1 . Globally, around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail (零售). Farmers throw away a significant share of their crop due to factors beyond their control, such as produce not meeting supermarket standards for shape or size, unexpected weather patterns changing harvest times and yield as well as a shortage of pickers. These factors and others leave farmers with extra crops on their hands.
Gleaning — collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they haven’t been harvested or commercial use — may contribute to tackling the problem. In Britain, a growing network of volunteer gleaning groups are being welcomed into farmers’ fields to collect tonnes of free produce. The produce would then be given to local food banks, which would otherwise be left to rot after the commercial harvest.
The charity Feedback told The Times that its number of gleaning groups across England had risen from five in 2017 to twenty last year. Feedback’s overall aim is for closer links between farmers and the communities they feed.
Holly Whitelaw, 52, from St Just in Penwith, set up the Cornwall Gleaning Network last year after watching a BBC series that highlighted food poverty in Cornwall. She contacted Feedback which gave her a £2, 000 grant (拨款) to get insurance, knives, and cut-proof gloves. She set up a Facebook page, found willing volunteers and then managed to get a £10, 000 grant from Feeding Britain, a national network of anti-hunger partnerships, to establish seven coordinators across the county and pay for more knives and gloves. They also raised funds to buy a pick-up truck. As a thank you to the farmers, they have begun planting trees to reduce wind speed across their land, preventing damage to crops and minimizing soil erosion.
Gleaning offers an opportunity for environmental win by reducing food waste on the farm. Also, it has a social benefit, as the collected fresh food can be donated to charity organizations and food banks to support those in need.
1. According to the passage, which of the following has little impact on crop waste?| A．Produce in poor quality. |
| B．Lack of labor on the farm. |
| C．Increasing supermarket orders. |
| D．Changeable weather conditions. |
| A．A grand from the charity Feedback. |
| B．Feedback’s overall aim for closer links. |
| C．Communities and volunteers’ joint effort. |
| D．A TV series revealing regional food poverty. |
| A．It proves rewarding. |
| B．It needs to be more creative. |
| C．It is physically challenging. |
| D．It takes ages to see the result. |
| A．To set a new standard for farming. |
| B．To explain the reasons for overproduction. |
| C．To gather the information about produce in Britain. |
| D．To introduce a solution to the problem of food waste. |
