Title: China's anti-food waste campaign puts dinner tables under the government's watchful eye
Headings: China's anti-food waste campaign puts dinner tables under the government's watchful eye
China's anti-food waste campaign puts dinner tables under the government's watchful eye
Food and wealth
Growing surveillance
Agricultural crisis
'People will forget'

Content: Even the most politically apathetic person can feel their daily life habits challenged and threatened (by this campaign)." Food and wealth
When the government withdrew food vouchers in 1993, it was a powerful symbol that the days of food shortages were over, with people free to eat as they chose. As China's economy opened up to the world, the country's new wealth was conveyed on dining tables through luxury items such as shark's fin and bird's nest soup. " Eating and drinking to one's heart's content is the symbol that people are living a good life," said Wu. Multi-course banquets are routinely used to celebrate birthdays and weddings, as well as holidays such as the Chinese New Year, with dish quantity and elaborate ingredients signifying wealth. Alfred Wu Muluan, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, explained that ordering an abundance of dishes is a often "question of face" -- the more a person orders, he said, the more status and respect they will have. But that has also contributed to huge amounts of waste. According to state-run media, between 2013 and 2015 China wasted about 18 million tons of food each year. When China's huge population of 1.4 billion people is considered, that's better than some Western nations. Per capita, China wastes about 72.4 pounds of food a year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2018 Food Sustainability Index.