United against food waste (Medium)

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Sam

And I'm Sam.

Neil

this situation sound familiar to you, Sam? You reach into the kitchen refrigerator looking for something to eat, only find a brown lettuce, a sad-looking cucumber, and some two-week old fish, all past its use-by date - the printed on the food container showing how long it is safe to eat.

Sam

Oh, I'm guilty of food, Neil - me and many others. According to the UN, one third of the food we grow ends in the rubbish bin. And it's not just food that's wasted - it's also the resources used to produce food, things like water, land and transport.

Neil

In this programme, well be talking about food waste. Well the people trying to stop us from throwing good food away, and, as usual, well be learning some new as well.

Sam

Here in the UK, big supermarkets import food from abroad for customers to enjoy all round. Summer fruit like strawberries and mangos are flown in from tropical countries and sold in winter, increasing carbon as well as waste.

Neil

Yes, that's why you hear the phrase, 'eat local, eat seasonal' to encourage to buy and eat food which has been grown in their local area, at that time of year. So, , my question is - which of the following foods can be grown in Britain throughout the year? Is it:

) strawberries?

b) kale? or,

c) rhubarb?

Sam

Hmmm, it's definitely not strawberries 'cos they only grow in summer, Ill say b) kale.

Neil

OK, Ill reveal the answer later. Weve talked about supermarkets in Britain, but waste is happening all over the world. In Puerto Rico, too, most people shop in supermarkets, making it difficult farmers to choose what to sell, and how much to charge for their fruit and vegetables.

Sam

Josefina is a farmer who wanted to make it easier for customers to buy local food. She started an online to connect shoppers with farmers directly, without the supermarkets. Here Josefina explains her project to Jo Mathys, reporter for World Service Programme, People Fixing The World.

Jo Mathys

So Josefina, that's the farmer who we heard earlier those giant avocados, she used to have to sell her crops to these kind of middlemen.

Josefina Arcay

had a lot of… I don't know how you call carreros... it's just people that have a big truck they will just come by, and they will say, 'What do you have? Ohhh… that's too expensive! Wooh… very ! I want it half that price'. So I didn't have any way of controlling how I was going to - it just depended on these people coming.

Jo Mathys

And a lot of these carreros are kind commissioned by the supermarkets. All this leads to food waste because it's really hard for farmers, like Josefina, to which crops theyre going to be able to sell.

Neil

Josefina used to sell her food to carreros middlemen - people who buy food directly from the grower, and make money by selling it on to customers. had no control over what to sell, and a lot of her food went to waste.

Sam

Usually are commissioned - they received a payment from the supermarkets directly related to the amount they sell. But with online shop, farmers get a fair price for their food, customers get high-quality-, fresh vegetables, and less food is .

Neil

Another problem is that we throw away food after weve bought it. In fact, UN estimates that percent of food waste happens in this way, often because it's past the use-by date and might not be to eat.

Sam

But according to green designer, Solveiga Pakstaite, these use-by dates aren't always accurate, something she with BBC World Services', People Fixing The World.

Jo Mathys

Well, food makers don't know how people will their products, so for instance, they might forget to put their groceries straight in the fridge when they get . So what they do is they calculate the use-by date using a very cautious estimate.

Solveiga Pakstaite

Food and supermarkets… they kind of have to calculate it to the worst-case scenario because they don't know which product going to get stored at the wrong temperature, so they have to blanket apply a shorter date to protect .

Neil

Supermarkets set cautious use-by dates for the worst-case scenario - the worst that could possibly happen in situation, for example, someone getting sick and dying of food poisoning. In other words, they blanket apply use-by dates. , blanket is an adverb meaning applied in the same way to everything, even when there are differences between those .

Sam

Doing this protects customers from bad food, but it also means a lot of safe-to-eat food gets away. Maybe it's best to stick to local, seasonal food after all. Anyway, Neil, what was the answer to question?

Neil

Right. I asked you which food could be grown in Britain all year round. You said , which was… the correct answer! Unlike strawberries and rhubarb, kale grows in all seasons, and what's more, it's good you too! OK, let's recap the vocabulary weve learned starting with use-by date - the date until which food safe to eat.

Sam

The slogan eat local, eat seasonal encourages people to buy food which has been locally during the current season.

Neil

A middleman buys produce directly from the producer, before selling it on customers for a profit. If he is commissioned, he received a payment directly related to the amount he sells.

Sam

The worst-case scenario describes the most serious, unpleasant thing that could happen in a situation.

Neil

And , the adverb blanket means applied in the same uniform way to everything, even when there are differences between those . Bye for now!

Sam

Bye bye!