White House Announces New Strategy to Keep Edible Food Out of Landfills

白宫推新策略 防食品落入掩埋场

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued, for the first time, a national strategy to combat a major national problem: food waste.

拜登政府于周三首度宣布一个国家策略，以对抗一个重大的全国性问题：食物浪费。

Roughly 30% of the country’s food supply isn’t eaten, but thrown away or otherwise wasted. In fact, food is the single largest volume of material sent to landfills and incinerators in the United States. When uneaten food goes into landfills, it breaks down and produces as much greenhouse gas emissions annually as dozens of coal-burning power plants, according to the federal government.

该国食物供应量中约30%没被食用，而是被丢弃或以其他形式浪费。事实上，在美国，食物是被送往垃圾掩埋场和焚化炉的最大量单一物料。联邦政府指出，没被食用的食物进入垃圾掩埋场时会分解，每年产生的温室气体相当于数十座燃煤电厂的排放量。

The White House strategy involves efforts to change the behavior of businesses and individuals to reduce waste, as well as to fund research into extending the shelf life of perishable foods, expand food donations and turn food waste into usable commodities such as compost, gas or animal feed.

白宫策略包含努力改变企业和个人的行为，以减少浪费，及资助研究延长易腐坏食品保存期限，扩大食物捐赠和将食物废弃物转为可用商品，如堆肥、燃料和动物饲料。

“Everyone has a role to play in reducing food loss and waste,” the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said in a statement.

美国农业部部长维尔萨克在一则声明中表示：「每个人都可发挥作用，减少食物损失和浪费。」

The strategy falls short of food-waste laws in other countries and even those of some U.S. states. It contains no new regulations. Dana Gunders, head of ReFED, a research and advocacy group that works on food waste, called the strategy “a good first step.”

这项策略不如其他国家甚至美国一些州的食物浪费法。它没有包含新规范。研究和倡议组织ReFED致力于改善食物浪费，其负责人达娜．冈德斯称，这项策略是「好的第一步」。

The U.S. set out in 2015 to cut food waste by half by 2030. In reality, per capita food waste grew between that announcement and 2019, the most recent data available, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

美国2015年宣示，要在2030年以前将食物浪费量减半。事实上，美国环保署指出，最新可用资料显示，从当时宣布到2019年，人均食物浪费仍在增加。

According to ReFED’s latest figures, in 2021, the U.S. produced 91 million tons of unsold, uneaten food. Nearly half of it was still edible, but only 2% was donated.

ReFED最新数据显示，在2021年，美国生产了9100万吨未被售出、未被食用的食物。这些食物中近半仍能食用，但只有2%被捐出。

ReFED’s research has found that 20% of food is lost at the farm level in the U.S. Stores, restaurants and industrial kitchens throw out food that doesn’t sell. And in homes, many people discard food that’s still safe to eat, in part because “best by” labels don’t necessarily indicate when food is bad.

ReFED研究发现，在美国，有20%的食物在农场层级就被丢弃，商店、餐厅和工业用厨房会丢弃没有卖出的食物。而在家户，许多人丢弃仍可安全食用的食物，部分是因为「赏味期限」标签上的日期不一定是指食物到那天就会腐坏。

There’s been some progress in cutting food waste. Between 2019 and 2022, eight supermarket chains that had voluntarily pledged to reduce food waste reported a 25% decline in their total volumes of unsold food.

减少食物浪费已有些进展。2019至2022年间，八间自愿承诺减少食物浪费的连锁超市报告称，其未售出食物总量减少25%。

Startup companies have popped up in recent years to crack the waste problem. Some use artificial intelligence to spy on what gets tossed so that retailers can make better procurement decisions. Apps offer budget-minded shoppers deals on about-to-perish groceries and restaurant meals.

近年来为解决浪费问题，新创公司不断涌现。有些公司使用人工智慧监看被丢弃的东西，让零售商能做出更好的采购决策。一些应用程式，提供精打细算的顾客即期食品杂货和餐厅餐点等优惠。

文／Somini Sengupta　译／罗方妤

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【张佑生】

美国有浪费食物的问题，许多国家的人民连饱食一顿都是苛求。其中的差异在于，美国或先进国家注重的是食品安全(food safety)，对于即将超过有效期限(about-to-perish)的食品敬而远之。

开发中或贫穷国家的问题是粮食安全(food security)，这个词的意思其实是食物充足，强调的是数量，food safety偏重食物品质。当然，只有食物供应(food supply)无虞之后，才能讲究品质，但过度计较品质，就容易产生厨余(food waste)的问题。

美国联邦政府迄今尚无规范厨余的相关法律(food-waste laws)，只能算是全国性策略(national strategy)。垃圾焚化炉的英文是waste incinerator，焚化厂是incineration plant，掩埋场是landfill。

Budget-minded也可以用budget-conscious，买东西时总有成本考量，精打细算的消费者。budget travel通常是independent travel （自由行），budget airline是廉价航空。