Social Media Helps Farmers Avoid Food Waste

社交媒体帮助农民避免食物浪费

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

On World Environment Day in June, the United Nations reported that at least one third of all food produced is wasted. The report came at a time when many people are concerned about how to feed a growing world population.

联合国在6月的世界环境日报告声称生产出来的食物至少有三分之一被浪费。报告出台之际正值许多人都在关注如何养活日益增长的世界人口。

In the United States, Farmers who are struggling to earn money find the situation difficult to deal with. The United States Department of Agriculture found that more than half of the small farms in California do not make a profit.

在美国，竭力赚钱的农民发现这一情况很难处理。美国农业部发现，加利福尼亚州一半以上的小型农场赚不到钱。

One California farm family is using social media in an effort to change the situation and reduce wasted food. Nick Papadopoulos is general manager of Bloomfield Farms in Sonoma County. It was difficult for him to watch his employees returning from several weekend farmer's markets with top quality unsold produce.

加利福尼亚州一个农场家庭正使用社交媒体，以试图改变这一状况并减少食品浪费。尼克·帕帕多普洛斯是索诺玛县布卢姆菲尔德农场的总经理。看到员工从几个周末农贸市场带回未售出的高品质农产品，他就头疼。

Mr Papadopoulos said he would find boxes of leafy greens, herbs and carrots left in a storage yard. The vegetables would go bad before the next market day. As a result, Mr Papadopoulos came up with a plan to offer the food at a low price by advertising it on the farm's Facebook status page on Sunday nights.

帕帕多普洛斯表示，在堆货场他会发现有成箱的绿叶蔬菜、香草和胡萝卜被剩下。这些蔬菜到下个农贸市场交易日前会坏掉。帕帕多普洛斯想出了一个方案，通过周日晚上在农场的Facebook状态页面做广告，把这些食物以低价卖出。

The deals were open to anyone using the social media website. One week, several homeowners in a neighboring community bought the vegetables. Another week, the buyers were a group of friends.

该交易向所有社交媒体的用户开放。有一个星期，几个邻近社区的房主买走了这些蔬菜。另一个星期，买家是一群朋友。

Nick Papadopoulos began using social media after he went to work on a farm belonging to his wife's father. One night, he began thinking about the issue of wasted food, when he could not find a place to donate 32 cases of organic broccoli. He ended up giving some of the food to chickens and using the rest to make fertilizer.

帕帕多普洛斯到他岳父农场工作后开始使用社交媒体。某晚，在他找不到地方捐出32箱有机西兰花时，他开始思考食品浪费的问题。最终他将一些食品喂鸡，剩下的做了肥料。

"I don't believe we should let it go to waste, I believe we should share it, donate it, whatever it takes. And if possible, as farmers, we would like to recover a small portion of our costs."

他说，“我认为不应该让它们浪费掉，而应该分享出来，捐出来。如果有可能，作为农民，我们希望能收回一部分成本。”

After his success using Facebook, Mr Papadopoulos helped to set up a website called cropmobster.com, it is a place where people involved with food production, feeding the hungry. And those who want to buy locally grown food can find surplus produce.

在他成功使用Facebook后，帕帕多普洛斯帮助建立了一个名为cropmobster.com的网站。在这里，人们参与食品生产，帮助食不果腹之人。想购买本地生长的食品可以在这里找到剩下的农产品。

Since March, the website has prevented more than 20,000 kilograms of food from going to waste.

三月份以来，该网站已经防止了2万多公斤食品被浪费掉。