World Food Day

Food is not just a basic need; it is an indispensable need for every human being. We cannot do without food. We need food for growth, sustenance and nourishment. Without food we cannot reason or even function actively. Considering the importance of food, the UN has declared October 16 as World Food Day. It is a day set aside to reflect on the possible ways of securing food, ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture.

The theme of 2017 World Food Day is “Climate is changing, food and agriculture must too.” Yet the major cause of food shortage is not climate change. Food shortage, according to Pope Francis, “is not something natural or self-evident. The fact that today, so many people suffer from this scourge is due to a selfish and wrong distribution of resources, to the 'merchandizing' of food.” . This state of affairs  exists because people accept it as something divinely given or a law of nature even when the head of the Roman Catholic Church recognises that hunger is caused by buying and selling - the exchange economy

The world indeed blessed with sufficient food for all to partake in but unfortunately, the bulk of the food is in the hands of the few for their own profit and for with the majority. People are suffering and dying of hunger and there are few individuals who are making billions in profit through the present agricultural and economic policies. The capitalist distribution of resources is the major cause of hunger and only by the abolishment of capitalism can we end it. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

 Nature is bountiful and gives to no individual the right to privately monopolise anything. Just as the air is free to all, so should food, clothing, and shelter be free to all. It is your problem, and in its solution lies your social salvation.