If we want to eradicate food insecurity, the Church and related organisations must address the systemic causes of hunger and food crises. This was the message Rev. Malcolm Damon, EJN’s executive director, took to a special forum of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. “This is a difficult approach and we are easily criticised for it,” Damon said. “As Bishop Helder Camara remarked, ‘When I give the poor food they say I’m a saint; when I ask why the poor don’t have food, they say I’m a communist.’”

Damon was addressing the Round Table of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Economic Globalisation and Food Justice, held on 13-14 May 2009. The Round Table is a consultative forum of specialised ministries such as church-related donor agencies like Christian Aid (UK), Norwegian Church Aid and Church World Service (USA) which together support the programmes of the WCC. 

Four systemic issues were highlighted by Damon. 

He said, firstly, that trade liberalisation had not improved food security but had pushed more people into poverty. The World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were collaborating to push countries to liberalise trade and open up their markets.

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance had conducted three rice studies, in Honduras, Ghana and Indonesia, and they had “clearly demonstrated how trade liberalisation and the policies of the World Bank and the IMF threatened and destroyed the livelihoods of agricultural communities”.

Damon said that, secondly, agribusiness dominated the agro-commodity chain. “They control the total food chain from seeds, fertilizers, production, processing and retailing. A study by Actionaid, ‘Hungry for Power,’ provides evidence of the control and impact of multinational corporations on the agricultural sector.”

Thirdly, Damon explained that financial speculation in agricultural commodities increased food prices and had aggravated last year’s food crises of last year. He also said that the new emphasis on producing fuel from agricultural products would further jeopardise food production and security.

“These arguments demonstrate that the food crises in the world are systemic and that we need to seek solutions that can transform the food system.

“A position paper from Aprodev (The Association of Protestant Development Agencies), ‘Food for the Hungry’, of March 2009, said, ‘At a time when more and more people are going hungry, we must challenge the dogmas by which globalisation is portrayed to be for the benefit of everyone’

“Dr Sam Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, said in a statement that we ‘call on the churches to formulate and implement programmes that seek to deal with hunger and its structural causes.’”

“We must become more involved, not only in providing food, but in working more strongly for food justice,” Damon said.

He was part of a panel of four speakers who engaged with various aspects of the debate on food and agriculture.  Professor Nancy Cardosa of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, spoke about food as a faith and justice issue. Paul Haggerman of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank presented a paper on policy analysis and advocacy strategies, while Michael Windfuhr of Bread for the World, Germany, spoke about the right to food.