 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. Coming up on the program, Faith Perlow has a story on reducing food waste in the United States. Andrew Smith and Gina Bennett have this week's health and lifestyle reports on efforts to get lower-cost medications in poorer countries. Later, Andrew and Jill Robbins present the lesson of the day, but first... When Sean Rafferty first worked in a food store 40 years ago, anything that was not sold got thrown out. But on a recent day at his store near the New York City area, he was preparing boxes of bread, vegetables, and milk products to be picked up by a food bank. It is part of a program in New York State requiring larger businesses to donate food and, if possible, reusing small leftover pieces of food. New York is among a growing number of states trying to limit food waste. They are concerned that it is taking up space in landfills and adding to global warming. A landfill is a place for putting garbage. Food waste, including meat and vegetables, releases methane gas after being put in a landfill and saving unwanted food helps to feed hungry families. Worldwide, about a third of food is wasted. In the United States, it is 40%. The U.S. spends about $218 billion each year growing and producing food that is wasted. About 57 million metric tons goes to waste, including 47.5 million metric tons that ends up in landfills. What's shocking to people often is not only how much we waste, but also the impact. Said Emily Broad Leib. She is a Harvard University professor and director of the school's Food Law and Policy Clinic. Food waste causes about 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency announced a goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2030. That has led to a number of state government efforts, along with smaller non-profit efforts. 10 American states and Washington, D.C. have passed legislation or created policies to reduce, compost, or donate waste. The states of California and Vermont have programs for turning people's food waste into compost or energy. Connecticut requires businesses, including larger food sellers and supermarkets, to reuse food waste. Farmers in Maryland can get a tax credit of up to $5,000 per farm for food they donate. Several states have joined New York in creating systems for food donation. Rhode Island requires food sellers, servicing schools and universities to donate any unused food to food banks. And Massachusetts limits the amount of food that businesses can send to landfills. As of late October, New York had sent 2.3 million kilograms of food, about four million meals, through its Feeding New York State program. The program supports the state's ten area food banks and is hoping to double that number next year. Certainly we should be reducing the amount we waste to start with, but then we should be feeding people before we throw food away, said Sally Rowland. She is with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Despite New York's success, some worry not enough is being done to meet the 2030 goal. Broad Leib and others have called for a national effort to coordinate the various state and local policies. Catherine Bender is a University of Delaware Assistant Professor of Economics. She said donation programs are helpful, but she worries they might put the responsibility on nonprofits instead of businesses. The best solution for food waste is to not have it in the first place, Bender said. If we don't need to produce all that food, let's not put all the resources into producing that food. I'm Faith Perlow. South Africa and Colombia are among the countries aiming to push drug companies to permit low-cost versions of drugs for deadly diseases. The drugs are for people with drug-resistant versions of tuberculosis, or TB, and with HIV-AIDS. One target is the drug Badakulin. It is used for treating people with drug-resistant tuberculosis. In South Africa, TB was blamed for the deaths of more than 50,000 people in 2021, making it the country's leading cause of death. Johnson & Johnson is a U.S.-based drug and medical technology company. The company owns a patent for the drug Badakulin. Patents legally protect a company's right to manufacture and sell a product that it developed or owns for a limited time. The legal protection prevents other companies from making the same drug without permission. In recent months, activists have protested efforts by Johnson & Johnson to protect its patent. In March, TB patients asked the Indian government to make a lower-cost copy of Badakulin. The government agreed, saying Johnson & Johnson's patent could be broken. In July, the time limit for Johnson & Johnson's patent on the drug ran out in South Africa. The company extended the patent until 2027 under South African law. However, activists became angry and accused Johnson & Johnson of trying to make a lot of money from the drug. The South African government then began investigating the company's pricing policies. South Africa had been paying about $282 per treatment course, a full group of treatments. This was more than twice as much as poor countries involved in the Swiss-based Stop TB partnership paid. In September, about a week after South Africa's investigation began, Johnson & Johnson announced it would not enforce its patent in more than 130 countries. This would permit other drug makers in those countries to copy the drug. Christophe Perron is a TB expert at Doctors Without Borders. He called the decision a big surprise. He said protecting patents is central to how most drug companies plan their businesses. In October, Columbia announced that it would permit a third party to make the HIV drug Dolutegraver without permission from the drug's patent holder, Vive Healthcare. The decision came after more than 120 groups asked the government to let more people use the drug, which is supported by the World Health Organization, or WHO. Peter Mabardouk is with the Washington, D.C. non-profit group Public Citizen. He thinks the Colombian government is trying to take control of its treatment of HIV after not having enough vaccines for COVID-19. He noted that Brazilian activists are pushing their government to do the same. However, some experts say more needs to change before poor countries can produce their own medicines. Petro Terblanche is managing director of the Biotechnology Company, Afrogen Biologics, based in Cape Town, South Africa. She said African countries produced less than 1% of all vaccines made around the world when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But Terblanche said Africa used more than half of the world's supply. Afrogen Biologics is part of a WHO-supported effort to produce a COVID vaccine using the same mRNA technology as those made by U.S.-based drug makers Pfizer and Moderna. Terblanche also noted that African countries need to improve their ability to deliver vaccines. If we can't get vaccines and medicines to the people who need them, they aren't useful, she said. Lynette Kinelwe Mabote Ede is a health care activist who has ties to the nonprofit treatment action group based in New York City. She noted that South Africa has no clear law permitting the government to take legal action against a patent or a patent extension. The South African Department of Health did not answer questions from the Associated Press about patents. In its yearly report on TB released in November, the WHO said there were more than 10 million people sickened by the disease in 2022 and 1.3 million deaths. After COVID-19, tuberculosis is the world's deadliest infectious disease. It is also now believed to be the main cause of death of people with HIV. The WHO says only about 40% of people with drug-resistant TB are being treated. Zolawa Sifumba, a South African doctor, found she had drug-resistant TB in 2012. She went through 18 months of treatment, taking about 20 pills every day in addition to daily injections. These left her in severe pain and resulted in some hearing loss. Bedakwilen was not a standard treatment in South Africa until 2018. I wanted to quit treatment every single day, she said. Since her recovery, Sifumba has been pushing for better TB treatment. She said it makes little sense to charge poor countries, which have more cases of TB, high prices for necessary medicines. She questioned why poor countries would have to pay a lot for medicine. If the lower-income countries can't get it, then what's the point? Who are you making it for? She said. I'm Gina Bennett. And I'm Andrew Smith. That was Andrew Smith with this week's health report. Andrew joins me now to talk a little bit more about the story. So I was hoping you could explain a little bit more about what a patent is for a product. A patent is a legal protection a government gives to a person or a company that has created a new invention and the government can also give a patent for a new way or process of making something. The reason governments give patents is that more people or businesses will want to create new things if other people cannot copy their methods or inventions without permission of the patent holder. Just like owning a house or owning a car is considered owning property, owning a patent is owning what we call intellectual property. The patent owner has the right to decide whether or how that property may be used by others. And how do medical patents work? Medical patents generally refer to drugs or medical devices like a tool a doctor might use for doing surgery or something to support a bad knee, for example. Medical patents on drugs made in the United States have time limits, usually about 20 years. So after that, other companies can make the same drug, but drug companies will often change just a small part of the drug and then ask for a new patent. What happens is this can extend the patent for several years. One of the things people were upset about in South Africa was when Johnson and Johnson extended their patent on their TB drug until 2027. But as the article states, Johnson and Johnson later changed their policy and allowed other companies to copy their drug. Why do you vaccines are produced in poor countries where diseases like TB are the most widely spread? Why do experts and activists see that as a problem? There are at least two reasons. First, there are many more cases of TB in poor countries than in wealthy ones. Second, drugs protected by patents may be more expensive than drugs the countries could make themselves. Activists think it is unfair to extend patents and high drug prices in poorer countries where people can't afford it. And experts worry that without access to more affordable drugs, fewer people will receive the treatment they need. And with tuberculosis, that can lead to many more deaths from infection. Interesting. Thanks again for joining me, Andrew. You're welcome, Dan. Happy to join you. And I'm Andrew Smith. My name is Jill Robbins. You're listening to The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In Lesson 43 of the Let's Learn English series, Anna is on her way to teach a ukulele class. She realizes that she has lost something important. Let's listen. Hey there! Tonight, I am teaching my ukulele class. It is far away, so I am going to ride the metro. Oh no! I lost my wallet! It has my metro card, my credit card, and my money! Oh no! It's times like this. I remember my father's important words. He said, Anna, never! No, wait. Always have emergency money! It's empty! Time for Plan B. Extra emergency money. No! It's empty too! Anna, it's time for Plan C. We often talk about having a Plan B for when something doesn't go as planned. Anna tells us her father said she should always have emergency money. In the video, we see her pull an envelope out of her bag, but it's empty. The same thing happened with the envelope in her boot. What do you think her Plan C will be, Jill? Anna has made some good friends, so I think she'll call one of them to ask for help. Let's find out. Listen for the way Anna asks her friend for a favor. What's up? I'm stuck downtown without any money. Would you be able to come downtown, please? Anna, I can't. I'm too busy. I have to give a big presentation in one hour. Sorry. That's okay. Good luck with your presentation. Thanks. Time for Plan D. More friends may be getting phone calls, it seems. It's a little awkward, isn't it, to ask friends for money? Did you notice how Anna asked Marcia for help? I did. She uses a modal verb would as she asks. Would you be able to come downtown, please? This sentence pattern is common when we feel we might be asking someone to make a big effort to help us. When we ask, would you be able to? We are being very polite, and giving the other person a chance to say no. We could say that we are afraid we might be imposing. That's spelled I-M-P-O-S-I-N-G. Imposing on someone by making a request for something like borrowing money. To impose is to expect someone to do more than you usually ask them to do. Another phrase we use if we feel we are imposing on someone is would you do me a favor? Let's listen to find out how Anna asks her other friends for help. Listen for a modal verb. Hey, Anna. Things are great. What's up? Well, I was wondering if you could give me some money. What? See, I lost my wife. I wish I could. I'm at the airport with my mother. Her flight leaves in two hours. I do wish I could help. Thanks. Hi. I'm Andrew Smith, and you're listening to The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English podcast. Did you hear a modal verb listeners? We hear Anna using another modal verb, could, when she asks Jonathan to give her some money. Like would, the modal verb could softens the request and makes it more polite. Well, I was wondering if you could give me some money. Jonathan uses could two times when he answers. Anna, I wish I could. I'm at the airport with my mother. Her flight leaves in two hours. That's okay. I do wish I could help. Thanks. Hi. So everyone is being polite, but Anna is still stuck without any money. There's one more thing about the language we hear in this lesson. Anna says, Well, I was wondering if you could give me some money. We use wonder in polite questions, like this. Andrew, I wonder if you're going to be busy tonight. No, I'm not busy. Why? Well, I have a project I need help with. I need a tall person who can reach the top shelves in my office. Hold on a minute there, Jill. I'll be glad to do you a favor. But first, let's get back to the story. Anna has one more friend to call. Ashley. This is serious. Time for Plan E. Hello. Hi, Ashley. Whatcha doing? Ashley, I was wondering, would you be able to come downtown and could you give me $20? Anna, I can't. I'll pay you back the money. I promise. Anna, I'm not worried about the money. I'm babysitting. Ashley is caring for a young child or babysitting. So she can't come downtown to help. What is Anna going to do? I remember she said she was going to her ukulele class. Maybe she can use her music to help her ask for money. Let's listen and find out. Well, Plans A, B, C, D, and E did not work. Think, Anna. Think! Time for Plan F. Won't you give? Thank you very much, sir. Would you give me money to give? Oh, thank you very much. Could you give? Won't you give me money? Until next time, won't you give? Listeners, at the end of this lesson, you can hear Anna busking. That's a word we use to describe when someone performs on the street and asks the people passing by to drop some money into a hat to show their appreciation for the performance. To see her and Dr. Jill in her role as a passerby, go to learningenglish.voanews.com and watch Lesson 43 of the Let's Learn English series. You can also find a fun board game in the lesson for practicing polite requests. Listeners, have you ever lost your wallet or something important like Anna did in this lesson? What did you do? Write to us at learningenglish.voanews.com or in the comments on our YouTube channel. And remember that you can find us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Thanks for listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.