China’s mealtime appeal amid food supply worries：Don’t take more than you can eat

 

China’s mealtime appeal amid food supply worries：Don’t take more than you can eat

食物短缺陰影下的中國用餐時刻呼籲：別拿超過你吃得下的食物

【摘要2020.10.23.自由】◎張沛元

On the surface, China’s campaign to encourage mealtime thrift has been a cheerful affair：with soldiers, factory workers and schoolchildren shown polishing off their plates clean of food.

表面上來看，中國的鼓勵用餐時愛惜食物的運動，是一件充滿歡樂的事：士兵、工人與學童都秀出把食物吃光光的盤子。

But behind the drive is a harsh reality. China does not have enough fresh food to go around — and neither does much of the world.

然此風潮背後的驅動力卻是嚴酷的現實。中國沒有足以分配給所有人的新鮮食物──世界上許多地區亦如是。

The pandemic and extreme weather have disrupted agricultural supply chains, leaving food prices sharply higher in countries as diverse as Yemen, Sudan, Mexico and South Korea. The United Nations warned in June that the world is on the brink of its worst food crisis in 50 years.

新冠肺炎大流行與極端氣候已打亂農業供應鏈，導致食物價格在情況各異的葉門、蘇丹、墨西哥與南韓等國飛漲。聯合國今年6月曾警告，全球瀕臨50年來最嚴重的食物危機。

"It’s scary and it’s overwhelming," Arif Husain, chief economist of the United Nations World Food Program, said in an interview. "I don’t think we have seen anything like this ever."

「情況非常嚇人與嚴重，」聯合國世界糧食計畫署的首席經濟學家阿瑞夫．哈山受訪時如此表示。「我不認為過去曾發生這樣事。」

新聞辭典

on the surface：慣用語，表面上。

polish off：慣用語，輕鬆解決；（尤指）匆匆做完（工作）；迅速吃光（大批食物）。例句：It didn’t take him long to polish off the pizza.（他沒花多少時間就嗑掉了那個披薩。）

go around：慣用語，旋轉，轉動；滿足大家的需要，足夠分給每個人；習慣於（以某種方式行事）；走訪，拜訪，訪問。例句：Is there enough bread to go around?（麵包夠分嗎？）