Hi there.

I'm Tony Grant, and this is

‘LearnEnglish with Tony', a weekly podcast to
improve your listening skills and grow your
.English vocabulary

Join me for a new episode every Friday,

where I'll give a short talk on a theme, and
explore a few interesting words or phrases
.for you

After a long summer and autumn here in

Tokyo, which has felt much warmer than
usual thanks to our mischievous little friend
El Niño, it finally feels like winter is arriving
and temperatures are dropping here in
.Japan

Now, when I say "temperatures are

dropping", remember that things where I am,
on the Pacific coastline of Japan, are
nowhere near as cold as they get in winter in
many countries. Even the UK is now
averaging at least 10 degrees Celsius cooler
.than Japan each day

If you're wondering how I know this, it's

because I have the Apple weather app on my
phone, and I've added all the towns and cities
where I have friends and family, so I can track
the weather we're all having. I know, I'm a bit
!weird like that

Anyway, back to the topic… I recently read an

article on the BBC that really got me thinking
as we roll into the winter. It was about food
banks in the UK. If you've never come across
that word before, a ‘food bank' is a place that
collects food items, usually from donations,
and then gives them free of charge to people
.in need

Now, you might be a bit surprised to hear

 that such places exist or are needed in the
UK. But the truth is that, like all countries, the
UK also has lots of people who are struggling
.to meet their basic needs financially

And after 3 years of the Covid pandemic,

combined with high inflation and what has
been called a ‘cost-of-living crisis' in much of
the world, more and more people are finding
.it harder than ever to ‘get by' or survive

Having to make decisions like whether to

spend money on food or heating during the
winter months is a bad situation to be in, and
the people who organise and work in these
food banks are providing a super valuable
.service out there in many communities

One thing that jumped out of that BBC article

was that, according to many food banks,
donations of food are around a third lower
this winter than in previous years. That's
probably because people all through society
are feeling the effects of the cost-of-living
.crisis

Obviously, the UK is not unique in this

situation. Hunger is a problem all around the
world. According to the Earth.org site, there
are currently over 800 million people
worldwide suffering from ‘malnutrition', or the
physical effects of not getting enough food
.to eat

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to

think about this without also considering the
amount of food that gets wasted in the world.
Would you believe that about one third of all
food that is intended for human consumption
?gets wasted

That's right, it's about 1.3 billion tons of food,

 and has a value of around a trillion US
dollars. That's a one with 12 zeroes, in case
you were wondering! But where does all this
waste take place? Surely it's not all down to
?people leaving food on their plates

Well, no, it seems that food is wasted at all

stages of the production chain; from
production and processing, to distribution via
supermarkets and restaurants, and through
consumption and ‘end-of-life'. That last one
means food that gets thrown away because
.it's gone past its best

If you look on food packaging in a

supermarket, you'll usually see a ‘use by' or a
‘best before' date. For ‘perishable' items,
that's things like eggs, fruit and other fresh
foods that don't last long, the ‘use by' date
means you have to eat it by that date. After
that there could be a health risk. That's
.important

But for other foods, the ‘best before' date

simply means that after this date it won't be
at its absolute best quality. But in many
cases, it can still be eaten perfectly safely.
And yet, it seems that around 35% of all food
.waste occurs at this ‘end-of-life' stage

Some of that is food that's been left beyond

its ‘use by' date, but a lot of it is stuff that
supermarkets throw out because people
won't buy it after it's ‘best before' date. I
wonder if perhaps we need a cultural shift in
.our attitudes towards all this

Should the food industry revisit its approach

to ‘best before' dates? Could supermarkets
do more to donate unwanted food to food
banks that desperately need supplies for
people struggling to get by? And what could
 ?we all do to reduce food waste at home

So many questions from reading one news

story… So let me finish this episode by asking
you a question. Have you read a news story
recently that made you think a lot, or that
raised a lot of questions in your mind. After
all, asking questions is often the first step
…towards change