Topic5Food
食べ物は大切How many people do you think die because of hunger every year?

TALK IN PAIRS©Sadik Gulec / Shutterstock.com

Listen to the story about food and answer the questions below.

LISTENING
CD-10

throw awaystarve

food waste

edibleWFP (World Food Programme)

Questions
1. How much edible food is thrown away every year in Japan?
2. Are there many starving people in the world?
3. What organization delivers food to starving people around the world?
4. How many countries does the organization deliver food to?

DISCUSSIONWork in groups to discuss the questions below.

1. Have you heard about this food problem before?
2. Why is there hunger in the world?
3. In which of the following places is food wasted?

supermarkets
restaurants
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schools
food courts

prisons
households

hospitals

Topic5

READING

Reading guide questions

1. How much food was wasted in Japan in 2017?
2. What does throwing away food mean?
3. How many people were hungry in 2017?
4. What are needed to produce more food?

CD-11

Food waste and hunger
余る食物、足りない食物

A large amount of food is wasted in Japan. In 2017, more than six million

tons of edible food loss and waste was generated. This food loss and waste isfood that is unused, left over or discarded. Six million
tons of food loss and waste is enough to ﬁll the Tokyo
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Dome five times. This number is close to Japan’sannual rice production of 7.8 million tons, and morethan its ﬁshery production of 4.7 million tons.

Generating food loss and waste has significant

economic and environmental consequences. People
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spend a considerable portion of their budget buying

food for themselves, their families or their customers. By throwing away food,they are throwing away money. An average Japanese family of four throws

away about 60,000 yen by wasting food, and its garbage disposal cost is about
5,000 yen. Wasting food has a big impact on the environment, too. Consider
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all the resources required to produce food, and bring food from the farm toyour table: land for planting, water for irrigation, and oil for transport vehicles.

Also, food loss and waste that ends up in landﬁlls produces a large amount ofmethane — a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO 2.

Food is discarded not only at home or in restaurants, but a lot of food is also

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lost or wasted at every stage from farm to table. “Food loss” and “food waste”
are commonly used, but they are not the same thing. “Food loss” usually refers

to food lost in earlier stages of production, such as harvesting agriculturalproducts, processing them into food, storing it, and transporting to its next
destination. “Food waste” refers to food items that are for human consumption
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but thrown away, often at supermarkets or by consumers.

Food loss and waste is a big problem all over the world. Roughly one-third39

of the food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally.

However, more than 800 million people do not have enough food to live anactive, healthy life. The number of hungry people in the world was growing,
and reached 821 million in 2017, including 20 million people currently at risk
5of famine in Africa, such as South Sudan and Nigeria. They are often worried

about illnesses, developmental disabilities and low productivity. They have touse all their poor limited resources to put food on the table.

There are a variety of threats to producing enough food to feed an expected

global population of 9 billion people by the middle of the 21st century. Would10

it be possible to increase global food production to meet this demand? Morefood production means more resources are needed, such as water, land, and oil.
Genetically modiﬁed technology might be necessary but controversial.

SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 12 aims to ‘ensure sustainableconsumption and production patterns.’ Target 12.3 calls for cutting in half per15

capita global food loss and waste by 2030. If we achieve this goal, we will beable to stop hunger and poverty worldwide. Why not reduce food loss andwaste together?

VOCABULARY40□ generate□ discard□ food supply chain□ annual□ ﬁshery production□ portion□ harvest□ irrigation□ methane□ famine□ genetically modiﬁed technology□ controversial□ sustainable□ per capita

Topic5

READING DATA

A Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words below.

SDG 12
Target 12.3

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at

the retail and consumer levels and reduce foodlosses along production and supply chains,

including post-harvest losses
Indicator 12.3.1 a) food loss index and b) food waste index
Figure 1
Food Loss Index
SDG12.3.1.aExtreme Events
SDG 1.5

Food Waste Index
SDG12.3.1.bLosses in the FAO Food Balance Sheets
Pre-harvest /Pre-slaughter

Harvest /Slaughter

On-farm Post-harvest/
Transport
Processing &Slaughter
Storage
PackagingOperation
Distribution
Stages of the Food System

RetailPublic &Household
Consumption

Overlaps may occur
Food Loss Index at the national level
SDG 12.3.1.a
Source: UN Environment Overview of SDGs 12.13.1, measuring food waste

If food fit for consumption is spilled during harvesting or transporting,goes bad in storage, or rots in the market, we call it 1)

usually happens 2). This. Also, if you take bones out of fish when

. On the othermaking canned tuna, you can consider it 3)

hand, if you put a lot of food on your plate, eat a little, and throw it away, thatis called 4). Or if you buy more food than you actually need, you should also calland let it rot at your home due to bad 5)
it 6). Suppose a restaurant throws away the rest of the food

which was not served or eaten. It could be a case of 7)

restaurant stores food and makes it rotten, it could be called 8), but if aBoth food waste and food loss might eventually end up with the same result.
food loss food waste

planning.

accidentally41

B Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words below.

Figure 2 Per capita food losses and waste, at consumption

and pre-consumptions stages, in different regions (kg/year)
350

Consumer

300

Production to retailing

250200150
100500Europe

North
Industrialized Sub-Saharan
America andAsia
AfricaOceania

North Africa,
West andCentral Asia

South andSoutheastAsia

Latin America

Source: FAO

Food is wasted throughout the food supply chain, from initial agricultural
production down to final household consumption. In 1)

countries, food is usually wasted in the retail and consumption parts of the
supply chain. In 2)

countries, most food losses occur mainly on

the way from the farm to consumers.

In industrialized countries, food is often lost when production exceeds

demand. In order to produce enough crops while anticipating bad weather or
pest attacks, farmers sometimes make production plans on the safe side andend up producing 3)

quantities than they need. In the case of

overproduction, some surplus crops are sold for processing or animal feeding.
However, this is often not financially profitable because they are sold atprices than in the market.

4)

In most developing countries, food may be lost due to premature harvesting.

Poor farmers sometimes harvest crops too early because they need food ormoney right away. In this way, the food will lack enough nutrients and become
economically valuable. As a result, it may get wasted if it is5)

not suitable for consumption.
low-income

42high-income

smaller larger

lower higher lessmore

Topic5

C Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words below.

Figure 3 Food recovery hierarchy
stMo

Source ReductionfeprerreFeed Hungry PeopledFeed Animals
Industrial Uses
Compostingdrre

refest p

Lea

Landfill
Incineration

Source: EPA

Table 1 Descriptions of food recovery hierarchy
Definition

Categoryof food waste being

1

Source reduction

To reduce the 1)
generated

2

Feed hungry people

excess food to food banks, soupTo 2)
kitchens and shelters

3

Feed animals

To provide food 3)

4

Industrial uses

To provide fats for rendering; oil for 4)
food discards for farm animal feed

5

CompostingTo 5)
soil

6

Incineration or landfill

To burn or 6)

donaterecycle bury fuelto farmers;

food scraps to make a nutrient richfood waste in the groundscrapsamount43D Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words below.

Table 2 HungerAnswer

QuestionA hungry mind cannot 1), a hungry body
does not take initiative, and a hungry child loses all desire to

What is hunger?

play and study.

Who are hungry?

Nearly one billion people are hungry. Most of them live incountries. More than half of them live in2)
. Many of them live in 4)
3)
areas, mainly in villages.

What causes hunger?

There are seven billion people now. There isfood to feed everyone but some factors
5)disasters, wars,
cause hunger such as 6)
and 7). A poverty trap is a situation wherefarmers cannot aﬀord seed to plant the crops that would.
provide for their 8)
If a person is not getting enough 9)

What is malnutrition?

enoughnaturalor theright sort of food, the state of malnutrition occurs. Malnutrition,
causes reduced physical and mental 10)
and even diseases.

concentrate developing poverty traps families
food development rural Asia and the Paciﬁc

E How can you reduce food waste? Check all that apply, and look up other ways to help

reduce food waste.

Ways of Reducing Food Waste

441Shop Smart. Avoid buying more food than you need.

2

Plan wisely before cooking to avoid cooking too much food.

3

Use smaller plates and dishes.

4

Ask yourself if you really need those mega packs and bulk discounts.

5

Order the right amount for you at a restaurant.

6

Understand expiration dates.

7

Other:

Topic5

WRITING AND SPEAKING

1. Write down your answers for the questions.
① What foods have you thrown away at your home in the last few days?

② Do you try to reduce food waste? How?

2. Discuss the question in groups.

Choose one problem related to food loss and waste and explain why itshould be solved as soon as possible. Think of some ways to solve it.

Study skills

リスニング ⑴：聞き取り力の向上

リスニング力をつけるには、普段から次のことを心がけて、できるだけ多くの英語に触れると効果的です。
● 集中して英語の音を拾えるように、聞く前にシャドーイング（英語が流れたすぐ後に言われた英文を口に出す練習）でウォームアップをする。
● 聞いているときは、言語知識（単語・文法・発音）だけでなく、内容や場面に関する知識や常識を働かせて内容を理解する。
● 聞いた後は、内容や場面に即した表現や話の流れ、書かれた文字と聞こえた音声の違いなどに注意して、スクリプトをしっかりと復習する。

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