来源：《The Scientist》2022冬季刊
本文适合2024考生
Closer to the equator, biodiversity becomes richer. These tropical regions have historically seen less development and are typically teeming with wildlife and carbon stored in the form of abundant vegetation. But in recent decades, agricultural frontiers have expanded rapidly into tropical forests. This unprecedented expansion of farmland for grazing and feed production may be increasing contact between wildlife, people, and livestock, which may enhance the likelihood of pathogens jumping from one to the other.
离赤道越近，生物多样性就越丰富。这些热带地区历史上开发较少，通常充满野生动物和以丰富植被形式储存的碳。但近几十年来，农业占地已经迅速扩展到热带森林。这种用于放牧和饲料生产的农田的空前扩张可能会增加野生动物、人类和牲畜之间的接触，这可能会增加病原体从一个物种跳到另一个物种的可能性。
Such habitat destruction also has a negative impact on large herbivores and predators, as they lose sources of food and breeding grounds. This can lead to an increase in species of bats, birds, and primates that are better adapted to thriving in human-modified landscapes. Some of these species are known reservoirs for infectious diseases of livestock and humans. For example, some fruit bats are reservoir hosts for Ebola virus. Intensive livestock farms further increase the likelihood that domesticated animals can serve as intermediate hosts for wildlife-origin diseases, thereby amplifying the risk of human infection.
这种栖息地的破坏也对大型食草动物和食肉动物产生了负面影响，因为它们失去了食物来源和繁殖地。这可能会导致蝙蝠、鸟类和灵长类动物数量增加，这些物种更适合在人类改造的环境中繁衍生息。其中一些物种是已知的牲畜和人类传染病的宿主。例如，一些果蝠是埃博拉病毒的宿主。集约化畜牧农场进一步增加了家畜成为野生动物源性疾病中间宿主的可能性，从而增加了人类感染的风险。
In addition, if the human population continues to grow and adopt diets rich in livestock-sourced foods, it’s unlikely that global warming can be kept well below 2°C and that the rate of species extinction can be slowed. This is because livestock production has the largest environmental footprint of all food production systems in terms of land and water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution of terrestrial and aquatic systems.
此外，如果人类人口继续增长，并采用富含牲畜来源食物的饮食，全球变暖不太可能保持在2°C以下，物种灭绝的速度也不可能减缓。这是因为在所有粮食生产系统中，就土地和水的使用、温室气体排放以及陆地和水生系统的污染而言，牲畜业生产的环境足迹最大。
Asking everyone to become vegan is not realistic or even desirable. But flexitarian diets could feed the growing world population without further expanding farmland into tropical wildlands and with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These diets consist of large amounts of plant-based foods, including vegetable proteins like pulses, nuts, and seeds; modest amounts of fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy; and small quantities of red meat and processed animal proteins.
要求每个人都成为素食主义者是不现实的，甚至是不可取的。但弹性素食饮食可以养活不断增长的世界人口，而无需将农田进一步扩大到热带荒地，并且能够减少温室气体排放。这些饮食包括大量植物性食物，包括豆类、坚果和种子等植物蛋白；适量的鱼、家禽、蛋和奶制品；以及少量红肉和加工动物蛋白。
Paired with conversion to environmentally friendly or organic farming and reductions in food losses and wastage, diets low in livestock-sourced foods are therefore a key component of a sustainable global food system. Such a dietary shift would have other public health benefits too, such as reducing overweight and obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, and colorectal cancer.
因此，在转向环境友好型或有机农业以及减少粮食损失和浪费的同时，低牲畜来源饮食是可持续全球粮食体系的一个关键组成部分。这样的饮食转变也会带来其他公共健康益处，比如减少超重和肥胖、糖尿病、心脏病和结直肠癌。
Measures available to governments, civil society, and businesses to promote healthier and more sustainable levels of consumption of livestock-sourced foods include education in schools, training of physicians, eco-labels on food packaging, taxation of meat and dairy products, and a statutory duty for retail and hospitality sectors.
政府、民间社会和企业可采取的促进更健康和更可持续的牲畜源食品消费水平的措施包括学校教育、医生培训、食品包装上的生态标签、对肉类和奶制品征税以及零售和酒店业的法定义务。
Governments tend to dodge such interventions for fear of public backlash. But the public tends to expect government leadership in tackling such a complex challenge.
由于担心公众的反对，政府倾向于避免这种干预。但公众倾向于期待政府在应对如此复杂的挑战时发挥领导作用。