VOA慢速英语2021--日本公司利用技术来对抗食物浪费

Companies in Japan are increasing their use of technology to reduce food waste and cut costs during the coronavirus health crisis.

They are using artificial intelligence, or AI, to help those efforts. The businesses are also looking to increase their sustainability efforts.

How big is Japan's food waste problem?

Government information from Japan shows that it throws away more than 6 million tons of food waste each year.

The cost to handle this food waste is estimated at $19 billion. This means Japan wastes more food for each of its citizens than any other Asian country.

For this reason, the Japanese government has enacted¹ a new law. Its goal is to cut the costs of food waste by 50 percent from levels in 2000. The government wants to reach this goal by 2030 and it is urging companies to find ways to solve the problem.

Convenience store operator Lawson is now using AI from the U.S. company DataRobot. DataRobot uses technology to find ways to make supply meet demand.

In places where this program has started, Lawson aims to reduce having too much of a product by 30 percent. The company has similar plans to the Japanese government. It wants to cut its food waste by 50 percent from 2018 levels by the year 2030. The second biggest cost for Lawson's store owners is disposal of food waste. Its highest cost is labor².

Drink maker³ Suntory Beverage⁴ & Food is experimenting with an AI product from another Japanese company, Fujitsu. Suntory wants to know if products such as bottles of tea and water have been damaged in shipping⁵.

Until now, that has been done by human labor and takes a long time. With new AI technology, Suntory hopes to learn more about how its products get damaged while being sent to stores and how many will need to be returned for replacement⁶.

Suntory aims to reduce the return of goods by 30 to 50 percent and cut the cost of food waste. The goal of these efforts is to develop a system that can be shared with other food makers⁷ and the companies that transport their products.

Sustainable development goals

Japan's shoppers are known for being very fussy⁸. But even they are showing signs of agreeing. This is especially true as the coronavirus health crisis hurts people's incomes.

In 2014, Tatsuya Sekito launched Kuradashi, an internet-based business that sells surplus food at a discount. He started the company while working for a Japanese company that did business in China. There he saw huge amounts of waste from food producers.

With about 800 companies, the online network is doing very well. The reason is partly because of an increase in demand for low-priced foods. Shoppers are increasingly concerned about prices during the COVID-19 crisis.

Sekito told Reuters, "Sales grew 2.5 times last year from a year before, while the amount of food waste has doubled since the coronavirus cut off [the] food supply chain."

The companies get shoppers by offering low prices and a chance to donate to worthwhile causes and social issues. That is not bad for business either. Membership numbers jumped to 180,000 in 2021 from 80,000 in 2019.

Other businesses have joined forces with food companies in developing new technologies to cut food waste. NEC Corporation is using AI that estimates demand based on several conditions, such as the weather, the time of year, and people's buying behavior.

NEC has used AI with some major retailers⁹ and food makers. It has helped them reduce costs by 15 to 75 percent. But a top official at NEC told Reuters that reducing food waste is not the company's final goal.

Ryoichi Morita said he hopes reducing waste will help solve other business problems. These, Morita said, include reducing costs, increasing supply-and-demand efficiency, and fixing labor shortages.

Words in This Story

artificial intelligence (AI) –n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence

sustainability –n. involving methods that permit the use of resources without completely using them up or destroying them

convenience store –n. a small store that is open many hours of the day and has many different products for sale

disposal –n. the act of throwing something away

fussy –adj. hard to please; very careful about choosing something

discount –n. an amount by which the price of something is reduced to increase its chances of being sold

retailer¹⁰ –n. a person or business that sells directly to people for their own personal use

efficiency –n. the ability to produce something without wasting materials, time or energy

1 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 beverage   

n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料

参考例句：

• The beverage is often colored with caramel.这种饮料常用焦糖染色。
• Beer is a beverage of the remotest time.啤酒是一种最古老的饮料。

5 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

6 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

7 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 fussy   

adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的

参考例句：

• He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
• The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。

9 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

10 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。