Think before you throw annual food english language essay

Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 3-4

Background of the study……………………………………………….. 4-6

Problem statement………………………………………………………. 7

Research questions………………………………………………………. 8

Objectives………………………………………………………………… 8

Significant of study………………………………………………………. 8

Academic context……………………………………………………….. 8-9

Research method………………………………………………………… 10

Population………………………………………………………………… 10

Sampling and Sampling Technique…………………………………….. 10

Data Collection…………………………………………………………… 11

Data Collection Instrument……………………………………………… 12

Data Analysis…………………………………………………………….. 12

Timescale…………………………………………………………………. 13

References…………………………………………………………….. 13-14

Think Before You Throw: Annual Food Wasted Each Year Enough To Feed 500 Million People

Introduction

The Wikipedia defines Food is any substances consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism’s cells in an effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Definitely, food is very important to people. When we feel hungry, our stomach will make some funny noises, and that is the signal to inform us to have a meal immediately. However, if we ignore the hunger and continue to work, we will feel like losing strength and interest, feeling dizzy and unable to concentrate on working, increase mistake and even our health maybe harmed such as stomach illness. Even though food is originated from plant or animal, before we eat, we have to process and cook the food properly otherwise there will be a lot of parasites and bacterium on the food. And also, in the process of cooking food, the timing and heat have to be controlled well therefore it will not affect the taste of food as well as the nutrients. Well, the dining culture is different over country to country. Generally in Asia, people always have rice or noodle as their main food every day while in Europe, America, Latin America and Africa, the main foods are potato, bread and wheat. Nowadays, due to globalization, we are able to enjoy various cuisines of different countries no matter where we are. Besides that, if we are having a western cuisine in a western restaurant, the food is served step by step. Usually the first we have is vegetable or fruit salad, puree soup, the main food (usually is steak), dessert and the last one is coffee or tea. And the circumstance of having meal is often high class and comfortable with lyric and relaxing music. However, this situation is totally different in Asia. For example, if we are having a meal in a Chinese style restaurant, the waiters will serve all the food we ordered until the table is full of a lot of cuisines. And the place for having a meal is usually crowded and noisy and even smoking is allowed in the dining area. In Asia, the dining culture in China has thousand years of history and has more than thousand of Chinese cuisines. Moreover, people said that Empress Dowager Cixi always had 99 different Chinese cuisines every time she had a meal. Nowadays, fast food is also become very popular. Usually in our impression, fast food is like hamburger, french fries, fried chicken and pizza. Well, it can be easily seen that there are a lot of fast food chain stores around us such as Mcdonald, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut. Actually, most people consider fast food is totally an unhealthy food because fast foods contain a lot of fat and high calories, it increases obesity (especially in children) and the risk of suffering high blood pressure and heart disease. Well, another is industrial food. Industrial food is usually produced in mass quantity such as biscuit, chocolate bar and canned food. In the processing, the bulky of ingredients and materials will be processed through the machine and come out with a distinctive food. And the finally the food will be packaged and the ingredients and materials as well as the contained nutrition will be labeled on the packaging for the convenience of consumer before buying. Some prominent food companies such as Nestlé, Kraft and Pepsi Co. However, is all industrial food safe? Even though some food companies always announce that their food is safe and fully natural, that is only their propaganda. Actually, almost industrial foods have food additives such as antiseptic, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and artificial sweeteners. And these food additives can be very harmful to our health and it will cause a very serious disease—cancer.

Background of The Study

Figure 1. 0: Arable land (hectare per person) in the world According to United States Census Bureau (USBC), the world population has been more than 7 billion, but it will continue to grow by 83 million each year and by 2050, it is expected to reach between 7. 5 and 10. 5 billion. Well, this means that more lands and forests will be exploited and developed in order to accommodate the growing population in the future. However, one question arises: Is the world enough to feed us? world-arable-land-hectares-per-person-wb-data. pngThe figure 1. 0 above shows that the arable land (hectare person) in the world according to World Bank report. Obviously, from 2002 to 2010, the arable land per person decreased gradually with the growing population. If the situation still maintains, it can be predicted that there is no arable land in the world one day. Even though the world population has been more than 7 billion, according to Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation (FAO), there are almost 870 million people are in starvation in the world, and 98% live in developing country. graphic_hunger_SOFI2012. jpg

Figure 2. 0: Undernourishment in 2010-12

And also, there are an estimated 146 million children are underweight in developing country. Well, what causes these people to live in starvation? Some countries are always in civil war for many years. The situation is quite risky for people to carry out agricultural activity. Besides that, most of the national exchequers have been used to buy weapons. Therefore, the people are extremely poor and unable to buy food. A fact shows that for the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years. In some countries, the natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes, challenge the agricultural production. Hence, when the agricultural production becomes lower, it may cause the food price to go up. Well, it makes people unable to afford the rising food price in some countries. For example, according to United States Department of Agriculture, USA is the biggest wheat exporter in the world. The country exports average 35. 4 million ton of wheat annually. However, the extreme weather on February had badly affected the output of wheat. quarterly_wheat_prices. pngFigure 3. 0: Quarterly Wheat Prices, 2010-2012fThe figure 3. 0 shows the quarterly wheat prices from 2010-2012f. The USDA predicted that the wheat price would rise to approximately 9 Dollars per bushel in the period of Oct-Dec in 2012. Region% in  $1. 25 a day povertyPopulation (millions)Pop. in $1 a day poverty (millions)East Asia and Pacific16. 81, 884316Latin America and the Caribbean8. 255045South Asia40. 41, 476596Sub-Saharan Africa50. 9763388Total Developing countries28, 84673

1345

Europe and Central Asia0. 0447317Middle East and North Africa0. 0430511Total

54511372

Figure 4. 0: The % in $1. 25 a day poverty and the population in $1 a day poverty in some region

From figure 4. 0 above, in some regions, there are still many poor people whose daily income is only $1. 25 and $1, therefore how can they afford paying the rising food price? How can they feed themselves well with only a tiny bit daily income?

Problem Statement

Even though there are almost 33% of world population are considered to be starving, according to United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the total food wasted every year in the world is enough to feed 500 million people. ” Around one-third of all the food produced in the world is lost or wasted every year,” FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva said.

Food loss and waste per person and year

Total

At the production and retail stages

By consumers

Europe280 kg (620 lb)190 kg (420 lb)90 kg (200 lb)North America and Oceania295 kg (650 lb)185 kg (410 lb)110 kg (240 lb)Industrialized Asia240 kg (530 lb)160 kg (350 lb)80 kg (180 lb)Subsaharan Africa160 kg (350 lb)155 kg (340 lb)5 kg (11 lb)North Africa, West and Central Asia215 kg (470 lb)180 kg (400 lb)35 kg (77 lb)South and Southeast Asia125 kg (280 lb)110 kg (240 lb)15 kg (33 lb)Latin America225 kg (500 lb)200 kg (440 lb)25 kg (55 lb)Moreover, United Nation (UN) even warned that there are looming worldwide food crisis in 2013. However, there are a lot of people are still not aware that food waste is the severe issue. And also, some people do not know food crisis is threatening us. Sarcastically, the global report said that one in four children were undernourished, five children died every minute because of chronic malnutrition, however, some children do not face starvation but they are overweight because of over nutrition.

Research Question

In what degree people perceive of food crisis? What actions are necessary to reduce food waste? Is there a link between food waste and food crisis?

Objective

The objectives of the research are: To advise people to stop wasting food. To remind people the severity of food crisis. To inform people that many poor people are starving. To encourage people to fight against hunger.

Significant of Study

The significances of study will be: Improving the attitude of people towards food and reducing food waste. People have awareness of taking actions against starvation. The situation in some poor countries can be improved so people are able to buy food and have enough food. The undernourished children can acquire better medical treatment.

Academic Context

” 1 billion people in the world are chronically hungry. 1 billion people are overweight”— Mark Bittman. This is a fact that approximately 870 million people are starving now, the global report said that one in four children were undernourished, five children died every minute because of chronic malnutrition while there are also a lot of people are overweight and obese even though they are fed well. However, what cause them to be overweight and unhealthy? According to World Health Organization (WHO), generally the main reason of causing them to be so unhealthy is closely related to their diet. Well, increasing body mass means higher energy is required, because the fat people require more energy to move their fat body. Even at rest a fatter body burns more energy. Therefore, their feeling of hunger is usually more intense than other people and even some of them are always hungry all the time. However, they usually love eating the foods contain high calorie and more sugar such as chocolate cheese cake, milkshake and fast food and their capacity for eating food is at least two times than the normal people. This means they need at least two meals to satisfy their hunger. Well, if the 1 billion fat people decide to eat 1 meal for losing weight, it means 1 billion meals will be saved and we can help the 1 billion hungry people with these saved 1 billion meals.” I had a missed call. It’s probably the all you can eat buffet calling to say, ” Come back! We know you can eat just a little bit more. — Jarod Kintz. I believe most people like to eat buffet, especially all-you-can-eat buffet, people just need to pay a fixed price so they can enjoy various cuisines and the foods will be supply unlimitedly. Actually our capacity for eating is not as large as we think. For example, if normal people are able to eat 3 breads and maybe the maximum they can eat 4 breads. When they keep eating the 5th and 6th breads, they are not hungry. In fact, they are overeating. Overeating is a bad dining habit and it will cause stomach illness and obesity. Therefore, most people always overeat when they are having buffet. They think they will suffer loses if they do not stuff a lot foods. Some people even cannot finish eating the food which are taken by them, however, is it possible for the waiter to put the remaining foods back? The answer is no, it is possible. Due to the purpose of hygiene, the remaining foods usually will be thrown away. John chapter 6 verse 9 recorded Jesus fed five thousand people with two small fish and five loaves of bread. To us, this tiny bit of food may only feed maximum 10 people. Well, how Jesus did it? He distributed the foods averagely while he even collected the debris of foods on the land to feed people. According to FAO, one-third of foods are usually wasted in the world annually. In our mind, we usually throw the food if we are unable to finish it. However, how about the people who are starving now? They even do not have a chance to waste food. Maybe food crisis is too far to us because we never sense the starvation since most of us are over easy and comfortable. An American film called ALIVE in 1993 which details the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team who were involved in the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. There were 45 passengers but only 16 people were survived. They were trapped in the extreme cold Andes mountain and there were no food and water around. However, finally they ate the dead body for surviving. Food crisis will be a big issue to mankind one day. We can imagine if the world does not have enough food to feed people, maybe most people will die of starvation or maybe some people will start eating human meat for surviving. It may sound terrible but possibly it may happen one day.

Research Method

What is research methodology? According to Jamie Hale (2011), research methodology is a scientific technique used to collect and evaluate data. Here we will use the methodology of questionnaire for the research. The term questionnaire refers both to questionnaires intended to be administered by an interviewer, either in a face-to-face interview or by telephone. In other disciplines this is often referred to as an interview schedule, with the term questionnaire reserved for the self-completion survey instrument (Ian Brace, 2008).

Population

In our research, a good respondent is also one of the main considerations to the success of research. He/she must show their willingness to complete the questionnaire because it means he/she will seriously consider each question in the questionnaire paper and provide the complete answer to each question. Moreover, the respondents should possess the knowledge related to our research so they are able to provide accurate and useful primary data for data analysis. If the data collected is inaccurate, it may cause confusion and failure in research. Therefore, we classify the respondents into: Household/familyPeople who engage in catering business (restaurant, hawker centre)Food consumer

Sampling and Sampling Technique

According to the population above, we will adopt the survey type of research in which a sample from the target population will be used for the research. In total, we will randomly select a sample of 150 respondents from the targeted population of 300. Details of the sample are as follows: 50 households/families50 respondents who engage in catering business50 respondents who are food consumers

Data Collection

The data includes primary data and secondary data. The primary data refers to the data collected by researcher itself via various research methods rather than the researcher collects the data from other sources that have been done by other researchers. Since we choose questionnaire as our research method, the primary data collection methods include interviewer-administered interviews such as face-to-face interview, CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing), telephone interviewing and self-completion surveys such as paper questionnaires and web-based self-completion. Here we choose self-completion survey—paper questionnaires as our research method. Paper self-completion questionnaires are typically sent by mail to people who qualify or are thought to qualify as eligible for the study. They may be members of a panel who have agreed to take part in surveys or they may be taken from a database such as customers of a company or members of an organization (Ian Brace, 2008). The advantages and disadvantages of paper questionnaire are as below:

Advantages

Disadvantages

1. The respondents have time to consider their answer. 1. It is impossible to stop respondents from reading through all of the questions before responding. 2. The respondents can leave the questionnaire whilst they think about an issue. 2. It is impossible to ask a spontaneous brand awareness question if the questionnaire includes brand names in any of the other questions. 3. With little time pressure on them, the respondents can write lengthy and full answer to open questions. 3. With attitudinal and image questions, it is often the first reaction that is sought, rather than a considered response. 4. Written descriptions and pictures of new concepts, products or ideas can be included, and the respondents have time to read and digest these before giving their responses. 4. An instruction in the question for respondents to give their first reaction cannot be enforced, nor encouraged in the way that an interviewer can, either face to face or by telephone. 5. For photographs and drawings, as well as written material, a level of production quality can be achieved that is appropriate to the research. 5. Where prompt material has been sent to the respondents for their reaction, it is difficult to retrieve all of it. The secondary data refers to the data is not collected by the other researchers other than the researcher itself but the data can be easily acquired from other sources such as websites, magazine. Our sources of secondary data are from several websites such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Program (WFP), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Data Collection Instrument

We will collect the data via administering a questionnaire. The questionnaires consist of approximately 9 questions which are divided into three sections A, B and C and each section includes three questions. The table below shows the sample of investigative questions.

SECTION

RESEARCH QUESTION

INVESTIGATIVE QUESTIONS

A

In what degree people perceive of food crisis? How do you define food crisis? What are the factors to cause food crisis? What are the effects of food crisis to the world?

B

What actions are necessary to reduce food waste? What do you consider the 3 most important methods to reduce food waste? Generally how will you handle the leftover food in your home/restaurant? What reasons account for your answer above?

C

Is there a link between food waste and food crisis? Do you think food waste is one of the reasons to cause food crisis? Why? What cause people to waste so much food each year? Do you agree that reduce food waste can also reduce starvation? Why?

Data Analysis

After collecting the primary data, we have to carry out data analysis. Well, we will use the computer software which is known as Statistical Package for Service Solution (SPSS) to analysed the collected data. Firstly, we will distribute the questionnaires to respondents. After they complete the questionnaire, we will collect it from them immediately. And we will key in all answers provided by the respondents in the questionnaire into SPSS. After that, we will acquire the results such as the graphs and figures and the results can be used for other purposes.

Timescale

JULY 2012: Review of literatureAUGUST 2012: Agree research strategy with supervisorSEPTEMBER 2012: Compile, pilot and review questionnaireOCTOBER 2012: Distribution of questionnaireNOVEMBER 2012: Collection of questionnaireDECEMBER 2012: Data analysisJANUARY 2013: Final writing of project report