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On July 11 and 12, the Second General Assembly of the World Farmers Markets Coalition was held at the Old Synod Hall in the Vatican with speeches by H.E. Card. Mauro Gambetti, President of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, Richard McCarthy, President of the World Farmers Markets Coalition, and Carmelo Troccoli, Director of the Campagna Amica Foundation.
Below is the speech delivered at the opening of the event by the Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, Fr. Francesco Occhetta S.J.:

“Welcome to Rome and Vatican City, you bring together 76 Associations and you are from 66 different countries, among you the farthest away come from New Zealand and Peru.

World Farmers Markets Coalition and the Brothers All Foundation were born and grew up together; you were among our first interlocutors, when newly born Cardinal Mauro Gambetti had met with your president Richard McCarthy and secretary general Carmelo Troccoli to share our mutual projects. From that moment on you have always been close to us until organizing a square of fraternity in Peru during the first World Meeting on June 10, 2023.

It is through the spirit of this bond that I would like to deliver to you three words to begin your work.

First of all, the word “thank you,” which in its etymology includes gratitude and thankfulness; it expresses the joy of a gift one receives and the willingness to give it back. In saying “thank you,” I remind you that in the Foundation you can find a “relational home,” a square as a place to recognize each other, a Word, a life, that of St. of Peter, offered out of love, and finally an anthropological vision contained in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

The second word is “dream,” the possibility of making happen the hope that animates you. No utopia but the desire to cherish and give social and political value to biodiversity. In Colombia, Jesuit economist Francisco de Roux often repeats that there are products of the earth and food for all in the world, they are just poorly distributed. Walking together means working toward this goal, sharing multiplies and creates communion, possession stifles all forms of nature’s richness.
The theme of the fruits of the earth and food connects to so many other themes until it touches the problem of hunger, that of lifestyle and sustainable agriculture. For the Church, it is necessary to stem the scandal of hunger by restarting «from a green global economy: made up of agriculture, industry and services for sustainability» but also from «educating everyone to a wiser and more responsible consumption.»

The third word is “nature,” the Pope affirms this when he repeats a Latin American proverb that says, «God always forgives, men sometimes, nature never!» Cultivating and then cooking symbolically means subduing nature’s ingredients and transforming them into culture by producing a finished dish. The sharing of the same food, whether in the family, at special social events such as village festivals, or simply with co-workers during work days, connects us on a social level.

The relationship with food not only indicates each person’s relationship with his or her own body but is also one of the most radical openings to the world.

Through your mission, the products of the earth and the food that is produced bring into tension two ancient maxims: «Man is what he eats,» but at the same time he «eats what he is,» namely those foods made his own by his culture.
But our challenge is even greater, to work for a fraternal agriculture in which the principle of redistribution and solidarity is concrete fraternity.

Best wishes.”

Read H.E. Card. Mauro Gambetti’s speech.

Watch the video of the event.