Pope Benedict XVI today told a United Nations world food summit that "the Earth can sufficiently feed all of its inhabitants" despite the "devastation" caused by global warming, and blamed the "greed" of speculators in cereals markets for aggravating world hunger.

In a speech to the opening day of the three day World Summit on Food Security organised in Rome by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the Pope said that "even if there are some regions where climate change has devastated production, globally speaking there is enough food to satisfy demand now and for the foreseeable future".

He added: "These data show that there is no cause and effect relationship between population growth and hunger, and therefore is another proof of the deplorable trend to destroy food chains for profit". He condemned "greed which causes speculation to rear its head even in the marketing of cereals, as if food were to be treated just like any other commodity."

Pope Benedict criticised "those forms of aid that do grave damage to the agricultural sector" and "approaches to food production that are geared solely towards consumption and lack a wider perspective." He also warned against resignation or indifference towards the problem of world hunger.

He said there was a "tendency to view hunger as structural, an integral part of the socio-political situation of the weakest countries, a matter of resigned regret, if not downright indifference. It is not so, and it must never be so."

The Pope told delegates: "The weakness of current mechanisms for food security and the need to re-examine them are confirmed by the mere fact that this summit has been convoked. Even though the poorest countries are more fully integrated into the world economy than in the past, movements in international markets make them more vulnerable."

He sad that "food production methods impose upon us the need to carefully analyse the relationship between development and environmental protection. The desire to possess and to use in an excessive and disorderly manner the resources of the planet is the number one cause of environmental damage. Environmental protection, then, is our challenge for today; to guarantee that our development proceeds harmoniously, and with respect for God's creation, and of course, in a way which safeguards the planet."

He insisted,however, that in making these remarks he was not taking a political stand. "The Church has no intention of interfering in political choices. Respect for knowledge and scientific results, as for rational choices and decisions when made with genuine and authentic human responsibility, can come together with the overall effort to defeat famine and hunger in the world."

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