為什么你今天要考慮食物浪費

為什么你今天要考慮食物浪費

The 29th of September is the first-ever International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). It was named as such last winter by the United Nations General Assembly, which simultaneously designated 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables. IDAFLW is a mouthful of a name (and an acronym) for a day that is meant to inspire changes to our everyday actions at home in the kitchen, but we'll happily put up with that because the message is so important.

9月29日是第一個國際糧食損失和浪費意識日。去年冬天，聯(lián)合國大會將2021年命名為“國際水果和蔬菜年”。IDAFLW是一個很長的名字(也是一個首字母縮寫)，它的意思是激勵我們改變家里廚房里的日常行為，但我們會很高興地忍受，因為這個信息是如此重要。

A man looks for food in a dumpster in Bogotá, Colombia, in April 2020. VIEW press / Getty Images

Food waste is an enormous global problem. Non-profit organization Project Drawdown has said that if it were a standalone country, it would place third after the United States and China in terms of impact on global warming. Striving to reduce food waste is, to quote Project Drawdown's vice-president and research director Chad Frischmann, "one of the most important things we can do to reverse global warming."

食物浪費是一個巨大的全球性問題。非營利組織Project Drawdown表示，如果它是一個獨立的國家，它對全球變暖的影響將排在美國和中國之后，位列第三。努力減少食物浪費，用Drawdown項目副總裁兼研究主任Chad Frischmann的話來說，“是我們逆轉(zhuǎn)全球變暖所能做的最重要的事情之一。”

Estimates for how much food gets wasted range from 14% to 40% of total calories raised for human consumption, contributing 8% (or 3.3 gigatonnes) of global greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the waste occurs before food arrives at the grocery store, as it's moving through a vast and complex supply chain (a.k.a. the cold chain, explained in more detail here by Treehugger's Lloyd Alter).

據(jù)估計，食物浪費的總量占人類消耗的總熱量的14%到40%，占全球溫室氣體排放的8%(33億噸)。大部分的浪費發(fā)生在食物到達雜貨店之前，因為它在一個巨大而復(fù)雜的供應(yīng)鏈(又稱冷鏈，這里由環(huán)保公司的勞埃德·奧爾特詳細解釋)中移動。

As part of its Sustainable Development Goals, the UN has said it wants to halve global food waste by 2030 at the retail and consumer levels and "reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses." Designating a special day to talk about and bring attention to this issue is part of its plan. An online event will take place on September 29, including presentations by various agriculture ministers and celebrity chefs.

聯(lián)合國表示，作為其可持續(xù)發(fā)展目標(biāo)的一部分，它希望到2030年在零售和消費層面將全球糧食浪費減少一半，并“減少生產(chǎn)和供應(yīng)鏈上的糧食損失，包括收獲后的損失。”指定一個特別的日子來討論和關(guān)注這個問題是其計劃的一部分。9月29日將舉行網(wǎng)上活動，包括多位農(nóng)業(yè)部長和名廚的演講。

What Can We Do?

我們能做什么?

While ordinary citizens may not have the power to effect significant changes in the global food supply chain, we can do our part to fight food waste by making careful and conscientious choices in our own lives. Not buying more than we can eat, planning meals in advance, committing to eating leftovers, storing food properly, and learning how to preserve food are valuable skills that can go a long way toward cutting down on personal food waste (not to mention saving money).

雖然普通公民可能沒有能力對全球食品供應(yīng)鏈產(chǎn)生重大影響，但我們可以通過在自己的生活中做出謹慎和認真的選擇，為抗擊食品浪費盡自己的一份力量。不買我們吃不完的食物，提前規(guī)劃餐，承諾吃剩飯剩菜,正確儲存食物，并學(xué)習(xí)如何保存食物是有價值的技能，可以減少個人食物浪費(更不用說省錢)。

Choosing to buy perishable foods on a more regular basis and supporting local growers whose foods do not have to travel so far to your table (and thus are less likely to be wasted) are additional strategies.

選擇定期購買易腐爛的食物，支持當(dāng)?shù)氐姆N植者，他們的食物不用走那么遠就能送到你的餐桌上(因此也就不太可能被浪費)，這些都是額外的策略。

You can find many more food waste-reducing tips at the NRDC's Save The Food campaign and Canada's equivalent, Love Food, Hate Waste.

你可以在自然資源保護委員會的“拯救食物運動”和加拿大的“愛食物，恨浪費”中找到更多減少食物浪費的小貼士。