BBC LEARNING ENGLISH
6 Minute English
United against food waste
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word-for-word transcript
6 Minute English
©British Broadcasting Corporation 2022
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Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
Sam
And I’m Sam.
Neil
Does this situation
sound familiar to you, Sam?
You reach into the kitchen
refrigerator
looking for something to eat,
only to find a brown lettuce,
a sad-
looking cucumber, and some two-week old fish, all
past its use-by date – the date
printed on the food containers showing how long it is safe to eat.
Sam
Oh, I’m guilty of wasting food, Neil – me and many others. According to the UN,
one third of the food we grow ends up in the rubbish bin. And it’s not just food
that’s wasted – it’s also the resources used to produce that food, things like water,
land and transport.
Neil
In this programme, we’ll be talking about food waste. We’ll meet the people trying
to stop us from throwing good food away, and, as usual, we’ll be learning some
new vocabulary as well.
Sam
Here in the UK, big supermarkets import food from abroad for customers to enjoy
all year round. Summer fruit like strawberries and
mangos are flown in from
tropical countries and sold in winter, increasing carbon emissions as well as waste.
Neil
Yes, that’s why you hear the phrase, ‘
eat local, eat seasonal’ to encourage people
to buy and eat food which has been grown in their local area, at that time of year.
So, Sam, my question is – which of the following foods can be grown in Britain
throughout the year? Is it: