Global food crisis has a spiritual dimension, says Kobia

For one billion of the world population, "living with constant hunger" is "a normal state". However, there is nothing normal about that fact, which is "a result of the ways our societies have chosen to produce, share, buy and sell food".

WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia made these remarks in welcoming participants to the conference "Confronting the global food challenge," which is taking place 24-26 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, and Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization, are expected to address the conference.

According to Kobia, the current food crisis is "an appalling indictment of our broken food system". Its "primary cause" lies on greed-driven, "inappropriate human actions which have induced climate change and skyrocketing food prices". Thus the broken food system does not only represent an economic and political crisis, but also a spiritual one. "As churches we know we must take action on all these levels."

As "having enough to eat is, and has always been, central to the Christian idea of a world shaped by justice and mercy," it is clear that - in the words of Lutheran World Federation general secretary Ishmael Noko - "ensuring people have access to adequate food cannot be left to the mercy of the markets".

Instead, the WCC calls for "a life-giving agriculture that nurtures the earth and provides nutritious and affordable food for all people," as well as for "the participation of small farmers in the production of food, and for the just distribution of food resources".

A broad group of civil society organisations are participating at the conference "Confronting the global food challenge," which was initiated by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), FoodFirst Information and Action Network and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Additional information on the EAA website