 The pontiff dedicated his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square to the United Nations World Environment Day to draw attention to the excesses of consumerism and food wastage. “This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition,” the Pope said. In the industrialized world the majority of waste is by consumers, often because they buy too much and have to throw away what they do not manage to eat. VATICAN CITY | 
 
 VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis denounced on Wednesday what he called a "culture of waste" in an increasingly consumerist world and said throwing away good food was like stealing from poor people. Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has said he wants the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to defend the poor and to practice greater austerity itself. He has also made several calls for global financial reform. The Pope urged people to care for the environment and reduce waste. “I am grateful to the pope for recognising our work.” 
 
 Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year, according to the United Nations’ food agency.
– 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."