On June 24, “Have a Good Meal” – the public welfare organization "Good Food Initiative" Conference was held in Beijing. This event was organized by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), aims to call on public welfare organizations and people to focus on the impact of the current human food problems on the overall ecological civilization. This event also suggests that people should start from individuals, start from every detail of life to change the "bad" food problems and eating habits, in order to make more efforts to our ecological civilization.

“Bread is the staff of life.” The resource and environmental costs of food cannot be ignored. Since January 2013, after President Xi Jinping has made important directive on the phenomenon of "waste on the tip of the tongue", many netizens and people are trying their best to oppose food waste. However, in this generation of rapid development on scientific and technological information, the convenient take-out software and busy living habits still bring a huge negative impact on the ecological environment and ecological civilization construction. As a result, the cities are surrounded by plastic trash, especially disposable tableware. In May 2018, when President Xi attended the National Conference on Ecological Environmental Protection, he proposed that the construction of ecological civilization is an important plan for the sustainable development of China. "The rise of ecology leads to the rise of civilization, while the decline of ecology leads to the decline of civilization." Nowadays, China's economy and industry are developing rapidly, but accompanied by the deteriorating ecological environment and depleting energy resources. Therefore, it is urgent to build a green, healthy and sustainable food consumption model.

Mr. Jian Yi, the director of Good Food Foundation from CBCGDF, hosted this conference. He introduced the background of the launch of the pledge and explained the meaning of "Eat Good, Eat Well" ——the first "good" means the good for yourself and good for the health; the second "well" is good for the ecological environment and sustainable development.

During the meeting, Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of CBCGDF, made an important speech on the impact of human food problem on ecological civilization. Zhou Jinfeng first thanked director Jian Yi for bringing him into the world of CBCGDF "Good Food Fund": in the past three years since the establishment of the “Good Food Fund”, CBCGDF has become more aware of the environmental impact of food problems and the neglect of the world about this issue. Not only domestically, but also some foreign countries and even some developed countries have paid insufficient attention to the impact of food and food influence on the climate environment.

Taking the recent example, Zhou Jinfeng mentioned that when he went to Stockholm, Sweden, to participate in the EAT conference, he learned some voices from the international community. He believes that in recent years, several benchmarking conferences in the environmental field have not achieved "the same as what is on the outside" in the organizations. He pointed out that this is also an alert for us——next year at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP15) in China, we should remember that "action speaks louder than words". In terms of basic food and daily meals, we should follow the theme of biodiversity conservation and set up a model.

"The challenges we are facing now include environmental problems, climate change, rising temperatures, air pollution, and the loss of biodiversity. In fact, the only fundamental reason is the food that people eating every day. "Since humans are demanding more and more food, it leads to the continuous expansion of cultivated land, the gradual loss of natural habitats, and also the impact of transportation." Zhou Jinfeng said that climate change is the most obvious manifestation. With the increasing saturation of industrial civilization and the fact that humans consume a great deal of meat, protein, grain, and vegetables every year, the resulting greenhouse gases gradually increase the temperature. Even if the temperature rises only one or two degrees, the dramatic impact cannot be ignored: more and more extreme weather, such as typhoons, hurricanes, and tsunamis has caused natural disasters, loss of life and property in various countries and regions around the world.

In the "EAT-Lancet" report, it is also pointed out that our planet and human beings are undoubtedly going to destruction. Extreme weather and soil erosion destroy the foundation of human accessing the food, and we are destroying the resources for the next generation to get a healthy diet. Therefore, food issues of humans are a core element affecting the ecological environment.

When referring to the growing popularity of "take-out culture", Zhou Jinfeng said that two years ago, CBCGDF had explicitly requested that the take-out enterprises should respect the "green consumption right" of customers, and do not distribute disposable chopsticks by default. To this end, CBCGDF also directed environmental public interest litigation against the three big take-out enterprises. In the beginning, many people felt puzzled and opposed. They thought that it was nothing to spend a few pairs of disposable chopsticks. "Our NGOs should be the early wake-ups of the generation and should also wake up more people", Zhou Jinfeng said.

In recent years, the take-out industry has been booming. As an example of the take-out platform, the daily orders of Meituan have reached 25 million. Since take-out industry needs to provide a large number of disposable tableware, the plastic "white garbage" gradually surrounds all parts of the city. Zhou Jinfeng advocates that our customers and take-out companies should start with individuals and make the change from the tiny details; for instance, customers can carry reusable tableware with them ("keep your chopsticks with you" Initiative), or take-out software can provide the option of "no disposable tableware" and so on. We also instructed NGOs to sue those companies who do not take seriously on the default option of disposable tableware.

Do customers really have the right to refuse the disposable tableware? Zhou Jinfeng said that he believes "green consumption right" is a right that must be recognized in the generation of ecological civilization. Every customer has the right to reject pollution, choose a green and environmental-friendly option. The "Environmental Protection Law" clearly stipulates that all units and individuals have the obligation to protect the environment; enterprises, institutions, and other business operators shall prevent and reduce environmental pollution and ecological damage, and take responsibility for the damage caused; as citizens, we should enhance our awareness of environmental protection, adopt a low-carbon, frugal lifestyle, and consciously fulfill our environmental protection obligations.

Of course, this change will not achieve overnight. In 2017, CBCGDF clearly requested that the take-out platform should not distribute disposable tableware by default. In the beginning, both take-out companies and some customers do not consider this as such a big deal; however, after a year or two, this concept has been accepted by more and more people.

“I am very glad to see that Shanghai has issued the ‘Catalogue of Disposable Tableware is not Allowed to Offer Voluntarily by Food Service in Shanghai’, which clearly states that from July 1st, 2019, all food service providers will not be able to provide disposable tableware by default, including disposable chopsticks, spoons, forks and so on. Also, a telephone for monitoring and reporting has also been set up.” From small to big, a drop of water wears away a stone. Zhou Jinfeng emphasized that from the beginning of people's awareness on environmental protection to the formulation of corresponding laws and regulations, and to the implementation of “good food” by the whole society, it will gradually form into a trend and become a new advocacy, new standard, and new criteria to improve the entire ecological civilization and environmental construction.

Finally, Zhou Jinfeng added that CBCGDF will work with an expert group from “EAT-Lancet” to publish this report in China, and the “Good Food Initiative” is exactly based on the report. It is hoped that all public welfare organizations and all people can be the earliest participants and advocates to jointly protect the ecological civilization and environment.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9034.html

By / Xue Tongtong