Vatican says wealthy nations should reconsider farmers' subsidies

Published: 2006-03-09

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Justice requires that wealthy nations reconsider the level of subsidies they offer their own farmers and the barriers that countries place on the import of agricultural products from developing nations, the Vatican said. Focusing on the precarious situation of people living in the rural areas of developing nations, the Vatican outlined concerns it hoped would influence the deliberations of the March 7-10 conference of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization on agrarian reform and rural development. The international meeting was being held in Porto Alegre, Brazil; the Vatican released its position paper March 9 along with the text of a speech to the conference by Archbishop Janusz Bolonek, the nuncio to Uruguay who represented the Vatican at the conference. In the position paper, the Vatican said the conference must give priority to the "longing for justice and the desire for development" of poor people living in rural areas in the developing world.

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