Speaking from his studio window overlooking St Peter's Square, the Pope noted that the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation recently reported that more than 800 million people are undernourished, and that many people, especially children, die from hunger.
The Pontiff said that hundreds of millions of people around the globe do not have enough to eat, describing it as a scandal which must be fought with changes in consumption and fairer distribution of resources.
The UN agency, in a report late last month, said that ten years after global leaders had pledged to halve the number of the world's hungry, almost no progress has been made.
Pope Benedict said it was necessary to eliminate the structural causes tied to the system of governing the world's economy, which earmarked most of the planet's resources for a minority of the Earth's population.
He said to make an impact on a large scale, it was necessary to convert the model of global development.
He said not only the scandal of hunger but also the environmental and energy crises demanded this.
