Here is the speech that Cardinal Gambetti delivered to the World Farmers Markets Coalition in the Vatican. We are greatful for this.
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to live together in unity.” I welcome you with the words from Psalm 133 (132) which speaks of fraternal life. In particular, allow me to thank and greet Richard McCarthy, President of the World Farmers Markets Coalition, and Carmelo Troccoli, Director of the Campagna Amica Foundation. Your differences allow us to recognize fraternity in our common human nature that goes beyond traditions and faith, customs and wealth, culture and habits.
It is from fraternity that communities like yours are born to feel a shared destiny. You belong to different peoples but share a common desire, that of rethinking sustainable development based on integral ecology and human relationships. You share the work of the land and the desire to be “responsible farmers” who wish, seek, analyze, study, understand, care for, and love. This awareness of yourselves and your role has much to do with the spiritual nature of the human being. You know that Homo sapiens can destroy and preserve: it destroys when it possesses nature without sharing it as a gift; it preserves when it is in harmony with the rhythms and laws of nature in which the life of God is inscribed. The agriculture you represent is a form of culture. It thrives when it is in harmony with the rhythms of nature; it is humiliated, manipulated, and betrayed when culture (and reason) dissociates from nature and its laws. Examples of this are the Covid pandemic and the ongoing wars caused by the lack of water and food. Floods, drought, scorching heat, and intense storms are also the effects of deforestation, resource exploitation, and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the so-called “developed” world possesses sufficient resources and products to feed the entire planet. Yet every ten minutes – half the time of this greeting – more than 100 human beings die of hunger, while in the USA alone, 328 tons of food are thrown away.
We reiterate it, together with Pope Francis, as an ethical imperative: “We must not waste.” Faced with these data, a poet wondered whether societies are aware of the consequences, not only the economic ones “but those that involve our hearts, the most deeply rooted sense of our existence. A society that despises the fruits of the earth, that has broken the project of culture, that has erased gratitude from its sentiments, what kind of society can it be?” On one side, the global production system is in severe crisis and, in the food sector, we are facing a predicted failure. On the other side, the food supply for much of the world still depends – and fortunately so – on family and local agriculture. Your mission restores the sense of “convivio” (from the Latin cum-vivere), where, through the products of nature, we “live together”; like the farmers’ markets that you represent with your colors, your languages, and especially with your products often saved from extinction. Over 70% of the world’s population is fed by small-scale producers and “farmer networks,” despite using less than one-third of the planet’s agricultural land and resources.
By caring for Creation, you have become peace operators. The work of the land with its fruits and food are instruments for building peace. As Pope Francis reminds us in his encyclical letter Fratelli tutti: “Taking care of the world around us and sustaining us means taking care of ourselves. But we need to constitute ourselves as a ‘we’ that inhabits the common home. (…) Often the voices that rise in defense of the environment are silenced or ridiculed, disguising as rational those that are merely particular interests” (FT, no. 17). The Pope foresaw this in 2015 by writing the encyclical Laudato si’: “It is foreseeable that, faced with the depletion of certain resources, a favorable scenario for new wars, disguised with noble claims, will be created” (LS, no. 57).
The consumption of resources is turning into an “everyone for themselves” situation, and the solution cannot be to “save oneself” in a world of interdependencies. The change in lifestyle and social paradigm begins with a listening that is concerned with welcoming others, especially when they are vulnerable. Therefore, it is essential that governance focuses on implementing food policies centered on local food, community relationships, product quality, and accessibility for all. In addition to caring for the poor, which agriculture generally prioritizes, social agriculture also considers future generations. Thus, the conservation of natural resources such as water, soil, and biodiversity reflects the “wonderfully human” attitude of your work. In the Gospel, bread is the food par excellence; it is considered “the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands,” continuously nourishing life and symbolizing every gift that sustains humanity. For the Eucharist, the Lord does not take wheat and grapes, but bread and wine, so that nature is recreated by human labor. When bread is considered a gift, the more it is shared, the more people are fed. This is the opposite of the logic of possession, where waste is thrown away rather than feeding the poor. From bread comes words like “companion,” from the Latin cum pane, to indicate the solidarity and reciprocity that bind those who share sustenance. I am grateful because all these topics were discussed last May during the “Fratelli tutti” meeting at the sustainable food table. But we want to continue walking with you in the future, starting from the upcoming Jubilee Year 2025. With the quality of your agriculture, I wish for millions of people to experience the joy of Babette’s Feast by director Gabriel Axel: a dinner that is a symphony of foods and flavors, but also an act of love and hope, from which the joy of living is the source. Through a meal, everyone can become better: because “the table is a substitute for war,” as the greatest historian of gastronomy, Jean-Paul Aron, wrote. Babette understood this and spent her entire lottery winnings to prepare it and buy the produce from the fields. Her feast is a metaphor for Life and “that endless joy to which humanity is called and which one occasionally gets a taste of in the fleeting joys of life.” Best wishes!
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti
