The yogurt that’ s past its sell-by date. The banana in your lunch that turned brown. The leftovers in the fridge that you forgot to eat. For most people, all that food goes right into the garbage can.
Eight to ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (放) are related to food waste, according to a report by the U. N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “When you throw away an egg or a sandwich,” says Yvette Cabrera, food waste vice director at the Natural Resources Defense Council ( N. R. D. C. ) ,“you’ re also throwing away all the resources that went into producing those things.”
That includes not only all the water, land, and fertilizer (化肥) that went into producing that food, but also the massive amounts of fossil fuels used to power the farms, transport the food, and create the packaging.
Then there’s the issue of what happens to food after it’s thrown out. More food ends up in U.S. landfills than any other type of trash. Food rotting in landfills produces methane (甲烷), a greenhouse gas that’s roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning fossil fuels.
Food waste is a difficult problem to solve, though, in part because it happens for different reasons depending on the country. In developing nations,40 percent of food is lost before it ever reaches people’s homes, because many of those countries lack the technology and tools to preserve food.
It's another story in wealthier countries, where most of the food is wasted in people’s kitchens. Americans, for example, throw out a quarter of their groceries each year, on average, according to the N. R. D. C. That's like going to the grocery store, leaving with four bags of groceries, and then throwing one of them into the garbage before you get home.
12. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.The problem of food waste. | B.The awareness of food saving. |
C.The necessity of food diversity. | D.The ways of preservation. |
13. What does the underlined word “That” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.The leftovers in the fridge. | B.The packaging for products. |
C.The thrown egg or sandwich. | D.The resources to produce food. |
14. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 4?
A.Provide a persuasive example. | B.Add more background information. |
C.Discuss a more serious consequence. | D.Summarize the previous paragraphs. |
15. In what stage does food waste mainly happen in developed countries?
A.Storage. | B.Transportation. |
C.Processing. | D.Consumption. |