While it's true that some cities now require composting, more restaurants are banning unnecessary plastics like straws, and more people are trying to reduce waste in their own homes by using food that would usually be discarded (like broccoli¹ stems), Americans still have a huge problem with waste. The average American wastes about a pound of food everyday-that's about 150,000 tons of food nationwide.

虽然有些城市现在需要堆肥，越来越多的餐馆正在禁止吸管等不必要的塑料，越来越多的人正在尝试在自己家中减少浪费，比如使用通常会被丢弃的食物（比如西兰花茎）这是事实，但美国人在浪费这一问题上，仍存在巨大问题。每位美国人平均每天浪费一磅食物--全国范围内则造成15万吨的食物浪费。

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in collaboration² with the University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire, released these findings this week in scientific journal Plos One. Researchers also found that people with "higher quality diets"-which presumably means people who eat healthier-actually waste more, perhaps because they're buying more produce.

美国农业部与佛蒙特大学和新罕布什尔大学合作，并于本周在科学期刊Plos One上发布了研究结果。研究人员还发现有着"更高质量饮食"的人群--大概意味着吃更健康食物的人群--实际上浪费更多，大概是因为他们买的农产品更多。

"Eating healthy is important, and brings many benefits, but as we pursue these diets, we must think much more consciously about food waste," Meredith Niles, one of the study's authors, told Newsweek.

"吃得健康十分重要，也会带来很多益处，但当我们追求这类饮食的时候，我们必须更自觉的考虑食物浪费问题，"该研究的作者之一Meredith Niles对Newsweek说道。

Wasted food does more damage than simply go in the garbage when it could have been eaten or reused. That food drinks up 4 trillion gallons of water and takes up space on 30 million acres of cropland every year.

当本可以被食用或再次使用时，浪费的食物带来的危害远大于被扔进垃圾桶。这类食物每年吸收4万亿加仑的水，占地3000万英亩的农田。

If you're looking for ways reduce food waste in your own home, you might look to Stephanie Izard, who shared her tips for reusing the parts of vegetables that usually get thrown in the garbage. The staff of the Food & Wine test kitchen are also experts at reducing food waste. Their tips for keeping waste to a minimum can be easily implemented³ in your kitchen.

如果你正在寻找减少家中食物浪费的方法，那你也许可以咨询Stephanie Izard，她分享了再次使用蔬菜的方法，这些蔬菜通常会被扔进垃圾桶。Food & Wine实验厨房的员工也是减少食物浪费的专家。他们关于最大化减少浪费的建议简单易行，大可在厨房开展。

If you're ready to take your dedication⁴ to cleaning up the environment to the next level, then you might consider growing your own food. Even people who live in cities are capable of starting mini vegetable gardens. Brent Preston, author of The New Farm, which chronicles his experience of starting of his own farm in Canada, talked to Food & Wine about 7 ways you can grow vegetables, even if the only extra space you have is a fire escape.

如果你准备好致力于使我们的环境更加洁净，那你也许就得考虑自己种菜了。即使是生活在城市中的人也可以种一片迷你菜园。《新农场》（The New Farm）一书的作者布伦特·普特斯顿在书中记述了他在加拿大自己开展农场的经历，对Food & Wine提出了7种自己种蔬菜的方法，即使你家只有逃生通道可以种菜。