Food tossed at banquets prompts anti-waste push
Source: Xinhua |
January 28, 2013, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE netizens have launched an online campaign against waste on dining tables, calling for people to take uneaten food home after banquets.
Dubbed "clean your plate," the move not only echoes the central government's calls for putting an end to extravagant official banquets, but also reflects citizens' awareness of food waste.
With the Spring Festival, or Chinese new year, approaching, the unofficial campaign has became a hot topic online.
Many netizens have been outraged by a photo slideshow posted by Xinhua photographers on Weibo of extravagant banquets. Food that was untouched was tossed into garbage cans in south China Guangzhou City.
The last photo of the series is of 70-year-old farmer Wang Yizhong, who lives in poverty-stricken Gansu Province in northwest China and can only afford to eat meat about 10 times a year.
Statistics show that China wastes 50 million tons of grain annually, one-tenth of its total grain output. It is also estimated that enough food to feed 200 million people, a sixth of the country's population, goes to waste annually. In southwest China's Guizhou Province, one of the poorest provinces, about 5 million people got government food provisions in 2012.
Professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University said priority should be put on restricting government spending on receptions.
Yuan Longping, a renowned agriculture scientist, has suggested criminalizing such waste.
"China has a large population and little arable land, and we scientists have worked so hard to improve rice harvests. But after production was increased, people wasted it," Yuan emphasized.
Dubbed "clean your plate," the move not only echoes the central government's calls for putting an end to extravagant official banquets, but also reflects citizens' awareness of food waste.
With the Spring Festival, or Chinese new year, approaching, the unofficial campaign has became a hot topic online.
Many netizens have been outraged by a photo slideshow posted by Xinhua photographers on Weibo of extravagant banquets. Food that was untouched was tossed into garbage cans in south China Guangzhou City.
The last photo of the series is of 70-year-old farmer Wang Yizhong, who lives in poverty-stricken Gansu Province in northwest China and can only afford to eat meat about 10 times a year.
Statistics show that China wastes 50 million tons of grain annually, one-tenth of its total grain output. It is also estimated that enough food to feed 200 million people, a sixth of the country's population, goes to waste annually. In southwest China's Guizhou Province, one of the poorest provinces, about 5 million people got government food provisions in 2012.
Professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University said priority should be put on restricting government spending on receptions.
Yuan Longping, a renowned agriculture scientist, has suggested criminalizing such waste.
"China has a large population and little arable land, and we scientists have worked so hard to improve rice harvests. But after production was increased, people wasted it," Yuan emphasized.
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