Speaking : talking about food waste

 READ THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT...
"Wasting food means wasting money in a big way both at the household level and in busineses throughout the supply chain.There is little awareness of the amount of food that is lost and wasted along the entire food supply chain during production, distribution, consumption and disposal.  Yet the economic, social and environmental implications of this enormous food loss and waste is staggering, continues to grow and represents a real threat. Awareness about food waste goes to the heart of being a more conscious consumer. Unsustainable consumption depletes resources beyond regenerative capacity and causes serious negative environmental impacts.
The global food system has profound implications for the environment and producing more food than is consumed only exacerbates the pressures; overfishing, for example, contributes to declining numbers of fish (some 30 per cent of marine fish stocks are now considered over-exploited). Roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lostor wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. This inevitably also means that huge amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain, and that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food that gets lost or wasted are also emissions in vain.Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production down to final household consumption. In medium- and high-income countries food is to a significant extent wasted at the consumption stage, meaning that it is discarded even if it is still suitable for human consumption. In these countries the causes of food losses and waste mainly relate to consumer behaviour. For example, insufficient planning and expiring ‘best-before-dates’ often cause large amounts of waste, in combination with the careless attitude of those consumers who can afford to waste food."

Embarrassing, isn't it? That's exactly how everybody should  feel throwing away food. Leftover must be given a second chance!
We've just read the above  excerpt and  listened to an interview about this issue in class this week ( textbook p.61). Now you should practice a speaking activity about the topic. Let's find out how to organise it.

• First of all you must know what  you are  talking about. Vocabulary is very important  and you've been given enough in class to carry out a simple but effective two minutes talk.
• Organise your opinion writing down few notes or a mind map
• Take into consideration the cohesive devices shown in the previous post 
• Try to organise your speech expressing your opinions about: why people waste food? What are the reasons for this? What are the consequences of food wasting?What can be done to  prevent/avoid this from happening?
• Practice speaking agaisnt the clock! Use THIS clockster coundown.

Let's see it together ( courtesy of Prf. MR Gilardi )
   

Topic (= argomento): Wasting food / wasted food

Come rispondere alle domande -livello base 
( courtesy of Prof. MR Gilardi)

Esempi:

-Do you waste food?
-Yes, I do oppure No, I don’t
- How much food do you waste?
- I never waste food (= non spreco mai cibo)
oppure
- I usually waste a lot of food
oppure
- Sometimes I waste some food
- What kind of food do you waste?
- I usually waste vegetables/ fruit/...
- In your opinion why food is wasted?
- In my opinion / I think that/ ...food is wasted because
- we buy more food than we need/ we don’t plan the shopping/ we don’t     recycle/…
-What are the consequences of wasting food?
- There are a lot of consequences such as pollution, bills’ raising, …
oppure
- Wasting food causes pollution,...
- How can we prevent wasting food?
- We can prevent wasting food by storing it properly/…
oppure
- To prevent wasting food we should recycle as much as possible/….
oppure
- Wasting food can be avoided by…
N.B.: se “metti insieme” le varie risposte, ottieni un breve testo e la possibilità di organizzare un breve discorso anche in mancanza di domande

Other useful tips :

Food Waste: consequences

• wasted resources
• Food waste squanders (= sperpera) water, depletes soil, wastes fossil fuels.
• Toxic results
• Almost all uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills (= discariche) where it causes harmful methane emissions.
• Cost problems
• The average family throws out too much food each year and their bills raise.

You can also draw a chart with  DOs and DON'Ts then fill it with the following words and sentences in order to organize your ideas and watch them unfold!

• Plan the shopping
• Recycle as much as possible
• Store food improperly
• Store food properly
• Buy too much food
• Use fridge properly
• Throw food away
• Cook more food than you eat

DOs	DON'Ts

Other  tips ( suggerimenti) for your speech:
Wordlist

• recycle
• reuse
• leftover (avanzi)
• store food ( conservare il cibo)
• proper use of refrigerator/ fridge
• packaging (imballaggio)
• throw food away 
• pollute (inquinare)
• pollution
• rotten(marcio)
• To  rot ( marcire)
• save money
• plan the shopping 
• waste disposal (smaltimento rifiuti)
• expiry date ( data di scadenza)
• shelf life ( durata del prodotto in scatola)

  Food Processing/Distribution:

• Reengineering production processes and product designs
• Secondary uses for peels ( bucce, scarti)
• Proper training for handling and storage
• Increased food donations

Supermarkets:

• Waste audits (=controlli, verifiche) and product loss analysis
• Discount offers for near-expiration (= vicini alla scadenza) items
• Increased food donations

Restaurants:

• Flexible portioning
• Waste audits
• Leftover (= avanzi)
•  take-away
• Increased food donation

Now it's your turn!

Choose one or more  of the following pictures, describe it/them  and say what you think about the issue.