食物浪费 food waste

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Rob…
大家好，欢迎收听六分钟英语节目，我是Rob……
… and I’m Finn. Hello.
大家好，我是Finn。
Hello, Finn. Now, you like food don’t you?
你好，Finn。你喜欢食物吗?
Yes, I do.
当然啦
But how much of it do you actually throw away?
那么你每天会丢掉多少食物呢？
Probably too much although I’m trying to get better at that, Rob.
可能挺多的，但是我已经尽量不浪费了，Rob。
I’m asking you this because many people around the world throw away food that’s still good enough to eat –this food waste could feed millions of other people. That’s what we’re talking about today as well as looking as some related vocabulary.
我问你这个问题是因为世界上有太多人把好好的食物浪费掉了——这些浪费掉的食物能够养活世界上成千上万的人。这就是我们今天要讨论的话题，然后我们也会学习到一些相关词汇。
Yes, food waste is a big problem. We stock up on food that we don’t really need, and we’re often tempted by supermarkets to consume – or to eat – more.
没错，食物浪费可是个大问题。我们储备了许多根本吃不完的食物，而且我们经常会受到超市的诱惑，买许多食物回来。
Before we talk more about this, let’s find out what you know about food waste. So, do you know, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, what percentage of food is actually wasted?a) 25%b) 33%c) 50%
在我们进一步讨论这个话题之前，让我们来看看你对食物浪费了解的有多少。你知道吗，根据联合国农粮组织的统计，我们到底浪费了多少粮食吗？a) 25%b) 33%c) 50%
50%, I seem to remember that. I might be wrong.
50%，我好像记得这个数字。不过也可能记错了。
We’ll find out if you’re right or wrong later on. But now, here’s another figure for you: In Europe, people throw away 100 million tonnes of food every year.
一会告诉你答案。现在再告诉你个数字：在欧洲，人们每年会丢掉1亿吨粮食。
Wow, such a waste. Most of this food just ends up rotting in landfill sites and that adds to another problem –it creates greenhouse gases.
天哪，实在太浪费了。大多数的食物都会在垃圾场腐烂掉，而这又引发了另外一个问题——这会产生温室气体。
It does. But the problem isn’t just us throwing away leftovers in the fridge or cupboard, as we can hear now from BBC reporter Caroline Hepker. What are the other reasons that lead to food being wasted?
确实会。但问题不仅仅只是我们把食物丢在冰箱或者橱柜那么简单，下面让我们来听听BBC记者Caroline Hepker的报道。导致食物浪费的另外一个原因是什么呢？
Typically, supermarkets demand that onions are about two to two-and-a-quarter inches in diameter. This one will get pretty close to it but this one is too small, although it is perfectlyedible. The question is, what happens to it then? Food waste is a huge issue in America –40% of all food goes uneaten and it’s a problem that starts long before you get to the dining-room table.
通常来说，超市要求洋葱的直径必须在2-2.5英尺之间。可能一些洋葱的直径刚刚好，而另外一些就会太小，虽然它们都是可以食用的。问题是，那些尺寸不合适的洋葱会怎样处理呢？在美国，食物浪费是一个非常大的问题——40%的食物都没吃，而它们可能在还没送到你餐厅桌子上就已经被丢弃了。
Another staggering figure there Rob – 40% of all food in America goes uneaten –it doesn’t get eaten.And she explained that supermarkets are partly to blame.
还有一个惊人的数字，Rob——美国40%的食物都没被吃掉——她解释道在这个问题上超市应该负有一定责任。
Yes. We all love the convenience, the price and the choice of food that supermarkets offer –but a lot of food is binned – thrown out – long before it reaches the shelves.
没错，我们都喜欢方便，超市会提供给我们实惠的价格和多样的选择——但是很多食物都被丢掉了——在它们还没有被送上货架之前。
The reporter gave the example of onions: if they’re the wrong size, they can’t be sold; they’re thrown away even though they’re good enough to eat – or edible.
记者给出了洋葱的例子：如果它们的尺寸不合适，它们是不能被出售的；它们会被丢掉，即使它们是可以食用的。
There are many other types of fruit and vegetables that are discarded –or thrown away – because of their shape and size. And that’s our fault really, because we often think food that looks good is better quality.
还有很多种水果和蔬菜被丢弃了——或者被扔掉了——因为它们的形状和大小不符合规定。这其实是我们的问题，因为我们总是相信看起来好看的食物质量会更好。
Another issue is the ’sell by’ and ’use by’ dates printed on food packaging. They confuse customers. Anything older than the ’sell by’ date makes us think it’s old and the food has gone off, but in fact this is just the date supermarket wants to sell it by.
另外一个问题就是食品包装袋上印刷的“出售时间”和“食用时间”。这会迷惑消费者。任何超过“出售时间”的日期都会让我们以为那些食物已经不新鲜了，不能吃了。但实际上，这个时间只是超市希望食物被卖出的时间。
And there is another reason why some of us are encouraged to buy too much food. Have a listen to working mum, Tara Sherbrooke, about her shopping habits and see if you can hear what the problem is.
还有一个原因是我们被诱惑着买了太多食物。下面让我们听听上班族母亲Tara Sherbrooke是怎么说的，看看她的消费习惯是怎样的，以及大家能否听出她的问题所在。
Also, see if you can hear what she does to try and minimise food waste.
同时也来听一下她是如何尝试减少食物浪费的。
I try very hard to meal-plan because as a working mum and having a busy family, I really try to make sure that there’s enough food at the beginning of the week. I find it very difficult to walk pass two-for-one offers especially on things that we use. I even find it hard to walk past them when they’re items I’ve never purchased before – I stop and look!
我非常努力的尝试去做食品计划，因为我平时还要上班，我的家庭成员也都非常忙，我在每周刚开始的时候就想确定好我们储存了足够的食物。我发现当我碰到一些常用物品买一赠一活动的时候就很难下决定了。而且在碰到一些从没买过的东西时也会让我站在货架前止步不动——我会停下来仔细看看！
So she is a busy working mum and she tries to meal-plan –she plans the family’s meals for the week and works out what to buy.
所以她是一个非常忙的上班族母亲，她尝试做食品计划——她会计划整个家庭一周的食物量，然后想清楚到底要买些什么。
But she still gets tempted by the two-for-one offers. That’s when you buy one item and you get another one of the same item for free.
但是当她遇到买一赠一活动的时候还是会被诱惑。买一赠一就是你可以花一份的价钱得到两件完全一样的物品。
Buy-one-get-one-free – or as it’s sometimes known, BOGOF! You can get a bargain but it also means we sometimes buy too much of something. If it’s fresh produce, it might go off before you get to use it all.
买一件送一件——这就是我们常说的BOGOF（Buy-one-get-one-free）嘛！这种活动很实惠，但同时我们也会买到很多多余的东西。如果我们买的是生鲜食物，可能在我们吃完之前它们就坏掉了。
But in other parts of the world people struggle to buy even the most basic food. A report by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation found that there is enough food for everyone, just a lot of inefficiency. So what can be done?
但是在世界的其他地方，一些人们甚至连购买基本生活物品都很困难。联合国农粮署的一份报告发现世界上的粮食其实可以供应所有人，只是存在办事效率低的问题。那么我们能做些什么呢？
Well things are being done.Apps and websites that distribute excess food are becoming more popular.
我们已经采取了一些非常有益的措施来解决这个问题。一些发放盈余食物的网站和应用程序现在变得非常流行。
And food banks are being set up too. These are charitable organisations people donate food to.It’s then distributed to those who have difficulty buying their own food. And one trial project in New York requires the city’s restaurants to stop sending food waste to landfills by 2015. But at the moment, globally, there’s still a lot of food being thrown away. And Finn, I asked you how much? Is it 25%, 33% or 50% of all food produced?
许多食物储藏库也建了起来。还有一些接受人们捐赠粮食的慈善组织。然后这些组织会把食物分发到购买食物有困难的地区。纽约的一项试验项目要求本城市的饭店在2015年以前停止把食物送到垃圾场。但就现在来看，全球范围内还是有许多食物被丢掉了。Finn，还记得我问你的问题嘛？被丢弃的食物占生产总量的 25%, 33%还是 50% 呢？
I said half – 50%.
我说的是50%。
according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, the answer is 33%. Still not good. It also found the amount of land needed to grow all the food wasted in the world each year would be the size of Mexico. Well, that brings us to the end of today’s 6 Minute English. We hope you enjoyed today’s programme. Please join us again soon.
根据联合国农粮署的统计，这个数字是33%还不够好。调查还发现，生产出这些被浪费掉的食物所需的土地有整个墨西哥那么大。好的，这就是我们今天六分钟英语的全部内容。希望大家喜欢今天的节目。下次再见！
Bye.
再见。