美国食物浪费为什么最严重？（上）

Finally tonight from moldy strawberries to thanksgiving leftovers.

开始今晚的节目，从发霉的草莓到感恩节的剩饭剩菜。

Food waste is a part of daily life in America.

食物浪费是美国日常生活的一部分。

And according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s responsible for about eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

根据美国环境保护署的数据，这造成了全球约8%的温室气体排放。

Rhode Island PBS Weekly’s Isabella Jibilian reports on why so much food goes to waste and some efforts to stop the trend.

罗德岛PBS周刊的伊莎贝拉·吉比连报道了这么多食物被浪费的原因，以及阻止食物浪费所做的努力。

At Four Town Farm in Seekonk, Massachusetts, it’s harvest season.

在马萨诸塞州塞孔克的四镇农场，现在是收获的季节。

But Eva Agudelo knows that not all of this produce will end up at the farm stand.

但伊娃·阿古德洛知道，并非所有的农产品都会出现在农场的货摊上。

They’ll start growing the corn at different times so that it becomes ready at different times.

他们会在不同的时间开始种植玉米，这样玉米就会在不同的时间成熟。

But if we have a super hot summer, sometimes all of the corn will be ready all the same time, and the farmer does not have sufficient customers, or grocery stores, or whatever, they can actually move that much corn that quickly.

但如果我们遇到一个超级炎热的夏天，有时所有的玉米会在同一时间供应出来，而农民又没有足够的客户，没有足够的杂货店，或其他供应渠道，他们实际上可以快速运送大量玉米。

So they will just have more corn than they literally know what to do with.

比起实际上所知的要处理的玉米，他们会有更多的玉米。

And that’s not the only problem.

这并不是唯一的问题。

Sometimes a food that gets left in the field is a little too big or a little too small.

有时候，留在地里的食物要么太大，要么太小。

If you're selling potatoes to a French fry factory, they need those potatoes to be a certain size, and shape, and weight to work with them in the machinery.

如果你把土豆卖给炸薯条工厂，他们需要这些土豆的大小、形状和重量都达到一定的标准，以便在机器中进行处理。

So after months of tilling land and tending to crops, all this extra produce will ultimately die on the vine.

因此，经过几个月的耕种和劳作，所有这些多出的农产品最终都会枯死在藤条上。

Food waste is a very big problem in the U.S.

美国的食物浪费是一个非常大的问题。

Dawn King, who lectures on the environment at Brown University knows this problem well.

在布朗大学讲授环境问题的道恩·金对这个问题非常了解。

They also say pollution is a sign of waste.

他们还说，污染是浪费的标志。

And so it goes well beyond what we’re re putting into our landfills because 30% of food is wasted or lost before even gets to the retailer or distributor.

这远远超过了我们正在投放到垃圾填埋场的数量，因为30%的食物甚至在运到零售商或分销商之前就被浪费或丢掉了。

Why are we seeing waste happen on farms?

为什么我们会看到农场出现浪费的情况？

We're very mechanized.

我们的机械化程度很高。

And so machines are specifically designed, many of them, to only harvest the top two-thirds of a plant.

因此，机器是专门设计的，其中许多机器只收割植物顶端三分之二的部分。

That’s because farmers do not want machines getting tangled in dirt.

这是因为农民不想让机器被泥土缠住。

And farmers also leave behind produce that is less attractive, what's known as Grade B.

农民也会留下品质没那么好的农产品，即所谓的B级农产品。

One set becomes Grade B, it loses almost all of its value.

农产品一旦被定为B级，几乎就失去了所有的价值。

So farmers are facing this in this really bad predicament.

因此，农民在这个非常糟糕的困境中面临着这个问题。

They want the food to go to others, but they have to pay people to pick it.

他们想把食物卖给其他人，但他们必须付钱让人来采摘。

They have to pay people to package it.

他们必须付钱让人把它打包好。

They have to get it on a truck and get it to that donation site.

他们必须把它装上卡车，然后送到捐赠地点。

All of this cost the farmer money.

所有这些都要花农民的钱。

And King says, the problem goes far beyond the farm.

金表示，问题远远不止局限于农场。

At every point in the supply chain, more food is lost.

在供应链的每一个环节，都有更多的食物被扔掉。

From manufacturing, restaurants, grocery stores, and the worst culprits, consumers at home.

来自制造业、餐馆、杂货店，以及罪魁祸首--国内的消费者。

Added up about one third of the food supply in the U.S. is lost or wasted.

总而言之，美国食物供应中的三分之一被丢掉或浪费了。