There are many ways to avoid food waste. For example, we could buy only what we need or do not order more food than we can finish. But the French city of Colmar has a more creative idea. In 2015, it started handing out free chickens to its people.

Then-mayor(时任市长) Gilbert Meyer came up with a project “one family, one hen” and put it into practice by starting to work with two chicken farms. He told the local people that the benefit of raising a chicken would be seen quickly. At first, more than 200 homes took part. Each family was given two chickens after promising to take good care of chickens. Later, the project turned out to be a big success. Over the years, more homes have joined in.

Up to now, the government has given more than five thousand chickens to homes. But don’t think of raising the chickens just for free eggs. This act has also generated positive effects on environment. The chickens are fed on what is left in a meal, and food waste has been therefore greatly reduced. “A chicken lives up to four years on average and eats about 54.75 kg of food waste every year,” said Gilbert.

There’s a deeper reason for the effort. Food waste goes bad quickly and causes more methane(甲烷) than any other type of waste. The gas has a greater long-term global warming effect than CO₂. Today, around a third of the world’s food is wasted every year. That makes up 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions(排放) . It’s worth the effort to save as much food as possible from going to waste.