Posted on 06/06/2013 4:52:09 PM PDT by haffast
VATICAN CITY, June 6 (UPI) -- At his weekly address in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope Francis attacked the "culture of waste" and said wasting food is like stealing from the poor.
"Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times we are no longer able to give a just value," the pope said. "Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry."
The pope dedicated his audience, which attracted thousands of pilgrims from around the world, to the U.N. World Environment Day, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The pope and the U.S. government might be on the same page when it comes to food waste. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday the U.S. Food Waste Challenge calling on others across the food chain -- including producer groups, processors, manufacturers, retailers, communities and other government agencies -- to reduce, recover and recycle food waste.
snip
"Food waste is the single largest type of waste entering our landfills -- Americans throw away up to 40 percent of their food," Perciasepe said in a statement. "Addressing this issue not only helps with combating hunger and saving money, but also with combating climate change: food in landfills decomposes to create potent greenhouse gases."
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
“Human ecology and environmental ecology walk hand in hand”, he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10101375/Pope-Francis-says-wasting-food-is-like-stealing-from-the-poor.html
UN food official lauds commitment of Pope Francis, Church to ending hunger
Vatican Radio website - Justice and Peace - 2013-05-23 17:18:22
"(May 23, 2013) The commitment of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to ending hunger, has been praised by the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO. “On a scale of 1 to 10, the Pope’s interest in eradicating hunger is at 11,” José Graziano da Silva said in an interview on Monday, adding that this is not only an economic topic but also one of a moral nature.
Criticizing “the combination we have today, of producing too much, and at the same time wasting,” Graziano added that “we throw away or waste too much food, almost one third of the world production. This is putting an almost unsustainable pressure on the environment. We cannot follow this sort of model,” he said. “What is left over in a European restaurant today, those leftovers in today’s Europe in crisis, would enable 200 million more people to be fed,” he said. “To reconvert production and consumption is also part of the work of the Catholic Church, and we have agreed that we must give priority to the topic of poverty and hunger,” he added.
White courtesy phone for Mayor Bloomberg.
I am not sure where I got it, but I have always hated the idea of wasting food. Whenever I see a movie and they show a food fight and clearly think it is cool, it just disgusts me.
Actually I don’t like wasting anything but food particularly.
Hunger and starvation exist in the world not because of a lack of generosity, but because there are political and religious organizations who steal food meant for the poor...and usually these organizations are usually islamic and usually located in Africa.
Merely returning to the atmosphere the greenhouse gases that were taken from the atmosphere in the process of growing said food.
“I am not sure where I got it, but I have always hated the idea of wasting food”
Me eithr. But I think it comes from being the child of parents who grew up in the depression, then had six kids and we were taught to waste nothing.
Government taxes is stealing form all!
That pretty much describes my family too.
I do disagree with the Pope that it is like stealing from the poor.
Hunger is caused by stupid economic policies, not by capitalism. Capitalists want more customers. Communists want more slaves.
Not in Amerika it’s not.
I thank God we live in such a bountiful society that we can eat all that we can and push food away after realizing we’ve had too much or put too much on the plate.
Additionally, it’s not possible to keep up with the production an American Woman puts out in the kitchen.
Sohhhh, Life Happens Mr. Pope.
Don’t worry, we’ll keep on feeding the rest of the world, while they continue to envy us.
Thing is, if we cut off the food to a place like...say...Egypt, it’s over.
They have no ability to feed all their people without our help and riots would ensue in about a week.
They are on the “Just in Time” program. That is, we deliver enough food to their ports each week, just in time to replenish the previous weeks consumption, or maybe they threw it away, I don’t know.
Doesn’t seem like they can afford to waste food.
Ethiopa?
Cuba?
Uhmmmm, China?
Yep. We don’t just kill tyrants, we make the world better, fatter and more angry for all the good we do.
“There are starving children in India! Now eat your broccoli.”
He’s channeling my grandmother.
2 Thessalonians 3:10
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.
I don’t like wasting food, (or anything else), but to equate that to “stealing from the poor” is moronic.
I’m not at all fond of this pope’s “social justice” philosophy. Maybe he ought to have a talk with Lech Walesa.
BTW, Mr. Pope:
You sound awful resonance to another socialist proposing that meat should be a treat. Yep, I read that earlier this week from airhead in England I believe.
Seems his big idea is that Americans and Eurwhup should get use to this sort of thinking as the rest of world doesn’t have access to meat, not even anywhere near what we consume.
Bugs me, really. Oh, they get their protein from bugs. They don’t seem to mind either. Heck, I ate crickets in Mexico and the people of Chiapas eat quite a few themselves.
So, in ending, your idea sounds, well, socialist to me.
“Ave nice Day”
The best way to help the poor...is to not become one of them. - Reverend Ike
I agree with him. And my mother used to say the same thing.
Doesn’t seem like they can afford to waste food.
The last time Israel pulled back out of Gaza, they left many greenhouses filled with food crops. The “Palistinians” destroyed them. Then they bitched about not having anything to eat.
He had depression era parents.
Bless his heart.
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