Yemen is one of the countries with the worst food crisis in the world, and about 20 million people are facing food supply shortage. The picture shows a vendor selling grain in Sana ‘a, Yemen. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Mohammed)
It’s shameful to waste and proud to save.
In a video of a social media, a man put a watermelon on the chopping block. When he was ready, he began to slice the whole watermelon. Later, he only picked up one of the watermelons, took a small bite, and then threw all the remaining watermelons into the trash can.
This video is just one of Qian Qian’s ten thousand videos about wasting food on the Internet, and the reply in the comment area is even more surprising: "It will never be disgusting to waste food for the influence of the video."
However, while some people are recklessly wasting food, the FAO points out that about one third of the world’s food is lost or wasted every year, which is as high as 1.3 billion tons.
According to the latest edition of the report "World Food Security and Nutrition" jointly released by five UN agencies on July 13th, the goal of "zero hunger" put forward in the UN’s sustainable development vision in 2030 will not be achieved unless the increasing trend of food-deficit population is reversed.
Save food, countries are taking action.
Cherishing food concerns everyone. Faced with the loss and waste of food, many countries are or have taken actions to control and manage all aspects of food supply by strengthening legislation and popularizing food saving education.
In May this year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry launched a national media joint campaign called "Save Food", which is an important step for Turkey to save food. This campaign aims to expand consumers’ understanding of the benefits of reducing food waste, resist food waste and promote people to achieve profound and lasting changes in food consumption patterns.
According to the news of USA-Today on May 19th, in order to prevent ripe fruits and vegetables from rotting in the ground, the British government launched the "Pick for Britain" campaign to encourage students and people who have temporarily suspended their jobs to participate. "Food doesn’t come out of thin air," Prince Charles of England appealed to everyone in a video posted on his social media account. "Food is precious and can’t be ignored."
Recently, Pittsburgh and nine other cities in the United States launched a new initiative plan on food, aiming at reducing food waste, saving surplus food that will be thrown away and recycling food residues. Andrew Dash, the person in charge of the plan, said: "The city will continue to promote food-related legislation to reduce food waste by preventing waste, saving food and recycling kitchen waste. These solutions are conducive to the economic prosperity of the region and reduce the pollution caused by waste. "
Take multiple measures to avoid waste
According to the data of the US Department of Agriculture, food waste accounts for about 30% of the food supply in the United States & mdash; 40%。 The food loss at the retail and consumer levels was 31%, which was equivalent to about $161 billion in food in 2010.
According to the news of official website on August 21st, the National Institute of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released the report "National Strategy to Reduce Consumer Food Waste", which identified 11 driving factors that caused consumer food waste, including marketing practices, government policies and regulations, and competitive demands for consumers’ time and attention. The report has formulated a number of measures, such as changing the eating environment in food supply places, standardizing food date labels through federal legislation, supporting consumers to change their eating habits, and developing technology to avoid food waste.
"When you buy about 500 grams of strawberries at the grocery store, you will never deliberately waste strawberries. However, if this is the only time you go to the store this week, or if you buy two strawberries for one time, you may buy more strawberries than you actually need, which will cause waste. " Barbara O. Schneiman, chairman of the report Committee, and Davis, emeritus professor at the University of California, said.
Therefore, in response to the strategy of "changing the food environment", the report proposes that manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and other food supply places should encourage consumers to give priority to buying appropriate quantities and types of products (such as frozen, storable and perishable) when organizing promotional activities and making in-store tips, change the way of providing food and communicate with consumers to reduce food waste.
For example, stores can consider providing small trolleys or baskets to reduce over-purchase; The cafeteria can take away the tray, so that consumers can choose less food; Restaurants can provide smaller portions and redesign buffets to reduce waste.
Let saving become conscious action
"Food and clothing don’t forget hunger and cold, good years don’t forget disaster years, and increasing production doesn’t forget saving." Saving food depends more on people’s conscious actions.
In the past few years, Japan has launched a publicity campaign with the theme of "saving food" and conducted many lectures and training courses to raise the awareness of Japanese youth (from primary school to university) on reducing food waste. Japan consumes an average of 6.2 million tons of food every year. Although this figure still rises with the increase of family income, Japanese people have a wider understanding of the economic problems and moral guilt caused by food waste nationwide.
In most parts of Japan, in sharp contrast to "Have a good appetite", most people will say "I’m going to start" softly. In fact, this sentence implies the meaning of "I accept", which is a kind of respect for food. The word "mottainai" in Japanese is "what a waste" when translated! "mottainai" expresses people’s dissatisfaction with food and other resources being discarded, and institutions including schools have been using "mottainai" to emphasize the necessity of stopping food waste.
If the whole world starts from now to raise awareness and save food, the realization of the goal of "zero hunger" proposed by the United Nations will be just around the corner.
"When we strive to make progress in reducing food loss and waste, only when we coordinate with each other, work together and change our cognition can food conservation really play a role." Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Pak Demirli said, "Therefore, it is most important for all participants to work together to improve their understanding of food issues, so as to bring about a fashion of sustainable production and consumption."