WEBVTT

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We and Our Mountains,
have you seen this movie?

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I'm sure you did, and I think
you will agree with me

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that this is the masterpiece
of the Armenian cinematography.

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Every time you watch this movie,

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you discover something new
on a broad range of topics,

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starting from politics
and even agriculture and economics.

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I'd like to share a piece of that movie,

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that I consider very important

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for each farmer, an economist
and even a policy maker.

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Let's watch that.

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(Video in Armenian)

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[Do you think taking the herd to the city
like this is the right thing to do?]

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[First, we are not sheep sellers;
the State is the one buying it.]

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[We are not supposed to get there
and ask them to buy our sheep.]

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[They need to come and ask
if we have any sheep to sell.]

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[Then they need to send
100 trucks to load the sheep]

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[and get to the slaughter house
in half an hour.]

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[There are 830 sheep ...
70 km distance in two days ...]

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[Each sheep in these two days
will lose at least two kg of weight.]

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[830 times two ... 1,660 kg]

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[or 1.6 tons of meat loss.]

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[1,600 divided by 20 makes 80 sheep.]

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[If someone supplies an extra 80 sheep,]

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[the State awards him the title of hero.]

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[His photo gets published
in newspapers in Moscow,]

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[and he gets 1,000 rouble reward.]

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[Now we are witnessing a loss
of 1.6 tons of meat,]

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[but nobody will blame us.]

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[While actually we should be imprisoned.]

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It's amazing, yeah?

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It's amazing how literate were
the Armenian farmers in the 1960s.

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(Laughter)

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In one minute, Pavle was able to recognize

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that he's losing
live weight of the animals,

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calculate how much was lost,

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and even suggest that, by the law,
they are to be imprisoned.

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He's talking about the prevention,
how to prevent the loss.

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In today's terms, these 80 sheep,

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which is now Armenia's
top exportable product,

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would be worth about four million drams.

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There'll be no farmer
that would like to have such a loss,

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if you realized about that.

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But in the modern world,
it happens over and over again,

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in many sectors of the economy.

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Globally, food waste and loss
is a hot topic, today.

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About 1/3 of the food produced
in the world for human consumption

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gets wasted or lost.

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This is nearly 1.3 billion tons

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or more than half
of the world's annual cereal crop.

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The issue should concern
not only the rich, developed countries

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but also small developing
countries, such as Armenia.

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Because in Armenia, agriculture
and the food processing together

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make about 30% of the GDP of the country.

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We have a lot of people
employed in agriculture,

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about 36% of the work force,

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and most importantly,

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we still have a high rate
of rural poverty, about 32% nationwide,

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but in certain regions we have
even more, alarming rate of rural poverty.

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Preventing food waste and loss

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will have a positive impact
on raising incomes;

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improving food security,
food quality and safety;

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on economic development;
and on the environment.

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We need to recognize
that the food waste and loss

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also represents waste of resources
used in the production.

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Like in my case,
if I lose apples and the wheat,

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then I also lose the resources
I used in the production

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of these apples and the wheat,

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like energy, water, land, input.

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So, irrespective of the economic
development of the country,

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the food waste and loss
should be kept to a minimum.

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We are losing food
across the food supply chain,

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starting from egg production
to the consumption stage.

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In the field

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because of improper harvest timing,

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poor machinery,

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mechanical damage;

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in the post handling
and the storage stage

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because of inappropriate
storage conditions,

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poor temperature control;

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in the processing stage
because of mechanical damage,

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during packaging and processing;

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in the groceries and markets,
because of unsold food,

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outdated food,

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poor storage conditions;

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and in our homes.

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Was it because of wrong
shopping behaviour?

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Plate waste?

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And again some poor storage?

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In fact I'd like to mention here

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that the loss is measured for the products

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that are directed to human consumption.

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Though sometimes, people,
especially in rural areas, argue that:

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"We don't waste anything,
we don't trash anything.

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We just feed to our cows and pigs."

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It's kind of an expensive food
for the cows, right?

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I wonder if they ask the cows
what to buy for the dinner.

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(Laughter)

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As to asking,

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we did a survey on food waste
and loss in Armenia

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on several selected commodities,

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and we got shocking results.

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In fact, the methodology is based

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on Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations,

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and all allocation and the conversion
factors have been considered.

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Here's what we have.

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About 30% of the wheat available
for human consumption in Armenia

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gets wasted or lost every year.

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This is about 129,000 tons.

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The monetary value
of that would be 32 million dollars.

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And this is in a country
where wheat is a strategic crop,

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very important for food security.

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We are a net importer of wheat.

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We are importing about 60%
of the total wheat we need in the country.

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If we just add these three numbers
and convert to money,

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it would be 40 billion drams.

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Our statistics state

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that in order to eliminate poverty
from our country,

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we need about 84 billion drams.

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We are throwing away, just in the case
of these three commodities,

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about 40 billion drams.

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Where exactly we trash the food?

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It depends on each commodity.

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In the case of potato,

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the most of it happens
during the production stage,

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mostly due to mechanical damage
in the harvest time,

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and also some in the storage
because of the poor condition.

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And it happened to myself.

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Couple of years ago,
I rented a cold storage facility

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to keep my apples for the New Year,

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as many farmers do,

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and I lost 30% of it.

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It was about 1.5 tons, that time.

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This was because of poor
temperature control,

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there was no proper disinfection done,

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poor boxing.

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Overall it was poor storage facility.

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And many farmers still face such problems.

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In the case of wheat,

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about 26% of the loss
happens during the production.

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And these last two numbers, like 22, 15,

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which is the later stage of supply chain,

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37% of wheat or bread and pastry,

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we are losing in our homes
or supermarkets.

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The wheat loss, at the farm level only,
equals to nine million dollars.

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Or in other terms,

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we can buy 90 brand new
high technology combine harvesters.

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It's kind of ridiculous, right?

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From one side,

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because of mechanical damage
due to poor machinery,

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we are throwing away
90 brand new combine harvesters

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every year.

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In fact, in Armenia
we have 1,400 harvesters.

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According to statistics,

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about 83% of them are operational.

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But how operational are they?

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It's a big question.

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I remember back in the mid 90s

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when I was studying
at the Economics University -

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I see a lot of young people,

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I'm sure you've studied depreciation.

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Yes?

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I studied physical depreciation,
financial depreciation,

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accounting depreciation
and - a kind of a funny term -

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moral depreciation.

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Have you heard of a moral depreciation?

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A kind of a Soviet term, right?

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But I didn't realize that
until in Canada, a couple of years later,

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I saw a combine harvester
working in the field without a driver,

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through a GPS control satellite,
just the high-tech stuff.

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Then I realized: compared to this machine,

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our machines will be morally depreciated.

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What should an Armenian farmer do,
or what the farmer is doing,

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when a physically and morally
depreciated machine,

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like this one,

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is trying to harvest
the food of the farmer?

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He is praying.

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(Laughter)

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Because you never know
what will happen to that machine

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when the harvest is over.

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But one thing is certain:

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Until the harvest is over,
farmers look as tired as the machine.

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What to do?

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Let's act just as Pavle,
from the movie, suggests:

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Recognize, calculate and prevent.

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Recognize the fact

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that we are wasting and losing food.

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We need to make people
aware of this very important issue.

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Calculate the amount lost.

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As Peter Drucker said:

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"If you don't measure,
you are not able to manage."

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And prevent.

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Of course, I'm not saying that we need
to jail everyone - as Pavle says.

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But we can educate the farmer,

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we can invest in resource
sufficient technologies,

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we can invest in new machinery,

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we can build modern enough
cold storage facilities for our farmers.

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Or simply change our behavior.

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Gnel Ghazaryan, a live stock farmer
in Arpi village of Vayots Dzor,

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already changed his livestock management
behavior of the farming practices.

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He's transporting all his animals
to the mountainous pastures

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using trucks - like Pavle suggested -

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and he saved, last year,
four tons of animal live weight.

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After this study,

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I also completely changed
my food-purchasing behavior.

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I don't think my wife is happy about that.

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I'm now acting as a food guard in my home.

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I stopped purchases
of bulk quantities of food.

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I'm now doing more frequent
purchases in less quantity,

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paying attention
to the storage conditions, etc.

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The results are visible
in our family budget.

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If some people can change behavior,

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why can't others do the same?

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If we all change our behavior,
collectively as a country,

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if our development people
and policy makers

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pay more attention
to food waste and losses

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and the prevention of that mechanism,

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the results will be visible
in our country budget.

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And pretty soon, we'll be able
to eliminate poverty from our country.

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So, go home and, please, save food.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)