While the rest of his family was happily feasting during Spring Festival, Zu Xinming, a Senior 2 student in Shaanxi province, was frowning. "Every time my  s leave after dinner, almost half of the dishes are unfinished," he said, and we throw away a lot of food. Nowadays in China, food waste is a widespread problem. Each year, Chinese people throw away the equivalent   of about 50 million tons of grain, an amount which could feed 200 million people, according to Xinhua News Agency.    One reason is that people are unaware of the issue.    "Some of my friends don't care at all when they can't finish the food on their plates," said Zu, "and they even throw it away if they don't like the taste."    Gong Tao, an official from the Communist Youth League of China Committee of Central South University in Hunan province, is worried about the decreasing awareness of food waste on his campus in recent years.    "Students don't know how much hard work others go through in order to provide their food," Gao told China Education Daily.    One deeper factor is the Chinese cultural value of "face". In a Chinese banquet   setting, the host feels great shame when guests' plates are empty. "Serving lots of food is the Chinese way of showing respect to guests and displaying generosity," Yu Changjiang, a sociologist at Peking University, told Xinhua.     Huge public spending on government banquets is also worsening the situation. Government banquets at the taxpayer's expense   have become "a major source of waste", commented People's Daily.    The good news is that people are already beginning to take action. On Jan 16, 10 restaurants with 749 outlets   in Beijing joined an "eating up" campaign promoted by Xu Xiake, deputy director of China Land and Resources News. These restaurants have begun serving half-sized meals and small dishes.    So, how can you help reduce food waste? Discuss with your family regularly about your food preferences and how much you want to eat. Eat all of the food on your plate and in your bowl. And each week, help your parents clean the fridge so that all of the food gets eaten before it goes to waste. Where is the passage most probably taken from?
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