Thank you for your listening.

3 . Every week, Liu Fang, a 38-year-old media worker in Beijing, goes to a store specializing in selling near-expired(快过期的) food and returns with a bag of snacks or drinks.

“The price tags on these goods have caught my eye. They are often _______ at 10 percent to 30 percent of the market price,” Liu said. “More importantly, most of them are from big _______. Why wouldn’t I love them?”

Liu is among the _______ number of Chinese people who enjoy buying near-expired food at much _______ prices. According to the latest report, the near-expired food industry had a _______ size of over 30 billion yuan in 2020. Young consumers aged between 26 and 35 _______ 47.8 percent.

Unlike the traditional _______ that buying such goods is embarrassing, more and more young people regard it as a kind of sustainable consumption that can help _______ food waste.

Indeed, food waste is a great _______ for China and other countries. According to a 2020 report, about 18 billion kilograms of food is wasted every year in China’s urban catering industry(餐饮业).

As people’s lives improved greatly, many began to make or ________ more food than could be consumed, CGTN reported. But the trend of buying near-expired food may ________ that the Chinese virtue of frugality(节约)is ________ a comeback.

“I’ve been very frugal all my life. Living ________ a hard time of hunger(1959-61), I’m used to saving every ________ and every penny,” Li Mei, a retired woman born in the 1950s, told CGTN. “I’m happy to see more young people, who used to ________ extravagantly(奢侈地), joining our ranks.”

4 . Different Approaches to Reducing Food Waste

Food plays a key role in people’s life. While many people in poor communities suffer from a shortage of food, a large amount of food is wasted in the rest of the world.     1     Here are some tips on how to reduce food waste.

Learn to store food. Not sure how to keep those greens from wilting overnight?

Can’t keep your tomatoes fresh for more than a day or two? Do your research on food storage and you’ll get the rewards. Not sure where to start?     2    

Use it all.     3     For example, leave the skin on carrots and potatoes (The skins actually have a ton of valuable nutrients!), save the beet greens for a salad, and don’t throw away the outer skin of oranges!

    4     Many fruits and vegetables are thrown away because they aren’t “pretty” enough. Buying food that comes in a different shape, size or colour helps use up food that might be given up.

Understand best-before dates correctly. People often confuse best-before dates with expiry dates. The best-before date has nothing to do with the safety of the food.     5     So while the taste may not be that good, many food items are still safe to eat for many days beyond the best-before date.

Yours,

Li Hua

8 . It’s estimated that families in the UK create more than six million tonnes of food waste each year. With food prices rising, it’s a good time to become a food-waste fighter. Not only will it save money, it is good for the environment. After all, growing, packaging and transporting food uses a lot of Earth’s resources such as energy and water.     1    .

First, it’s a good idea to find out just how much food goes into your rubbish can. Keep a diary and note down the foods that get thrown most often, and why.

Planning meals for the week can save time and money.     2    . Bananas that are brown and soft can be baked into banana bread at the weekend. Potatoes and carrots last a long time if kept in a cool, dark place.

Cooking the correct size helps too. Weigh out pasta or rice you need before you cook it. Before you pile your plate, check how hungry you are.     3    .

It’s hard to keep track of food that’s gone to the back of the fridge. You could label a shelf an “Eat me first” spot for anything that has been there for a while.     4    . You can freeze leftovers in a sealed container for another day. But heat any leftovers put in a fridge thoroughly before eating.

    5    . Some UK supermarkets have taken “best before” dates off fruit and vegetables. This can encourage people to use their nose and eyes to work out if something is still fine to eat. Don’t forget to update your diary to see how much change you can make.

9 . 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.