After President Xi Jinping commented that the amount of food waste in China was shocking, the Chinese government has stepped up regulations to reduce food waste. A “clean plate eating movement” has emerged in China after Xi Jinping said the coronavirus pandemic had sounded the alarm on food wastage.
Xi made the comments after weeks of flooding in southern China, which destroyed farms and lost tons of food. Between 1959 and 1961, China experienced a famine that killed between 15 million and 50 million people. Xi Jinping said that Chinese people should constantly think about the possibility of facing a food security crisis.
After President Xi Jinping said this, the Wuhan Food Industry Association urged restaurants in Wuhan to adopt a system called N-1. The N-1 system is a system that allows a group of 9 people to have only 8 dishes. But since China considers it a courtesy to order more dishes than you actually need, it will take some time to implement such a system. According to WWF China, between 17 million and 18 million tons of food was wasted in China in 2015.
But China will face a food crisis, China’s Global Times commented that the reports that the situation could get worse due to the spread of the corona virus are exaggerated by the media. In addition, he also criticized people who show excessive amounts of food online. Although China started Operation Empty Plate in 2013, officials’ honoring receptions, They only targeted dinner parties and did not impose strict rules on the public.