There was a major wasting of food problem in France from the 1980ies (AFAIK from my parents) throughout early 2000, for the same reason of overbuying and splurging on friends, family and business partners in a desire to show off. Back in 1992 nobody even asked for a "doggy bag" to bring home and when I became more or less independent in 2000, I remember that people looked at me funny for asking to "take away the leftovers". And in 1996-1999, as a teenage house cleaner, I still regularly threw out tons of expired and untouched packaged and fresh food (fruit and veg) from people's fridges. If you were a cleaner once, you'll never forget the sickly sweet smell of that... And who could forget the totally ridiculous actions of spreading tons of fruit and vegetables by the farmers... in protest... That was totally eyerollingly stupid (I was born in the USSR where between 1984 and 1988 partial food shortages began, so my parents send me to live with my late grandma, near the Chechen republic where there were no shortages, and where between 1990 and 1993, there was a constant food shortage- that which coincided with my first arrival to France, so my initial reaction to those was - "send the stupid fucks (French farmers) to live in Siberia then see how they'd like food wasted like that"), and there are considerably less protests of this type these days, but, I suspect not because they've suddenly become more aware of the issues, but s a lot of the farmers are in the "Green Movement" or various Green parties, they simply don't want to damage their political party image with such events - so all that remains is dumping manure on the local McDonalds franchisées. Interestingly enough THE country of ready-to-eat-ready-made food of Japan was the pioneer in reducing food wastage on supply and demand sides - in shops - by discounting ready to made foods in the evening, at the demand side - by offering wood waste worm-mediated-composting and having small food waste collection trucks drive around (along with the package deliveries). I enjoyed all that quite a lot while living and working there in 2004 and 2006-2007. The food wastage in France is much reduced now - both on the supply side - the supermarkets are offering similar (but still at most - 50%, not 90% like in Japan) discounts on the produce and ready-to-eat food which is about to go past its expiration date and time and be "thrown out", and that which is thrown out is much rarely being deliberately destroyed and more frequently given to homeless and animal shelters and animal farms. On the demand side the "leftover takeaway" is now a norm, though some restaurants will begrudgingly put those in a (clean) plastic bag without a box. It's probably more necessary (for France in particular and for the European Union in general) now to start a total recycling program of all types of packaging, as despite there being "recyclables" bins, a lot of municipalities just burn it altogether instead of recycling it.
支持光盘行动。 It's mainly because of the culture. Tonight I'm taking two of my female friends out to dinner. We ordered 5 plates of food. Normally, 3 plates of food are enough for 2 people, so mathematically, 5 plates is enough. But tonight after we were done, even though we didn't waste anything, the two girls actually didn't eat enough and they went back and ordered snacks. （This is so painful for me） These two are friends that I know very well, so they don't have bad feelings about a meal. But as you can imagine, if these two people were people I didn't know well, the meal would have been a disaster. And whoever paid for it had to take the blame. lol The Chinese culture is that "food for people is the most important thing in the world", terms 民以食为天, and it's worse to let someone starve than to beat him. So, a nationwide "clean plate campaign" is actually much more difficult than controlling COVID. I understand the total amount of food we waste every day is enough to fill the stomachs of 200 million people every day, so I believe it's a problem worth solving. I believe we will solve this problem, too.
My parents taught me to finish my food in front of me since I am still a young kid, I grown up to hate waste any food and I ended up going to fewer and fewer family gatherings because I KNEW there is going to be waste food and I hated it almost to an OCD level.
I don't like wasting food, the eat all up your plate initiative is great! but when I invite my friends, it is hard to order just proper to everyone, and if all plates are empty at the end, this will make me feel embarrassed because this means I haven't given my friends nice hospitality
Lol pls, this saying is pointless, the same goes with "don't waste water". Wether you eat or don't eat, wether you use water or don't. Its a "cycle", the cycle of life. Example, you eat "all" the food, then you poop it back out as "waste", same cycle as when you don't eat the food. It gets turned into "waste" regardless, they then proceed to become manure. Nature is a cycle of life, we humans aren't above it. Same for water, wether you drink or don't, its just another "cycle" from one state to another.
20 years ago, Chinese government made a lot of advertisements about packing leftovers, condemning food waste， honestly it’s a habit for Chinese people to pack leftovers
The problem is becayse the one child family. These ine child are spoil brat, wasting food like nobody business. Even these young brats when travelling oversea, one can see all these food wasting.
No doubt there’s a lot of waste in china with regards to food. But it’s really a global problem. In America there is a huge amount of waste as well. I think as a global community we could be more frugal with our habits with regards to overdoing meals. I’m guilty of it too. The one good thing I’ve seen in china especially is a subgroup of people tasked with Storting the leftovers to feed livestock and assure that some of it gets worked back into the system somewhat. Probably my biggest worry when it comes to china is the fact that there are so many Chinese that enjoy seafood and they tend to be lax in their attention of sea life sustainability. As far as the state of the food supply... I have not witnessed it. I think china is stepping up production to compensate for the flood loss.
@@allthebest1288 just look it up like i did. How much food is wasted in the US 2019? In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year.
A global food crisis is on the horizon. And I believe this is why the Chinese government initiated this action/suggestion? Look at the population in India and some aferican countries, there's going to be a huge crisis never seen in history...China is preparing for that.
@Nij Jin Usually that wastage prevention deposit isn't enforced (it's technically difficult, especially when involving hotpot), and most people know that, but even then it usually tricks people into not taking more than they can eat, and ended up still effective. Double win to both the restaurant and the environment, without customer feeling ripped off (it's a buffet, anyway). I think buffet time limit serves the same purpose without actually in effect as well. So to sum it up every buffet restaurant should do that even if they don't care.
Yeah. There are unwritten rules in terms of treating guests on special occasions, including business meals. The number of dishes should be the number of people + 2 or something. Also there used to be this thing called “minimum spending” if you want to dine with your guests in a private room in many restaurants. Really wasteful. Fortunately they’ve been dealing with these issues for years now with clear results.
@@carbomania8786 Minimum consumption has been illegal for years. Chinese people have a tradition of hospitality - If the host does not prepare enough food, it will appear stingy and neglect the guests. It is also impolite if the guests eat up all the food. It's a cultural tradition, and it still is in business. However, there is a growing acceptance of the virtues of not wasting food, especially at family gatherings, where leftovers are packed away.
True, US wastes more proportionally speaking. In terms of food wastage it is almost more than the rest of the world combined China is tackling its Boomer consumer culture by clamping down on this attitude.
Food is discarded in the west if there is an abundant or surplus to keep prices and demands high ! Surplus milk is pour into the ground and wheat burnt !
A few years before，when we could not finish all the food on the table，we would take it back home and eat next day. Its very common these day . Especially，in village
There is a lot of food wasted here to be honest especially at big style of parties but I’ve started to see restaurants in Shenzhen implying a deposit and if too much food is wasted they keep that fee. A lot of people and my girlfriend included always take the food left over away for takeaway but I suppose at big style dinner parties that is quite difficult to do as people don’t want to start packing the food away. For me I agree people here are getting more and more aware but it’s still the big business dinners where the waste will come from as I think a lot of people will be worried about not having enough food for everyone which even at big dinner/parties in the west there is that same issue also.
the way chinese eat food can lead to being wasteful, the seprate plate banquets, while each have their own plate in teh west, but that isnt where most the food is being wasted, its actually unused food stock, supermarkets stock, itsthings that are before and after that is the huge waste.. and i saw a documentary on this where, i think in Thailand,they use all this wasted food and found a area to use it.. and it is to feed insects. adn then the insects eat this food and the insects are then used to do another job, which i cant rememeber what hahahaha. but its not actually uneaten food that is the waste.. its is all the inbetween. ill post the link if i find it.. the partys wehre food is wasted on a grand scale is rather small. when there are truck loads of spuds chickens or whatever that are going bad and note ven touched cause people dont buy or use them. oh and the GReat Serpentza has left me a lovely comment on a video on my channel. i am so honoured the great man himself loved my music he actually left a comment. so we had a little conversation and I understand what th guys about alot more now.
@@Tank1 Yeah I see what you are saying, I have to say I see supermarkets and especially Walmart always have a lot of offers and discounts on food they have not sold near the end of the day but usually the same products everyday are being wasted. At least they are heavily discounting these at the end of the day to reduce that waste but I think food waste in general here in China does need to be improved a lot. Send me a link to the documentary it sounds quite interesting 😂
@@JordanInChina1 that isnt the lot of it tbh jordan, ive worked at a few supermarkets before when i was younger, but not long ago, i was in Lidl, end of the night.. saw staff filling up id say a 8 foot by foot wide and 3 foot high crate to the top ALL FULL OF FOOD that was to be binned, because it is calssed as uneatable.. gone past its sell by date. in China there is alot less of sell by dates gogin on and more fresh markets which is a good thing = less waste,. but there was not one but 2 full crates in that lidl, adn this was a weekly thing. I asked cant this food go to someone? surely it can be used.. they said no because its past its sell by dates it illegal to sell or give anyone... so imagine that all over the country and world in these mass produced stores, and that was a VERY SMALL lidl too.
i love visiting Xibei(西贝莜面村) at KK100. they've been pretty good with anti-waste, and their "if you think our food sucks, put the dish in this cabinet and we won't charge you money" cabinet is always empty.
3:04 Yeah! That exactly why Chinese usually order too much dishes when meeting somebody important, like your best friend, your boss or girl friend's family😂 Well now I always pack the leftovers😃
That may not necessarily impress. If I am the guest, unless the food has been ordered in advance, I will ask the host if it is not too much if I notice over order.
When I was a kid, in the 80s, there were already campaign against food waste, I remember there were slogans in school canteens saying "food waste is shameful". Then these slogans just disappeared through the 90s, 00s, and 10s.
I grew up through the 00s, 10s, and I’ve been seeing those slogans almost everyday of my life (since the moment I could understand what I was seeing of course). There were also lots of media coverage. Maybe you weren’t paying attention to those because you started working and became too busy to look in schools.
I am totally agree with you on this topic. Food wasting is a big problem in China. Hope the situation can get better and better. After all, millions of people in this world are still in starving. And Thank you for talking openly and honestly about this issue.
In the UK we do cook to much for xmas but we use and eat the leftovers in meals over the festive period,and that is the only meal we do ,we do use frozen food a lot and take out what's is needed and put back in the freezer,except fresh vegetables,in restaurants,we have a small starter 1 main meal,and if still Hungary a dessert ,very rarely is there wastage ,if there is we put it in doggy bag .
The portion of food served in posh restaurants in my hotel in China was huge! Normally, I portioned out the food and packet them before eating, then, I'll request the waiter to bring the packet to the hotel reception for my favourite receptionist as dinner. No point wasting good and delicious food!
That's so true. I'm really happy to see you guys tackle the issue based on the fact, it's a cultural thing. When growing up, my parents always taught me 粒粒皆辛苦，if we're wasting food at home, my mom would go crazy at us. However, when we have guests over, especially if we go to the restaurant, my parents always ordering too much food, they wanted to be a good host and make sure the guests are well fed..lol
Your analysis is absolutely correct. Especially some people do want to show "face", they tend to order excessive food which certainly all people on the table are unable to eat them all. During business dinners, I always tried to persuade the host not to order excessive food as I will always be the last one trying to kill the remaining food in dishes. As a result, I got heavier and heavier over years. :(
I totally agree. I was taught to use the formula of N+2 when ordering meal in a restaurant. If we have 4 people, I usually order 6 dishes which were finished. I think I am going with N or N+1 moving forward....
It’s not just business lunches, but also restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets throwing out perfectly good food. Every city should have good samaritans to pick up such food and redistribute it to others who need it. My heart aches when I pass by a cafe at 930 pm and they are throwing out all the unsold sandwiches and croissants and baguettes.
My mom kept reminding her children to finish the bowl of rice. She told us that she had to pick up each grain of rice from the field when she was young. It is like Ruth picking up leftover grains from the field in the Old Testament.
Hi. I am from Hong Kong. Base on my understanding, the rising living standard and social contract are the main reason of food waste. As at the age where food are relatively scarce, espically rural villages, it is IMPOSSIBLE to waste food. Barrett is correct that "showing face" and "respect to guest" is a main reason. For taking away the left food, sometimes it is hard as some dishes have sauce, or soup, which is a trouble fot people to recook it at home. My experience is taking dimsum back home after Yum Cha as dimsum are easy to handle
Food shortage is definitly a global issue. And it is a big concern that not because of insufficient food produced BUT uneven distribution of food. In LDC, it is crucial for them to adapt to the physical and economic constraints ; in urban areas urban farming might also relieve the stress on food supply
This is a very good and educational video to wake up people about food waste. I am with Oli also when there is too much food being ordered on the table I would try to eat as much as possible rather than for the food being wasted. If we can think about some people in the other part of the world who may not have enough food to eat, it is shameful to those people who waste a lot of food.
Thanks for bring up this topic. It's a food first step in preventing food wastage. I grow up in the 80s and we were told not to waste food. I feel sad about the large amount if wastage knowing there are people round the world who goes hungry on a regular basis. This also helps elevating global warming: less wastage = less consumption = less energy and land required to grow the crops and feed the animals.
I grew up in Beijing and my school (yr 7-12) had very strict ‘empty plate’ policy, i.e. we were not allowed to leave the cafeteria/dining hall until we had completely emptied our plate. Students on duty would check everyone’s plate at the exit. There were also teachers/students on duty walking around to check if anyone drops food under the table on purpose. So I’ve been used to finishing everything on the table even when accidentally over orderred. Then my first day in university, I was shocked seeing people just dump leftovers like it’s totally fine. Anyways, morethan 10 yrs after graduation, I still feel a bit guilty when I have to dump the leftovers. I hate wasting food.
Empty the plates movement started like over a decade ago... a decade ago, most people didn't take away leftover after they dined in restaurants, people used to consider it was "lose face" to take away leftover, so a lot of food were wasted... now, things have changed a lot, many people don't think taking away leftover is "losing face"
In two and a half years in China, I have never seen much food wastage at restaurants, because the buffet style places offer a deposit refund on the ticket price if you send back an empty plate (this was in place before the current empty plate drive). Also, EVERYWHERE I have eaten the food is boxed up and taken home, whether it's a bar or a restaurant, Chinese or foreign food. So as a Brit in China, I can't really say I've seen food waste - certainly not the 60%/70% quoted at 3:30 or it being normal at 1:30.
We Chinese had been in a hard period, have no enough food, So, the food as possible as more than we need can bring us happiness, when I come back to my grandma’s home, she always makes too much food for me, I feel some maybe wasted, but I wouldn’t stop her, it also her happiness. So, so i also do some things to my friends as my grandma, thanks for your perfect video, if I can meet you I must invite you dinner, full of food on table, haha
As a Chinese, I do believe that FOOD plays the most important role in Chinese culture. Although China has been modernized and become so-called WORLD FACTORY, most Chinese people still regard China as an agriculture-based country. Without a doubt, there was some historical causes, but more importantly, China has to use 9.3% of global cultivated land to feed 19.3% of global population. If there is not enough food, the number of death by starvation may not be count by one million but ten millions. The constant sense of crisis makes Chinese people subconsciously tend to own more food, I think that could be the main reason why Chinese people always like to order more food than they actually need. Fortunately, Chinese people not longer suffer from hunger, but the bad habit still exists. Chinese government has realized the wasting problem and finally decided to solve it in political ways, they actually have punishments for the members of CCP. I am pretty happy that they make an good example to normal Chinese people. Wasting food is not good, there are still so many people at other corners of world live in starvation after all.
Suzhou.....Not far from Shanghai. Come visit. China is so poor and have no foods so you will lose weight for sure. Now to think of it, everyone should just skip their gyms and visit the impoverished China. We steal IPs, lands and waters, ethnic minorities' culture, freedom and language.....Now we have to start stealing fish and chips and burgers and freedom fries from the unbelievably rich selection of Western foods.
It’s quite a Chinese & eastern culture to provide more food or order more food for guests than needed. It’s a “face saving” thing. In Singapore, we would normally packet up left overs from ordered meals at restaurants home to eat instead of wasting it. That’s a good way of reducing wasted food.
Oli is right. Ordering a lot of food in front of guests is a way of showing respect, as well as saving face by showing abundance. It's a strongly rooted culture. It would be a humiliation for both the guests and the host to not have MORE THAN ENOUGH food on the table. Unless the meal is within family or very familiar friends, taking food home in front of a business associate or a stranger is being look down upon. That said, it's great that the government is calling for the "empty plate" movement, to encourage the right behavior among its people and doing away the stigma of taking food home or ordering just enough. Guest what, in the western culture, this kind of government led initiative can be look upon as infringing on people's right and freedom! "Don't tell me what to do - including smoking and refusing to wear a mask - because it's none of your business if I want to kill myself or infect others and kill them!" :-)
with the current situation, i think along similar veins to cruise ships, we as the world really need to take a look at buffets and just how much food is wasted every day at these AYCE(all you can eat) type buffet restaurants and other types of restaurants(like cafeterias) where food is prepared in advance daily, and often are manhandled by every customer. regardless of the hygiene of the restaurant, you can't be sure of who's e-coli-covered hands have just touched that fishball you wanted to scoop into your mala tang/hot pot/shabu shabu/... and the serving utensils in those places are often filthy, dropped into one tray of food, then someone inevitably picks it up with their fingers reaching into that tray and the utensil is covered in the grease of that tray and dropped unceremoniously and unclean into another tray contaminating both in one motion. Shenzhen has some good initiatives like the deposit charged at buffet restaurants. although i think that should also cover hotpot places as well.
Also part of reason is that when we walk into a decent restaurant, there are so many meals on the menu that looks so good! And we can afford it of course. so we intent to order a bit more than we can consume. But it is comman that we will pack rest food home when we are dinning with freinds. Speaking of business meals, there are two concerns: 1, it does not look very good to pack home/face issue, and also we have no where to take as after meal we all going back to office 2. Hygiene issue between strangers/high end restaurants use public chopsticks now
From Singapore. 3 decades ago I was poor and have to save on food. Now I order more to avoid feeling hungry. Often I dont finish the food because over-eating is also bad for health. In Singapore, the government also has a national awareness program on reduce food wastage. I think is a good program to discourage wastage of food and over-eating
From 1959 to 1961, China expenited a great famine. My grandparent told me time to time, a lots of people died at that time. He saw many desperate peoples eating bark and belt. I am can not imagine what terror they have been through. Sometimes they came to my home and stay for dinner. after the meal, me and my wife just about to clean it up. They alway check the plate first to make sure nothing left to wast. Otherwise, they will ask us to eat them all, if we refuse, then they will. So you can imagine why some chinese take food seriously. Even though the young have not experienced the famine, but I am pretty sure most of them heard these stories.
I actually also heard of this news a couple of month ago and was astonished by it. Then I called my parents and found out that there is not a shred of evidence of food shortage.Their life was not affected at all~! But I actually agree with you that avoid wasting food is a right thing to do anyway
Great video! and explained the situation in a very fair way. I realized this issue 5 years ago and my estimation was that about 20% to 30% of food was wasted. Yes, showing repect to guest maybe biggest reason of over ordering, the good thing is more and more people realized this issue and try to avoid the waste. Now, the guest usually stop you if you order too much. China is a country which is willing to make change when we find something wrong.
That’s exactly why our central government begins encouraging people to stop wasting food, offer half serve of food to order and other strategies for people to consciously save food by only eating the amount they can finish. Because eventually it’s still a terrible practice of our culture in terms of “showing face” for respect to the guests.
Thank you very much for going to China to verify the facts for us, you of justice! China is a peace-loving country. We all welcome foreign friends. We are forced to develop and avoid experiencing the Eight-Nation Alliance. It’s just that the government wants to protect our citizens. We love you.
This video particularly resonates with me because I hate wasting food. I went through famine as a child. Thank you for speaking out against food waste.
Same as in Afghanistan and other middle-east countries, where they bring overwhelming amount of food to guests and friends because the hosts believe that if have just enough food, they (the hosts) are perceived as poor. It is more of a show than anything else, but at the same time, it is wasteful. However, when we are finished eating, the assistants (in my case, the lower ranking army soldiers) came and took the food to share with others at their mess.
There were a famine or two in every century of Chinese history, including the one you were alluding at in the 1970s. So the habit of serving more than one can eat is long ingrained in the culture but also reinforced every time a famine was overcome. You're right that there is no food shortage which the western media would love to see happenning, unfortunately, as if a hungry billion people China would make a cheerful news to western readers. Welcome to Suzhou, I'm living here since 3 years ago and loving it. I came to establish in Shanghai since 2007 and never looked back. If there's any help you need during your staying in Suzhou (now or future) please let me know, would love to take you to a tour of nearby beautiful places as a semi-local...
This is a great topic! I hate wasting food as well. In order to show face, over ordering food and not taking the leftovers home is shameful and is harmful to the environment. From farming to transportation to preparing the food, every step every process releases harmful things into the environment. First, farming, you got to use fertilizer, the fertilizer would run into the water system, producing fertilizer produce byproduct, release pollutants into the environment as well, so forth and so on. Every single step costs human efforts and consumes the environment. I believe Food shortages in China is not just a rumor or foreign propaganda , even though the yields of the existing land is Increasing. Reasons: first, China, in the past 40 years, the fertile farming area is shrinking rapidly with the urbanization. Human being first had chosen fertile land with good irrigation to settle and established cities. But, the whole country, from first tier city to small town, village, huge amount of good land turn into housing, new communities, new cities. A few years ago, when i flew from Beijing to the southern city, I kept looking down all the way, I could see cities, towns, villages all over the place and very crowded. Not much lands in between, not like other countries 2. A lot of farmers leave their land to go to work in the cities because farming never earns them a good life. 3 young people don’t want to work on the farm any more, because farmers are discriminated in China, are looked down. 4. Lands and water systems are badly polluted. My friend was working in import and export section, he told me China has to import a huge amount of food. Recently, due to COVID-19 and natural disasters like grass hoper and flood, internally China less. A lot of Asian countries limit export amounts to China. The tension between China and some major food export countries also affects the availability of food in China. My conclusion, food shortages in China is true.
It varies among regions. In the north it’s more likely to order more than enough food to show hospitality, empty plates on table may be considered a sign that host hasn’t treated guest well. In the south just enough food with no waste may be praised as the host is smart and considerate to feed everyone’s appetite just right and ppl won’t feel abnormal about adding orders only when it’s not enough. But this is over simplified, things change fast. I also have the same observations that leftovers of business meals are less likely to be taken home, I guess it’s because ppl don’t want to be viewed as taking advantage of business expenses or being closefisted.
Years ago, "Taking leftover food home" in China was not welcome and would be seen as "cheap behavior", but it's a huge waste of food resources. 100% support "empty plate" movement.
Yes, treating friends with a lot of food is a common practice in China to show respect to your friends. So every time after a meal, a lot of food is wasted. But recently, people also practice the "clearing plate" action, that is, try hard to finish all the food, or pack the leftovers home.
More and more new generations realized this and we r working on it. Myself will not order more than I can eat , even with guests. I will teach my kids the same thing.
For business meal cause people feel it was not convenient to bring the last food to the office,especially for some companies they don't even allowed to bring food to the office,so that the food wasted a lot. Some of the companies now set a fridge in the office,so that staff could take some last food back but currently the majority of business treat still a bit waste.
I want to raise up another potential explanation that why people do not pack foods, especially those educated middle-age people in the business meal: it's highly likely due to their very early experience of business meal. It's quite common that the very first business meal one has is during the college time. And during that time, the dorm (basically the only choice of living for most university students) usually does not have fridge and therefore even if you pack some food it could not be stored. And if you go out for foods a lot and over order something, you may kind of form a new habit of not packing foods. This reason might not be the whole reason but I do think it applies to many 30-40 years old people around me. As you probably mentioned, younger people get more education of saving foods and elder ones tend to not waste any foods.
What you said is very fair, you fairly state the problem and bad habit we have, and that is what we need to change and improve. I like your video, because so many other KOL they just making video with fake truth and against us. Now more people concern about food wasting and under the guide of the government, I am sure we will change our bad habits and get better. Thank you for your fair point.
What are your thoughts on the wasting of food in China? If you've not been to China, what's it like in your country?
谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦
There was a major wasting of food problem in France from the 1980ies (AFAIK from my parents) throughout early 2000, for the same reason of overbuying and splurging on friends, family and business partners in a desire to show off.
Back in 1992 nobody even asked for a "doggy bag" to bring home and when I became more or less independent in 2000, I remember that people looked at me funny for asking to "take away the leftovers". And in 1996-1999, as a teenage house cleaner, I still regularly threw out tons of expired and untouched packaged and fresh food (fruit and veg) from people's fridges. If you were a cleaner once, you'll never forget the sickly sweet smell of that...
And who could forget the totally ridiculous actions of spreading tons of fruit and vegetables by the farmers... in protest... That was totally eyerollingly stupid (I was born in the USSR where between 1984 and 1988 partial food shortages began, so my parents send me to live with my late grandma, near the Chechen republic where there were no shortages, and where between 1990 and 1993, there was a constant food shortage- that which coincided with my first arrival to France, so my initial reaction to those was - "send the stupid fucks (French farmers) to live in Siberia then see how they'd like food wasted like that"), and there are considerably less protests of this type these days, but, I suspect not because they've suddenly become more aware of the issues, but s a lot of the farmers are in the "Green Movement" or various Green parties, they simply don't want to damage their political party image with such events - so all that remains is dumping manure on the local McDonalds franchisées.
Interestingly enough THE country of ready-to-eat-ready-made food of Japan was the pioneer in reducing food wastage on supply and demand sides - in shops - by discounting ready to made foods in the evening, at the demand side - by offering wood waste worm-mediated-composting and having small food waste collection trucks drive around (along with the package deliveries). I enjoyed all that quite a lot while living and working there in 2004 and 2006-2007.
The food wastage in France is much reduced now - both on the supply side - the supermarkets are offering similar (but still at most - 50%, not 90% like in Japan) discounts on the produce and ready-to-eat food which is about to go past its expiration date and time and be "thrown out", and that which is thrown out is much rarely being deliberately destroyed and more frequently given to homeless and animal shelters and animal farms.
On the demand side the "leftover takeaway" is now a norm, though some restaurants will begrudgingly put those in a (clean) plastic bag without a box.
It's probably more necessary (for France in particular and for the European Union in general) now to start a total recycling program of all types of packaging, as despite there being "recyclables" bins, a lot of municipalities just burn it altogether instead of recycling it.
支持光盘行动。
It's mainly because of the culture.
Tonight I'm taking two of my female friends out to dinner. We ordered 5 plates of food. Normally, 3 plates of food are enough for 2 people, so mathematically, 5 plates is enough. But tonight after we were done, even though we didn't waste anything, the two girls actually didn't eat enough and they went back and ordered snacks. （This is so painful for me）
These two are friends that I know very well, so they don't have bad feelings about a meal. But as you can imagine, if these two people were people I didn't know well, the meal would have been a disaster. And whoever paid for it had to take the blame. lol
The Chinese culture is that "food for people is the most important thing in the world", terms 民以食为天, and it's worse to let someone starve than to beat him. So, a nationwide "clean plate campaign" is actually much more difficult than controlling COVID. I understand the total amount of food we waste every day is enough to fill the stomachs of 200 million people every day, so I believe it's a problem worth solving. I believe we will solve this problem, too.
My parents taught me to finish my food in front of me since I am still a young kid, I grown up to hate waste any food and I ended up going to fewer and fewer family gatherings because I KNEW there is going to be waste food and I hated it almost to an OCD level.
I don't like wasting food, the eat all up your plate initiative is great! but when I invite my friends, it is hard to order just proper to everyone, and if all plates are empty at the end, this will make me feel embarrassed because this means I haven't given my friends nice hospitality
Don't waste food! It is a responsibility whenever and wherever.
Lol pls, this saying is pointless, the same goes with "don't waste water". Wether you eat or don't eat, wether you use water or don't. Its a "cycle", the cycle of life.
Example, you eat "all" the food, then you poop it back out as "waste", same cycle as when you don't eat the food. It gets turned into "waste" regardless, they then proceed to become manure. Nature is a cycle of life, we humans aren't above it.
Same for water, wether you drink or don't, its just another "cycle" from one state to another.
@@karthur3421 Stupid, you can just save it for later.
20 years ago, Chinese government made a lot of advertisements about packing leftovers, condemning food waste， honestly it’s a habit for Chinese people to pack leftovers
The problem is becayse the one child family. These ine child are spoil brat, wasting food like nobody business. Even these young brats when travelling oversea, one can see all these food wasting.
Hello, food waster fuckhead
是的，两位说的很对，我出差的时候请客户吃饭，也不会打包带走，但是和自己的熟人一起吃饭会打包带走，节约是每个国家的责任，我们应该注重这种浪费粮食的概念，支持你们
应酬的场合不打包是怕丢面子，中国人很爱面子。
我才不管什麼面子不面子，一定打包不能養成浪費習慣
孩子，每个国家的人都爱面子，就像美国到处侵略，到处发动战争，还总爱标榜自己是光明正义的，就像前几天澳大利亚政府恼羞成怒一样。
可能也分地域的，我家在江浙福建一带做生意，甚至见过几十亿的大老板吃剩了都打包。似乎老一辈的企业家都比较节俭，年轻人张扬一点。
@@yunmu752 可能那几十亿的老板是白手起家的 知道赚钱的辛苦，但老板应酬打包回家的应该在中国很少。
No doubt there’s a lot of waste in china with regards to food. But it’s really a global problem. In America there is a huge amount of waste as well. I think as a global community we could be more frugal with our habits with regards to overdoing meals. I’m guilty of it too. The one good thing I’ve seen in china especially is a subgroup of people tasked with Storting the leftovers to feed livestock and assure that some of it gets worked back into the system somewhat. Probably my biggest worry when it comes to china is the fact that there are so many Chinese that enjoy seafood and they tend to be lax in their attention of sea life sustainability. As far as the state of the food supply... I have not witnessed it. I think china is stepping up production to compensate for the flood loss.
China has their seafood farms that nobody could manipulate their market.
@@allthebest1288 just look it up like i did. How much food is wasted in the US 2019?
In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year.
@@allthebest1288 都还好啦，中美都不怎么浪费粮食的
@@allthebest1288 Cake smash and food fight at American parties?
A global food crisis is on the horizon. And I believe this is why the Chinese government initiated this action/suggestion?
Look at the population in India and some aferican countries, there's going to be a huge crisis never seen in history...China is preparing for that.
In Shenzhen, buffets have a compulsory 50 rmb deposit to prevent food wastage.
In Zhuhai too.
@Nij Jin Usually that wastage prevention deposit isn't enforced (it's technically difficult, especially when involving hotpot), and most people know that, but even then it usually tricks people into not taking more than they can eat, and ended up still effective. Double win to both the restaurant and the environment, without customer feeling ripped off (it's a buffet, anyway). I think buffet time limit serves the same purpose without actually in effect as well.
So to sum it up every buffet restaurant should do that even if they don't care.
Yes every time i dined in China there was a lot of food ordered. But every time the leftovers were taken home so there was zero waste there.
古诗有云:锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土，谁知盘中餐？粒粒皆辛苦！我们的祖先教导我们，要珍惜粮食，因为每一粒米都是付出辛苦的劳动而获得的！所以杜绝浪费是一种传统美德，每个人都应该珍惜食物！
前几年去上海见客。。发现他们风俗习惯是叫了一桌子菜，小小碟子扑满一大桌，但他们只吃几口，一直都在喝酒喧哗的。。聊了数小时就各自回家或去下一趟。。过后我也知道为什么会这样，但是非常郁闷。。因为不浪费食物/不要留下食物，这都是我们每户家人从小都要守的规条。牢牢刻在我们心中。。所以每当吃不完多少都会有罪恶感。。
这是不是文化差异？？
@@arossaos344 看來廣東人比較珍惜糧食
We was right about the China Virus, and the radical CCP
all the time
@@svensvensson5285 Now it's America virus，Don't you watch the news? lmao
@@svensvensson5285 US New
It's a virtue not to waste. Kudos to the Chinese government for its proactive approach to reduce food wastage. Well done 👍😊
We was right about the China Virus, and the radical CCP
all the time
@@svensvensson5285 USa virus
My experience on business trips to China is almost every meal the food is over ordered. They seem worried that you’re go away hungry
Yeah. There are unwritten rules in terms of treating guests on special occasions, including business meals. The number of dishes should be the number of people + 2 or something. Also there used to be this thing called “minimum spending” if you want to dine with your guests in a private room in many restaurants. Really wasteful. Fortunately they’ve been dealing with these issues for years now with clear results.
@@carbomania8786 Minimum consumption has been illegal for years. Chinese people have a tradition of hospitality - If the host does not prepare enough food, it will appear stingy and neglect the guests. It is also impolite if the guests eat up all the food. It's a cultural tradition, and it still is in business. However, there is a growing acceptance of the virtues of not wasting food, especially at family gatherings, where leftovers are packed away.
actually the ‘empty plate‘ movement has been launched for years…😂
actually when china have food shortage , other countries will be empty plate, not chinese's😂
@@synsyn4785 that's ture , ìf china have food shortage , people from other countries have already died because of this， i mean ,a lot of death
Yes, so many countries people are actually empty plate now, they waiting for government’s food, or foodbank gave them,
Wasting food means .
Insulting farmers hardworking.
Because farmers grown vegetables. And then We eat like a chaow..
Respect the farmers 🙏.
The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year.
Put it this way! China's wasted grain could feed 40 million people. The food wasted in America could feed the whole of Africa!
The West has only 17% of the world population but consumes 80% of the world production.
True, US wastes more proportionally speaking. In terms of food wastage it is almost more than the rest of the world combined
China is tackling its Boomer consumer culture by clamping down on this attitude.
Food is discarded in the west if there is an abundant or surplus to keep prices and demands high ! Surplus milk is pour into the ground and wheat burnt !
Only 40 million tons, I somehow thought it must be much higher.
A few years before，when we could not finish all the food on the table，we would take it back home and eat next day. Its very common these day . Especially，in village
都大饥荒了，澳洲总理还要中国买澳洲的龙虾不是很荒唐
龙虾也是食物呀，哈哈
協商一下，用每斤大米的價格買每斤龍蝦，感覺還是勉強可以接受的。
吓得在重庆的我冒冷汗，不说了赶快把碗里的红烧肉吃了压压惊😂其实就是中国人好客出去聚会都喜欢多点菜，现在都流行打包了吃不完拿回家继续吃。
身为华人也觉得中国浪费食物，尤其是00后，就连乡村的都一样。甚至中国旅客还反问我们为什么吃得那么干净，看来生活过得太富裕。我们祖辈经历过战争和饥荒，所以都教导小孩不浪费食物，也希望中国同胞能为中华民族做个好榜样！
世界早变了，我家两小孩工人常把饭菜煮好，去叫他们出来吃饭看一眼然后才说我不吃啦！现在的人吃饭早就不是求温饱了。就算自己是中国人，国家和人民的发展也早就超出咱们的想像了，未来也是他们的，旧的那一套也只能用在旧时代里了
分人的，我吃饭除非菜很难吃，不然我撑都能撑下去，我就是不喜欢浪费吃的
这个看人吧
你一个华人，瞎操心我们中国什么事。中国人浪不浪费粮食，会有国家管着，与你何干。你真是闲草萝卜，淡操心。多关心关心你自己的国家，中国不需要你操心的。多管闲事！
@@华人看不惯中国好 别人善意的建议要学会领情
As a responsible global citizen, we have the rights to spend however we want spend but we do not have the rights to waste global resources.
Yes! All resources on finite!
父子评论非常客观，充满正能量。👍
There is a lot of food wasted here to be honest especially at big style of parties but I’ve started to see restaurants in Shenzhen implying a deposit and if too much food is wasted they keep that fee. A lot of people and my girlfriend included always take the food left over away for takeaway but I suppose at big style dinner parties that is quite difficult to do as people don’t want to start packing the food away. For me I agree people here are getting more and more aware but it’s still the big business dinners where the waste will come from as I think a lot of people will be worried about not having enough food for everyone which even at big dinner/parties in the west there is that same issue also.
the way chinese eat food can lead to being wasteful, the seprate plate banquets, while each have their own plate in teh west, but that isnt where most the food is being wasted, its actually unused food stock, supermarkets stock, itsthings that are before and after that is the huge waste.. and i saw a documentary on this where, i think in Thailand,they use all this wasted food and found a area to use it.. and it is to feed insects. adn then the insects eat this food and the insects are then used to do another job, which i cant rememeber what hahahaha. but its not actually uneaten food that is the waste.. its is all the inbetween. ill post the link if i find it..
the partys wehre food is wasted on a grand scale is rather small. when there are truck loads of spuds chickens or whatever that are going bad and note ven touched cause people dont buy or use them.
oh and the GReat Serpentza has left me a lovely comment on a video on my channel. i am so honoured the great man himself loved my music he actually left a comment. so we had a little conversation and I understand what th guys about alot more now.
@@Tank1 Yeah I see what you are saying, I have to say I see supermarkets and especially Walmart always have a lot of offers and discounts on food they have not sold near the end of the day but usually the same products everyday are being wasted. At least they are heavily discounting these at the end of the day to reduce that waste but I think food waste in general here in China does need to be improved a lot. Send me a link to the documentary it sounds quite interesting 😂
@@JordanInChina1 that isnt the lot of it tbh jordan, ive worked at a few supermarkets before when i was younger, but not long ago, i was in Lidl, end of the night.. saw staff filling up id say a 8 foot by foot wide and 3 foot high crate to the top ALL FULL OF FOOD that was to be binned, because it is calssed as uneatable.. gone past its sell by date.
in China there is alot less of sell by dates gogin on and more fresh markets which is a good thing = less waste,. but there was not one but 2 full crates in that lidl, adn this was a weekly thing. I asked cant this food go to someone? surely it can be used..
they said no because its past its sell by dates it illegal to sell or give anyone... so imagine that all over the country and world in these mass produced stores, and that was a VERY SMALL lidl too.
i love visiting Xibei(西贝莜面村) at KK100. they've been pretty good with anti-waste, and their "if you think our food sucks, put the dish in this cabinet and we won't charge you money" cabinet is always empty.
That’s why some provinces are implementing laws that punishes wastage of food by penalties fees
终于慢慢有字幕了~点赞~
3:04 Yeah! That exactly why Chinese usually order too much dishes when meeting somebody important, like your best friend, your boss or girl friend's family😂 Well now I always pack the leftovers😃
That may not necessarily impress.
If I am the guest, unless the food has been ordered in advance, I will ask the host if it is not too much if I notice over order.
@@joeawk Oh, thats a good idea👍learned it~
I almost finish all the food when I ordered from the restaurant in China, the simple reason is food so nice and I have no brave to waste.
When I was a kid, in the 80s, there were already campaign against food waste, I remember there were slogans in school canteens saying "food waste is shameful". Then these slogans just disappeared through the 90s, 00s, and 10s.
I grew up through the 00s, 10s, and I’ve been seeing those slogans almost everyday of my life (since the moment I could understand what I was seeing of course). There were also lots of media coverage. Maybe you weren’t paying attention to those because you started working and became too busy to look in schools.
@@carbomania8786 yeah, maybe I'm just getting old.
Mammy used to say: "Waste not, want not"
这确实是问题，现在已经有很大的改观，基本都会打包
I am totally agree with you on this topic. Food wasting is a big problem in China. Hope the situation can get better and better. After all, millions of people in this world are still in starving. And Thank you for talking openly and honestly about this issue.
感谢外国友人.客观-公正的看问题.世界有你们才更精彩...
In the UK we do cook to much for xmas but we use and eat the leftovers in meals over the festive period,and that is the only meal we do ,we do use frozen food a lot and take out what's is needed and put back in the freezer,except fresh vegetables,in restaurants,we have a small starter 1 main meal,and if still Hungary a dessert ,very rarely is there wastage ,if there is we put it in doggy bag .
The portion of food served in posh restaurants in my hotel in China was huge! Normally, I portioned out the food and packet them before eating, then, I'll request the waiter to bring the packet to the hotel reception for my favourite receptionist as dinner. No point wasting good and delicious food!
告訴反華人仕中國真的糧荒了，廣東這幾天天氣冷了我幾天沒有吃米飯了祗能吃了火鍋，什麼豬肚包雞，肉蟹煲雞，牛肉火鍋，粥底火鍋，這幾天沒有茶喝了祇喝涼茶，上火了😭
我們這幫中國人都開始說反話囖。 可憐的美國人。。。。開 Mercedes Benz, Lexus, Porsche 排長龍去討飯吃。 到底是沒錢還是裝貧窮 ？？？
我是昨天刚刚饿死的
好家伙
你好搞笑，我们省还在啃树根，悲哀，你们省真好，莫非是台湾省？？
@@qingfanzhan6153 你們省啃樹根？那我們省是吃土
谢谢你们客观的评价，我的国家确实有很多问题，卫生，环境，浪费这几大问题都存在，很普遍，我们也都承认，十几亿人口大国管理起来确实比较麻烦，当然了这也不是我们在找借口，不好就是不好，但是我们在改进中，毕竟发展是需要时间的，希望我们更加努力，让你们每一次的到来都能看见明显变化！
Damn shame! In one generation, the Chinese went from famine to wasting food.
The Chinese way of eating food need to change for the better. NO WASTAGE!
有时候浪费也是身不由己。招待客户不得不点满满一大桌，文化习俗很难改变。慢慢来吧，年轻一代应该会好一点。
说的很好，我至今都没有意识和总结过这个问题。补充一下，如果你去到别人的饭宴上把菜吃光或者打包，会显得不得体，因为很多是陌生人。但是我们自己一家人去吃饭，吃不完会打包的，不会浪费。所以主要浪费的问题是在饭局和宴会上。
That's so true. I'm really happy to see you guys tackle the issue based on the fact, it's a cultural thing. When growing up, my parents always taught me 粒粒皆辛苦，if we're wasting food at home, my mom would go crazy at us. However, when we have guests over, especially if we go to the restaurant, my parents always ordering too much food, they wanted to be a good host and make sure the guests are well fed..lol
鋤禾日當午，汗滴禾下土。誰知盤中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。這個是中國兒童啟蒙詩詞，中國歷史上也總是不斷的發生饑荒，這個已經成為印在DNA裡的記憶，民以食為天 所以吃對中國人來說是很重要的事情，而浪費也是很嚴重。我支持光盤行動，這個世界上吃不起飯的人還是太多太多。
Love that bridge at 1:15!! I'd definitely cross that bridge if I get to it!!
That’s an America saying. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it”
They are now in Su Zhou. There are so many bridges like this and also many stunning Gardens in Su Zhou.
Your analysis is absolutely correct. Especially some people do want to show "face", they tend to order excessive food which certainly all people on the table are unable to eat them all. During business dinners, I always tried to persuade the host not to order excessive food as I will always be the last one trying to kill the remaining food in dishes. As a result, I got heavier and heavier over years. :(
I totally agree. I was taught to use the formula of N+2 when ordering meal in a restaurant. If we have 4 people, I usually order 6 dishes which were finished. I think I am going with N or N+1 moving forward....
Dude, don't forget the balance of cuisines
Waste has become a modern habit, especially for the food aspect.
It’s not just business lunches, but also restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets throwing out perfectly good food. Every city should have good samaritans to pick up such food and redistribute it to others who need it. My heart aches when I pass by a cafe at 930 pm and they are throwing out all the unsold sandwiches and croissants and baguettes.
不光盘说我们全球浪费最多，光盘说我们食物短缺。。。
全球浪费最多不是有统计吗？美国是浪费最严重的国家
刚好够又说你不客气，所以人要BB你管不了。
@@tigermo538 最主要问题是英文的多数传媒、社交平台都掌控在人家手里。指望多数人能抛开媒介立场，独立分析问题是不现实的，要不人类文明早进步了哈哈哈
欧卅人吃饭不浪费，但是很多烂在地里超市里和冰箱里，
光盘行动每个人都要积极响应，别管别人怎么说。务实的行为，对自己来说也是突破进取。
My mom kept reminding her children to finish the bowl of rice. She told us that she had to pick up each grain of rice from the field when she was young. It is like Ruth picking up leftover grains from the field in the Old Testament.
Hi. I am from Hong Kong. Base on my understanding, the rising living standard and social contract are the main reason of food waste. As at the age where food are relatively scarce, espically rural villages, it is IMPOSSIBLE to waste food. Barrett is correct that "showing face" and "respect to guest" is a main reason.
For taking away the left food, sometimes it is hard as some dishes have sauce, or soup, which is a trouble fot people to recook it at home. My experience is taking dimsum back home after Yum Cha as dimsum are easy to handle
Food shortage is definitly a global issue. And it is a big concern that not because of insufficient food produced BUT uneven distribution of food. In LDC, it is crucial for them to adapt to the physical and economic constraints ; in urban areas urban farming might also relieve the stress on food supply
This is a very good and educational video to wake up people about food waste. I am with Oli also when there is too much food being ordered on the table I would try to eat as much as possible rather than for the food being wasted. If we can think about some people in the other part of the world who may not have enough food to eat, it is shameful to those people who waste a lot of food.
Thanks for bring up this topic. It's a food first step in preventing food wastage.
I grow up in the 80s and we were told not to waste food. I feel sad about the large amount if wastage knowing there are people round the world who goes hungry on a regular basis.
This also helps elevating global warming: less wastage = less consumption = less energy and land required to grow the crops and feed the animals.
I grew up in Beijing and my school (yr 7-12) had very strict ‘empty plate’ policy, i.e. we were not allowed to leave the cafeteria/dining hall until we had completely emptied our plate. Students on duty would check everyone’s plate at the exit. There were also teachers/students on duty walking around to check if anyone drops food under the table on purpose. So I’ve been used to finishing everything on the table even when accidentally over orderred. Then my first day in university, I was shocked seeing people just dump leftovers like it’s totally fine. Anyways, morethan 10 yrs after graduation, I still feel a bit guilty when I have to dump the leftovers. I hate wasting food.
Empty the plates movement started like over a decade ago... a decade ago, most people didn't take away leftover after they dined in restaurants, people used to consider it was "lose face" to take away leftover, so a lot of food were wasted... now, things have changed a lot, many people don't think taking away leftover is "losing face"
In two and a half years in China, I have never seen much food wastage at restaurants, because the buffet style places offer a deposit refund on the ticket price if you send back an empty plate (this was in place before the current empty plate drive). Also, EVERYWHERE I have eaten the food is boxed up and taken home, whether it's a bar or a restaurant, Chinese or foreign food. So as a Brit in China, I can't really say I've seen food waste - certainly not the 60%/70% quoted at 3:30 or it being normal at 1:30.
We Chinese had been in a hard period, have no enough food, So, the food as possible as more than we need can bring us happiness, when I come back to my grandma’s home, she always makes too much food for me, I feel some maybe wasted, but I wouldn’t stop her, it also her happiness. So, so i also do some things to my friends as my grandma, thanks for your perfect video, if I can meet you I must invite you dinner, full of food on table, haha
UR opinion about wasting food in China is totally right.THX
李公堤主要是高档餐饮为主,只有在午饭和晚饭的时候人才多,不知道这些年它的地位是否被取代,由于它是修建在狭长的堤坝上,很难找到停车位
Nice walk and discussion, thank you! I was brought up to make sure the guest at the table was full and happy.
As a Chinese, I do believe that FOOD plays the most important role in Chinese culture. Although China has been modernized and become so-called WORLD FACTORY, most Chinese people still regard China as an agriculture-based country. Without a doubt, there was some historical causes, but more importantly, China has to use 9.3% of global cultivated land to feed 19.3% of global population. If there is not enough food, the number of death by starvation may not be count by one million but ten millions. The constant sense of crisis makes Chinese people subconsciously tend to own more food, I think that could be the main reason why Chinese people always like to order more food than they actually need. Fortunately, Chinese people not longer suffer from hunger, but the bad habit still exists. Chinese government has realized the wasting problem and finally decided to solve it in political ways, they actually have punishments for the members of CCP. I am pretty happy that they make an good example to normal Chinese people. Wasting food is not good, there are still so many people at other corners of world live in starvation after all.
1:12 The bridge is very beautiful. Where is this place?
Suzhou.....Not far from Shanghai. Come visit. China is so poor and have no foods so you will lose weight for sure. Now to think of it, everyone should just skip their gyms and visit the impoverished China. We steal IPs, lands and waters, ethnic minorities' culture, freedom and language.....Now we have to start stealing fish and chips and burgers and freedom fries from the unbelievably rich selection of Western foods.
@@pengfu8608 ？？？？are you sure？？oh！yeah，we are very poor，china is the bigest developing country
Great video. I hope this changes quickly. The concept of wasting food to save face never had any practice value
It’s quite a Chinese & eastern culture to provide more food or order more food for guests than needed. It’s a “face saving” thing. In Singapore, we would normally packet up left overs from ordered meals at restaurants home to eat instead of wasting it. That’s a good way of reducing wasted food.
Wasting of foods in China : Host showing off that he can afford to splurge on his guests.
Wasting of foods in America : supporting the farmers
Oli is right. Ordering a lot of food in front of guests is a way of showing respect, as well as saving face by showing abundance. It's a strongly rooted culture. It would be a humiliation for both the guests and the host to not have MORE THAN ENOUGH food on the table. Unless the meal is within family or very familiar friends, taking food home in front of a business associate or a stranger is being look down upon. That said, it's great that the government is calling for the "empty plate" movement, to encourage the right behavior among its people and doing away the stigma of taking food home or ordering just enough. Guest what, in the western culture, this kind of government led initiative can be look upon as infringing on people's right and freedom! "Don't tell me what to do - including smoking and refusing to wear a mask - because it's none of your business if I want to kill myself or infect others and kill them!" :-)
with the current situation, i think along similar veins to cruise ships, we as the world really need to take a look at buffets and just how much food is wasted every day at these AYCE(all you can eat) type buffet restaurants and other types of restaurants(like cafeterias) where food is prepared in advance daily, and often are manhandled by every customer. regardless of the hygiene of the restaurant, you can't be sure of who's e-coli-covered hands have just touched that fishball you wanted to scoop into your mala tang/hot pot/shabu shabu/... and the serving utensils in those places are often filthy, dropped into one tray of food, then someone inevitably picks it up with their fingers reaching into that tray and the utensil is covered in the grease of that tray and dropped unceremoniously and unclean into another tray contaminating both in one motion.
Shenzhen has some good initiatives like the deposit charged at buffet restaurants. although i think that should also cover hotpot places as well.
Also part of reason is that when we walk into a decent restaurant, there are so many meals on the menu that looks so good!
And we can afford it of course. so we intent to order a bit more than we can consume.
But it is comman that we will pack rest food home when we are dinning with freinds.
Speaking of business meals, there are two concerns: 1, it does not look very good to pack home/face issue, and also we have no where to take as after meal we all going back to office 2. Hygiene issue between strangers/high end restaurants use public chopsticks now
节约粮食好像每年都有宣传吧，不过现在浪费粮食的情况确实有点严重了😑
廣東看來節約糧食全國超前。
@@soniclee7024 所以我话习大佬可能去过广州饮茶，吾係佢点知道，我十几二十年前去北方就觉得奇怪，两个人拍拖食成围台死要面子
@@大海-k6l 廣東人追求食物的味道、食材的新鮮，並不是數量，廣東人應該是全國最嘴刁的。
@@soniclee7024 因為我們不吃隔夜菜，所以吃多少買多少，不會買太多也不剩太多，如果剩一點點就倒掉了。而且南方的菜比較精細，不像北方一個菜是一大盆
From Singapore. 3 decades ago I was poor and have to save on food. Now I order more to avoid feeling hungry. Often I dont finish the food because over-eating is also bad for health. In Singapore, the government also has a national awareness program on reduce food wastage. I think is a good program to discourage wastage of food and over-eating
From 1959 to 1961, China expenited a great famine.
My grandparent told me time to time, a lots of people died at that time. He saw many desperate peoples eating bark and belt.
I am can not imagine what terror they have been through.
Sometimes they came to my home and stay for dinner. after the meal, me and my wife just about to clean it up. They alway check the plate first to make sure nothing left to wast. Otherwise, they will ask us to eat them all, if we refuse, then they will.
So you can imagine why some chinese take food seriously. Even though the young have not experienced the famine, but I am pretty sure most of them heard these stories.
节约粮食，节约用水，节约用电，反贪反腐，绿色出行，二氧化碳排放量减少。
这些都表明了中国缺水，缺电，缺粮食，缺资源，工业衰退
哈哈哈哈哈哈。。。
我打劫是为了证明我有胆识！我嫖妓是为了证明我身体好！
我吸毒是为了证明我把持得住！我赌博是为了证明我运气好！
@@arossaos344 逻辑鬼才
I actually also heard of this news a couple of month ago and was astonished by it. Then I called my parents and found out that there is not a shred of evidence of food shortage.Their life was not affected at all~!
But I actually agree with you that avoid wasting food is a right thing to do anyway
It's really a good move to curb the food wastage! Hong Kong is facing the same problem! I see lots of packed food get wasted in the supermarkets etc,
Great video! and explained the situation in a very fair way.
I realized this issue 5 years ago and my estimation was that about 20% to 30% of food was wasted. Yes, showing repect to guest maybe biggest reason of over ordering, the good thing is more and more people realized this issue and try to avoid the waste. Now, the guest usually stop you if you order too much.
China is a country which is willing to make change when we find something wrong.
我在挖田鼠，补充蛋白质
哈哈哈，来自某个自称南波万的省😂😂😂
丢，田鼠一般人可吃不起233
尾巴不要丢掉，用它榨汁挺香
我这田鼠一只500真的吃不起兄弟
Weight loss is one of the most passionate things Chinese people are currently passionate about
Very2 few homeless people in china,not like usa lots of homeless.
That’s exactly why our central government begins encouraging people to stop wasting food, offer half serve of food to order and other strategies for people to consciously save food by only eating the amount they can finish. Because eventually it’s still a terrible practice of our culture in terms of “showing face” for respect to the guests.
Chinese usually order more than they can eat especially if they are having guests or visitors.
Thank you very much for going to China to verify the facts for us, you of justice! China is a peace-loving country. We all welcome foreign friends. We are forced to develop and avoid experiencing the Eight-Nation Alliance. It’s just that the government wants to protect our citizens. We love you.
I've seen the empty plate thing since my CHILDHOOD. WTF? LOL
This video particularly resonates with me because I hate wasting food. I went through famine as a child. Thank you for speaking out against food waste.
Same as in Afghanistan and other middle-east countries, where they bring overwhelming amount of food to guests and friends because the hosts believe that if have just enough food, they (the hosts) are perceived as poor. It is more of a show than anything else, but at the same time, it is wasteful. However, when we are finished eating, the assistants (in my case, the lower ranking army soldiers) came and took the food to share with others at their mess.
因为光盘行动所以有饥荒……嗯
问题是都饥荒了还会有人浪费吗😂😂😂
htf there's even wastages when “starvation ”occurs？
哈哈哈哈
我们出去吃饭，吃不完都会打包，以前会觉得不好意思，现在会觉着这是会过日子的表现
There were a famine or two in every century of Chinese history, including the one you were alluding at in the 1970s. So the habit of serving more than one can eat is long ingrained in the culture but also reinforced every time a famine was overcome. You're right that there is no food shortage which the western media would love to see happenning, unfortunately, as if a hungry billion people China would make a cheerful news to western readers. Welcome to Suzhou, I'm living here since 3 years ago and loving it. I came to establish in Shanghai since 2007 and never looked back. If there's any help you need during your staying in Suzhou (now or future) please let me know, would love to take you to a tour of nearby beautiful places as a semi-local...
我是大陆的农村人 ，我感觉平常确实挺浪费的，节约不浪费我觉得这个提倡挺好，我觉得全世界都应该这样做 有的国家就做得很好，值得我们学习，国内很多省份普遍没有打包的习惯，我家一来客就会准备很多菜，然后又不吃隔夜菜，很多又得浪费，平常外出就餐也没有打包习惯，感觉挺不好的
那些国家是你认为做的很好的呢？我告诉你没有任何国家比中国🇨🇳做得好
你所谓的国开始欧美吧
那你去看看他们的浪费尺度吧
杀鹅 只吃鹅肝
杀猪吃身体部分 其他部分全部人掉
杀鸡只吃鸡胸脯 其他全部扔掉你告诉我哪个国家有中国🇨🇳做得好
？？？？
拿最常见的牛肉 欧美的浪费是绝对超过你的想象
At business dinner, we will not take the remaining food back home for safety and health reasons.
This is a great topic! I hate wasting food as well. In order to show face, over ordering food and not taking the leftovers home is shameful and is harmful to the environment. From farming to transportation to preparing the food, every step every process releases harmful things into the environment. First, farming, you got to use fertilizer, the fertilizer would run into the water system, producing fertilizer produce byproduct, release pollutants into the environment as well, so forth and so on. Every single step costs human efforts and consumes the environment.
I believe Food shortages in China is not just a rumor or foreign propaganda , even though the yields of the existing land is Increasing. Reasons: first, China, in the past 40 years, the fertile farming area is shrinking rapidly with the urbanization. Human being first had chosen fertile land with good irrigation to settle and established cities. But, the whole country, from first tier city to small town, village, huge amount of good land turn into housing, new communities, new cities. A few years ago, when i flew from Beijing to the southern city, I kept looking down all the way, I could see cities, towns, villages all over the place and very crowded. Not much lands in between, not like other countries 2. A lot of farmers leave their land to go to work in the cities because farming never earns them a good life. 3 young people don’t want to work on the farm any more, because farmers are discriminated in China, are looked down. 4. Lands and water systems are badly polluted. My friend was working in import and export section, he told me China has to import a huge amount of food. Recently, due to COVID-19 and natural disasters like grass hoper and flood, internally China less. A lot of Asian countries limit export amounts to China. The tension between China and some major food export countries also affects the availability of food in China.
My conclusion, food shortages in China is true.
我这里的田鼠都被吃到绝种了。。。。慘！
田鼠已被列入国家保护动物！
😂😂😂😂笑死
It varies among regions. In the north it’s more likely to order more than enough food to show hospitality, empty plates on table may be considered a sign that host hasn’t treated guest well. In the south just enough food with no waste may be praised as the host is smart and considerate to feed everyone’s appetite just right and ppl won’t feel abnormal about adding orders only when it’s not enough. But this is over simplified, things change fast. I also have the same observations that leftovers of business meals are less likely to be taken home, I guess it’s because ppl don’t want to be viewed as taking advantage of business expenses or being closefisted.
Years ago, "Taking leftover food home" in China was not welcome and would be seen as "cheap behavior", but it's a huge waste of food resources. 100% support "empty plate" movement.
我想看你们谈澳大利亚事件
Yes, treating friends with a lot of food is a common practice in China to show respect to your friends. So every time after a meal, a lot of food is wasted. But recently, people also practice the "clearing plate" action, that is, try hard to finish all the food, or pack the leftovers home.
浪费？美国才是内行阿
True but we Chinese also have the same problem and there is no way shall we sink to US's level in wasting food and fight to be the worst.
More and more new generations realized this and we r working on it. Myself will not order more than I can eat , even with guests. I will teach my kids the same thing.
I am going grey too.
I hope I age like you. You're handsome.
For business meal cause people feel it was not convenient to bring the last food to the office,especially for some companies they don't even allowed to bring food to the office,so that the food wasted a lot. Some of the companies now set a fridge in the office,so that staff could take some last food back but currently the majority of business treat still a bit waste.
确实短缺了，买不到米面了，连吃三天火锅了，心累
你在哪个地方？重庆这边没这种情况，超市里货源充足。。而且你说的这情况在中国跟本不可能，淘宝上什么都能买连俄罗斯的米面都可以买到😂
买不到米面？为什么？
卧槽，你还有火锅能吃，我已经撸串五天了
@@baiwunan 你们都那么惨吗？我都吃好几天面条了。
@@WSWBJ 楼上的兄弟都买不到米面了，你还能吃上面条🍜，要知足吖😂
I totally agree with you. wasting food is quite common in the world especially in China.
是的，我饿死了
I want to raise up another potential explanation that why people do not pack foods, especially those educated middle-age people in the business meal: it's highly likely due to their very early experience of business meal.
It's quite common that the very first business meal one has is during the college time. And during that time, the dorm (basically the only choice of living for most university students) usually does not have fridge and therefore even if you pack some food it could not be stored. And if you go out for foods a lot and over order something, you may kind of form a new habit of not packing foods.
This reason might not be the whole reason but I do think it applies to many 30-40 years old people around me. As you probably mentioned, younger people get more education of saving foods and elder ones tend to not waste any foods.
你家乡人看到你的视频是不是又会说：你看，中国街上都没有人了，经济有多差啊，疫情有多严重啊！
@更改名稱你把台毒蛙要講的先講出來了
那里像是辦公的地方~
会说这二个是中共请的演员！五毛老外！
@@soniclee7024 比较贵的消费场所湖中的堤坝，并且离开苏州老城很远周边是写字楼和别墅区，只有在周末和晚上开车进来吃喝才会比较热闹，不过消费确实有点贵了停车也很不方便，岸边的诚品书店那边人比较多
What you said is very fair, you fairly state the problem and bad habit we have, and that is what we need to change and improve. I like your video, because so many other KOL they just making video with fake truth and against us. Now more people concern about food wasting and under the guide of the government, I am sure we will change our bad habits and get better. Thank you for your fair point.
The party commissar is just off screen with a gun.
slogan 艰苦奋斗，勤俭节约，this is something in blood since 20th,sometimes it's been ignored,but will not be forgotten