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December 2023 Newsletter
Issue #82
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Every year, the world wastes about 2.5 billion tons
of food.
Food waste is worth approximately $1 trillion— accounting for roughly 33% of the world’s food.
Industrialized countries in North America, Europe and Asia collectively waste 222 million tons of food each year -- which is almost the same amount as countries in sub-Saharan Africa produce each year -- 230 million tons.
The U.S. discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 60 million tons every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40% of the entire US food supply, and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person.
Americans waste more than $408 billion each year on food, with dairy products tossed out most. The amount of food wasted in America has an approximate value of nearly $218 billion – the equivalent of 130 billion meals.
Food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22% of municipal solid waste.
An average family of 4 people throws away $1,500 of food a year. This includes 50% of seafood, 48% of fruit and vegetables, 38% of grain products, 22% of meat and 20% of milk.
66 million tons of wasted food is generated in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors, and about 60% is sent to landfills. An additional 40 million tons of wasted food was generated in the food and beverage manufacturing and
processing sectors.
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43% of food waste comes from America’s homes
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40% comes from restaurants, grocery stores and food service companies
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16% from farms
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2% from manufacturers
About 66% of food waste at home is due to food not being used before it goes bad.
More than 80% of Americans discard perfectly good, consumable food simply because they misunderstand expiration labels.
92% of restaurants serve meals exceeding recommended calorie requirements for a
single serving.
About 30% of food in American grocery stores is thrown away. U.S. retail stores generate about 16 billion pounds of food waste every year. Wasted food from the retail sector is valued at about twice the amount of profit from food sales.
Approximately 30 - 40% of food that farmers around the world produce is never consumed. Between 21- 33% of water used across US farms is wasted.
The average American household spends more than $3,000 a year on eating out. This not only requires a lot of plastic packaging and utensils, but it also produces a lot of wasted food. The restaurant industry spends an estimated $162 billion every year in costs related to wasted food.
Wasting food has irreversible environmental consequences: it wastes the water and energy it took to produce it, and generates 11% of the world's greenhouse gasses.
Produced but uneaten food occupies almost 1.4 billion hectares of land – roughly 30% of the world’s agricultural land area.
Approximately 2.6 million tons of food is composted -- that’s 4.1% of wasted food.
25% of the world’s fresh water supply is used to grow food that is never eaten.
All the world’s nearly 1 billion hungry people could be fed on less than 25% of the food that is wasted in the U.S and Europe.
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How Ugly, Unloved Food Can Change
the World
A TED Talk featuring Dana Cowin, who argues that there's beauty in the misshapen potato and the squishy lemon, that the fries or lemonade they yield will taste as good as their more attractive counterparts. Food is food, she says, and embracing that reality will help us reduce food waste.
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The Truth About "Expired" Food
A short TED Ed animation featuring Carolyn Beans, who says that expiration dates don't mean what we think and that most groceries are perfectly safe to eat past their expiration dates. By correctly interpreting expiration labels, she argues that we can avoid a lot of needless food waste. Watch now.
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The Hunger Museum
A digital project of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, which is a national organization fighting to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds. The Hunger Museum tells the story of the last 100 years of hunger and anti-hunger public policy in the United States, alongside the cultural touchstones that accompany that history, demonstrating that a robust government response can end hunger — and almost did. Political winds and policy changes reversed that victory, leading to an over-reliance on an already overwhelmed charitable food network — but that does not need to be
the future.
Through six galleries of historical content, MAZON’s exhibits and artifacts illuminate the political, economic, and cultural influences of the time, revealing the expansion and dismantlement of the American social safety net over the last century and how, with this history in mind, we can forge a path forward to end hunger.
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US Department of Agriculture 2023
Plant Hardiness Zone Map
The national standard for gardeners and growers to figure out which plants are most likely to survive the coldest winter temperatures in their location. The 2023 map is about 2.5 degrees warmer than the map from 2012. About half the country has shifted into a new half zone and in some locations, people will find that they can grow new types of flowers, fruits, vegetables and other plants. Learn more.
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If You Care
An Illinois based company that creates products with a view to reducing the amount of waste. Their packaging is made from unbleached recycled cardboard or paper which can be recycled. Products include unbleached coffee filters, parchment baking paper and baking cups, aluminum foil made from 100% recycled aluminum, heavy duty aluminum foil for grilling and barbecuing, waxed paper, made from unbleached paper coated with soybean wax, 100% carbon neutral firelighters, sandwich and snack bags from unbleached greaseproof paper, sponge cloths, reusable paper towels from cellulose and non-GMO cotton, fair trade household gloves, laundry soap, dish detergents and parchment roasting bags.
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The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy:
And the Path to a Shared American Future
By Robert P. Jones. Shows how the enslavement of Africans was not America’s original sin but, rather, the continuation of acts of genocide and dispossession flowing from the first European contact with Native Americans. It started with the Doctrine of Discovery: the belief that God had designated all territory not inhabited or controlled by Christians as their new promised land -- which would shape the way five centuries of European Christians would understand the “discovered” world and the people who populated it.
This reframing of American origins explains how the founders of the United States could build the philosophical framework for a democratic society on a foundation of mass racial violence—and why this paradox survives today in the form of white Christian nationalism. Through stories of people navigating these contradictions in three communities, illuminates the possibility of a new American future which may finally fulfill the promise of a pluralistic democracy. Read more.
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Nevertheless, We Persist:
A Feminist Public Theology
By Rosemary P Carbine. Drawing on major figures in feminist and womanist theologies as well as public theology, examines a rich range of historical and contemporary faith-based movements such as the Catholic Worker, the Civil Rights Movement, United Farm Workers, and The Plowshares Movement. Each chapter ends with a contemporary social movement that continues and radicalizes a part of an earlier movement but in more multi-faith ways in order to redress the increasing fracture of US public life in our time. Concludes with a contemporary case study of feminist intersectional and interfaith justice, drawing out insights from NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus for the future work of feminist public theology to create community and to construct a shared public life that expands beyond single social issues and religions. Read more.
(Available December 8th)
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The National Women's History Museum
An online museum dedicated to uncovering, interpreting, and celebrating women’s diverse contributions to society. Through virtual exhibits, brings to life the countless untold stories of women throughout history, and serves as a space for all to inspire, experience, collaborate, and amplify women’s impact—past, present, and future. Strives to fundamentally change the way women and girls see their potential and power. Learn more.
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Church as Sanctuary: Reconstructing Refuge in an Age of Displacement
By Leo Guardado. Argues that if the idea of church sanctuary is going to be credible in modern times, then we need a theology of sanctuary that reconstitutes this rich tradition anew -- especially when there are so many displaced people around the world. Church sanctuary has always served as a creative response to persons whose life is threatened by violence, and in our contemporary society the church’s rejection of its own tradition places at risk other forms of sanctuary that exist in symbolic relation to the church’s historical practice.
(Available December 8th)
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American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church
By Andrew L. Whitehead. Reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church through 3 idols: power, fear and violence. Uses two key examples--racism and xenophobia--to demonstrate that these idols violate core Christian beliefs. Through stories, illuminates expressions of Christianity that confront Christian nationalism and offer a faithful path forward.
Encourages further conversation about what Christian nationalism threatens, how to face it, and why it is vitally important to do so. Helps identify Christian nationalism and build a framework that makes sense of the relationship between faith and the current political and cultural context. Learn more.
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The Center for Constitutional Rights
A nonprofit organization that works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Takes on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Addresses specific issues such as: abusive immigration practices, corporate human rights abuses, criminalizing dissent, discriminatory policing, drone killings, government surveillance, LGBTQI persecution, mass incarceration, Muslim profiling, Palestinian solidarity, racial injustice, sexual and gender-based violence, torture, war crimes, & militarism. Learn more.
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Corporate Accountability
A nonprofit organization that wages strategic campaigns to compel transnational corporations, and the governments that do their bidding, to stop trampling democracy, health, human rights, and destroying the planet. Focuses on specific issues such as: water, the climate, food, tobacco, democracy and the Black collective. Learn more.
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The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence
By John Dear. Offers a first ever commentary on the Synoptic Gospels from the perspective of active nonviolence, in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King. Walks through every line of the three synoptic Gospels pointing out Jesus’ practice and teachings of nonviolence each step of the way. This commentary brings a new approach to the Gospels and is a resource for those those who preach and engage in social ministries, and an inspiration in this time of permanent warfare, gun violence, racism, poverty and climate change. Read more.
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Ending U.S. Wars by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace
By Dr. Michael D. Knox, founder of the US Peace Memorial Foundation. Says it’s time for Americans who work for peace to be honored as national heroes. Documents the actions of hundreds of role models for peace in hopes of inspiring other Americans and aims to change the U.S. culture to one that celebrates its peacemakers. Chapters include A Culture of War, A Culture of Peace and The U.S. Peace Prize which details profiles of recipients. The U.S. Peace Registry is a collection of 270 Americans who work for peace, demonstrating a broad range of peace and antiwar actions and activities. The U.S. Peace Memorial chapter relates the Foundation’s most ambitious goal: to establish a monument on the National Mall.
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Enacting Integral Human Development
By Clemens Sedmak. Focuses on a Catholic approach to human development using a phrase coined by Louis-Joseph Lebret OP, then used by Paul VI in his encyclical Populorum Progressio in 1967 and most recently by Pope Francis with the creation of a special dicastery. Similar to Enacting Catholic Social Teaching, this book emphasizes practice and examples without being a simple “how-to” book.
(Available December 8th)
For more Catholic Social Teaching resources,
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Important Dates This Month
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December 7th: Anniversary of the Publication of Joy & Hope (Gaudium et Spes)
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Individuals Honored This Month |
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December 10th
One way to stop the next war is to continue to tell the truth about this one.
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December 17th
Do not give up your dreams of a more just world.
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December 18th
Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security, and prestige, it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.
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December 27th
We are collecting the people’s memories because we want to contribute to the
construction of a different country. This path was and continues to be full of risks,
but the construction of the kingdom of God entails risks, and only those who have the strength to confront those risks can be its builders.
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Since 2017, there have been more than 400,000 visitors to the Social Justice Resource Center website. We provide a wide variety of facts and figures on specific social issues as well as thousands of free resources including films, publications, links to other organizations, prayers, quotes, principles of social justice, key dates throughout the year, action ideas, Diocesan office contact information and biographies of famous people who have worked for social justice.
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