Food & Plastic: Hearing the Cry of the Earth with Professor Philip Landrigan, MD

Sponsor: SHOL Newton Creation Care Team

Co-sponsors: Green Newton, FUUSN Climate Action Task Force, Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light, and the Boston Catholic Climate Movement

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As people of faith, we are called to community life, and we see meals as opportunities to build relationships as we seek better ways to love and serve one another. However, in our fast-paced world today, we too often rely on industrialized food sources that pose a risk to our health, our families, our communities, and our world.

Do you worry about single-use plastics filling your family’s lunchboxes and garbage pails? Are you frustrated by the increasing use of disposable plastics at holiday and birthday gatherings? Do you love the sense of community during your congregation’s hospitality events but feel uneasy about the piling up of plastic utensils, cups, and plates?

Imagine making your gatherings more sustainable and aligned with your faith’s call to care for the Earth and one another.

The Sacred Heart and Our Lady Help of Christians Collaborative Creation Care Team invites you to hear from a global environmental health expert, Professor Philip J. Landrigan, MD, Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. From 2021 to 2023, Dr. Landrigan chaired the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, which studied plastics’ impacts on human health and helped shape recommendations for the UN Global Plastics Treaty.

Dr. Landrigan will share insights on how plastics affect human health, followed by a solutions-focused panel discussion on practical alternatives like compostable options, reusables, and efficient dishwashing. We’ll conclude with a brief Q&A.

This is the third meeting in a collaborative effort by Green Newton, FUUSN, Massachusetts Interfaith Power, and the Boston Catholic Climate Movement to support Newton’s houses of worship in greening their spaces. In past gatherings, we’ve explored how to reduce energy use in our congregations and developed a supportive network of congregants, faith leaders and staff interested in reducing their energy use and environmental impact.