Pope Thinks You're Stealing, Basically

'Throwing away food is stealing from... those who are poor and hungry'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 6, 2013 9:51 AM CDT
Pope Thinks You're Stealing, Basically
Pope Francis arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, for his weekly general audience, Wednesday, June 5, 2013.   (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

If you've ever thrown out good food, Pope Francis says you're a thief. "Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry," he said during an audience at the Vatican this week, in which he blamed a "culture of waste." He's got a point, since one study says as much as half the planet's food ends up in the trash. The United Nations' food agency has a more reserved figure, noting that one-third of human food is wasted, according to Reuters.

Since becoming pope, Francis has made defending the poor a priority, calling for global financial reform, but yesterday he said people are "insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food," according to the Telegraph. "[It's] even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition... In this way people are discarded as if they were garbage." (More Pope Francis stories.)

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