the curia informs - Passio Christi

THE CURIA INFORMS
of organizing a National Office for JPIC. We will
inform you about the progress that we are making in
this area. On this point, we invite the other conferences
that are organizing their own regional meetings
to coordinate their activities.
II. A Passionist at the FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the UN)
From 3-5 June, 2008 I was able to participate in
the high level conference of the FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the UN) in Rome. The
topic of the conference was: “World Food Security:
The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy”.
The conference received much attention because
more than 40 heads of state attended and also because
the topic of food, at this point in time, is of vital
importance.
Walking around the Plenary Hall is like walking
around the world and meeting delegates from 184
countries. It is a wonderful experience to be able to
listen to the representative of a small country say to
the representative of the United States, that he has to
sign the Kyoto Protocol; or listen to the representative
of the of the European Union tell the president of
Zimbabwe that his country has to be more democratic
and respect human rights.
It was difficult for me to believe in one countryone
vote and then to listen to them dialoguing and
seeking consensus in order to arrive at the final
Declaration.
The most amazing thing was to listen to the NGO
(non-governmental) representatives and in particular,
an agriculture NGO member (“Vía Campesina”), ask
the government representatives to respect the right of
poor farm workers. Or to listen to the women of the
Mothers’ Club of Colombia, who told about the difficulties
that they experienced in organizing the group
entitled “Vaso de Leche” (Cup of milk), due to the
increase in food prices.
Unfortunately, at the end they obtained almost
nothing. Once again the power of the wealthy
nations was dominant. Each country tries to defend
its own interests and thus it is almost impossible to
arrive at consensus. The poor countries and the
NGO’s requested: 1) That there be an end to the speculative
business of hunger (financial speculation and
gains of the rich, at the cost of millions of people); 2)
End the state subsidies to wealthy countries for agricultural
products that impede poor countries from
developing agricultural markets, exportation and the
ability of poor farmers to sell their products at competitive
prices (and then they talk about the “free
market”. Perhaps it’s free for the rich, but not for the
poor.); 3) the small farmers want to be able to dialog
with the large multi-national entities and be able to
participate in the political dimensions of pricing; and
“Challenges! Climate change/energy/food”
The FAO building, Rome.
4) the production of bio-combustibles should compete
with food production, not to its detriment.
Agriculture has been converted into a false economy
that continues to strangle the poor of the earth.
Many still do not understand what we Passionists
do in institutions such as the UN, the FAO, etc.
Briefly, I will try to explain… 1) we want to be a
voice for the voiceless… To be present in forums
where important decisions are made about the important
problems of our world; 2) we want to add our
grain of sand to that of so many other groups and
NGO’s who work like us to make ANOTHER
WORLD POSSIBLE. We want to globalize and we
want to work with the thousands of others who try to
make a difference.
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July 2008 - PIB n. 17
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