Food matters

There are a lot of vegetarians in Britain. About 8% of teenagers don't eat any meat or fish and
you can always choose a vegetarian meal at school. But there are a lot of other special diets
too. Here are three of them.

Lucy Friend, A Fruitarian: Fruitarians don't want to kill living things - plants or animals - for food.
We never eat meat or dairy products and we don't eat many vegetables. When you eat a
carrot, the carrot plant dies. But tomatoes and cucumbers are OK because the plant doesn't
die. We eat a lot of fruit and nuts. Unfortunately, the human body can't get much calcium, iron
or vitamin B from a fruitarian diet, so I need a lot of vitamin pills too. There aren't many fruitarians
in Europe, but there are a lot in India.

Tim Jenson, A Locavore: The transport of food around the world uses a lot of petrol and that
causes global warming. I am a locavore and I only eat food from the area near my home in
Glasgow because local food doesn't use much petrol. I only eat food produced within fifty
kilometres of my home. I can buy fantastic local beef, salmon, bread, apples and yoghurt. But
I can't have chocolate cake, coffee or orange juice because the ingredients come from
abroad. That's sometimes difficult for me. I love chocolate cake! But it's the right choice for the
environment.

Simon Pilcher, A Freegan: Freegans never buy food. We only eat free food. I'm a freegan
because I don't like the food industry and its treatment of animals and the environment. Also,
when you buy food in a supermarket, only about 10% of your money goes to farmers. This isn't
fair. I grow a lot of vegetables in my garden, and I find mushrooms, fruit and salad ingredients in
the countryside. I also find food in bins outside big shops. Shops throw away six million tonnes of
food every year in Britain and a lot of it is good to eat. A freegan diet helps stop the terrible
waste of food in our modern world.

Read the text. Which person:

a) doesn’t pay for food?

b) doesn't eat meat?

c) doesn't eat food from other parts of the world?

Read the text again and answer the questions.

1) Why doesn't Lucy eat carrots?

2) What problem is possible with a fruitarian diet?

3) In which country is a fruitarian diet very popular?

4) Why is the transport of food bad for the environment?

5) Does Tim drink coffee? Why/why not?

 Food matters
6) Is it easy for Tim to live without food from other areas?

7) Why does Simon dislike the food industry?

8) What three places does Simon's food come from?

9) How does a freegan diet stop food waste?

SPEAKING Discuss these questions.

1) Are you interested in any of these diets? Why/ why not?

2) Do you know any people with an unusual diet? What do / don't they eat?

3) Could you live without these types of food?

■ chocolate ■ coffee ■ meat ■ milk and cheese ■ oranges

Compound nouns
We put two nouns together to make a compound noun. Match a word in A to a word in B to
make compound nouns. Then complete the sentences.

A ■ chocolate ■ fruit ■ ham ■ ice ■ mushroom ■ olive orange tomato

B cake cream juice oil pizza ı salad sandwich ■ sauce

1) I usually drink ________________________________ at breakfast.

2) I love meat and bread, so my favourite cold lunch is a ________________________________.

3) I often buy an________________________________ on really hot afternoons.

4) I usually choose a ________________________________ at Italian restaurants because I'm a

vegetarian.

5) On my birthday, my mum usually makes me a big ________________________________.

6) I can make a really nice ________________________________ to put on my spaghetti.

7) I like a lot of different fruit, so I often eat a ________________________________.

8) I usually put ________________________________on top of a green salad.

SPEAKING Discuss these questions.

1) Do you think you waste food? What? How?

2) Do you think your school wastes food? What? How?

3) How can you stop wasting food? Give examples.