When you're eating dinner with your family, do your parents ever remind you to finish all the food on your plate? If so, you should know it's not just because they want you to be healthy.
They also want to stop food waste. Every year, 1. 3 billion tons of food was wasted around the world, according to the UN. That was about one-third of all food produced each year. We made a survey in 34 countries to see how much food was wasted in different countries. For example, the UAE (阿联酋) wasted the most food, with each person wasting about 1,000 kilos every year on average. However, some countries have worked hard to use their food resources wisely. France wasted the least amount of food, according to the survey. France was the first country to pass laws that banned food waste. It was not allowed to throwaway fresh food. Another law forced French restaurants to provide bags for people's leftovers (剩饭菜).
China was the 23rd for food waste in the survey. China's food waste was around 18millon tons every year, enough to feed up to 50 million people for one year. Facing this situation,China has been working hard to reduce food waste. In early 2013, a movement to prevent food waste called "empty plate" began. It has become popular among both government officials and general public.