Smaller portions At Quanjude Group, one of China's biggest restaurant chains, cards written in red print remind customers to order sparingly, while also pointing out that they are encouraged to take leftovers home to eat later. To discourage customers from ordering more than they can eat, the group has started to use smaller serving plates for portions. The new plates are roughly half the size than before and hold half the amount of food. Prices have also been altered to suit. The campaign has also attracted large numbers of young people. In January, a proposal initiated on the micro blog service Weibo calling on Beijing residents to eat everything on their plate attracted the participation of 2.74 million people within the first two weeks. Liu Qinglong, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management, was happy to see the change in attitude toward food wastage, but he said he's waiting to see how things pan out over the long term. He expressed concern that the new move may be short-lived and will fade away in the face of traditional cultural pressures. "Ostentation and preserving face have been part of Chinese culture for thousands of years," he said, pointing out that people don't like to be seen taking food home from restaurants for fear that neighbors and friends may think them stingy or poverty stricken. He suggested the government should introduce a media and social supervision mechanism to combat these perceptions, while also advocating the establishment of a special office to oversee payments made with public funds. "Without effective and detailed implementation, the phenomenon will not last long," said Liu. Although research by China Agricultural University in 2008 estimated that 50 million metric tons of food - one-tenth of China's total grain output - is wasted every year, the problem is equally, if not more, acute in industrialized countries and the phenomenon can be observed in almost every developed nation. Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion metric tons - is wasted, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. China Daily examined the situations in the United Kingdom and the United States to see how those countries fare and how they intend to change their situations. |
值得欣喜的是,一項(xiàng)倡導(dǎo)將盤中餐吃光喝凈帶走的“光盤運(yùn)動(dòng)”也正在民間興起,并得到許多民眾、公益組織、特別是網(wǎng)民的熱烈響應(yīng)。它以自然簡(jiǎn)單、人人皆可參與的方式倡導(dǎo)節(jié)約,給目前喧囂的社會(huì)帶來了一股難得的清風(fēng)。 今年1月,“光盤行動(dòng)”是北京市一家民間公益組織推行的公益活動(dòng)。該活動(dòng)的主題是:從我做起,今天不剩飯。公益組織的志愿者倡議市民在飯店就餐打包剩飯,“光盤”離開,形成人人節(jié)約糧食的好風(fēng)氣。據(jù)活動(dòng)組織者介紹,未來他們將繼續(xù)在不同城市開展這個(gè)公益活動(dòng)。 據(jù)新浪微博統(tǒng)計(jì),截至1月28日下午,“#光盤行動(dòng)#”的微博主題活動(dòng)共吸引了274萬(wàn)名網(wǎng)友簽名參與,以“#光盤行動(dòng)#”作為內(nèi)容開頭的微博總數(shù)超過2000萬(wàn)條,其中北京共有約20萬(wàn)網(wǎng)友參與其中,發(fā)布、轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)、評(píng)論“光盤行動(dòng)”的微博總數(shù)超過200萬(wàn)條,平均每位網(wǎng)友都發(fā)布或轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)了近10條微博。 清華大學(xué)公共管理學(xué)院劉慶龍教授對(duì)于目前社會(huì)上興起的反對(duì)普漲浪費(fèi)表示歡迎,但對(duì)于多年來形成的“好面子”、“講排場(chǎng)”、“興攀比”的畸形消費(fèi)觀,他表示希望中央的這些好的政策措施可以真正落到實(shí)處,可以長(zhǎng)期的持續(xù)下去而不是一陣風(fēng)而已。 他建議政府要在加強(qiáng)監(jiān)管的同時(shí),引入第三方監(jiān)督制度,政府公款消費(fèi)的每一筆款項(xiàng)都要通過第三方透明的監(jiān)督。他認(rèn)為,如果不建立行之有效的監(jiān)督機(jī)制,反對(duì)鋪張浪費(fèi)不會(huì)持久起到真正的效果。 其實(shí),浪費(fèi)食物并不是中國(guó)獨(dú)有的現(xiàn)象。據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)糧農(nóng)組織統(tǒng)計(jì),全球每年制造的食物中,1/3(約13億噸)都被浪費(fèi);歐美國(guó)家平均每人每年浪費(fèi)95—115公斤食物,亞洲和非洲國(guó)家平均每人每年浪費(fèi)6—11公斤食物。 中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)記者也走訪了英國(guó)和美國(guó)的一些機(jī)構(gòu)和組織來看看他們是如何應(yīng)對(duì)食物浪費(fèi)的。
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