Food Waste： A Growing Problem 舌尖上的浪费
据统计，全球每年浪费的食物达到13万亿吨，占全球每年生产的食物总量的三分之一。我国每年在餐桌上浪费的食物价值约合2000亿元，相当于两亿多人一年的口粮，每年在餐桌外浪费的食物价值也高达750亿元。这些数字令人触目惊心，因此造成的资源浪费与环境破坏也令人痛惜。那造成食物浪费的原因是什么？食物浪费的严重后果有哪些？有无可行的解决方案？我们一起来了解。
When it comes to prerving food and reducing its waste， America is not the country paving the path， as $165 billion worth of food is being thrown out annually. The United States per capita food waste has incread almost 50 percent since 1974.
Multiple factors come into question when asking why Americans are so wasteful， ranging from produce not looking as aesthetically pleasing as the rest to ignorance on the accuracy of ll-by dates.
哪里的英文Not only is it wasteful to needlessly throw out food， it can also be costly to our environment and economy. According to the Natural Resources Defen Council， the process of getting food from the farms to our plates requires 10 percent of America’s total energy budget， makes up 80 percent of freshwater consumption in America
and consumes 50 percent of America’s land. Yet， 40 percent of the food produced ends up in landfills.
It is predicted that by 2025， the world population will have incread from roughly 7 billion to around 8 billion. And while the population increa will be en mostly in developing countries，it still pos an important question for all nations：“How will we feed all tho people？”
Today， about one-sixth of the American population live in food-incure houholds， meaning that families have to decide between buying food and other basic necessities. And yet， despite this deficit，the nation is still faced with the problem of overproduction of food， a large majority of which will be thrown out. There are families out there who are scrambling for food and yet there are families throwing whole bags of lettuce and fresh vegetables and fruits out.
However， it’s not just food that is being wasted when it is thrown out. The oil lost in the production of food that ends up in a landfill is 70 times greater than the amount lost in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 20101）.
It is estimated that reducing food waste by 15 percent would feed roughly 25 million Americans， while easing the environmental impacts. But to effectively reduce waste， it is necessary to improve
prervation of the food and educate people and business on how to best avoid wastage.
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知识就是力量的意思Various factors come into question when discussing why food waste has augmented2） so much in the last few years. One of the many reasons is that consumers are attracted to aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables. When a fruit or vegetable’s appearance isn’t held up to the normal standardized conditions，consumers often ostracize3）it becau they believe there is something wrong with it. “We have an industrialized food system where the fruits and vegetables that we grow have to be a certain shape and size in order to be what’s considered marketable，”Farm Educator for the Abundant Table Erynn Smith says. “A lot of perfectly good fruits and vegetables unfortunately waste in th e als4） becau they aren’t able to get a good enough price becau they’re not the shape and size they’re suppod to be.”
The United States Department of Agriculture has a grading scale; if a fruit or vegetable doesn’t match the criteria， it los two-thirds of its market value to a farmer. If it’s not en as profitable， farmers often discard it.
奥巴马就职演讲mp3Smith believes that if consumers were to alter their demands of products， that would affect what farmers are growing.
“We live in a consumer culture where consumers drive the
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market，” she says. “Becau we are accustomed to eing huge apples or perfectly large sized lettuces， we don’t want to choo anything that isn’t deemed quote unquote5） perfect.
齐桓公读音是什么“That’s driving what farmers are able to grow and ll， so if we were able to change our consumer culture and educate ourlves as consumers that taste is not necessarily tied to size or shape，then we would be able to demand differently and that would affect what farmers are growing.”
Besides the beauty aspect of it， ignorance of ll-by dates is another factor contributing to the increa of food waste in landfills.
edg什么意思According to the Natural Resources Defen Council， nine out of ten consumers have at one point thrown out food that has pasd its ll-by date， fearing its safety. However， as ll-by date labels aren’t regulated by the federal government， except for baby formulas， its accuracy is not as official as one might believe.
Sell-by dates are rarely ever exact and almost none reflect the safety of their content. They’re merely suggestions from the manufacturers of when the product will be at its peak quality.in the ocean
shelley“There are actually dedicated websites that basically say that industries put the ll-by dates on products so that consumers will buy more，” says health teacher Kurt Miller. “The ll-by dates
are so short so as to increa the amount of products that consumers are buying. […] Now， of cour there are a lot of foods that you certainly need to be more careful of like dairy and mea ts.”
Lastly， one of the biggest contributors to food waste is simply the fact that business and markets throw away leftover food when stores clo rather than donating it to shelters for the homeless. Due to the increa of food waste in landfills， a number of long-term conquences have appeared. One of the most dangerous ones is the relea of methane6） gas.
汉译英字典Food lying beneath piles of waste is kept in an anaerobic7）state for lengthy periods of time and it decompos without air. As a result， that airless tting releas methane， a greenhou gas that traps heat.
Methane gas is dangerous in that if it is relead into the atmosphere before being ud， it absorbs the sun’s heat and warms the Earth. This can have a devastating impact on our climate as it
is extremely effective in absorbing and trapping heat.
According to End Hunger， landfills are the greatest providers
of human-related methane gas source. They account for nearly 34 percent of methane emissions.
Another conquence of food waste that future generations will encounter is a shortage of water and land resources. According to
