Up to half of the food the world produces goes to waste, according to a new report. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Britain says cutting waste is vital if the world is to meet food demand as the global population soars.
In a barn hundreds of meters long, thousands of chickens are producing eggs on an industrial scale. Conveyor belts take the eggs directly to the packing area. From this farm in eastern France, they are taken across Europe.
Every year the world produces around four billion tons of food. And between a third and half of it goes to waste, according to the report from the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Much of this can be traced to how it is harvested, stored and transported, says report co-author Colin Brown.
“[Food] is trying to rot all the time, so you’ve got to keep it dry, you’ve got to keep it cool and you’ve got to transport it and use it as quickly as possible. So I think when you haven’t got the infrastructure, you haven’t got the railways, you haven’t got the shipping, you’re doing damage to it every time you move it," he said.
In developed economies such as in Europe and the United States, the report says more efficient farming practices ensure that more of the food produced reaches consumers. But it claims millions of tons of food is thrown away because it’s past its sell-by date, or sometimes because it doesn’t reach the supermarket shelves at all.
“Certainly once you get it to the supermarket, they have very high standards about what it ought to look like, never mind about how it ought to taste or whether it’s edible or valuable. But exactly how it ought to look. And so we throw a lot away just because it’s not cosmetically attractive," he said.
That’s not the fault of the stores, says Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets.
“In fact, these are EU marketing rules and the retailers have been at the forefront of pushing for a relaxation in them. And that has happened. Back in 2009, 26 different items of produce were taken off those lists," he said.
Many aid agencies and charities welcomed the report for highlighting the huge amount of waste at a time when millions of people suffer from malnutrition.
Aid agency Save the Children says there is enough food in the world to feed every child - but still 2.3 million children die as a result of hunger every year.
Director of Policy Brendan Cox said, “Families are having to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their children and nobody should have to make that choice."
Large amounts of land, energy, fertilizers and water are also lost in the production of food which simply end up as waste, according to the report authors. But they say there is another message in the figures.
“The very positive message here is that while we’re losing so much in waste, the population growth and the demand for food across the world - we can meet it if we just reduce the waste. We don’t need to cut down lots more forests and plant a lot more crops," he said.
And with the global population predicted to peak at 9.5 billion people by 2075, the report concludes that reducing wastage must be part of the plan to meet that demand.
雅思阅读复习:语法的作用
雅思阅读词汇:心理词汇
如何提高雅思阅读速度:抓阅读技巧
破三关 让你轻松拿下雅思阅读高分
探讨雅思阅读判断题的标准(上)
巧用并列型结构 秒杀雅思阅读"奇葩"题型
雅思阅读复习要点:多记单词勤总结
学术类雅思阅读判断题的判断标准
雅思阅读回答问题题的解题方法
透析雅思阅读失分的原因及解决办法
雅思阅读Not given题的八大考点
雅思阅读备考不可忽视图表题
雅思阅读4大难点逐个突破
解读雅思阅读段落标题题的解题技巧
雅思阅读精选:奥巴马就职演讲有力度 贯彻实施有难度
雅思口语考试的四个阶段分析总结
雅思阅读文章规律分析
雅思阅读考场技能的训练方法
雅思阅读配对题的解题方法
雅思阅读完成图表题的解题方法
详解雅思阅读填空题的解题技巧
雅思阅读生词的应对方法:猜词义
详解雅思阅读段落标题的解法
雅思阅读高分要点:考前浏览
雅思阅读精选:奥巴马第二任期就职演讲稿全文(中英)
雅思阅读:剑四高频词汇总结
雅思阅读完成句子题的解题方法
雅思阅读段落信息配对题的解题思路
做好三点有效提高雅思阅读能力
雅思阅读词汇:教育类词汇
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |