How can food waste be eliminated? Strong measures must be taken on all fronts

Recently, data released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the State Administration of Grain showed that 35% of the grain China produces each year is wasted, and every year the waste occurring only in off-table stages such as grain storage, transportation and processing is as high as 70 billion jin, close to 6% of China's total grain output, equivalent to the annual grain output of Jilin Province, a major grain-producing province. The losses and waste at the consumption stage are even more shocking. According to estimates by relevant experts, the food wasted at the table in China each year amounts to about 200 billion yuan, equivalent to the rations of more than 200 million people for a year. Post-harvest grain losses have become an important factor affecting China's food security.

China's grain supply and demand are in a state of tight balance. In recent years, grain imports have continued to increase, with annual imports of cereals and soybeans exceeding 100 billion jin, while more than 100 billion jin of grain is lost and wasted in vain every year. Such a contrast is heartbreaking. If grain loss and waste are not resolutely curbed, it may not only intensify the contradiction between domestic grain supply and demand, but also be completely out of step with the global resource supply and demand situation. Managing granaries well and opposing waste are, to a certain extent, no less significant than safeguarding the red line of cultivated land. Saving grain and opposing waste not only helps ease the pressure on the balance of domestic grain supply and demand and safeguard national food security, but also helps improve global grain supply and demand. Solving the problem of food waste has risen to the level of national strategy.

Reducing waste in post-harvest grain stages cannot be achieved without scientific and technological progress or the improvement of infrastructure construction. Fundamentally, it depends on changing management concepts and realizing the transition from extensive management to refined management. Some grain enterprises and regulatory departments that still hold the notion of emphasizing quantity over quality should recognize that reducing losses is equivalent to increasing output. According to preliminary estimates, the comparative benefit of reducing unit grain losses is clearly higher than that of increasing unit grain output, while also saving cultivated land and water resources. Therefore, scientific management cannot stop at the production stage, but should run through every stage of grain loss reduction. It is very necessary to replace traditional, inefficient methods with innovative and effective technologies, and this requires the joint participation of the government, society and enterprises. Government departments in particular should do a good job in building hardware facilities and popularizing knowledge of scientific grain storage. Accidents like the fire at a China Grain Reserves Corporation warehouse that caused huge losses should never happen again.

⟦NL> Waste at the consumption stage requires even more attention to changing social attitudes. After China completed its transformation from hunger and poverty to basic moderate prosperity at a miraculous speed, the fine virtue of diligence and thrift was gradually abandoned. Reducing grain losses is essentially a issue of social management. On the one hand, the management of consumption through public funds for eating and drinking should apply the “law”, using legislation, fiscal budgeting, supervision, strict accountability and even legal liability to eliminate waste caused by eating and drinking with public funds. On the other hand, the management of social behavior should apply “reason”. Education on reasonable consumption and opposing waste should enter campuses, workplaces and restaurants, gradually reversing social attitudes and cultivating the good habit of saving grain.

“For every bowl of porridge and every bowl of rice, one should remember that it does not come easily.” Whether we can, while well-fed and warm, not forget hunger and cold; in years of abundance, not forget years of disaster; while increasing output, not forget saving; and in consumption, not waste. All sectors of society should make unremitting efforts and practice strict economy, and carry forward the tradition of “rather shed a thousand drops of sweat than spoil a single grain of grain.”