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0Food of 'dripping sweat and hard toil' should be cherished
粮食得来不易，吾辈当珍惜
The Chinese people have developed the habit of ordering more dishes than they can eat when inviting friends or relatives for dinner in a restaurant, because if all the plates are empty at the end of the dinner, it would be considered a matter of shame to the host.
中国人在餐馆请朋友或亲戚吃饭时，已经养成了点菜过多的习惯，因为如果用餐结束时所有的盘子都是空的，主人面子上会过不去。
To ensure that some (if not lots of) food is left on the table when the guests get up to leave is considered good hospitality even though the host's heart might be bleeding over the waste of delicacies he/she paid for. This practice causes a huge waste of food each day in millions of restaurants.
当客人离席时，即使不剩很多，也要保证桌上剩下一些食物，这说明主人待客大方，尽管主人可能因为自己买单的美味佳肴被挥霍而心痛。这样一来，每天数百万家餐馆中都有严重的食物浪费。
Surveys show that, on average, 93 grams of food is wasted by each person having dinner in a restaurant, making up about 12 percent of the food he/she had ordered. Leftovers from banquets and parties reached a high of 38 percent of the total dishes ordered.
调查显示，在餐厅就餐时，平均每人浪费93克食物，约占所点食物的12%。宴会和聚会的剩菜则高达总点菜量的38%。
"At noon they weed with hoes; their sweat drips on the soil. Each bowl of rice, who knows? Is the fruit of hard toil." Although almost all Chinese people can recite this ancient poem from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and boast of being diligent and frugal, they seem to contradict themselves when it comes to preventing food waste.
“锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土。谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。”尽管几乎所有中国人都能背诵这首唐诗并以勤劳节俭为荣，但在防止食物浪费方面，他们似乎自相矛盾。
For generations, we have been taught by parents and teachers, and advised by officials, to be thrifty and not waste food. But a decade ago a group of volunteers found that to effectively curtail food waste it is necessary to impose restrictions on restaurants, which are believed to contribute to half of the grain wasted in China.
世世代代，父母和老师教导我们、官员劝告我们要勤俭节约、杜绝浪费。但十年前志愿者发现，要有效减少食物浪费，有必要对餐厅实施限制，餐厅造成了中国一半的粮食浪费。
The "Clean Your Plate" campaign was launched in 2013 and got a positive response from restaurant owners, food associations, the public, and governments at different levels. Small leaflets, seen on an increasing number of restaurant tables, remind diners to order as much as they can eat. And more and more waiters and waitresses are now reminding diners to stop ordering more if they have ordered enough to satiate their hunger.
自2013年启动以来，“光盘行动”得到了餐厅老板、食品协会、公众以及各级政府的积极响应。越来越多的餐馆餐桌上出现了小传单，提醒食客量力而行。 现在越来越多的服务员会提醒食客，如果足以饱腹，就不要再点更多的菜了。
The "Clean Your Plate" campaign has become popular along with the "save water", "go green" and "eradicate poverty" canvassing. In fact the "Clean Your Plate" is taking up a lot of TV and radio time and newspaper space, impacting people's mindset.
“光盘行动”与“节约用水”、“绿色环保”、“消除贫困”等行动口号一样深入人心， 事实上大量的电视、广播和报纸都在宣传“光盘行动”，影响着大众的思维。
Slowly but steadily, the pride associated with ordering excess food in restaurants is becoming an out-dated practice. Although, occasionally, we can still see people wasting a lot of food in restaurants, they draw sneers from other diners and the restaurant staff, rather than admiration for their fat wallets.
“光盘行动”稳步推进，在餐厅点菜过量带来的自豪感已经成为过去式，尽管偶有人在餐厅里浪费大量食物，他们引来的却是其他食客和餐厅工作人员的嘲笑，而不是对他们“阔绰”的钦佩。d
However, since it takes generations for people to change their bad habits, it's too early to blow the horn of success.
然而，改变坏习惯需要几代人的时间，所以现在吹响成功的号角还为时过早。
