1 . Wall Street bankers, investors and economists have for months argued over whether a US recession (衰退) is coming. But for some Americans, the unforgiving economic pain typical during recession has already set in.

Al Brown and his wife faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: what’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap? Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his wife and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade. He’s since quit his gym membership and sold various items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team.

Brown, 37, now spends his days searching the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews. That’s a far cry from the labor-market strength described in government figures.

Investors and economists have been expecting a recession since last year as the Fed raised interest rates to control inflation (通货膨胀). That caused companies to focus on profitability over growth, which meant cutting spending and reducing their workforces.

“I think it’s unlikely that I will get another good paying job with great benefits like the one I had,” McCollum, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, said. More Americans are likely to encounter similar cases, some experts predict.

“As we go through this year, and into next year, there is still going to be this focus on trying to reduce costs, and it is going to result in more unemployment,” said Thomas Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies. “The impact of layoffs, currently concentrated among white-collar workers, will last throughout the economy through a ‘big pullback in overall spending’,” Simons said. “Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic output, so if more Americans are forced to cut back because they were laid off, that might throw the US economy into a recession.”

2 . With the largest population in the world, China has the most mouths to feed on the planet. Consequently,food waste is a great problem in China. It is reported that more than 6% — or 35 million kgs — of the country's total food production is lost before reaching consumers, in the household and warehouse storage, transport and processing sectors. With an ever-growing population, it's imperative to deal with food waste in China.

Thankfully, policies covering food waste have been rapidly emerging in recent years. Since 2010, the Chinese government has selected 100 cities and encouraged them to explore alternative waste management systems. In 2016，China amended (修改) its Solid Waste Law to stop illegal dumping (倾倒) and promote recycling and reuse of waste, including food. Restaurants will soon be charged a fee for the amount of food waste they produce. And China is using a good food waste processing method called anaerobic digestion, a process that transforms organic waste into biogas, which can be used as energy, or turned into biofuel.

Moving forward, policymakers should consider loss and waste reduction to be as important as increasing production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the current policy system of agricultural subsidisation (补贴) mainly includes price guarantees and subsidies for crops, production materials, seeds and agricultural machinery,which leads to local governments focusing on crop production while paying little attention to the wastage in the supply chain. There should also be increased investment in the construction of new warehouses and special funds for storage, transport, and processing technologies.

If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitting (排放)country in the world, generating about 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This issue is not location-specific, but an issue that affects every living thing on the planet and should therefore be seen as an essential area to take action in.