United against food waste - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute

English from BBC Learning

English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Does this situation

sound familiar to you,

Sam? You reach into the

kitchen refrigerator looking

for something to eat, only

to find a brown lettuce,

a sad-looking cucumber,

and some two-week old fish,

all past its use-by date –

the date printed on the

food containers showing

how long it is safe to eat.

Oh, I'm guilty of wasting food,

Neil – me and many others.

According to the UN,

one third of the food we

grow ends up in the rubbish bin.

And it's not just food

that’s wasted – it's also

the resources used to

produce that food, things like

water, land and transport.

In this programme, we'll be

talking about food waste.

We'll meet the people

trying to stop us from throwing

good food away, and, as usual,

we'll be learning some

new vocabulary as well.

Here in the UK, big supermarkets

import food from abroad

for customers to enjoy

all year round.

Summer fruit like strawberries

and mangos are flown

in from tropical countries

and sold in winter,

increasing carbon emissions

as well as waste.

Yes, that's why you hear

the phrase, 'eat local, eat seasonal'

to encourage people to

buy and eat food which

has been grown in

their local area,

at that time of year.

So, Sam, my question is –

which of the following foods

can be grown in Britain

throughout the year? Is it:

a) strawberries? b) kale? or,

c) rhubarb?

Hmmm, it’s definitely not

strawberries 'cos they only

grow in summer, so I'll say b) kale.

OK, I'll reveal the answer

later. We've talked about

supermarkets in Britain,

but food waste is happening all

over the world. In Puerto Rico,

too, most people shop in

supermarkets, making it difficult

for farmers to choose what

to sell, and how much to

charge for their fruit

and vegetables.

Josefina Arcay is a farmer

who wanted to make it

easier for customers to

buy local food. She started

an online shop to connect

shoppers with farmers directly,

without the supermarkets.

Here Josefina explains her

project to Jo Mathys, reporter

for BBC World Service Programme,

People Fixing The World.

So Josefina, that's the farmer

who we heard earlier growing

those giant avocados, she

used to have to sell her

crops to these kind of middlemen.

We had a lot of... I don’t know how you call carreros...

it’s just people that have

a big truck and they will

just come by, and they will say,

'What do you have? Ohhh… that's

too expensive! Wooh… very expensive!

I want it half that price'.

So I didn't have any way of

controlling how I was going

to sell - it just depended

on these people coming.

And a lot of these carreros

are kind of commissioned by

the supermarkets. All this leads

to food waste because it's really

hard for farmers, like Josefina,

to predict which crops

they're going to be able to sell.

Josefina used to sell her

food to carreros or middlemen –

people who buy food

directly from the grower,

and make money by selling

it on to customers. Josefina

had no control over what to sell,

and a lot of her food went to waste.

Usually middlemen are commissioned –

they received a payment from

the supermarkets directly related

to the amount they sell.

But with Josefina's online shop,

farmers get a fair price for their food,

customers get high-quality,

fresh vegetables, and less

food is wasted.

Another problem is that

we throw away food after

we've bought it. In fact,

the UN estimates that

60 percent of food waste

happens in this way,

often because it's past

the use-by date and

might not be safe to eat.

But according to green designer,

Solveiga Pakstaite, these

use-by dates aren't always accurate,

something she discussed with

BBC World Service's,

People Fixing The World.

Well, food makers don't

know how people will keep

their products, so for instance,

they might forget to put

their groceries straight

in the fridge when they

get home. So what they do

is they calculate the

use-by date using a

very cautious estimate.

Food producers and supermarkets...

they kind of have to calculate

it to the worst-case scenario

because they don't know which

product is going to get

stored at the wrong temperature,

so they have to blanket apply

a shorter date to protect consumers.

Supermarkets set cautious use-by dates

for the worst-case scenario –

the worst case that could possibly

happen in a situation, for example,

someone getting sick and dying

of food poisoning.

In other words,

they blanket apply use-by dates.

Here, blanket is an adverb meaning

applied in the same way to everything,

even when there are

differences between those things.

Doing this protects customers

from bad food, but it also

means a lot of safe-to-eat food

gets thrown away.

Maybe it's best to stick to local,

seasonal food after all.

Anyway, Neil, what was the

answer to your question?

Right. I asked you which

food could be grown in

Britain all year round.

You said kale, which was...

the correct answer!

Unlike strawberries and rhubarb,

kale grows in all seasons, and

what's more, it’s good

for you too! OK, let's

recap the vocabulary we've

learned starting with use-by date –

the date until which

food is safe to eat.

The slogan eat local,

eat seasonal encourages

people to buy food which

has been grown locally

during the current season.

A middleman buys produce

directly from the producer,

before selling it on to

customers for a profit.

If he is commissioned,

he received a payment directly

related to the amount he sells.

The worst-case scenario

describes the most serious,

unpleasant thing that

could happen in a situation.

And finally, the adverb

blanket means applied in

the same uniform way to

everything, even when there

are differences between

those things. Bye for now!

Bye bye!