粒粒皆辛苦
Most people would admit that wasting food is not good. But surely, they'd say, the problem can't be that serious?
A 2008 survey by the waste organisation Wrap, based on studying a sample of household bins, found that we [in Britain] collectively throw away 6.7m tonnes of food each year. [...] As a nation, we chuck away 484m unopened yoghurt pots each year, 1.6bn untouched apples (or 27 per person) and 2.6bn slices of bread. That doesn't even include the food we waste at work or leave on our plates in canteens and restaurants. All in all, we chuck away roughly a quarter of the food we buy.
A huge amount [of food] is wasted during or immediately after harvesting, especially in developing countries, where poor transport and other infrastructure mean that food often perishes before it gets to market. Then [...] to get from its source to our plates, much of the food we eat undertakes a journey of epic proportions, involving carts, ships, planes and lorries, warehouses, processing plants and supermarket distribution centres. At each stage of this journey – inevitably, perhaps – a proportion gets wasted. When all this is added together, [...] it is possible to estimate that more than a third of global food supplies is wasted (with the proportion in rich countries being as much as 50%). At the same time, nearly a billion people on the planet live close to starvation.
[...] solving the problem of food waste is not about us getting rid of supermarkets and all embracing freegan lifestyles. It is about taking a large number of waste-reducing steps right across the food system. [...] first of all, if you buy food, don't throw it away. And second, let's put pressure on food businesses to withdraw the policies they currently employ that cause all this waste."
這不是一個生活習慣的問題。這是一個公義的問題。
原文出自英國衛報
Labels: Consumer, Reflection
