By Ireneaus Chia Chongwain
Across the world, the ongoing food crisis is being described only in superlative terms- shocking, frightening, humanitarian disaster, revolutionary and a growing trend that has stabbed the poor right through the heart. One of the most apt and thought provoking description yet may be that of the executive director of the World Food Programme, Josette Sheran, who has likened the present crisis to the giant Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 250,000 people and left millions more destitute in December 2005.
Present estimates put those caught in the claws of the food crisis at 100 million, among who are thousands of Catholic Christians. But, can the Church remain indifferent to what the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Mitchel, has described as a "humanitarian disaster in the making", many may be wondering.
The Catholic Church, true to its vocation of defending the destitute and protecting the dignity of its faithful and the human person has not remained indifferent to the present food crisis. To make the Church's position known, the permanent observer of the Holy See at the Rome-based UN organ for Food and Agriculture, Mgr Renato Volante, has asked for measures be taken "to keep the production of bio-fuels from bringing about increased food crisis to the point of threatening starvation in many countries."
Some countries have apparently heeded the call and are already reviewing their policies and cutting back bio-fuel targets if they are found to be contributing to the present hikes in food prices. The present crisis, however, has not been provoked simply by a diversion of crops from market stalls to factories for the production of fuel. Other causes include, the difficulties faced by speculators in the financial market that has forced them to switch to speculation in food and raw materials, the growing demand for food worldwide, the neglect of high yielding crop variety research over the years, climate change and the increasing dependence on bio-fuels. Many now see bio-fuels as an opportunity for protecting the environment and biodiversity. If the Church's response to this lurking humanitarian disaster has to have the desired impact, it should avoid only being selectively relevant and consider the multi-faceted nature of the crisis.
To fight the upward trend in food prices, the UN has put in place a task force to review the situation and propose solutions. Emergency food supplies to countries worst hit by the crisis are also being envisaged, while some developed countries have announced the doubling of their aid packages. In Cameroon the government has put in place some palliative measures like scrapping taxes on some imported basic commodities, subsidising others. It has also declared an open war on speculators through the seizure and sale of goods at recommended prices and the setting up of reference shops.
These measures, unfortunately, have not had the desired results, as prices have continued to rise. The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has described the crisis as one that is not only threatening the political and economic stability of poor nations around the world, but also underlined that it is equally "a moral challenge to each one of us as global citizens." When a crisis assumes a moral dimension, the Church cannot and must not stay out of it.
The Church's Social Teaching and some encyclicals, especially Sollicitude Rei Socialis, by Pope John Paul II, highlight the "option for the poor" and "solidarity" as one of the central tenets of the Church's mission. Long before the present crisis, the Yaounde Archdiocese had set up a structure, ECONOMAT, where Christians and other pastoral workers could buy some food items at reduced rates. Although this initiative may be limited to the Yaounde Archdiocese, it clearly shows that there can be a "Catholic" alternative to the brutalities provoked by the ongoing food crisis. Such an alternative should stretch beyond mere condemnation and appeals for the adoption of rational economic policies, to include practical options as the one put in place by the Yaounde Archdiocese.
Many of Cameroon's small traders, importers, retailers and farmers are Catholics. How can the Church use its influence, with the help of its faithful to contribute to the ongoing fight against the high cost of living? The need is even more pressing as latest statistics indicate that about 25,000 people are now dying daily from hunger. The global food crisis, described as the worst since the end of the Second World War, is only making an already bad situation worse. Community peace and security depend on finding lasting or, at least, palliative solutions to the present food crisis as riots provoked by the crisis are threatening many governments across the globe.
Last February's social upheavals in Cameroon were a logical outgrowth of the frustration provoked by the present food crisis. But what exactly can the Church do to alleviate present food-related difficulties? That is a question only each diocese could probably answer. If we do not look, we are probably never going to find.
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