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浪费并非中国独有 看世界如何“光盘”
Growing appetite to cut back on food wastage

[ 2013-02-17 12:24] 来源:中国日报网     字号 [] [] []  
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Smaller portions

At Quanjude Group, one of China's biggest restaurant chains, cards written in red print remind customers to order sparingly, while also pointing out that they are encouraged to take leftovers home to eat later. To discourage customers from ordering more than they can eat, the group has started to use smaller serving plates for portions. The new plates are roughly half the size than before and hold half the amount of food. Prices have also been altered to suit.

The campaign has also attracted large numbers of young people. In January, a proposal initiated on the micro blog service Weibo calling on Beijing residents to eat everything on their plate attracted the participation of 2.74 million people within the first two weeks.

Liu Qinglong, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management, was happy to see the change in attitude toward food wastage, but he said he's waiting to see how things pan out over the long term. He expressed concern that the new move may be short-lived and will fade away in the face of traditional cultural pressures.

"Ostentation and preserving face have been part of Chinese culture for thousands of years," he said, pointing out that people don't like to be seen taking food home from restaurants for fear that neighbors and friends may think them stingy or poverty stricken.

He suggested the government should introduce a media and social supervision mechanism to combat these perceptions, while also advocating the establishment of a special office to oversee payments made with public funds.

"Without effective and detailed implementation, the phenomenon will not last long," said Liu.

Although research by China Agricultural University in 2008 estimated that 50 million metric tons of food - one-tenth of China's total grain output - is wasted every year, the problem is equally, if not more, acute in industrialized countries and the phenomenon can be observed in almost every developed nation.

Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion metric tons - is wasted, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

China Daily examined the situations in the United Kingdom and the United States to see how those countries fare and how they intend to change their situations.

值得欣喜的是,一项倡导将盘中餐吃光喝净带走的“光盘运动”也正在民间兴起,并得到许多民众、公益组织、特别是网民的热烈响应。它以自然简单、人人皆可参与的方式倡导节约,给目前喧嚣的社会带来了一股难得的清风。

今年1月,“光盘行动”是北京市一家民间公益组织推行的公益活动。该活动的主题是:从我做起,今天不剩饭。公益组织的志愿者倡议市民在饭店就餐打包剩饭,“光盘”离开,形成人人节约粮食的好风气。据活动组织者介绍,未来他们将继续在不同城市开展这个公益活动。

据新浪微博统计,截至1月28日下午,“#光盘行动#”的微博主题活动共吸引了274万名网友签名参与,以“#光盘行动#”作为内容开头的微博总数超过2000万条,其中北京共有约20万网友参与其中,发布、转发、评论“光盘行动”的微博总数超过200万条,平均每位网友都发布或转发了近10条微博。

清华大学公共管理学院刘庆龙教授对于目前社会上兴起的反对普涨浪费表示欢迎,但对于多年来形成的“好面子”、“讲排场”、“兴攀比”的畸形消费观,他表示希望中央的这些好的政策措施可以真正落到实处,可以长期的持续下去而不是一阵风而已。

他建议政府要在加强监管的同时,引入第三方监督制度,政府公款消费的每一笔款项都要通过第三方透明的监督。他认为,如果不建立行之有效的监督机制,反对铺张浪费不会持久起到真正的效果。

其实,浪费食物并不是中国独有的现象。据联合国粮农组织统计,全球每年制造的食物中,1/3(约13亿吨)都被浪费;欧美国家平均每人每年浪费95—115公斤食物,亚洲和非洲国家平均每人每年浪费6—11公斤食物。

中国日报记者也走访了英国和美国的一些机构和组织来看看他们是如何应对食物浪费的。

 

 
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