20 countries, with their developed and emerging economies, "must reverse global food policies by supporting small-scale, sustainable agriculture in developing countries, over industrial agriculture." "We need more aid, better spent. And we need to see effective action on climate change," affirmed Michael Casey, Caritas Canada’s executive director. Catholic Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg joined other faith leaders from around the world in Winnipeg, June 21 -23, to ask G8 governments to address poverty, invest in peace and care for the Earth. The religious leaders called on governments to reach their promises of 0.7 percent of their income to be spent on overseas aid.