《成为素食主义者的101个理由》101 Reasons to Go Vegan
圖片說明:本文作者 Pamela Rice
101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian (2007)
我為何是個素食者的101個理由
By Pamela Rice 巴美拉. 蕾絲 原著
Seventh Edition, pamphlet version
2007年第7次小冊修訂本
中英對照編譯: 何智超 Tom He
中文審核: 黃文仁 James Huang / 張圓圓 Carol Zhang
1 Nearly all of the some 10 billion animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. every year are the end result of a behemothic-sized swift-moving assembly line system, incorporating dangerous, unprecedented, and unsustainable methods of production. If America’s farmers were required by law to give their animals humane living conditions, including spacious quarters, clean surroundings, fresh air, sunlight, and opportunities for social interaction--and if it were illegal simply to drug the animals who would otherwise die from the conditions in which they live--cheap meat could never exist. Time and again the industry balks at even low-cost measures designed to improve the animals’ plight. Prices have been driven to levels unnaturally low, and, alas, a luxury good has been transformed into a staple.
1.在美國每年接近有一百億隻牲口被屠殺成為食物, 而且差不多所有都是這龐然大物般的高速裝配生產線系統的結果,它融會了危險和前所未有而無法持續的生產方法。如果美國法律裡有規定農民都必須給予動物人道 的生活條件的話, 例如寬敞的畜舍,清潔的環境,清新的空氣,陽光,和社交互動的機會; 如果,這些只靠藥物來維持將死于惡劣環境下的動物的生命是非法的話, 那麼廉價肉不會存在。 長期以來, 肉品業連最低成本的動物生存環境改良措施都拒絕使用。而肉價就被人為地驅使至如此不正常的低。 很可惜,奢侈豪華的商品已轉化為大宗廉價商品。
2 America’s farmed animals produce 1.3 billion tons of waste per year, or 5 tons for every U.S. citizen. (Just one cow produces 100 pounds per day.) And the pollution strength of it all can reach levels 160 times greater than that of raw municipal sewage. This vast accumulation is not neatly contained; manure is the most common pollutant today in America’s waters. Land sprayed with pig excrement is particularly toxic, since pigs contract and transmit many human diseases--namely, meningitis, salmonella, chlamydia, giardia, cryptosporidiosis, worms, and influenza. Manure is laden with phosphorous, nitrates, and heavy metals and emits ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and cyanide. Manure has always been seen as fertilizer. But in today’s quantities, it is an under-regulated industrial pollutant.
2.美國的農養動物每年制造13億噸廢物,或每個美國公民一年制造5噸排泄廢物(單單一頭奶牛每天就制造100磅) 。 如此的污染強度是相當於城市下水道污染水平的160倍。這大量的废料積累并沒受到完善的衛生控制; 動物的糞便是目前美國水中最常見的污染物。被喷淋過豬糞的土地是尤其有毒的,因為豬可感染及傳遞人類許多的疾病: 如腦膜炎,沙門氏菌,衣原體,賈第蟲,隱孢子蟲,蛔蟲和流性感冒。糞肥裡充滿了磷、硝酸鹽和重金屬, 而且會釋放氨、甲烷、硫化氫、一氧化碳、和氰化物。糞肥一直被視為肥料。但以今天的數量,它已變成了一個缺乏管制的工業污染物。
3 When people adhere to a diet rich in animal fat and protein and get little exercise, cancer risks are increased. Beef consumption raises the level of toxic substances called N-nitroso compounds, which are formed in the large bowel. The substances are believed to stick to DNA, making mutations more likely. Dietary fiber could be helpful in repairing the damage. But only plant foods contain it.
3.當人們堅持進食以動物性脂肪和蛋白質為主的飲食,又很少運動,罹患癌症的風險就會昇高。食用牛肉提高在大腸形成的, 叫N-亞硝基化合物的有毒物質的指數。科學家相信此物質會付著在DNA上而使基因突變更有可能。食物纖維可有助於修復此類損害, 但只有在植物性食物中可找到它。
4 The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 70 percent of the world’s commercial fish stocks are fully exploited, overfished, or collapsed. To supply surging world demand, fishers use rapacious techniques, such as sonar, driftnets, longlines, dredgers, and leviathan fish-packing vessels. In the case of longlining, 4.5 million hooks are launched daily. A third of the world’s harvested fish go to feed livestock or farmed fish. The ocean’s interconnected ecosystem simply cannot keep pace. Now, 90 percent of the coveted top predator fish are gone. Consequently, fishers have moved down the food web to species once considered “trash.” These species, of course, are the food source of the fish that were initially overfished. In 2006, a report published in the journal Science gave the world until 2048 for all wild commercial stocks to be wiped out. The world could be left to fish nothing but jellyfish and bait.
4. 据聯合國糧食及農業組織估計, 世界上70%的商業鱼群已經被充分的開發、過度捕撈、或瓦
解。為了供應世界上急增的需求,漁民便使用貪婪的捕魚技術, 如聲納、流網、 延繩釣、挖泥船、和利維坦魚肉包裝之船隻。至于延繩釣, 每日發動就有四千五百萬只。 世界三分之一捕撈到的魚都用來餵牲畜或成為農養魚。海洋原有的相互關聯的生態系統, 根本無法跟上。現在, 90 %食物鏈頂端的擸食魚類已消失。因此,漁民把食物網下移到昔日被視為“垃圾”的物種.這物種當然就是最初被過度捕撈的魚的食物。在2006年科學雜誌上發 表的一份報告,最晚到2048年所有野生商業魚群都會被捕光。世界上可能剩下捕的魚只有是水母和當誘餌用的小魚類。
5 The Humane Slaughter Act requires that mammals be rendered insensible to pain before being slaughtered. A Washington Post series in 2002, however, exposed a packing industry hard pressed to follow this law. Animals were found regularly butchered alive on speeded-up conveyor lines. A resolution that the Humane law be followed to the letter did become part of the U.S. Farm Bill. But long after the politicians enjoyed their photo-ops, the live butchering surely continues. Appropriated Farm Bill funds ended up being diverted to food-safety inspectors already employed. In the end, it almost doesn’t matter. The Humane law does not even apply to 99 percent of animals slaughtered, because poultry and fish are not covered by it.
5. 人道屠宰法規定,哺乳動物被屠宰前必須先將其失去知覺,然後才將其屠宰。然而, 2002年華盛頓郵報系列透露,某個肉類包裝行業並沒遵守這條法律。許多動物經常被發現被活宰于加快的輸送線上。因而一項要求以人道法必須被遵守的決議的 確成為了美國農業法案一部分。但不久之後, 活屠宰又繼續。原來所撥的農業法案資金最終反被挪用到食品安全檢查員去了。不過講到最後,其實可以說都沒有什麼大不了。 因為沒有受到人道法保護的動物, 是被屠宰牲口的99 %, 因為人道法并不保護家禽和魚類。
6 A meat diet dramatically raises your risk for heart attack, but in recent years you’re less likely to die from the trauma. Technology will probably save your life, leaving you to live with the consequences. In the case of congestive heart failure--an increasingly common outcome--your heart, now damaged, is unable to adequately circulate blood to the rest of your body, resulting in fluid build-up and organ damage. In the U.S., nearly 5 million people live with the condition, and about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. The disease is the leading cause of hospitalization among the elderly, and hospital bills attributed to it total $29 billion annually.
6. 肉類飲食明顯地提高您罹患心臟病風險,但現在您比較少會因此而死亡。因為科技可能會挽救你的生命,不過就要一輩子受苦。就以心肌梗塞來說, 這種越來越常見的后果, 你的心臟因受損後而無法充分地讓你的血液在身體上流通,會導致積水和器官損傷。在美國,近5百萬人有此症狀,而每年約有55萬宗新病例。這種疾病是導致老 人住院的主要原因,每年花在有關此症狀的醫藥費就將近290億美元。
7. Pigs are naturally anything but dirty and brutish and, if given half a chance, display high intelligence. Ask Professor Stanley Curtis of Pennsylvania State University. He taught several pigs to understand complex relationships between objects and actions in order to play video games. Curtis, along with his colleagues, found these creatures to be focused, creative, and innovative--equal in intelligence to chimpanzees. Other researchers have found chickens to be good at solving problems, cows to respond to music, and fish to be as individualistic as dogs.
7. 不要看豬好像很骯髒又粗野,其實如果給它一點點機會,我們會發現它有挺高的智能。不信就問問賓夕法尼亞州立大學的柯蒂斯教授。他教幾頭豬了解物件之間的複 雜關係, 然後讓牠們玩电视游戏。柯蒂斯和他的同事們發現,這些動物很專心,有創造性、會創新, 和黑猩猩的智能不相上下。也有其他研究人員發現雞原來善於解決問題, 牛還真的對音樂作出回應!而魚就跟狗兩者具有其相同之獨特個性。
8 Approximately 800 million people today live with chronic hunger, and 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes every day. Yet the world cycles nearly 43 percent of all the grain that is harvested through animals to produce meat. To get a feedlot steer to gain a pound, you need 7 pounds of corn. Likewise, additional pounds of pig, chicken, and farmed fish will cost you, respectively, 3.5, 2, and 3 pounds in feed. Of course, large portions of the added weight turn into inedible tissue, such as bones. The meat industry does endeavor to increase feed-to-flesh efficiency, but the “improvements” sadly come via genetic tinkering, growth enhancing drugs, and questionable feed.
8. 今天的世界, 大約有8億人長期忍受飢餓, 每一天有1萬6千個兒童死於跟飢餓相關之因由。然而,世界上近百分之四十三的穀類都用來供給農養牲畜。要使公牛加重一磅,您需用7磅的玉米餵食。同樣地, 每磅的豬、雞和養殖魚類的成本,分別為 3.5磅, 2磅和3磅飼料。很諷刺的,所增加的重量大部分都是不能被吃的身體部分,如骨頭。肉類工業的確正在很努力地提高從飼料到肉的增長效率,可悲的是,這些“改 進”都是通過基因的改造, 加上使用刺激生長的藥物與一些令人懷疑的飼料。
9. About 25 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to U.S. livestock every year primarily for growth promotion. This is almost eight times the amount administered to humans. Though perfectly legal, the practice is leading to the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and adding to the general worldwide crisis of drug-resistant disease. The consumption of meat contaminated with these superbugs raises the threat of human illnesses that physicians are unable to treat.
9在美國為了促進牲畜的生長,每年對其注射的抗生素約25萬磅, 此為將近給人類注射藥物的八倍。雖然這是完全合法的,但這種做法導致部分大腸杆菌對抗生素抵抗,也是造成世界抗藥性疾病危機的其中一個原因。 若進食了感染“超級病菌”的肉類, 可能會得一些連醫生都無法治療的疾病。
10 Every year, Americans suffer from approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5, 000 deaths from something they ate. That something was probably of animal origin. The main culprits are E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and campylobacter. The annual cost to the U.S. for the top-five foodborne pathogens, all predominantly associated with animal-derived foods: $6.9 billion.
10.每年在美國由飲食引起的病例有七千六百萬宗,住院32萬次,死亡5千宗。所吃的可能都是來源于動物。 主要元兇是E. Coli 大腸桿菌、沙門氏菌、李斯特菌及彎曲桿菌。美國前5名食源性致病菌都是跟肉食有關。 這些食源性疾病每年造成的醫療費用高達69億美元。
11 Bypass surgery requires that your rib cage be opened, your heart stopped, and your body hooked up to an external pumping machine so a vein from some other part of your body can be removed and grafted as a replacement blood vessel to your heart. Memory, language ability, and spatial orientation remain impaired in 10 to 50 percent of bypass patients six months afterward. Side effects for some never go away. Gloom and depression affect between a third and three-quarters of patients. Many will require a second operation. A vegetarian diet, regular exercise, and spiritual nourishment have proven to reverse heart disease--the biggest killer in Western countries.
11. 做心臟搭橋手術的時候,首先需要打開您的肋廓,讓您的心臟停止,將你的身體暫時連接到一個唧筒機器,好讓醫生把身體其他部分的靜脈嫁接來替代您的心血管。 百分之十到五十做過搭橋手術的病人在手術以後的六個月仍然未能恢復記憶能力,語言能力和方位感。 更有一些病人是終身都有這些後遺症。三分之一到四分三都病人後來都會受到憂愁和抑鬱症的折磨。許多人還需要第二次手術。相形之下, 若堅持素食,定時運動,加上精神上的調理已証實可以扭轉心臟病...西方國家的頭號殺手。
12 To supply the corn and soybeans to feed the livestock to bring daily meat to America’s dinner plates has meant concentrated levels of pesticides, fertilizers, and farm chemicals contaminating many aquifers across the Midwest. Some towns have come to rely on their neighbors for fresher, though expensive, supplies of water. But a recent boom in cattle and pig operations has poisoned these stores as well, prompting plans for government-subsidized pipelines to link towns with major rivers. Some, however, see such costly schemes as ill-advised and the subsidized water as exactly what got the towns in trouble in the first place.
12.供應玉米和大豆飼料給牲畜,意味著美國人每天晚宴盤上的肉類都含有高濃度的農藥與化學肥料,還有整個中西部地區許多 地下含水層都受到農藥的污染。,雖然比較昂貴, 有些城鎮唯有依靠鄰近城市供應比較乾淨的水。但近年養豬牛的興盛, 使這些比較有乾淨水的地方也都被污染。 此興盛促使政府計劃來資助把城鎮管道連接到主要河流去。有人看來卻認為,這種昂貴的計劃,不恰当的建議和來“补助”的水根本就是當初引起這些城鎮問題的來 源。
13 Eating a plant-based diet guards against disease: first in an active way with complex carbohydrates, phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Then by default: the more plant foods you eat, the less room you have for animal foods that clog arteries with cholesterol, strain kidneys with excess protein, and burden the heart with saturated fat. Clinical studies have shown that meat-free diets reverse diabetic symptoms and reduce cholesterol levels by about as much as the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs.
13. 以植物性為基礎的飲食方法可預防疾病。 首先因為植物含有複雜的碳水化合物、植物營養素、抗氧化劑、維生素、礦物質和纖維。自然而然, 你進食的植物性食品越多,體內就剩下更少的空間讓你進食那些帶有阻塞動脈的膽固醇的動物性食物,還有那些增加腎臟負擔的多余蛋白質,和增加心臟負荷的飽和 脂肪。臨床研究証明,素食可以扭轉糖尿病症狀,並可降低膽固醇指數, 效果跟使用降低膽固醇的藥物不相上下。
14 Livestock production is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent, a share 38 percent higher than that emitted by all the world’s vehicles. Domesticated animals worldwide are the source of 37 percent of all human-induced methane, with most of that coming from intestinal fermentation of ruminants. They also are the source of 65 percent of human-induced nitrous oxide, the great majority from manure. Methane and nitrous oxide are exceedingly more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Livestock are also behind almost two-thirds of all human-induced ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acidification of ecosystems.
14. 以二氧化碳當量來衡量, 全球18%的溫室氣體排放量都來源於畜牧業生產,比世界上所有的車輛所排放的量高出38 %。人為所產生的甲烷有37%都出於農養動物,其中大多數都來自反芻動物(多胃動物)腸道裡的發酵作用。牠們也占人為因素引起的氧化亞氮的65 %,絕大部份來自這些農養動物之糞便。甲烷和氧化亞氮, 比起二氧化碳可是極其有力的溫室氣體。這些農養動物也是人類所引起的氨的三分之二的幕后凶手,其已顯著地讓生態系統酸化。
15 Governments try to regulate fishing gear, catch size, species, and fishing season, but usually without success. Perhaps the biggest single threat to global fish stocks is illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing, which, it is estimated, amounts to about a quarter of the world’s catch. In some locations, IUU fishing has been documented to amount to four times the legal catch. Efforts to combat piracy are fraught with obstacles, not the least being feverish world demand for fish. For pirates, the return on investment is well worth the risks of side-stepping fishing conventions, skirting surveillance, off-loading fish to other boats that “launder” the catch, and docking at complicit ports. Because when pirates are actually caught, the penalties tend to be inordinately light.
15. 世界各國政府嘗試管制漁具,漁獲的大小,物種和捕撈季節,但通常沒有成功。也許全球魚群的是最大威脅是非法,未受報告,或不受管制的捕魚活動(總稱 IUU)。據估計,這占約世界捕魚總量的四分之一。在一些地方記錄到, IUU捕撈的數量是合法捕魚的四倍。致力打擊海盜活動是充滿障礙的,再加上魚的需求正在發狂發熱。對于海盜來講,非法捕魚IUU投資回報率之高是遠遠超過 所須冒的風險。 即使要違反漁業公約,避開監視器,將所捕之魚裝載於其他船隻以便洗清其捕獲之贓物,並靠岸於同謀的港口。這都是因為當海盜被逮捕後,往往多從輕發落。
16 Egg-laying hens in the U.S. are crammed into battery cages, each with 4 to 8 other birds, stacked in rows by the tens of thousands. Manure and rotting-carcass fumes billow up from below. Beetles form a layer over the waste. Some birds get loose and drown in the pit. Others get tangled in the wire and die of dehydration, then decompose, covered in bugs, while cage mates have no escape. Intense stress sets birds to attack one another. After 17 months of confinement, necks are covered with blisters, wings bare, combs bloody, and feet torn. By now, the birds are considered an expense and will be disposed of, expediently.
16. 在美國的產蛋母雞都擠在層架式雞籠裡,每個籠裝四到八只雞,堆成數萬行。糞便和腐爛尸體毒氣不斷地從下往上昇。這些雞的排泄物堆上長滿了蟲子。 若是從籠子跑出來的雞, 往往會落入這些排泄物的坑內, 而被淹死。其他有些雞的腳卡在鐵籠之縫閒乃至脫水而死,後身體腐爛分解,上面又長滿了蟲子。 而籠裡面的伙伴們, 就連逃脫的機會都沒有。嚴重的精神壓力讓這些雞像瘋了一樣互相打鬥。 經過17個月的監禁,脖子上佈滿水泡,翅膀上的毛都掉
光,雞冠上血淋淋的, 連腳也磨破了。這個時候, 這些母雞便成了業主的財務負擔, 而很快就被處理了。
17 Early in 2007, Consumer Reports tested 525 supermarket chickens from all across the U.S. and found only 17 percent free of both salmonella and campylobacter. Premium brands labeled “organic” or “raised free of antibiotics” actually harbored more salmonella than conventional ones. Most of the bacteria were resistant to at least one type of antibiotic, making food poisoning from eating poultry that much harder to treat. Some samples showed resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics.
17. 在2007年初,消費者報告會檢測了525只來自美國全國各地超市的雞隻,竟然發現只
有17 %的完全沒有沙門氏菌和彎曲桿菌。標示有“有機”或“無抗生素”的優質品牌 ,原來包藏更多沙門氏菌。大部分的大腸杆菌至少對一種抗生素有抵抗力,使因吃家禽而食物中毒的病例更難治療。一些取样的大腸杆菌裡還顯示有對多種抗生素有 抵抗力。
18 Two major studies have emerged recently that show the vegan lifestyle to be conducive to lower body weight. A Swedish study of 55,000 women and a British study of 65,000 men and women both found vegans to have lower BMIs (body mass index) and to suffer less often from obesity. Vegan food tends to be lower in calories by volume. And since plant-based fare is likely to contain abundant fiber, it satiates quicker.
18. 最近有兩則较大的研究報告指出, 維根素食主義的生活方式有利於降低體重。在瑞典一個以5萬5千名婦女, 和一個英國以6萬5千名男女作的研究中, 均發現,素食者有較低的BMI(身體質量指數),並比較少機會肥胖。素食裡的熱量往往低很多。而且由於以植物為基礎的食物更有可能含有豐富的纖維,它讓你 能更快飽足。
19 Half of every butchered cow and a third of every butchered pig becomes either byproduct material or waste. And “mortalities” are integral to every feedlot and stockyard. What’s an industry to do with all this death and gore? Call the renderer straightaway! Recycling, they call it. Lips are exported to Mexico for taco filling; horns are made into gelatin; other parts are fashioned into drugs, aphrodisiacs, and industrial ingredients. Much is dried to a tacky brown powder to be mixed into chicken and pig feed. The rest is minced, pulverized, and boiled down for cosmetics and household products. Essentially, assume slaughterhouse byproduct is all around you.
19. 每只被屠殺的奶牛的一半都成為副產品或廢物, 豬的三分之一也是。“死亡”與每一個牲畜養殖場是不可分離的。這個行業又怎麼會跟死傷搭上了線?馬上打電話給那專做熬油的吧!他們都稱之為廢物利用啊!這 些牲畜的嘴唇都出口到墨西哥當墨西哥卷饼(Taco)的餡料;牛角製成明膠; 其他部分就有的用來造西藥,有的變成春藥,還有的做工業原料。大部分的這些屠宰後之副產物被烤乾, 磨成粉後, 變成雞和豬的飼料。其餘就切碎後粉化,並經煮熬成為化妝品和家用產品。基本上,你可以大膽的假設你身邊都是屠場出來的副產品。
20 Of all the animals in America who suffer cruelty, 95 percent of them are farmed animals. Designated as economic units, they have conveniently been stripped of all protections against abuse. At the federal level, the Animal Welfare Act simply does not apply to farmed animals. At the state level, where laws might pick up the slack, anti-cruelty statutes are either not enforced or have, in recent years, been re-written to exclude farmed animals. In the case of the latter, if a farming practice is established as “accepted,” “common,” “customary,” or “normal”--no matter how inhumane--anti-cruelty protections are overridden. In essence, it’s the criminals dictating the laws to suit their designs.
20. 在美國遭受殘酷對待的動物中, 其中95%都是農養牲畜。牠們被定為經濟生產的單位,所以也輕而易舉地被剝奪了所有用來防止虐待的保護。從美國聯邦的層面來看,動物福利法根本不適用於養 殖動物。在州政府層面來看,本來可彌補聯邦不及的地方, 其反殘酷法規要不沒有被強制執行,要不就在近几年被重寫至不再保護農養動物了。如果這些畜農的做法是列為“可接受的"、“普通的”、 “傳統的”或“正常”的話, 那麼不管他們的做法如何不人道, 反殘酷法規對這些業主是無效的。一言蔽之, 法律均是罪犯自己來制定而肥潤其身。
21 In the mid-1970s, chicken processors argued that in order to keep up with skyrocketing demand they should be allowed to merely rinse off fecal matter from bird carcasses rather than cut away affected parts. The government gave in to the processors’ request, and the rule stands to this day. A number of studies have since proved that rinsing carcasses, even up to 40 times, is ineffective at dislodging the filth. It’s something to know since the violent motion of factory defeathering rubber fingers not only works to squirt feces out from the carcasses, it can push filth deep into the crevices of the birds’ skin.
21. 在七十年代中期,雞隻處理業主爭辯,說為了跟上暴漲的需求量,應該允許他們只沖洗鳥屍體上的糞便,而不需要切除其受感染的部分。政府對這些處理業主的要求 居然讓步。 直到今天, 此規定仍然不變。多項研究已證明,即使沖洗屠體40次,仍然是無法徹底清除污垢的。這其實是很值得提的, 因為工廠裡的拔毛橡膠手指,因其運作力度過大, 不僅把糞便從屠體裡擠出,而且會還把污物從裂縫中推進雞的皮膚深處。
22 Several of the world’s mightiest rivers no longer reach the sea, and aquifer levels around the world are dropping by dozens, and even hundreds, of feet. Largely responsible is the fivefold increase in worldwide (water-guzzling) meat production that’s taken place over the last half-century, and the trend is not over. Producing a pound of animal protein requires about 100 times the water to produce a pound of vegetable protein. It takes about 1,300 gallons of water to produce a single hamburger. Seventy percent of the water that is pulled from the world’s rivers, lakes, and underground wells goes to agriculture, and 43 percent of the world’s grain goes to feed animals for meat.
22. 世界幾個的最大的河流已不再連到海洋了,地下含水層的高度下降是以幾十,甚至幾百,英尺來計的。要負很大的責任的,是在過去半世紀增加了五倍的肉類生產, 而且這種趨勢還沒有結束。產生一英鎊的動物性蛋白質所需要用的水, 大約是生產一英鎊的植物蛋白的所需要的100倍。生產一塊漢堡飽大約需時1300加侖水。 世界上的河流,湖泊和地下井的水, 70%都用在農業, 而43%生產的穀類都變成農養牲畜的飼料以換取肉類食品。
23. Feedlot meat is a product of the oil age. When cheap oil is gone, cheap meat will be history. A pound of beef takes three-quarters of a gallon of oil to produce, according to National Geographic. A 1,250-pound steer essentially embodies 283 gallons of oil. Thirty-five calories of fossil fuel are needed to produce a single calorie of beef protein. By comparison, only two calories of fossil fuel are required to produce one calorie of tofu.
23. 農養肉是石油時代的一種產品。當廉價石油消失後,廉價的肉類將成為歷史。 根據國家地理雜誌, 一磅牛肉需四分之三加侖石油來生產。 一頭1千2百50磅的犢牛,基本上體現了283加侖石油。 產生一卡路里熱量的牛肉蛋白需要35卡路里的石化燃料。相比之下,一卡路里的豆腐只需要兩個卡路里的石化燃料。
24 Today’s confined cattle live in their own excrement, which is the carrier of the deadly E. coli strain O157:H7. Caked-on manure will migrate to edible portions during dehiding, thanks to line speeds of 390 animals per hour and laborers who are not always properly skilled. Ground beef today is made up of mixtures of hundreds or even thousands of animals. The grinding process brings surface pathogens to patty interiors that may, down the line, not be cooked adequately. A univer-sity study found that O157:H7 may also be harbored in the interior of a solid piece of meat.
24. 現在的牛都生活在自己的糞便中,而這正是致命大腸桿菌E.Coli O157:H7的帶菌者。 由於生產線速度高達每小時處理390隻動物,加上不是每個工人都有適當的技術水準, 往往在剝皮的時候,牛的殘留糞會轉移到食用肉品部分。今天的碎牛肉是由數百甚至數千動物混合而成的。磨削過程中, 表面的病原體被帶進肉品內部, 最後又可能沒有被充分煮熟。一個大學研究發現, 一塊的堅實肉內部也可能夾帶著O157:H7大腸杆菌。
25 Wild salmon stocks in 20 Norwegian rivers have in recent years been wiped out by a parasite that first took hold in local aquaculture feedlots. Scotland’s river managers warned early in 2007 that one careless angler spreading the parasite could decimate Scotland’s wild salmon stocks as well. Pharmaceuticals and pesticides are typically added to all aquaculture pens to forestall disease and infection, sometimes doing neither and inadvertently causing environmental havoc.
25. 挪威在近年來有二十條河流的野生鮭魚種群被一種寄生蟲消滅。 這種寄生蟲首先在當地的水產養殖場繁殖。在蘇格蘭經理河流的人士在2007年初警告,只要有一個不小心的漁夫把寄生蟲傳播, 即會大批殺害蘇格蘭的野生鮭魚種群。水產養殖場的環境中通常都添加藥品和農藥,以防疾病和感染。 有時這樣做不但沒有效果, 而且還會無意中造成環境的破壞。
26 Birds are cheap and cages are expensive, so battery hens live out their dreary days in space just about the size of their own bodies. No hen gets to run, build a nest, enjoy a cleansing dust bath, protect a chick, forage in the sun, perch, fly, or even lift a wing. Instead, this creature will crouch and suffer and fend off the feather pulling of cage mates. And every egg that is laid will roll away down the slope of a wire floor, which will also cripple her legs and feet.
26. 雞很便宜, 而雞籠卻十分昂貴,所以雞籠裡的母雞每天都活在只有自己的身體大小的籠子裡面。不能走跑,或建立一個巢,或享受用泥土來洗澡,或保護了雛雞,或在陽光下找 東西吃,也不能飛,或甚至伸展翅膀。反之,這生物要縮著,受苦, 還要擋開籠裡其他同伴的羽毛。而且每一個生出來的雞蛋都從傾斜的地板上滾下去, 往往把母雞的腿跟腳都弄傷弄斷。
27 The senseless waste of the world’s growing meat-centered diet is illustrated by a hypothetical statement put forth by the Population Reference Bureau: “If everyone adopted a vegetarian diet and no food were wasted, current [food] production would theoretically feed 10 billion people [49 percent more people than alive today], more than the projected population for the year 2050.”
27. 世界上以肉類為中心的飲食所產生的無意義浪費,可以用人口參考局一句假設性的聲明來形容: “如果每個人都食用素食,又沒有浪費任何食物,以當前的食物生產量, 理論上可以供養一百億人(比今天活著的多49 %), 比預計2050年的人口還多” 。
28 By some assessments, the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which originated in Asia and is now spreading across Europe and Africa, has the potential to disrupt life on planet Earth second only to global nuclear war. Others predict that if the strain mutates, perhaps just slightly, a bird-flu pandemic could kill more than 140 million people and put a halt to [U.S.]$4.4 trillion in world economic activity. Influenza pandemics generally come three times per century, and we’re overdue for our next. Any strain of influenza that humans contract, including H5N1, would scarcely exist if people had never domesticated poultry.
28. 據估計, 起源於亞洲的H5N1禽流感病毒株, 現正蔓延整個歐洲和非洲,其對地球的破壞力,僅次於全球核戰爭。而其他的估計,如果該菌株發生變異,或許只是輕微的,禽流感大流行可能會殺死超過一百四十 萬人,並讓世界經濟停頓, 損失可達4.4兆美元。流感之散播,一般每世紀來三次. 我們只經歷了兩次, 已經逾期了。 如果人類從來沒有養家禽, 任何人類感染的流感菌株,包括 H5N1病毒,幾乎不可能發生。
29 Every spring, neighbors of chicken feedlots in North Carolina desperately complain about the stench. It is then that ammonia-laden fumes from adjacent manure lagoons begin to permeate everything porous that they own: clothes, rugs, drapes, and hair--haunting them for weeks. But unlike the state’s infamous pork industry of 10 million hogs, poultry growing is virtually exempt from environmental regulation. For North Carolina’s 165 million tightly confined birds, there are no rules, because their waste is considered less noxious. But over a year’s time, the droppings and mortalities accumulate in pits below to about a foot deep and, to some, smell even worse than lagoons of pig excrement. Nearby wells become tainted from runoff, but it’s nearly impossible to trace this kind of pollution back to the polluter.
29. 在北卡羅萊納州的每年春季, 雞飼養場的鄰居都拼命地抱怨其傳出來的惡臭。載滿了氨的煙霧從鄰近的雞糞集中池開始飄散滲透到每個角落:如他們的衣服,地毯,窗簾,和頭髮, 會讓他們臭的數周都受不了。但跟此州所農養1千萬頭豬所臭名遠播的豬肉產業有所不同,家禽數目的增長速度幾乎不被環保規定所限制了。對北卡羅萊納州的 1.65億籠養雞, 並有沒有限制任何規定,因為他們的糞便都被認為毒害較少。 但超過一年的時間,在坑裡的糞便和死雞的屍體堆積約一英尺深,對某些人來說,此惡臭比豬糞集中池更為難忍。附近的水井都被這些外洩的污水給污染,但像這樣 的污染, 幾乎無法追溯到誰是罪魁禍首了。
30 A male calf born to a dairy cow: what’s a farmer to do with this by-product of the milk industry? If he is not kept for breeding stock or immediately slaughtered or factory-produced for meat, the calf will be raised for fancy veal. To this end, he will be locked up in a stall and chained by his neck to prevent him from turning around for 16-weeks until slaughter. He’ll be fed a special diet without iron or roughage. He’ll be injected with antibiotics and hormones to keep him alive and to make him grow. And he’ll be kept in darkness except for feeding time. The result: a nearly full-grown animal with flesh as tender and white as a newborn’s.
30. 奶牛生下了公牛犢, 農民對這個奶業的副產物如何做法?如果它不是被保存做繁殖用, 或立即屠宰成肉食的話,此小牛將被飼養成為花式小牛肉。為此,他將被關在畜舍裡, 用鐵鍊鎖著他的脖子,以防止他從扭轉, 如此經歷16週,直至屠宰。他會被餵食一種特殊飲食, 即無鐵質也無粗糧。又被注射抗生素及激素讓他活著,並使其快速成長。 除餵食時間, 他將被關在在暗室中。結果是:一只幾乎發育完全的動物, 其肉還是軟軟白白的初生之犢一般。
31 The world’s exploding human population, combined with its sagging ability to feed itself, appear to be on a collision course. The Green Revolution, which facilitated much of the recent growth, has clearly stalled out. Indeed, cereal availability per capita has been declining since 1984, and the “promise” of biotech is far from certain or free of risk. Today, 70 percent of grain in the U.S. and 43 percent of grain worldwide lavishly go to feed livestock. And just as the world clamors for more grain to feed to animals, so people can eat them, per-capita world cropland declined by 20 percent in the 1990s alone. The World Health Organization says 800 million people in the world live with chronic hunger. More meat production is definitely not the answer.
31. 世界人口爆炸,再加上其自我養活能力的衰退,真不知道何時此兩個問題會撞在一塊兒!而曾經促進了近代增長的綠色革命,如今已明顯的停擺了。事實上,自 1984年以來, 平均每人可得之穀糧指數一直在下降,生物科技領域所允許下的“承諾”還遠遠不能確定, 而且不是沒有風險的。今天, 在美國70 %的穀糧,及全世界43 %的糧食都奢侈地用來餵養牲畜。 世界喧鬧地要給予動物更多的糧食飼料,以便人們可以吃牠們的肉。 正當此同時, 僅在九十年代世界每人平均可耕地面積就下降了20 % 。世界衛生組織說, 世界上有8.0億人長期生活在飢餓中。生產更多的肉類鐵定不是正確答案。
32 A USDA inspector, part of an ABC Primetime investigation, clandestinely filmed a plant that processes a million pounds of chicken for schools each year. The investigator found carcasses laden with yellow sores and fecal matter and machines caked with harmful residues. The plant had repeatedly failed salmonella tests. Some of the cheapest, most unsanitary meat tends to be sold to schools.
32. 据美國廣播公司黃金時段 (ABC Primetime) 的調查,一位美國農業部檢查員秘密地拍攝了一家為學校每年處理100萬英鎊的雞肉工廠。調查發現, 工廠裡到處都是被黃瘡和糞便覆蓋的死雞屍體, 還有佈滿了有害殘留物的機器。該廠曾多次不通過沙門氏菌的測試。而這些最廉價,最不衛生的肉類往往便出售給學校, 是極為泯滅良心的作法。
33 Bestiality is integral to pork, turkey, and dairy operations. Numerous Web sites instruct in the craft of artificial insemination. Sample excerpts follow: As he sniffs around, put on disposable gloves. If he has mounted the stool, he will begin thrusting movements. With a gloved hand, rub his sheath. Now reach for the cup. The penis will erect and start to enter your clenched hand. Continue to hold the penis until the boar withdraws. The end of ejaculation is determined by a bouncing of the penis. With the sow, a stockperson must mimic some of the stimulation normally provided by a boar, that is, back pressure and flank and udder rubbing. When the lips of the vulva are gently parted, insert the catheter.
33. 獸戀症與豬肉,火雞肉,和乳製品的行業務原來是息息相關的。 大量網站正在傳授人工工授精的技術。以下摘錄了一個例子:當看到它聞來聞去的時候,工人就馬上帶上拋起式的手套。如果它爬上了凳子上,他將開始抽插運動。 一個戴手套的手,搓它的鞘。現在快拿一個杯。它陰莖將勃起並開始進入工人緊握的手。繼續握著陰莖,直到公豬縮回。陰莖的彈跳表示射精完畢。至于母豬, 工作人員必須模仿一些通常由公豬所提供的刺激作用,那就是背壓和摩擦乳房。當外陰唇輕輕打開 ,即插入導管以完成人工受精。
34 The late parent advisor Dr. Benjamin Spock maintained that cows’ milk “causes internal blood loss, allergies, and indigestion and contributes to some cases of childhood diabetes.” In the last edition of his famous baby book he recommended, essentially, that children adhere to a vegan diet after the age of two. But he did not recommend dairy milk for babies either. According to renowned nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell, “Cows’-milk protein may be the single most significant chemical carcinogen to which humans are exposed.”
34. 已故的父母顧問, 本傑明史巴克博士 (Dr. Benjamin Spock) 認為,奶牛的牛奶“會導致身體內部失血,產生過敏,消化不良,並有機會導致兒童糖尿病。”在他著名嬰兒書的最新版本中,他建議兒童兩歲以後應該堅持純素食 飲食。但他也沒有建議給嬰兒食用牛乳製品。著名的營養研究員湯•科林坎貝爾 (T. Colin Capbell) 說, 牛奶蛋白可能是人類所常接觸唯一最可怕的化學致癌物。”
35 University research asserts that the feeding of approximately 10 million tons of poultry litter to U.S. cattle and other livestock every year is safe. But the mere presence of wasted feed in the mix, which otherwise includes excreta, carcass parts, bedding, and feathers, could include the stray remains of cattle. This would seem to violate the 1997 USDA rule that no cow is to eat the flesh of other cows, instituted to thwart the spread of mad cow disease. Also, poultry litter needs to be properly composted to neutralize microbial toxins--in practice not always done. Furthermore, livestock, so fed, need sufficient time to flush out veterinary medications that might have tainted the litter. Finally, feeding poultry litter to livestock provides one more vector for the spread of bird flu.
35. 美國大學的研究竟然聲稱,每年給美國的牛和其他牲畜餵養1千萬噸雞糞,是很安全的。在飼料中混入的雜物包含了排泄物,殘餘屍體,雞窩的材料, 和羽毛,而且可能包括牛的殘餘糞便/屍體。按道理說,這應該違反了1997年美國農業部所規定的,牛不可以吃其他牛的肉,以防瘋牛病。此外,雞糞需要得到 適 當處理來中和糞便內微生物毒素, 然而在現實中並非總是這樣做。此外,被餵食雞糞的牲畜需要足夠的時間來排出藏匿在雞糞的獸醫藥物。最後,用雞糞餵養家禽, 又為禽流感擴散提供了一個管道。
36 Beef cattle are best suited to moist climates, such as those in Europe where their ancestors evolved. But ranchers in America’s West continue the destructive tradition of herding their animals on the nation’s most arid land. Grazing destroys ecologically regenerative riparian zones. According to a recent U.N. report, “the livestock sector may well be the leading player in the reduction of biodiversity…as well as one of the leading drivers of land degradation, pollution, climate change, overfishing, sedimentation of coastal areas, and facilitation of invasions by alien species.”
36. 肉牛是最適合在潮濕的氣候的地方,如歐洲,即其他們的祖先生活的地方。但美國的牧場業主堅持其破壞性的傳統, 而把牲畜放牧於國家最乾旱的土地。放牧破壞了原來具有再生能力的河岸區。根據聯合國最近的一項報告, “畜牧業很可能是導致生物多樣性下降的罪魁禍首,又是土地流失、污染、氣候變化、過度捕撈、沿海地區的泥沙淤積,和促成外來物種入侵的主要因由”。
37 Adopting a high-protein fad diet may help you lose weight in the short run, but so might chemotherapy, food poisoning, or serious illness. If health is what you desire, you’re eventually going to have to learn how to eat. Resoundingly, the American Heart Association and other major health organizations warn people against the Atkins and other low-carb diets, because they can cause fatigue or dizziness and strain the kidneys. Often unbeknownst to the dieter, these diets induce dehydration. Also, upping fat and lowering carbohydrate intake has been found to impair brain function over time.
37採用高動物蛋白質的飲食時尚雖可以幫助您在短期內減肥,但化療、食物中毒、或生重病亦有同樣的效果。如果你渴望身體健康,到最後還是要學習正確 飲食方法。曾經轟動一時的新聞, 美國心臟協會和其他主要健康組織曾警告, 那些採用阿特金斯和其他低碳水化合物飲食方法的民眾,因為這些飲食方法可能導致疲勞或頭暈和對腎臟造成嚴重負荷。節食者往往不知道,這些飲食方法會引起身 體脫水。此外,長期增加脂肪和減少碳水化合物的攝取, 已被發現會損害腦功能。
38 Genetics through single-trait selection has become as important a component of today’s intensive farming as drugs and confinement hardware. The animals themselves, right down to their DNA, must stand up to the rigors of the industrial process, both in life and in carcass form. They must produce at breakneck speeds and do so on as little feed as possible. And ultimately, the particular output they unwillingly give forth must please our final end user, the consumer, in texture, taste, uniformity, convenience, and price. Mutant genes that would never survive in the wild are cultivated to monstrous ends.
38. 通過選擇單一特徵的遺傳學,已與今天的密集式農業, 藥物研究, 和關動物器具的改良具有同等重要地位。從動物身體外表,一直到他們的DNA , 都必須面對如此苛刻的農產過程,無論是活的時候, 或是死了以後。他們必須以驚人的速度生產, 而且用的飼料越少越好。最後,他們辛辛苦苦生產出來的, 在質地、味道、產品一致性、方便性及價格上, 都必須討好我們的最終用戶 – 消費者。這些基因突變的生物原本無法生存於大自然的, 但現在卻被業主恐怖的大量繁殖。
39 Officially, Wildlife Services, a program of the USDA, prevents “damage to agriculture.” Never mind that agriculture is hugely damaging to wildlife, this multi-million-dollar perq for cattle ranchers exists primarily to exterminate species thought to spread disease and to eradicate predators. Non-target wildlife is often caught in the cross-hairs. Wildlife Services agents shoot, poison, gas, electrocute, and lethally trap millions of mammals and birds on public land where only 3.8 percent of the nation’s beef is even derived. The methods are often cruel and excessive and even ineffective. The program has decimated populations of grizzly bears, mountain lions, moose, elk, buffalos, and coyotes. Recently, an intriguing global study actually found that predators inflict negligible damage to ranching operations.
39. 美國農業部有一個計劃用來防止“損害農業”,叫做野生動物服務。 農業發展對野生動物造成如何嚴重的破壞不要緊,這計畫所資助於牧牛業主的幾百萬美元, 主要是用來趕盡殺絕那些被認為會傳播疾病的物種及消滅肉食動物的。很多本來不要殺的野生動物往往也會被擊斃。野生動物服務人員使用的手段包括射殺,施毒 氣, 電擊,設陷阱,所殺的是以百萬計的哺乳動物和鳥類, 而這下手的地方其實只占美國牛肉來源的3.8 %。其手段往往是殘酷而且是胡作非為,甚至無效。該計劃已經大批殺害了灰熊、山獅、駝鹿、麋鹿、水牛和胡狼。最近,一個耐人尋味的全球性研究發現,其實肉 食動物對畜牧造成的損害是微不足道的。
40 Many Americans are not getting enough magnesium. Deficiencies can cause irritability, seizures, delirium, depression, abnormal heart rhythms, spasms of the coronary arteries, anemia, blood clots, abnormal blood pressure, and even death. Where do you get this vital nutrient?--whole grains, fruits, dark-green leafy vegetables, nuts, and, best, raw cacao.
40. 許多美國人都缺乏鎂的攝取。缺乏鎂可導致煩躁不安、抽搐、精神錯亂、抑鬱、心律不正常、冠狀動脈痙攣、貧血、血液凝塊、異常血壓, 甚至死亡。從那些食物可以得到這個維持生命重要的養分? 全穀類、水果、深色綠葉蔬菜、堅果,還有最好的, 生的可可豆。
41 Results from two major studies involving tens of thousands of subjects--one in the UK (University of Leads, 2007), the other in the U.S. (Nurses’ Health Study, 2006)--suggest that the more red meat a woman eats the more she is at risk for breast cancer, regardless of her age. Suspected culprits include saturated fat, growth hormones fed to cattle, heme iron (only in red meat), and heterocyclic amines (carcinogens produced during the cooking process).
41. 兩個涉及數以萬計被試者的主要研究, 一個在英國(Unversity of Leads, 2007年) ,另外一個在美國(護士健康研究, 2006年), 分別得出結果提出,無論如何年齡的女人,若吃紅色肉類等越多, 罹患乳腺癌風險越高。科學家懷疑禍因主要包括飽和脂肪,餵給牛吃的生長激素,血紅素鐵(僅在紅肉中找到),雜環胺(在烹調過程中產生的致癌物質)。
42. When faced with a flock of spent hens, an egg farmer may choose to induce production again by way of a forced molt--accomplished with starvation and water deprivation for periods of up to two weeks. No U.S. law prevents this heinous practice. Some major U.S. producers have phased it out but then need to bring twice the number of hens into production for the same number of eggs.
42. 當雞農面對著一群精疲力盡的母雞,雞蛋農業主可能會再次選擇強迫蛻皮的誘導生產法 - 強迫停止餵食這些雞隻食物和水, 長達兩週。美國法律並沒有阻止這令人髮指的做法。美國一些較大的蛋農業者已經逐步淘汰此作法,可是要生產相同數量的雞蛋就需要雙倍的母雞才可以。
43 Fish make vibratory sounds with various “calls” that researchers have identified as communicating alarm and aggravation. They possess fully formed nervous systems as well as complex social behaviors. They are also capable of learning complicated tasks. British researchers discovered in 2003 that fish have the cerebral mechanisms to feel pain. As one animal activist once put it, “Fish are not merely vegetables that can swim.”
43魚類通過振動發出的聲音來作不同的“呼喊”, 研究人員已將此認同為警報和惱怒的傳達。他們擁有完整的中樞神經系統,以及複雜的社會行為。他們也能夠學習做複雜的活動。2003
年,英國研究人員發現, 魚類有大腦結構以感覺痛苦。 一個動物保護主義者曾經說過, “魚不只是會游泳的蔬菜”。
44. In America today, only four companies slaughter 59 percent of all the hogs, only four companies slaughter over 83 percent of all the cattle, and only two companies slaughter nearly 60 percent of all the chickens. At the farm level, the trend over recent decades has been for many fewer operations to produce many more animals. In 1967, for example, there were over a million hog farms. By 1998, the number fell to 114,000. The trend has funneled many of America’s farmers into contract, or franchise-like, arrangements that strictly take choices about herd densities, feed, and veterinary care away from them. The changes have ushered in a polluted landscape, a host of new pathogens, and a hell on Earth for the animals.
44.在美國的今天,光是四家公司就屠宰了全國59 %的豬隻;光是四家公司就屠宰超過美國83 %的牛隻; 光是兩家公司就屠宰將近60 %的雞隻。至于小本經營的農場業主, 近數十年來已越來少,而相反的, 所生產的動物卻越來越多的。舉例來說, 在1967年就有超過一百萬個豬農場, 而到1998年,數量卻下降至十一萬四千個。此趨勢讓美國許多農民變為合同化或連瑣經營化一樣的安排,嚴格的安排畜群密度和飼料, 還把原來被獸醫照料之褔利給剝奪。 這些改變帶來了充滿污染的自然景觀,一大群新的病原體,和為動物建的人間地獄。
45 The 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham challenged the world about animals with his famous quandary: “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”. Curiously, science is every day discovering that in fact animals do all three: reason, communicate, and suffer. The differences between animals and humans are being blurred with every revelation. Man’s closest relatives share over 98 percent of our DNA, and all animals, including man, are related by a common ancestor. Today’s question must now be, can we humans use our known capacity for logic, communication, and empathy to take animals off our plates?
45. 十八世紀的哲學家本瑟姆 (Jeremy Bentham) 以他著名的問題為動物挑戰世界: “問題不在於,他們可以思考嗎?也不是,他們可以講話嗎?而是,他們可以感受痛苦嗎?”。奇怪的
是,科學是每天都發現,其實這三點動物都有:思考,溝通和感受痛苦。每一個研究均顯露人類與動物之間的分別越來越不明顯了。與人類最相近的動物其基因與人 有98 %相同。 所有動物,包括人類,都擁有一個共同的祖先。今天的問題是,我們可以使用人類已知的邏輯能力﹑溝通能力以及同情心來停止食用動物的肉嗎?
46 Arsenic has been a common additive in factory chicken feed for nearly 50 years. It is used to kill parasites, reduce stress, and promote growth in the birds. The practice has long been deemed safe. Recently, however, scientists have found that the substance turns carcinogenic rather quickly after application. Arsenic-imbued manure becomes toxic to the environment when spread as fertilizer. The risk for those who ingest the meat of treated birds is, in fact, worse than once thought, particularly since exposure to arsenic is cumulative and people are eating three times the chicken they once did in the 1960s.
46. 砷 (砒霜) 在近50年來已成為雞飼料工廠中的一個普遍的添加劑。其目的是用來殺死寄生蟲,減少雞的精神壓力,並促進其生長。 這種做法長期以來一直被視為安全。不過,最近科學家發現,這種物質在使用後迅速的變成致癌物質。當砷感染的雞糞被作為肥料散播時, 它便變成有害於環境。對於攝取經處理過的雞肉, 事實上,後果都比以前想的嚴重。 特別是因為砷在身體裡是累積的, 加上現在人們吃雞肉的量是六O年代的三倍。
47 If you like the idea of being welcome at the places where your food is produced, don’t count on your not-so-local poultry grower allowing you, the consumer, to view his massive sheds of monocultured birds any time soon. Without natural immunities that could otherwise be acquired by outdoor life, his flocks need to be protected from the slightest infection. When operators are even slightly lax in applying rigorous measures of “biosecurity,” a case of the sniffles in one bird can escalate to a mass outbreak, forcing a giant cull involving millions of birds.
47. 如果你喜歡生產食品的地方來歡迎你的參觀,短期內都別指望那些非本地家禽農養者, 能夠讓您這消費者,查看他的大規模的雞舍。失去原來可以通過戶外生活所得的免役力,業者的雞群必須受到連絲毫感染都不允許的保護。嚴厲的“生物安全”措 施, 當經營者只要略有鬆懈, 一只雞大噴涕就可以擴張為大規模的傳染,迫使業者展開出一場涉及以百萬計家禽的龐大撲殺。
48 Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, slaughtered 27 million pigs in 2005. Pound for pound this number represents, in equivalent human weight, the combined population of the 32 largest U.S. cities yet only 26 percent of all the pigs that are slaughtered in the country as a whole. North Carolina’s pigs alone emit the waste-equivalent of 40 million people, and essentially none of it is treated.
48. 世界上最大的豬肉生產商, 士美非路食品 (Smithfield Foods), 于2005年屠宰的豬達兩千七百萬。以人類重量來比較,這個數字等於美國頭三十二個大城市人口的總合,但其實只是全美國被屠殺的豬的百分之二十六。 僅僅在北卡羅萊納州的豬隻,所排放的廢水量就相當於四千萬人的份量,而且基本上從未受過污水淨化處理。
49 A study of 49 island countries found 55 percent of their coral reefs overfished. To sustainably harvest the million metric tons of fish taken annually from the islands, 30,000 square miles more of reef--or the equivalent of nearly four Great Barrier Reefs--would be needed. Demand for reef fish is largely coming from Hong Kong traders, who are now supplying a burgeoning market in Mainland China. Reef fish take 5 to 10 years to reach breeding age and so are particularly vulnerable. Fishers capture the fish, live, using cyanide, destroying coral in the process; 75 percent of the fish die even before getting to their market destinations.
49. 一個針對四十久個島嶼國家的研究發現, 百分之五十五的珊瑚礁區已被過度捕撈。 如果要持續現在這每年以百萬噸計的捕魚量, 我們需要有三萬平方英里以上的珊瑚礁, 相當於四個大堡礁。 珊湖礁魚類的需求,主要是來自于香港商人,因現要供應給中國大陸急速增長的市場。珊湖礁魚類需要5年至 10年才能達到繁殖的年齡,所以此魚群特別脆弱。漁民利用氰以活捕魚,破壞到珊瑚是難免的。 百分之七十五的魚在還沒到達目的地市場就死了。
50. According to one study, when diabetics eat copious amounts of fiber they are able to control their blood-sugar levels significantly. Fiber, which is found only in plants, helps people to lose weight because of its ability to satiate. According to a European study of 400,000 people, a high-fiber diet can slash the risk for deadly cancers by up to 40 percent.
50. 據一項研究,當糖尿病患者吃大量的纖維素時他們便能顯著地控制其血糖水平。這只有在植物中才能找到的纖維有助減肥,因為它能夠使人飽足。 歐洲以四十萬人做的一項研究,結果發現高纖維飲食能將患得致命癌症的風險降低百分之四十。
51 About a decade ago the government began imposing manure-handling controls on the nation’s confined animal feeding operations. The rules, which now regulate only 40 percent of the nation’s largest feedlots, have not only been laughably overdue in their implementation but have amounted to nothing more than permits to pollute as usual. And the vast majority of the nation’s mostly moderate-sized livestock operations are simply urged to follow recommended guidelines voluntarily. In 2004, the EPA granted a sweetheart deal to 130 companies representing thousands of mega-feedlots when it allowed them amnesty from the Clean Air Act in exchange for scientific monitoring. Other facilities across the country are now in line for exemptions from Superfund lawsuits.
51. 約十年前開始,美國政府對監禁式的動物飼養方法施加糞便處理管制。雖然該規定現在只有管理到全美百分之四十最大的養殖場,這不僅被業者嘲笑著逾期執行,而 且現已成了合法的污染許可證。至于對付中型飼養場, 絕大多數時候只是呼籲他們要自願地依照這項規定的指南。 在2004年,美國環保局作了個很討好的協定: 對擁有成千上萬個巨型飼養場的130公司實行大赦,從此他們不再受到清潔空氣法案的管制, 而政府就得到科學監測權。很多其他工廠現在也在排隊來獲得此項能豁免於類似此例之超级基金訴訟了。
52 Animal agriculture routinely mutilates farmed animals for its own convenience and often simply out of habit. Debeaking, branding, castration, ear notching, wing and comb removal, dehorning, teeth clipping, and tail and toe docking are ever-present tasks on today’s farm and ranch. Laborers, not veterinarians, perform the surgeries, employing restraint, not anesthesia.
52. 牲畜業者為圖方便, 慣例地毀傷農養動物,而且往往只是出於獲得其經營上之利益方便。 例切喙尖﹑打烙印﹑閹割﹑耳切缺口﹑切除翅膀和雞冠﹑ 去角﹑,裁剪牙齒、尾部和腳趾在今天的農場和牧場都是經常存在的。 執行手術的是工人, 而不是獸醫, 執行時是將動物綑綁, 而不是施用麻醉。
53 Male chicks are a bothersome expense to the egg producer. Sexers must be hired to pick them out for diversion to expedient deaths. No law protects them as they are dumped in trash bins to die by crushing, suffocation, starvation, and exposure.
53. 飼養小公雞是令雞蛋生產商煩惱的費用,商人必須請專人挑選牠們出來,隔離到其它地方, 以讓其較快死亡。即使他們被棄置於垃圾桶而被壓死﹑窒息﹑餓死﹑和曝晒而死, 沒有任何法律可以保護他們。
54. Fish and shellfish farming, or aquaculture, is no less disruptive to the environment than taking fish from the wild. Shoreline pens replace mangroves, that is, the habitats where wild fish would otherwise reproduce. Some farmed species will not breed in captivity, so fish farmers must steal juveniles, who never get a chance to reproduce, from the wild. There are numerous cases where farmed fish have escaped into the wild, corrupting the genetic purity of native species and spreading disease. Indiscriminate biomass fishing for fishmeal threatens ecosystems. Feed-to-flesh ratios soar in some farmed species to 25 to 1. Nitrogenous waste poisons the seabed floor below cages that hold fish in unnatural densities.
54. 飼養魚類及貝殼類動物之水產養殖業, 對環境造成破壞的不比捕野生魚少。海岸線圍欄取代紅樹林,就是原來野生魚可以用來繁殖的棲所。一些養殖品種於圈養的環境下不會繁殖,因此,養殖戶必須從野 外竊取小魚,而這些小魚就永遠都沒有機會在野生環境中繁殖了。很多時候,養殖魚類會外逃到野生環境中,破壞了當地物種的基因純度,並傳播疾病。為了制造魚 飼料而大肆濫捕魚類已威脅到生態系統。一些養殖魚種所須之飼料比上所獲得之魚肉的比例竟然上升至25 : 1。 因養殖魚的密度過高, 含氮的魚糞/排泄物將海床毒染了。
55 Between 1980 and 2004, meat production in the developing world tripled, today amounting to well over half of the world’s output. Dense concentrations of corralled industrial livestock, which create vast quantities of manure, now skirt the edges of major cities in Asia and Latin America, causing severe environmental damages.
55. 從1980年到2004年間,開發中國家的肉類生產量劇增三倍,在今日此數字以達世界產量的一半以上。密集的工業式牲畜養殖場,造成了大量的動物糞便,現已佈滿於亞洲和拉丁美洲的各大城市的邊緣,且造成了嚴重的環境破壞。
56 People who eat a lot of fish are increasingly falling victim to the debilitating effects of mercury poisoning. Women, in particular, are putting their babies at risk for irreparable brain damage when they eat seafood high in mercury while pregnant and even beforehand. According to the EPA, about 630,000 newborns in the United States every year--roughly 15 percent of all--may be exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb.
56. 人若吃魚多了﹐ 將會增加成為水銀中毒罹難者之機率。特別是婦女﹐ 懷孕期時﹐甚 至在懷孕前﹐大量攝取海鮮會增高嬰兒腦損傷的風險﹐ 而且是無法挽回的。據美國環保局報告﹐在美國每年約有六十三萬新生兒﹐大約占總數的15%﹐可能在子宮裡接觸到的水銀指數會達到危險程度。
57 Hoof-and-mouth disease is rarely fatal for livestock, but it remains a death sentence just the same. When blisters form on hooves and lips, and growth slows because of fever, economics prescribe execution and incineration. In 2001, Great Britain responded to an outbreak by destroying nearly 6 million mostly healthy cattle, sheep, and pigs at a cost of [U.S.]$9 billion to save its export trade. There were actually only 2,030 known cases of the disease. The rest were exterminated to provide buffers to contain the outbreak.
57. 牲畜的口蹄疫病是很少會使它們致命,但最終還是難逃被判死刑之命運。 當畜牲的蹄和嘴張出水泡時, 其增長速度會因發高燒而因此減緩, 從畜農的經濟利益作法, 便是將這些畜牲處死, 而後焚化。 在2001年,英國對此病症爆發作出的回應是﹐為了挽救其出口貿易﹐ 殺死將近六百萬頭牛﹑羊﹑豬﹐而其中大部分都是健康的, 在經濟上損失共九十億美元。實際上﹐當時只發現兩千零三十宗的病案。其餘被無辜殺死的都只是為了控制疫情。
58 Several years ago, a New York Times story featured an Ohio schoolteacher who discovered that a “swirling poison” invaded his home from a nearby hog farm and “robbed him of his memory, his balance, and his ability to work. It left him with mood swings, a stutter, and fistfuls of pills.” His diagnosis: irreversible brain injuries from hydrogen sulfide gas. But the source of the H2S was half a mile away. Only after visits to 14 doctors was the cause of his symptoms determined. Surprisingly low levels of the gas will eat the brain over time. Neighbors of industrial hog farms will also experience diarrhea, nosebleeds, earaches, lung burns, chronic sinusitis, asthma, and corroded lungs.
58. 幾年前,紐約時報的一個精選故事講述﹐ 俄亥俄州的教師發現﹐ 一種“頭昏眼眩毒藥” 從附近的養豬農場入侵他的家﹐ 並“奪取了他的記憶,他的平衡,和他的工作能 力。這給他造成情緒大起大落,口吃,和整天吃一大堆藥的後遺症”。醫生給他的診斷是:這是硫化氫氣體導致的不可逆轉的腦部傷害。但這硫化氫是來源半英里以 外。看了14名醫生才判斷出導致此症狀的原因。令人吃驚的是, 如此微量的毒氣, 在長期吸入後, 竟造成腦部腐蝕傷害。如此的工業化養豬場附近的居民也會有腹瀉,鼻出血﹐耳痛,肺灼傷,慢性鼻竇炎,哮喘,和肺部腐蝕。
59 Genetic manipulation has created monsters as well as monstrous suffering for farmed animals. Cloning threatens to jack up the misery yet another notch. Its general use is probably a ways off, provided it becomes commercially viable at all. Meanwhile, as the scientists tinker, their cloned creations will suffer from premature deaths and deformities, and the resultant meat and milk are sure to enter the human food supply.
59. 肆意改造動物基因創造了怪獸,也為農養動物帶來了可怕的痛苦。動物復制之威脅又為此悲慘況加劇。動物復制在商業上的可行性不高, 要使它普及可能還是太遙遠了。 但是, 作為科學家的修補專家,他們復制出來的生物都會過早死亡和出現畸形,而由此產生的肉類和牛奶是一定會進入人類的食物供應來源。
60 Before 1981, E. coli O157:H7 poisoning didn’t exist. Today, the deadly strain infects 80 percent of cattle on America’s feedlots. You can blame a change in feed for this. To make the animals grow five times the rate they would on hay, feedlot operators foisted a corn-based diet onto their charges and provided the perfect environment for O157:H7 to emerge. And now this terrible strain is regularly poisoning our raw veggies via cross contamination.
60.在1981年以前,O157 : H7大腸桿菌中毒情形並不存在。今天﹐美國百分之八十的飼養場的牛隻都感染了這致命的菌株。這一點, 飼料的改變應該受到責備。為了使動物成長速度比原來吃牧草的五倍,飼養場工作人員把飼料改為以玉米為基礎,而此正是O157 : H7大腸杆菌繁衍的最佳溫床。 而現在,這個可怕的菌株正透過交叉污染之方式定期地毒化我們的原料蔬菜。
61 From the animal-feed breadbasket and feedlots of the nation’s Midwest, massive amounts of fertilizer, pesticides, and manure-runoff travel down the Mississippi River. This high-nutrient mix causes an eco-chain reaction that ends with microscopic organisms robbing oxygen from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Marine life must relocate or suffocate. The phenomenon is known as hypoxia. Scientists have dubbed affected areas “dead zones.” Each summer the Gulf’s dead zone grows to an area the size of New Jersey. A recent U.N. report showed a 34 percent jump over 2 years in the number of dead zones--now 200 worldwide. Today, red tides (harmful algae blooms) line some coastlines of entire nations nearly without break. Soon, the hot real-estate properties around the world will be away from the waterfronts.
61 從動物飼料的糧倉和美國的中西部地區的飼養場,大量的化肥、農藥、排泄物廢水流進密西西比河裡。這種高營養組合的引起了一個生態的連鎖反應, 微生物從墨西哥海灣水域大量『劫取』氧氣。海洋生物不是遷徒就是誌喜而亡。這種現象被稱為缺氧。科學家們把受影響的這些海域稱為“死區”(死亡海域) 。每年夏季此海灣的這些死區增大到新澤西州大小的面積。最近聯合國報告顯示,過去2年死區數字增長了34 %, 現在世界上已有兩百個。今天,紅潮(一種有害的藻類快速成長區)在國家某些海岸線已連成一線,幾乎沒有縫隙。不久以後,世界各地的熱門房地產物業的將要遠 離海濱地區了。
62 In what is still the most comprehensive study of diet and life-style ever made, the China Study found that the consumption of relatively small amounts of animal protein is linked to chronic disease. The findings from this grand epidemiological study are especially compelling because they allowed meaningful comparisons between populations with similar genetic backgrounds, yet with nonhomogeneous diets. All together, the China Study provides the ultimate vegetarian vindication.
62 比較起來, 關于飲食和生活方式上最全面的研究,還是中國所提出的一個研究發現。 原來攝取相對少量的動物性蛋白質與慢性疾病是息息相關的。這個偉大的流行病學研究結果特別引人注目,因為他們利用擁有類似遺傳背景的,但又不均一飲食的種 群, 來作一個有意義的比較。整個來看,此中國研究為素食主義提供了極大的辯護。
63 Fifty-two billion pounds of inedible byproduct (bones, fats, unusable hides, and cartilage) from America’s meat and poultry slaughterhouses is each year transmogrified by “renderers” into saleable adhesives, lubricants, chemicals, cosmetics, and processed food ingredients--a grisly but profitable side business of the flesh trade. This amount, however, does not include the 6 billion pounds of dead stock that accumulate on U.S. feedlots. It must also be dealt with. Unfortunately, only half of it is rendered and therefore processed safely. If buried, dead stock attracts vermin, leaches nitrogen and methane into the environment, and poisons the groundwater. If burned--usually the case when mortalities are catastrophic due to weather events or disease outbreaks--pyres will poison the air with dioxin. If composted, the process is often poorly managed, failing to adequately promote full decomposition and allowing vermin to carry disease off site.
63. 每年, 由美國的肉類及家禽屠房製造出來的五百二十億英鎊的不可食用的副產品(骨骼,脂肪,不可用的皮,和軟骨)用熬油的方法變成商業產品﹐如: 膠粘劑,潤滑劑,化學品,化妝品,或成為加工食品的材料 — 此為不禁可怕而且成了有利可圖的肉類副業。此數字並不包括累積於美國飼料場里六億英鎊的牲畜屍體 。它們也必須被處理。不幸的是,只有一半是被安全地處理和熬油過。如果被埋的話,屍體即吸引害蟲,在腐化過程中不僅釋放出氮和甲烷,而且又毒害地下水源。 如果畜牲死亡是屬災難性的,譬如因為天氣惡劣或疾病暴發﹐那麼通常屍體就會被焚燒。而這些焚燒之燃料會釋放二惡英來毒害空氣。如果這些動物屍體用來堆肥, 此過程因往往管理不善,而未能充分促進分解,很容易引來害蟲傳播疾病。
64 Want the omega-3s in fish but would rather skip the mercury, PCBs, and dioxins? Well, push aside that fish altogether, and rediscover flax. Two tablespoons of ground flax daily give you all of the essential fatty acid you need with several bonuses: Flax seeds contain iron, zinc, and high-quality protein, plus almost all of the vitamins. They’re loaded with soluble fiber and are the best source anywhere of phytonutrient lignans. They ease symptoms of diabetes and even promote healthy brain growth in utero and in infancy.
64. 想要魚的欧米茄3 油,但又不想要水銀,多氯聯苯,二噁英這些有毒物質?那麼,把魚推開一邊吧,試一試亞麻子。每天食用二湯匙的亞麻子粉﹐就會提供你一天所需要的脂肪酸了﹐ 而且還有其他的好處呢!怎麼說? 亞麻子含有鐵,鋅,和高品質的蛋白質,再加上幾乎所有的維生素。裝滿了可溶性纖維的它還是植物營養素的木酚素的最好的來源。它可以紓緩糖尿病症狀,甚至是 促進胚胎和嬰兒的腦部健康成長。
65 The state of Oregon has taken warnings about bird flu to heart, devising elaborate plans to deal with a “most likely scenario” pandemic. The state, which represents less than 1.3 percent of the U.S. population, has anticipated how tanker trucks hauling 38,000 pounds of liquid carbon dioxide can be obtained to kill as many as a million infected chickens and where an estimated 2,000 tons of chicken carcasses can be buried. The state is also ready for as many as 800,000 human illnesses, 9,700 hospitalizations, and 2,300 deaths.
65. 俄勒岡州非常認真地對待禽流感警告, 該州制定詳細計劃,以應付這個“最有可能發生的”的世界級傳染病。這個只有美國國家人口1.3 %的州,預期可以用貨運卡車載運三萬八千磅二氧化碳液體﹐ 以殺死多達一百萬受感染的雞隻。 據估計,兩千噸的雞可能會被掩埋。該州還準備好應付多達八十萬個人感染,9700個病床,及2300人死亡之機率。
66 The meat industry doesn’t treat the causes of its problems, only the symptoms. When it imprisons massive numbers of animals in cramped stress-inducing cages, it provides the perfect breeding ground for deadly bacteria, which later infect the meat. Technologies to kill meat pathogens are now very big business. We have acidic-solution carcass misting, alkaline-solution sprays, steam/vacuum technology, high-temperature carcass washes, steam pasteurization, and chlorine applications, etc., ad nauseam. Some bug-fighting methods, such as food irradiation and sprays of antidotal viruses and probiotic bacteria, pose risks in themselves. And in the end, the meat still isn’t safe.
66. 肉類工業對待問題治標不治本。把大量動物監禁在狹小的鐵籠裡,擁擠的地方給牲畜得精神壓力不在話下﹐這樣的生存環境更為致命細菌提供了完美的孕育場所,且 最終感染到肉類。現在用來對抗肉類病原體的科技是非常大的生意。我們有酸性溶液胴體霧化處理,鹼性溶液噴霧劑,蒸汽/真空技術,高溫胴體清洗,蒸汽殺菌, 和加氯的消毒過程等,實令人作嘔。有一些抗虫的方法,如食品輻照, 抗病毒和益生菌噴霧處理, 反而給這些肉類本身構成更多危險。 而且到最後, 這些處理過的肉類仍是不安全。
67 Most of America’s cows are not “Happy Cows,” in spite of what the California Milk Advisory Board might say in its nationally televised commercials. Many cows in the Western state spend their lives negotiating bogs of their own feces and urine. Elsewhere, they may be tethered at stanchions. All are inseminated annually to keep them lactating, and many regularly suffer painful udder infections. Thanks to calcium depletion and foot infections, slaughter occurs after only three or four lactation periods. The CMAB is a government agency and so is not subject to false-advertising laws.
67. 美國大多數的奶牛都已不是『快樂牛』, 儘管加州牛奶諮詢委員會在其全國電視商業廣告這樣的說。 在加州, 許多奶牛整輩子住在牠們自己排放之糞便和尿液的沼澤地中。在其他地方,牠們 可能都被束縛在支柱上 。為了持續牠們的產乳期,每年都要幫牠們人工受精,很多還常常要忍受乳房感染的痛苦。由於鈣的耗竭和足部感染,只過了三個或四個產乳期他們就要被屠宰了。 牛奶諮詢委員會是政府機構, 所以是不受虛假廣告的法律限制。
68 To choose industrial meat is to support a system that has long ago put family farmers out of business. Essentially, it is only the big players--those who bought into factory systems--who are feeding America. We do have lower prices at the retail level. But ultimately, what is the real cost of cheap meat? You need to factor in the $20 billion per year in government subsidies to commodity farmers, higher medical costs attributable to excessive diets, antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains, a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the inordinate need for oil for petrochemical fertilizers, and dwindling aquifers--the list goes on.
68. 選擇工業肉類就是支持當初使家庭式經營農民失業的系統。基本上,只有那少數的幾個投資到工廠系統的大玩家在餵養美國。在零售水平來看 , 我們的確有了較低的價格。但最終,廉價肉的真正成本是什麼呢?您需要算進去每年政府補貼給商品農民的200億美元,由於過度的飲食所引起的較高的醫療費 用,一些普通菌株的抗藥性提昇,在墨西哥海灣的死區(前已提到),石油化肥的過度需要,和越來越少的含水層 - 例子不勝枚舉。
69. In 2005, a $7.1 billion plan to prepare the U.S. for a bird-flu pandemic was instituted by the Bush administration. It included very little to help poor countries slow the spread of the H5N1 strain already on the march. Pharmaceutical companies would get most of the largesse in order to stockpile and develop speedier methods to develop appropriate vaccines for American citizens. In addition, President Bush proposed that he be given the power to impose essentially martial law on the land in the event that a pandemic actually came about. The number of countries with bird flu increased from 14 to 55 in 2006.
69.在2005年,布什政府制定的一個71億美元的計劃,為美國準備應付禽流感大流行。 其中很少包括用來幫助貧窮國家減緩H5N1病毒株的蔓延。製藥公司將獲得此大部分的慷慨資金, 以儲存和研發更快捷的方法為美國公民發展適當的疫苗。此外,美國總統布什提出,萬一這世界級流行病真的發生在美國, 他要有對此土地發佈戒嚴令的權力。在2006年, 發生禽流感的國家已從14個增長至55個。
70 The number of foodborne outbreaks involving produce more than doubled between 1999 and 2004. But before you blame the veggies, it’s important to know that the contaminating pathogens are invariably those that hitch a ride on fecal matter. And we know plants don’t defecate. So what’s the story? It all gets down to one simple fact: Feedlot operators cannot afford to properly treat all the waste that their mammoth-size facilities generate, so they often divert the muck to the nearest waterway. Down stream, produce processors use the water as a rinse.
70 從1999年至2004年, 涉及蔬菜的食物中毒事件爆發多了一倍以上。但在責怪蔬菜之前,要知道,往往病原體都是藏在動物排泄的糞便中。我們知道,植物不排糞。 那究竟是什麼一回事呢?這一切都由一個簡單的事實開始: 飼養場經營者付不起處理由其龐大規模設施所產生之所有排放物之費用,所以他們常常把動物排泄物轉移至最接近的水道去。而在下游, 蔬菜加工者正使用此水作為沖洗蔬菜用。
71 Today’s turkeys are unable to copulate on their own, thanks to selectively bred, freakishly huge breasts in the “toms.” The industry must use artificial insemination. The job is nearly as dehumanizing for the workers--who must work rapidly for long hours and low wages--as it is deplorable for the tortured breeder birds, who are essentially raped every week for 12 to 16 months until they are sent to slaughter.
71.今天的人工飼養火雞已經無法自然地交配,這都須歸咎於那選擇性繁殖出來的巨大胸部雄性火雞。業界必須使用人工授精。 此工作對工人跟家禽一樣的毫無人道: 時間長, 工作必須迅速,而賺的又是低工資; 而可悲的,受滿折磨的種雞鳥類,基本上在十二至十六個月裡每星期都被強暴,直至被送往屠宰為止。
72 In most large commercial chicken slaughter plants the inverted heads of doomed birds are first plunged into an electrified brine bath. The current is set at a voltage just high enough to immobilize the birds and to promote bleedout without hemorrhage. It serves to minimize inconvenient flailing that would otherwise interfere with the slaughter process. The birds are not only sentient during slaughter but must also suffer the excruciating shock, sometimes twice.
72. 在大多數大型商業屠雞場裡, 被倒置的雞頭首先被投 進通電的熱鹽水中。電流是定在剛剛可以麻痺這些雞隻和促進放血而不導致其內出血的程度。它可以盡量減少麻煩的抽打,否則將妨礙整個屠宰過程。這些雞隻不僅 在屠宰時候是有知覺的,而且必須承受的極痛苦的電擊,有時兩次。
73 Grass-fed beef is more eco-friendly than corn-fed, but supplies of it could never sustainably meet current consumer demand. Several guides are available to help seafood consumers “eat with a conscience.” But the species that are recommended would quickly run out if everyone ate them. Legally, “free-range” and “cage-free” designations are dubious to outright meaningless. At least one humane certification program was officially debunked. “Organic” has gone strangely industrial and is rightly tagged “ethically challenged.” Ultimately, to “eat green” and to “be kind,” one needs to go vegan.
73. 草餵牛肉比起玉米餵食是比較生態友好, 但它的供應永遠無法持續滿足目前的消費需求。有一些指南提供幫助海鮮消費者“有良心地吃” ,但如果大家都吃他們 , 所建議的物種會很快被吃光。在法律上, “放牧飼養”和“無籠”的標志是令人懷疑的,甚至毫無意義。至少有一個所謂人道的認證計劃被正式地揭穿 。 “有機”這個詞已經變成工業化了, 並且被理所當然地標記為“道德倫理上的難題” 。最終,要做到“吃綠”和“仁慈” ,還是要選擇素食主義。
74 New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation and its Department of Health have posted an Internet factsheet called “Eating Sport Fish.” The advice speaks for itself: No one should eat more than one meal of fish per week from any of the state’s fresh waters; chemical contaminants may be a problem; trim all fat; don’t consume cooking liquids. On the other hand, if you still want to enjoy the “fun” of sport fishing but don’t want to poison yourself, the factsheet recommends catch and release. But don’t tear out the hook--cut its leader, goes the advice. Also, avoid playing fish to exhaustion. Other states could post similar Web pages: nearly every state in the union has a mercury-in-rivers advisory.
74. 紐約州環境保育部和衛生署已經發布了一個所謂“食用運動魚”的互聯網簡介。 此建議不言自明:任何人在一個星期內都不應吃多於一餐帶有該州的淡水魚,化學污染物可能有問題; 切去所有脂肪;不要食用烹飪魚後之湯汁。但如果您仍然希望享受釣魚運動的 “樂趣”,又不想毒害自己, 此簡介建議釣到魚後就釋放。但不要把魚鉤拉出來 – 把線剪掉就好了, 建議完畢。此外, 這樣可以避免將魚的體力盡耗。其他州可能都有類似的網頁: 幾乎美國每一個州有『河流中的水銀』的忠告。
75 Okinawa has the healthiest and longest-lived people in the world, boasting the highest percentage of people who live to be a hundred years old. The super-seniors who inhabit the island tend to retain their mental keenness, and few need to live in nursing homes. Not surprisingly, they eat very little food of animal origin, according to a 25-year study on the island. Genes could take some of the credit, although today’s old folks are projected to outlive their children who have adopted Western eating habits.
75. 日本琉球群島上住有在世界上最健康和最長壽的人,當地號稱可以活到100歲高齡的比例是世界最高的。居住在該島上的超級老人通常都還保留精神敏銳,而很少 需要住在療養院 。 根據一項在該島上長達25年的研究, 發現他們所吃的很少是來自動物的,這並不令人驚訝。 遺傳基因可能有一點影響, 但据預計今天的老人家會比其所採取西方飲食習慣的子女長壽。
76 As markets for animal-based foods become more global, “carnivore conflicts” increasingly threaten international peace. Live cattle from Canada are still banned from the U.S., ever since a “mad cow” of Canadian origin was discovered in Washington state. In 2001, hoof-and-mouth disease instantly resulted in countries all over the world severing trade with the entire EU, although the disease was mostly confined to England. Meanwhile, trade wars simmer between the U.S. and the EU over hormones in beef. Worldwide, varying sanitary standards in meat production also leave nations at odds. No two “true democracies” have ever gone to war, some academics argue, that is, if you don’t count violence over fisheries.
76. 隨著以動物肉食為基礎的食品市場越來越全球化, “食肉者間只衝突”日益威脅著國際和平。自從在華盛頓州發現原產於加拿大的“瘋牛病牛群後, 該國來的活牛至今仍然被美國禁止。在2001年,口蹄瘟疫即時導致世界各國與整個歐盟切斷貿易,雖然這種疾病主要只是限於英格蘭。與此同時,美國和歐盟之 間也因牛肉裡的激素開貿易戰。世界對肉類生產的不同的衛生標準,也讓國家之間產生爭執。一些學者認為, 沒有兩個“真正的民主政體”開過戰,如果不把漁業所引起的暴力算進去的話。
77 The population explosion should not be thought of exclusively in terms of people--not when one considers the ecological footprint represented by the world’s 3.2 billion cattle, sheep, goats, and domesticated bison across the globe. About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction, and erosion caused by livestock.
77. 不要認為人口爆炸只有在人類中發生, 特別是當你看到地球上的32億頭牛、綿羊、山羊、豢養之美洲野牛的生態足跡時相同情況亦是如此。 世界上大約20 %的牧場與放牧區,有73%的放牧區在乾旱區域中, 已退化到一定的程度,主要是來源於牲畜所造成的過度放牧、密集式放牧、與土壤流失。
78 It is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of U.S. dairy cows are infected with mastitis at any one time. The painful udder infection is considered a man-made affliction. Cows get it by improper care, poor milking procedures, overmilking, and malfunctioning milking machines. The genetically engineered growth hormone Bovine Somatotropin (bST), which is widely used to boost milk yields, is plainly linked to mastitis.
78. 據估計, 平均百分之四十到五十的美國奶牛都曾經感染乳腺炎。此痛苦的乳房感染是人為的。奶牛得此病因為照料不當、擠奶方法拙劣、擠奶過量、擠奶機失靈。被廣泛用來提高牛奶產量的牛生長激素 (bST ),顯然是跟乳腺炎有關的。
79 Veggies can lower the risk for teenagers developing high blood pressure later in life, regardless of body weight and salt intake, according to a recent university study. Researchers cite potassium, calcium, magnesium, folate, and other nutrients contained in fruits and vegetables as the reason. Hypertension increases the risk for heart attack and stroke and afflicts 25 percent of U.S. adults.
79. 根據最近一項大學研究, 青少年多食用蔬菜可以降低後得高血壓風險, 不論其體重和食鹽的攝取量。研究人員認為此原因所在是水果和蔬菜中含有的鉀﹑鈣﹑鎂﹑葉酸和其他營養素。高血壓病會增高罹患心臟病與中風的風險, 而美國25 %的成年人都有此一患。
80 In the early twentieth century man learned how to extract nitrogen (fertilizer) from the air, cheaply and in large quantities. The discovery ultimately allowed 2 billion more people to inhabit the Earth and has given humans the luxury of feeding crops to livestock. Yet what gives the world abundance has, by way of nutrient runoff and acid rain, poisoned waterways from the Chinese countryside to the Ohio Valley. (Excess nitrogen promotes algae growth, robbing the water of oxygen.) In North America and Europe, lakes and rivers contain 20 times the nitrogen they did before the Industrial Revolution.
80. 在20世紀初人類學會了如何從空中提取氮(肥), 成本低又量又大。此發現雖根本上讓地球上住了20億餘人口,而且讓人類可以奢侈地用農作物來餵養牲畜。 然而,這個讓世界富饒之發現也通過排放剩餘的養分或通過酸雨而毒害污染了世界上的河流, 從中國農村到俄亥俄州山谷的都受影響 (此主因為過剩的氮, 促進藻類生長,掠奪了水中的溶氧)。在北美和歐洲,湖泊和河流含的氮是工業革命前 20倍。
81 Every minute of every day, across the globe, 100,000 animals are slaughtered to feed the human lust for meat. This adds up to 50 billion sentient beings a year, not counting fish. Anywhere you go, creatures destined for the dinner plate endure cruel living conditions. “We’re eating them anyway,” goes the strange logic.
81.每一天每一分鐘,地球上有十萬隻動物被屠宰來滿足人類的口欲。 這算一下, 一年就有500億個眾生受遭殃,這數字還未不包括魚類。無論你到任何地方,那些注定要成為桌上佳餚的動物都要受盡毫無人道的生活環境凌辱。 有些人竟說出令人意想不到的話, 說“我們終究會把它們宰來吃, 管它的"。
82 When meat, fish, or poultry is barbecued, dripped fat over the open flame sends up plumes of carcinogenic smoke, coating the food. Other unhealthful chemicals are created just by extended cooking times. Chemists are telling meat eaters today to keep those grill times down. Even environmentalists are saying that restaurant grilling is an important source of soot and smog. But you still need to cook your meat thoroughly: How else are you going to kill all of those nasty bacteria?
82 不論是飛禽走獸或是魚類的肉被燒烤時, 其滴下的脂肪與烤肉的火炎在燃燒後產生發羽狀致癌煙霧,而付著於整個燒烤肉的表面。只要延長烹調時間, 其他有害健康的化學物質亦隨之而產生。化學家告訴今天的肉食者要把燒烤時間縮短。甚至連環保人士都說,餐廳中燒烤是煤煙和煙霧的來源。但你仍然需要把肉類 徹底煮熟, 不然, 請問你要如何殺死所有那些污穢難纏的細菌呢?
83 Forests cleanse the environment, regulate climate, and provide habitat for wildlife and pollinators of crops. Modern medicines derive from forests. Our very survival on planet Earth depends upon them. According to a 390-page U.N. report in 2006, the expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation. Today, nearly all is taking place in the Amazon, thanks to grazing and the production of feedcrops. Worldwide, livestock production uses 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.
83. 森林可以淨化環境,調節氣候,為野生動物提供棲息地, 也為農作物提供授粉環境。現代醫藥都來自於森林。我們在地球的存亡亦都取決於它們。根據聯合國在2006年發佈的一份390頁的報告顯示,畜牧業的擴展是 砍伐森林的關鍵因素。今天,這種情況大都發生在亞馬遜河流域,這都得歸咎於過度放牧和種植牲畜所食之穀物所造成。結果是, 畜牧生產業占用世界上所有農地的70 % ,或地球陸地表面的30 %。
84 In America, essentially all farmed animals will be trucked around at least once in their lives. Filthy, crowded, cramped, noisy, and terrifying conditions over extended periods are the norm. Truckers may legally deny the animals food and water for up to 36 hours. And such “protections” do not apply to poultry. Many animals are traded internationally. About 4 million live sheep are transported from Australia to the Middle East every year where Islamic law dictates throats be slit without stunning. In one recent year, a ship full of 58,000 sheep was rejected because of widespread infection. Before finding an import destination, nearly a tenth died.
84. 在美國,基本上所有養殖動物在他們的一生裡至少有一次被卡車運送過。長期處于骯髒,擁擠,狹窄 ,嘈雜而恐怖的生活條件下早已是司空見慣。這些卡車司機可以合法地拒絕給予動物食物和水,長達36個小時。家禽卻連這樣的“保護”都沒有。許多動物成為國 際貿易產品。每年大約400萬頭活羊從澳大利亞被運到中東,那裡伊斯蘭法律規定必須在未昏迷狀況下屠殺。有一年,一艘載著5萬8千頭羊的船舶,因為其上羊 隻大肆罹患傳染病, 而被拒絕入港停靠。在還沒有找到目的地港口前,已近十分之一羊隻死亡。
85 Clog up your arteries on a diet loaded with saturated animal fat and cholesterol year after year and you risk having a heart attack or stroke. You can opt to avert these afflictions with an expensive, though now-routine, operation known as angioplasty. Performed with a balloon-tipped catheter, it works to flatten plaque against artery walls, thus opening up passageways for blood to flow. A whole-foods vegan diet, along with regular exercise, can have the same effect.
85. 飲食中若充斥著動物性飽和脂肪和膽固醇的食物將會阻塞您的動脈,年復一年,你是與心臟病和中風在下賭注。您可以選擇用昂貴的但已成為慣例的手術來避免痛 苦,此手術叫血管成形術, 它是利用一個球囊形导管來使血管中之硬化向著動脈壁擠壓變平, 從而為血液開闢了通道。以天然食品基本的素食主義的飲食,加上定時運動,可有相同的效果。
86 More than half of the nation’s seafood companies do not follow federal food-safety guidelines. Government inspectors visit processors only once a year to oversee essentially voluntary measures and to view company paperwork. Three-quarters of all fish consumed in the U.S. is imported, representing 4 billion pounds, but less than two percent of it is government inspected.
86. 美國一半以上的的海鮮公司都不遵守聯邦食品安全規定。政府檢查員每年只訪問視察一次,其查看性質基本上多是業者自願性的評估標準, 或只是查看公司的文書作業, 毫無實質執法效益。 美國所消費魚類的四分之三都是進口的,共四十億英鎊,但其中政府會檢查的量只有2 %還不到。
87 U.N. Environment Programme executive director Klaus Toepfer said in 2003: “The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes, animals that share more than 96 percent of their DNA with humans. If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity.” Humans stand behind all reasons for the die-off, including one of the most important: poaching for meat.
87. 聯合國環境計劃署執行主任克勞斯特普費爾說,在2003年: “大猿類的時鐘差一分鐘就要到午夜十二時了(注:時機緊迫的意思),這種動物的DNA與人類有96 %以上是相同的。如果我們失去任何大猿物種,我們將摧毀人類了解自己物種源頭之橋樑,以及我們人類仁慈天性之一部分。 ” 人類絕對支持大猿滅種,其中最重要的原因是:不應為食其肉而偷獵。
88 Just as smokestack emissions result in acid rain, toxic fumes from decomposing livestock waste in open-air lagoons on factory farms become poisonous to fish when returned to waterways via rainfall. The errant ammonia also ravages terrestrial ecosystems. Since Earth’s plant species evolved to efficiently use scarce amounts of nutrients, today’s gluts will generally kill them. Fallout can degrade environments as far away as 300 miles.
88. 正如煙囪排放廢氣的導致酸雨,當禽畜廢物在工業農場的露天排糞池裡分解成為有毒煙霧時,通過雨水返回河流的時候便毒害魚類。此漂流不定的氨也破壞陸地生態 系統。因地球上植物的己進化到讓它們有效地利用最少的營養素來生存,而今天這種的過剩養分情況反而會至其死地。這種有毒之漂流物可使這些養殖場附近300 英里的環境都剝蝕荒蕪。
89 Handling livestock these days is risky business, not the least because humans are increasingly contracting diseases from the animals: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Nipah virus, bird flu, and SARS are a few examples. “Exotic,” and often endangered, animal cuisine provides the conduit for a global pandemic. In China, wet markets display caged and invariably sickly creatures, such as cobras, civet cats, and anteaters, for consumers who want that “taste of the wild.” In Africa, the bushmeat trade is blamed for the spread of Ebola and AIDS.
89. 現在處理禽畜是一種危險的行業,其中值得提的一點是人類從動物感染疾病的個案越來越多: 克雅二氏病 ,尼帕病毒,禽流感,嚴重急性呼吸系統綜合症 只是幾個例子而已。 一些奇特的, 而且往往是瀕危動物的菜餚為全球性傳染病提供了傳染管道。在中國,濕貨街市現宰動物市場上陳列著被囚禁而且病焉焉的動物,如眼鏡蛇,果子狸, 食蟻獸,賣給那些貪求“野味”的饗客。 在非洲,野味貿易是造成埃博拉病毒和艾滋病傳播的主因。
90 Even if meat eaters are spared the big killers that their lifestyle is associated with (heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer), their diet may still be robbing them of everyday good health. A meat diet is sure to lead to nagging conditions and ailments. A whole-foods, high-fiber vegan diet, full of grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, is just the ticket to reduce arthritis pain, ease irritable-bowel disorders, mitigate common back pain, relieve cold and allergy symptoms, and lower risk for gallstones, kidney stones, and heartburn. But perhaps best of all, the vegan life is one free of constipation!
90. 就算肉食者可免死在其不健康飲食方式所帶來之惡果,如心臟病,中風,糖尿病和癌症,但其健康已早被這些疾病給剝奪了。 肉類飲食肯定會帶來各種麻煩的健康問題和疾病。天然的、高纖維的純素食飲食,足夠的穀類、水果、蔬菜、豆類,就可以減少關節炎疼痛,減輕大腸炎與相關疾 病,減低背部疼痛,紓緩感冒和過敏症狀,並降低得膽結石、腎結石以及過多胃酸反昇的風險。不過,也許最大的好處是,素食讓你免於便秘!
91 When food-safety inspectors in New York City make the rounds, they often come upon merchants selling just about anything: the meat of armadillos, iguanas, primates, turtles, frogs, and even rats. Some of the meat comes from endangered animals. Other cuts, if not intrinsically illegal, fail to derive from licensed inspected facilities and so put consumers at risk. The sellers of such contraband (most is imported) tend to be ignorant of U.S. laws, sometimes conveniently so. They don’t seem to comprehend the dangers to which they expose their customers and even the city as they raise the risk of outbreak. Over one recent 21-month period, a single inspector shuttered 138 city stores.
91. 當紐約市食品安全檢查員在巡查的時候,他們通常會襲擊那些無所不賣的商人: 犰狳肉, 鬣蜥,靈長類動物,龜,青蛙,甚至老鼠。有一些肉類還是來自瀕臨滅絕的動物。其他的肉, 如非本質上是非法取得的,要不就是從非法地下工廠而來的; 往往造成消費者的健康威脅, 或著甚至根本是非法的。這種違禁品的販賣商(多是從美國以外的國家進口來的)有時甚至故意目空一切美國法律規定。他們似乎並不理解這樣做讓他們的顧客,甚 至整個紐約市增加傳染病爆發的風險。在最近21個月內,光一位檢查員就在城市裡關閉138個商店。
92. It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s fish catch is non-target species, or “bycatch.” Fishers--typically in the cruelest most expedient ways--separate out the discards, only to dump them overboard, dead and mutilated. Bycatch from driftnetting is estimated at 85 percent of catch; despite a U.N. moratorium, Italy, France, and Morocco continue the hugely destructive practice. Shrimp fishing alone is responsible for over 27 percent of the world’s bycatch, despite producing less than 2 percent of global seafood.
92. 據估計, 世界上30 %的漁獲都是抓錯的物種,或“副漁獲物”。漁民 – 通常用最殘酷最便捷的方式 – 分隔其要拋棄的捕獲物後, 任其死亡或截取有價值的身體部位後, 再將其扔回海裡。以漂網捕到的估計85 %都是副漁獲物;儘管聯合國規定全面停用此捕魚方式,意大利、法國、摩洛哥等國家仍然繼續此具有巨大破壞性的做法。單是捕蝦造成世界上超過27 %的副漁獲物,儘管生產出來的還不到全球海鮮的2 %。
93 In nature, pigs avoid filth and will trek and root over 9 miles during a 24-hour period. Yet factory internment brings a breeding sow cold, strawless floors, noxious filth, deafening noise, and immobilizing space barely larger than her own body. This highly intelligent creature will be driven insane as she endures repeated pregnancies via artificial insemination. Her body will be pinned in place to expose her teats to her piglets. When her productive capacity wanes, she will be sent to slaughter.
93. 在自然界中,豬會避免污物,並有能力於24小時內跋涉超過九英里。然而,監禁式的工廠供給母豬的是一個陰冷而無鋪稻草的生活空間,髒的讓人惡心,加上充滿 震耳欲聾的豬叫聲和勉比自己身體稍大之無法活動的固定空間。這高智能的動物,被逼的要瘋了,因為她忍受多次人工授精而懷孕。她的身體將被籠具固定,以便露 出她的乳頭來餵她的豬寶寶。當她的生產能力減弱時,便被發送至屠宰場去了。
94 There are hundreds of chemicals and animal drugs used on today’s feedlots. These vaccines, parasiticides, hormones, insecticides, feed medications, and antimicrobials are making their way into our creeks, rivers, and lakes via the feces and urine excreted by the animals. The substances act as endocrine disrupters in wild species down stream. One study showed female fish acquiring male traits and male fish acquiring female traits. Other studies have similarly found disturbing anomalies.
94. 今天的畜牧農場用上數以百計的化學品和動物用藥物。這些疫苗、殺寄生虫藥、激素、殺蟲劑、飼料藥物、抗菌藥物已經通過由動物排出的糞便和尿液流進了我們的 小溪、河流、湖泊。這些物質在下游的野生物種身體被吸收而成了其內分泌干擾物。 研究表明,雌性魚類得了雄性性狀, 而雄性魚類則得了雌性性狀。其他一些研究也發現同樣令人不安的異常現象。
95. Less than 1 percent of the Earth’s water is usable for human consumption. Most either comprises the salty seas or is locked up in glacial icecaps. You might think that the world would be judicious in how it uses this precious substance. On the contrary: Just one of many examples of worldwide profligate waste is that of the great Ogallala Aquifer, which sits atop America’s High Plains states. Farmers mine this titanic water source of 5 trillion gallons per year to power an infrastructure of feedlots and industrial slaughterhouses. Scientists say this natural wonder will be diminished by 80 percent in 2020.
95. 地球上可供給人類食用的水不到1 %。而其中大多數的不是和鹹海混在一起,就是就被隔絕在冰川裡。您可能會認為,這個世界應該會明智地利用這寶貴的物質。事實正相反。 關于世界各地揮霍浪費現在來舉一個例子。 位於美國中西部高原上的遼闊的奧加拉拉(Ogallala)地下水層, 農民以每年五兆加侖地速度開採濫用這巨大水源, 以為工業飼養場和屠宰場的週邊設施供應地下電力。科學家們說, 到2020年這個自 然景觀將會縮小 80 %。
96 A 25-percent decline in heart disease in Poland in the early 1990s coincided with the country’s transformation to a market economy, which ended government subsidies to meat. A switch primarily to vegetable fats and the increased importation of fruit were also seen as factors in the decline, according to a report made by a team of multinational researchers. The authors of the report noted that the decline was “apparently without precedent in peacetime.”
96. 20世紀90年代初波蘭的心臟病下降 了25 %,恰巧當時在該國同時發生的是市場經濟的改革,政府結束了對肉類的補貼。根據一隊跨國研究對所提出的一項報告, 改用蔬菜油和增加水果進口也被認為是下降的因素。該報告的作者指出,這種下降在“和平時期是顯然是史無前例的”。
97 To produce foie gras, male ducks are force-fed a stomach-gorging cup of corn pellets three times a day with a 15-inch feeder tube. This torturous process goes on for 28 days until the ducks’ livers, from which the pâté is made, miasmatically bloat to 10 times normal size. Mortalities are high due to the disease, intense stress, and burst stomachs. For days prior to slaughter, each bird will pant for air. So cruel are these practices that foie gras production is now outlawed in at least a dozen countries.
97. 要生產鵝肝一種方式“佳餚”,就要強行餵食雄鵝, 方法是以一支15英寸的餵食管把一杯玉米顆粒強塞給它吃,如此每日3次。這痛苦的折磨要持續28天,直到那用來做鵝肝醬的肝臟, 受反常的肝毒膨脹到正常的10倍大小。由於疾病和強烈的壓力,加上胃爆裂, 死亡率很高。屠宰前幾天,每隻鵝都要為呼吸而掙扎。由于這做法太過殘忍,至少十幾個國家已經將此鵝肝生產方法列為禁令。
98 Every year, 24,000 fishers die on the job, making fishing the most dangerous occupation in the world, according to the FAO/UN. Meatpacking has the highest serious injury rate by far of any occupation. Repetitive stress disorders and knife cuts are rampant in meat plants. Poultry processing workers earn wages that are, for a family of four, below the poverty level. Full-time contract poultry growers clear incomes of only $21,000 annually.
98 根據聯合國糧農組織報告, 每年有2萬4千個漁民因工作意外傷害死亡,這個數字讓漁業被列為世界上最危險的職業。 肉類加工業的受重傷率遠遠超過任何其他行業。反覆性精神緊張失調症和刀傷在肉類工廠裡簡直是司空見慣的。家禽加工工人賺取的工資,如按一個四人家庭來算, 還低於貧民收入水平之下。全職養家禽的包工收入每年只有二萬一千美元。
99 Agriculture science inexhaustibly works to eke out every last bit of commodity wealth from farmed animals via genetic selection. Wild jungle fowl lay 2 dozen eggs per year; today’s maligned descendants lay an egg nearly every day. Sows in nature give birth to 5 piglets; today’s factory-raised litters yield 12 young. A hundred years ago a steer took 4 to 5 years to grow to market weight; today the process takes only 14 months. Just 50 years ago cows gave 645 gallons of milk per year; on dairies today, cows give over three times this amount.
99. 農業科學透過遺傳選擇科技, 無止境地從養殖動物身上榨乾其可得之任何商業利益。野生叢林裡的禽類(特指雞隻)每年只下二十蛋;今天它不良的子孫幾乎每天都下一個。自然界的母豬一胎產 5頭小豬; 今天的工廠所養出來的豬種一胎可生12隻小豬。 1百年前,公牛需要 4到5年成長到市場交易的重量; 今天, 此過程只需要14個月。在50年前, 奶牛每年可生產645加侖牛奶; 今天的奶牛生產量是此數字3倍 以上。
100. Eating vegetables keeps the brain young, a chorus of research shows. One recent 6-year study in Chicago tested 2,000 seniors, their mental acumen paired off with vegetable intake. Subjects who ate more than two servings of vegetables per day appeared about five years younger by certain indicators than those who ate few or no vegetables. Green leafies (spinach, kale, and collards) appeared most beneficial.
100. 眾多研究異口同聲地表示,吃蔬菜可保持大腦年輕。最近在芝加哥一個長達6年的研究, 測試了2000位老人,他們的頭腦敏銳性與蔬菜攝入量成正比。 每天吃兩分蔬菜以上的被試者,比那些吃很少或根本沒有吃蔬菜的表現年輕5歲左右, 以某些指數為標準。 而其中綠色葉菜類(菠菜,芥藍, 羽衣甘藍)顯得最有益。
101. When you fork over that $1.89 for those 7 ounces of Brown ’N Serve Sausage Links, it’s really quite a bargain, or so you might think. But such purchases--collectively trillions of them across the globe--accumulate a steep ecological deficit. In time, the debt will come due. Future generations will be the ones remitting its payments, in installments, with global warming, aquifer depletion, topsoil erosion, desertification, collapsed fisheries, wildlife extinction, deforestation and lost ecosystem services. Isn’t it time to start eating lower on the food chain? Get Hip. Go Veg!
101. 只要需要付上1.89美元就可以買那七盎司的布朗尼美式香腸,或者您會認為,這實在相當便宜吧!但這種購買成本的背後,在全球各地以萬億條的數字來計算, 隱藏積累著龐大的生態赤字代價。總有一天,這債務須要償還。將來要支付的是後代子孫, 他們將要分期付款,而所付出的代價的是全球氣候變暖、地下水層枯竭、可種植土壤流失、地表沙漠化、漁業崩潰、野生動物滅絕、森林濫伐和失去生態系統所帶來 的利益。是不是時侯開始在食物鏈上吃我們的低層部分的食物呢?趕快追上潮流啊!吃素吧!