Pope criticizes profits made by food price speculators

Pope Benedict issued strong words on July 1 against financial speculators spiking food prices and pointed to family-run farms as a way to help stave off world hunger.

“Nourishment is a factor which touches on the fundamental right to life,” the Pope said.

“How can we remain silent before the fact that food has become the object of speculation and is tied to the movements of financial markets which, lacking clear rules and moral principles, seem fixated on the single objective of profit?”

On the morning of July 1, Pope Benedict met at the Vatican with participants from the 37th conference for the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.