Benedict XVI calls agriculture an indispensable resource for the future

Giving thanks to God for “the fruit of the earth and of human work,” Pope Benedict has called agriculture an “indispensable resource for the future” that is not given enough importance today. His words came during the Angelus prayer at St. Peter’s Square on November 14. Linda Bordoni spoke to an expert in the field of agriculture about the importance of the Pope's words: Cristina Amaral, Chief of the Emergency Operations Service and of the Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division at FAO in Rome. Amaral said the Pope's message is one that really needs to get through to politicians and to common people, because often we seem to forget that our own lives depend on natural resources, on the earth itself. She pointed out that the combination of a widespread erosion of natural resources and the movements of the global economy are such that many poor couties are dramatically affected by changes in the stock exchange, and prices going up and down are immediately transmitted to the local market. She says farmers and consumers in poor countries are forced to cope with the volatility of the market and end up paying higher and higher prices for their food, seldom reaping the benefits. So, she says, it is really a distorted system. Thus, Amaral says, the Pope's message is also an encouragement to get back to the basics: people need to produce their food, there needs to be the shortest distance possible between the market and the consumer. Whatsmore, agriculture can be an important source of employment. And technology must be made available to farmers so that they can pursue development in a sustainable manner. Amaral says that technically we have the solutions, now it depends on the political will to really make policies that promote a sustainable use of agriculture and natural resources....
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