STOCKHOLM, Sept. 1 (SCBR) — Waste food is actually to waste water, thus one should reduce waste of food, said Professor Liu Junguo from Beijing Forestry
University at a presentation during the World Water Week on Aug. 26-31 in Sstockholm.

“Chinese tradition is to lose food to save face because most of the food is wasted
on the table,” said Professor Liu.

He said China uses 9 percent of the world’s arable land, 6 percent of the world’s
water to raise 21 percent of the world’s population. Thus, China’s water use
efficiency is quite ok. China’s agricultural water use is about 60 percent now.

Traditionally there is an old poem in the Tang Dynasty saying: Plowing in the
field at lunch time, sweat drops to the ground and mixes with the soil, who
knows how difficult it was for every grain of food in the plate(Chu He Ri
Dang Wu, Han Di He Xia Tu, shui zhi pan zhong can, li li jie xin ku) ?

Every child in China can recite this poem and try to understand it.
However, according to his research, about 18.6 percent of the food is wasted on
the table because people tend to order more food than they can consume.

“Maybe it is because in the past people were too hungry and now they want to
show they are generous, but it is too much waste, maybe I should order less
next time when I invite you to lunch or dinner?” he said to the audience.

Ten percent of the grain lost at the harvest stage. Even though China’s
waste percentage is not high on average, but due to the huge population
in China, the waste amount of food in China can be enough for the whole
year consumption of food for the whole France.

He said China faces great challenge of water in northern China where
there is vast land. If people do not waste food, then we do not need to
work so hard to produce so much, which can alleviate water problems
too.

Whatever, so his message to the meeting is that there is no reason
to waste food.