2024年4月2日发(作者：)

Let’s Go Veggie!

Joseph Pace

1 If there was a single act that would improve your health, cut your risk of

food-borne illnesses, and help preserve the environment and the welfare of

millions of animals, would you do it?

2 The act I’m referring to is the choice you make every time you sit down to a

meal.

咱们吃素吧!

如果有一件事，既能增进健康、减少患上食物引起的疾病的危险，又有助于保护

环境、保护千万动物安全生存，你做不做？

我说的这件事就是每次坐下来就餐时挑选菜肴。

3、More than a million Canadians have already acted: They have chosen to not eat

meat. And the pace of change has been dramatic.

Vegetarian food sales are showing unparalleled growth. Especially

popular are meat-free burgers and hot dogs, and the plant-based cuisines of India,

China, Mexico, Italy and Japan.

一百多万加拿大人已经行动起来：他们决定不吃肉。变化速度之快令人惊叹。

素食品的销售额大大增加，前所未有。尤受欢迎的是无肉汉堡包和热狗，以及以蔬为主

的印度、中国、墨西哥、意大利和日本的菜肴。

5、Fuelling the shift toward vegetarianism have been the health

recommendations of medical research. Study after study has uncovered the same

basic truth: Plant foods lower your risk of chronic disease; animal foods increase it.

6 The American Dietetic Association says: “Scientific data suggest positive

relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic

degenerative diseases.”

推动人们转向素食的是医学研究提出的关于如何增进健康的建议。一项又一项的研究都

揭示了同样的基本事实：果蔬降低患慢性病的危险；肉类食品则增加这种危险。

美国饮食学协会指出，“科学资料表明，素食与降低多种慢性变性疾病的患病危险肯定

有关系。”

7 This past fall, after reviewing 4,500 studies on diet and cancer, the World Cancer

Research Fund flatly stated: “We’ve been running the human

biological engine on the wrong fuel.”

8 This “wrong fuel” has helped boost the cost of degenerative disease in Canada to

an estimated $400 billion a year, according to Bruce Holub, a professor of nutritional

science at the University of Guelph.

去年秋天，在检验了4500个饮食与癌症的研究报告之后，世界癌症研究基金会直截了

当地指出：“我们一向利用不合适的养料来维持人类生理引擎的运转。”

据威尔夫大学营养科学教授布鲁斯?霍拉勃称，这一“不合适的养料”致使加拿大每年用

于治疗变性疾病的费用高达4000亿（加）元。

9 Animal foods have serious nutritional drawbacks: They are devoid of fiber,

contain far too much saturated fat and cholesterol, and may even carry traces of

hormones, steroids and antibiotics. It makes little difference whether you eat beef,

pork, chicken or fish.

Animal foods are also gaining notoriety as breeding grounds for E. coli,

campylobacter and other bacteria that cause illness. According to the Canadian Food

Inspection Agency, six out of ten chickens are infected with salmonella. It’s like

playing Russian roulette with your health.

肉类食品存在严重的营养缺陷：它们不含纤维，含有过多的饱和脂肪和胆固醇，甚至可

能含有微量的激素、类固醇和抗菌素。牛肉、猪肉、鸡肉或鱼肉都一样。

肉类食品也是越来越广为人知的大肠杆菌、弯曲菌以及其他致病细菌的孳生地。据加拿

大食品检验机构称，十分之六的鸡染有沙门氏菌。吃肉无异于玩俄式轮盘赌，拿你的健康做

赌资。

11、So why aren’t governments doing anything about this? Unfortunately,

they have bowed to pressure from powerful lobby groups such as the Beef

Information Center, the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency and the Dairy Farmers of

ing to documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information

Act, these groups forced changes to Canada’s latest food guide before it was

released in 1993.

This should come as no surprise: Even a minor reduction in recommended

intakes of animal protein could cost these industries billions of dollars a year.

既然如此，政府为什么不采取任何措施？很遗憾，政府屈服于强有力的院外活动集团的

压力，如牛肉信息中心、加拿大禽蛋营销公司、加拿大乳牛场场主协会等。根据信息自由法

案获得的有关文件记载，这些集团迫使加拿大最新食品指南在1993年公布前作出修改。

这并不奇怪。即使建议动物蛋白质的摄入量减少一丁点儿都会给这些企业带来每年数十

亿元的损失。

13、While health and food safety are compelling reasons for choosing a

vegetarian lifestyle, there are also larger issues to consider. Animal-based

agriculture is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the face of the

Earth.

Think for a moment about the vast resources required to raise, feed,

shelter, transport, process and package the 500 million Canadian farm animals

slaughtered each year. Water and energy are used at every step of the way. Alberta

Agriculture calculates that it takes 10 to 20 times more energy to produce meat than to

produce grain.

健康和食品安全是选择素食生活方式令人信服的理由，但此外还有更为重大的因素要考

虑。以饲养动物为基础的农业是世界上对环境破坏最严重的产业之一。

想一想培育、饲养、建牲畜栏、运输、加工和包装加拿大每年宰杀的5亿头牲畜所需的

巨大资源。其中的每一个环节都耗费水和能源。阿尔伯达农业署估计，生产肉耗费的能源比

生产谷物多10－20倍。

15、Less than a quarter of our agricultural land is used to feed people directly. The rest

is devoted to grazing and growing food for animals. Ecosystems of forest, wetland

and grassland have been decimated to fuel the demand for land. Using so much land

heightens topsoil loss, the use of harsh fertilizers and pesticides, and the need for

irrigation water from dammed rivers. If people can shift away from meat, much of this

land could be converted back to wilderness.

用于直接为人们提供食物的土地还不到农业用地的四分之一。其余的都用来放牧和种饲

料。森林、湿地和草原的生态系统遭受相当严重的破坏，以满足对土地的需求。土地的大量

利用加剧了表土的流失，增加了会带来负面作用的化肥和杀虫剂的施用，增加了从筑有水坝

的河流中引水灌溉的需求。如果人们能摒弃肉食，许多土地就能回复到未开垦状态。

16 The problem is that animals are inefficient at converting plants to edible flesh. It

takes, for example, 8.4 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of pork, the U. S.

government estimates.

After putting so many resources into animals, what do we get out? Manure — at

a rate of over 10,000 kilograms per second in Canada alone, according to the

government. Environment Canada says cattle excrete 40 kilograms of manure for

every kilogram of edible beef. A large egg factory can produce 50 to 100 tonnes of

waste per week, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture estimates.

问题在于，动物在把植物转化为可食用的肉类这方面的效率很低。举例来说，美国政府

估测，生产1公斤猪肉需要耗费8.4 公斤的谷物。

我们把这么多资源耗费在动物身上，又得到什么回报呢？粪肥—— 据官方资料，仅加

拿大，就以每秒10,000多公斤的速度排出。加拿大环境部称，牛每产1公斤可食牛肉需排

出40公斤粪便。安大略省农业部估测，一家大型禽蛋工厂每星期可产出50－100吨禽粪。

18、And where does it go? In the 1992 Ontario Groundwater Survey, 43 per cent of

tested wells were contaminated with agricultural run-off containing fecal coliform

bacteria and nitrates. Earlier this month, charges were laid against a large Alberta

feedlot operator for dumping 30 million litres of cattle manure into the Bow River,

“killing everything in its path,” as a news story described it.

这些粪便都到哪儿去了？1992年安大略省地下水调查发现， 43%的被测试水井都受到

含有粪便大肠杆菌和硝酸盐等农业生产排出的废物的污染。本月初，阿尔伯达一家大型围栏

肥育地经营者被指控将3千万升牛粪排入博河，“沿途生灵悉数被毁”，一则新闻这么报道。

19、And then there is methane, a primary contributing gas in global warming and

ozone layer depletion. Excluding natural sources, 27 per cent of Canada’s and 20 per

cent of the world’s methane comes from livestock.

20 John Robbins, author of the Pulitzer prize-nominated book Diet for

a New America (Group West), said it best when he stated: “Eating lower on the food

chain is perhaps the most potent single act we can take to halt the destruction of our

environment and preserve our natural resources.”

此外还有沼气，那是促使全球气候变暖和臭氧层减少的主要气体。不把天然沼气资源包

括在内，加拿大27%的沼气、全世界20%的沼气都来自牲畜。

获普利策提名奖的《新美洲饮食》一书作者约翰?罗宾斯说得好：“食用食物

链较低部分的食物或许是我们可用以阻止环境破坏、保护自然资源的最最有效的

行动。”

21、Our environment also includes the animals killed for their meat. It has become an

accepted fact that today’s factory-farmed animals live short, miserable, unnatural

lives.

As part of my research at the University of Waterloo, I toured some of the

country’s largest “processing” plants. The experience has left me with recurring

nightmares.

我们的环境也包括为食其肉而被宰杀的动物。当今工厂化农场的牲畜寿命极短，过着悲

惨的、不正常的生活，这已是公认的事实。

作为我在沃特卢大学研究工作的一部分，我参观过一些全国最大的“加工”厂。

这个经历让我日后尽做噩梦。

23、 I saw “stubborn” cows being beaten and squealing pigs chased around the

killing floor with electric calipers.

I looked on in utter shock as a cow missed the stun gun and was hoisted fully

conscious upside down by its hind leg and cut to pieces, thrashing until its last breath.

Noticing my shock, the foreman remarked: “Who cares? They’re going to die

anyway.”

我见到“固执”的牛被打、尖叫着的猪在屠宰室被人用电卡钳追逐。

我万分震惊地目睹一头牛躲过了眩晕枪，结果被缚住后腿倒挂起来，惨遭活剐，一直挣

扎到断气。

工头见我惊骇不已，便说：“管它呢！它们反正得死。

26、Because it can cost hundreds of dollars per minute

to stop the conveyor line, animal welfare comes second to profit. Over 150,000

animals are “processed” every hour

of every working day in Canada, according to Agriculture Canada.

The picture gets uglier still. En route to slaughter,

farm animals may legally spend anywhere from 36 to 72 hours without food, water or

rest. They’re not even afforded the “luxury” of temperature controlled trucks in

extreme summer heat or sub-zero cold.

由于传送线停转一分钟就要损失好几百元，家畜的利益就变得不如利润重要。据加拿大

农业署称，在加拿大，每个工作日，每小时有150,000多头家畜被“加工”。

情况变得甚至更可怕。家畜在宰杀前的运输途中，法律允许在36－72小时内不给进食、

进水，不让休息。即使在炎夏或零度以下的严冬，它们连乘温控卡车的“奢侈”也不让享受。

28、Agriculture Canada has estimated that more than 3 million Canadian farm

animals die slow and painful deaths en route to slaughter each year.

29 I’ve also visited typical Canadian farms. Gone are the days when piglets

snorted and roosters strutted their way about the barnyard. Most of today’s

modernized farms have long, windowless sheds in which animals live like prisoners

their entire lives. I have seen chickens crammed four to a cage, nursing pigs separated

from their young by iron bars and veal calves confined to crates so narrow they

couldn’t turn around. Few of these animals ever experience sunlight or fresh air —

and most of their natural urges are denied.

加拿大农业署估计，加拿大每年有3百多万头家畜在宰杀前的运输途中痛苦地慢慢死

去。

本人还参观过一些典型的加拿大农场。猪崽喷着鼻息、公鸡在粮仓的空场上昂首行走的

日子已经一去不复返。而今大多数的现代化农场都有一个个狭长的、没有窗户的牲畜棚，牲

畜一生关在棚里，如囚犯一般。我见到过四只鸡挤在一个笼里，喂奶的母猪与猪崽被铁条隔

开，肉用小牛关在狭窄得转不过身来的板条箱里。这些牲畜几乎都终年不见阳光，呼吸不到

新鲜空气—— 它们天生的欲望大都得不到满足。

30、Although it is difficult to face these harsh realities,

it is even more difficult to ignore them. Three times a day, you make a decision that

not only affects the quality of your life, but the rest of the living world. We hold in our

knives and forks the power to change this world.

Consider the words of Albert Einstein: “Nothing will benefit human

health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the Evolution to a

vegetarian diet.”

Bon appetite.

面对这种严峻的现实固然困难，置之不理更是难上加难。一日三次，你要做出不仅影响

自身生活质量、更是事关整个有生命世界的决定。我们手里的餐刀餐叉拥有改变这个世界的

力量。

让我们想一想阿尔伯特?爱因斯坦的话吧：“没有什么比转向素食更有益于

人类健康，更能增加世间万物的生存机会。”

祝君胃口好。