Vegan Agriculture全素農(nóng)業(yè)

文/蘇珊娜·科茲沃夫斯卡 譯/王強(qiáng)

By Zuzanna Koz?owska

Vegan farming has become more and more popular. It is one of the most environmentally-friendly forms of agriculture. Vegan farming or plantbased farming is an approach to grow plants such as vegetables without using animal-derived materials such as manure or animal byproducts (e.g. animal bone meal) and waste. Also, vegan farmers are far from applying synthetic fertilizers. Such an approach to farming also helps preserve the environment and regenerate soil fertility and replenish its biodiversity.

全素農(nóng)業(yè)越來(lái)越受歡迎了，它是最環(huán)保的農(nóng)業(yè)種植方式之一。全素農(nóng)業(yè)或稱植物源性農(nóng)業(yè)是種植蔬菜等植物的一種方法，這種方法不使用糞肥等動(dòng)物衍生物料或動(dòng)物副產(chǎn)品（如動(dòng)物骨粉）和糞便。此外，全素種植者也絕不會(huì)使用合成肥料。這種耕作方式不僅有助于保護(hù)環(huán)境、恢復(fù)土壤肥力，還有助于增加生物多樣性。

2 當(dāng)今世界，純素飲食和純素生活方式越來(lái)越普遍了。根據(jù)科爾尼公司的分析，到2040年，預(yù)計(jì)全球40%的人的飲食中將含有肉類。人們選擇少吃甚至不吃動(dòng)物衍生產(chǎn)品有許多不同的原因。一些人擔(dān)心各行各業(yè)對(duì)動(dòng)物權(quán)益的侵害；有些人這樣做是考慮到他們自身的健康，或者說(shuō)動(dòng)物產(chǎn)品對(duì)環(huán)境的影響；另一些人選擇這條路只是為了他們自己的幸福安康：不同的人，選擇純素飲食的原因也不同。然而，不管動(dòng)機(jī)是什么，純素食主義的興起促使人們對(duì)純素食友好型農(nóng)業(yè)產(chǎn)生了新的需求。

2 In today’s world, the vegan diet and lifestyle are getting more and more popular. According to the AT Kearneyanalysis, it is anticipated that 40% of people globally will have meat in their diet by 2040. People decide to switch to a diet with less or even no animalderived products for many different reasons. Some are worried about animal rights in various industries; some do that for their health, or the environmental effect animal products have; others choose this path simply for their wellbeing: many people, many reasons to choose veganism. However, no matter what the motive is, the rise of veganism creates new demand for more veganfriendly agriculture.

3 It is essential to note that vegan agriculture is not the same as an organic one. Organic farming uses natural products to grow plants—that can include even animal waste as fertilizers.It avoids most if not all synthetic products. On the other hand, vegan agriculture rejects animal-derived products and usually sticks with plant-based organic compounds, which means that, in general, vegan agriculture has stricter rules than organic.

4 You might think that conventional farming doesn’t require many animalderived products, and if it does, they are easily replaceable. However, you would be wrong. For example, to supplement plants with nitrogen-rich compounds,they are often given fertilizers made partly from animal excrement.

3 需要注意的是，全素農(nóng)業(yè)與有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)是不同的。有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)使用天然產(chǎn)品來(lái)種植植物，連動(dòng)物糞便都可作為肥料。有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)基本不使用人工合成肥料。另一方面，全素農(nóng)業(yè)拒絕動(dòng)物衍生物料，通常只使用植物性有機(jī)化合物，這意味著，一般來(lái)說(shuō)，全素農(nóng)業(yè)比有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)有著更嚴(yán)格的規(guī)定。

4 你也許會(huì)認(rèn)為傳統(tǒng)農(nóng)業(yè)不需要很多動(dòng)物衍生品，如果確實(shí)需要的話，這些衍生物料也是很容易被替代的。但是，你錯(cuò)了。比如，為了給植物補(bǔ)充富含氮的化合物，人們經(jīng)常使用部分由動(dòng)物糞便制成的肥料。

5 為了保護(hù)環(huán)境，建議人們減少牲畜養(yǎng)殖數(shù)量，說(shuō)服農(nóng)民不要像現(xiàn)在這樣只靠動(dòng)物衍生物料來(lái)作為肥料。動(dòng)物糞便對(duì)環(huán)境有害嗎？當(dāng)然，問(wèn)題并不在于牛和豬之類家畜的要不要存在，而在于這些家畜會(huì)排放大量的氨氣。氨是一種堿性化合物，環(huán)境中氨氣過(guò)量可能非常危險(xiǎn)。它會(huì)導(dǎo)致地表水富營(yíng)養(yǎng)化，最終減少該地區(qū)的生物多樣性。具有諷刺意味的是，過(guò)多的氨還會(huì)使較敏感的作物因肥料過(guò)量或土壤酸堿度改變而受損。

5 To protect the environment, it would be recommended to reduce the amount of livestock bred, convincing farmers to not count only on animal-derived products in fertilizing as much as they do right now. Are animal-based excrements harmful to the environment? Of course, the problem is not the existence of livestock like cows or pigs; it’s about the fact that they produce a lot of ammonia in such an amount. Ammonia is an alkalic compound that can be very dangerous in an excessive amount in an environment. It can cause the eutrophication of surface waters—which ends up reducing biodiversity in that area.Ironically, too much ammonia can also damage more sensitive crops by overfertilizing them or changing the soil pH.

6 Is replacing all animal-derived products used for soil fertilizing even possible? Well, let’s take a closer look at that field.

Instead of traditional fertilizers made with animal products such as manure or slaughterhouse waste, it is possible to use other options. For example, only using mineral fertilizers seems to be a pretty good option compared to using both animal and mineral ones—it’s unnecessary to use more mineral fertilizer.However, there might be 10% fewer crops, and over time the soil might have a lower concentration of certain macroelements like iron, manganese, etc.,that are needed for the proper growth of plants and other organisms.

6 有沒有可能將所有用于土壤增肥的動(dòng)物衍生物料都替換掉？我們來(lái)仔細(xì)看看這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

用糞便或屠宰場(chǎng)廢物等動(dòng)物衍生品制成的傳統(tǒng)肥料，可以用其他肥料來(lái)替代。比如，與同時(shí)使用動(dòng)物肥料和無(wú)機(jī)肥料相比，只使用無(wú)機(jī)肥料似乎是一個(gè)很好的選擇（沒必要增加無(wú)機(jī)肥料的使用量）。然而，這樣的話，作物的產(chǎn)量有可能會(huì)減少10%，而且隨著時(shí)間的推移，土壤中某些常量元素的濃度也可能會(huì)降低，如鐵、錳等，這些元素是植物和其他生物正常生長(zhǎng)所需要的。

另一方面，還有一種可能性是使用有機(jī)植物肥料，包括農(nóng)作物廢水，并使其成為一種非?？沙掷m(xù)的植物施肥方式。這種方法有許多積極的效果，比如，長(zhǎng)期使用這種施肥方式，土壤結(jié)構(gòu)會(huì)變好，可能有助于提高土壤質(zhì)量。

On the other hand, there is also a possibility of using organic, vegetal fertilizers, including wastewater from the crops and making it a very sustainable way of fertilizing plants. This method shows many positive effects, such as the better structure of the soil in longterm use, which could potentially help with soil quality.

7 Additionally, vegan-organic farming usually chooses more natural ways to protect the plants, such as breaking cycles of plants’ diseases with mixed cropping, using mechanical barriers such as nets, or even attracting opposing organisms to fight the harmful ones.Those ways affect the environment less than the ways of traditional farming.However, they might be less effective against certain plant diseases or pests.

8 This type of farming also requires a lot of knowledge and good planning. It might be challenging at first, primarily until vegan-organic agriculture would become a standard. However, it seems that it’s not impossible to achieve.

9 One of the reasons to invest in veganorganic agriculture is that the veganorganic way of farming substitutes synthetic pesticides and uses organic pesticides or other non-chemical methods to protect the crops. In contrast, in conventional agriculture, synthetic pesticides are on a very high level, resulting in higher levels of pesticide residues in food products.

7 此外，全素有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)通常選擇更自然的方式來(lái)保護(hù)植物，比如通過(guò)混作來(lái)打破植物疾病的循環(huán)周期，使用網(wǎng)子等機(jī)械屏障，甚至吸引天敵來(lái)對(duì)抗有害生物。這些方法對(duì)環(huán)境的影響小于傳統(tǒng)耕作方式。然而，它們對(duì)某些植物病蟲害可能不太有效。

8 這種耕作方式還需要大量的知識(shí)和良好的規(guī)劃。一開始可能會(huì)很難，尤其是在全素有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)成為一個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)之前。然而，它看起來(lái)并不是不可能實(shí)現(xiàn)的。

9 投資全素有機(jī)農(nóng)業(yè)的理由之一是，全素有機(jī)種植不使用合成農(nóng)藥，而是使用有機(jī)農(nóng)藥或其他非化學(xué)方法來(lái)保護(hù)作物。相比之下，在傳統(tǒng)農(nóng)業(yè)中，合成農(nóng)藥的用量非常高，導(dǎo)致食物產(chǎn)品中農(nóng)藥殘留量也很高。

10 近來(lái)，養(yǎng)豬業(yè)都靠使用抗生素來(lái)減少動(dòng)物疾病。這樣，抗生素很快就會(huì)隨著代謝物進(jìn)入土壤和水中。這些藥物的大量使用是導(dǎo)致細(xì)菌對(duì)抗生素產(chǎn)生耐藥性的主要原因。用全素農(nóng)業(yè)替代這種養(yǎng)殖業(yè)是應(yīng)對(duì)這一問(wèn)題的一種辦法，可以減少農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)中抗生素的使用。

10 Swine farming is recently based on antibiotics application towards the reduction of diseases affecting animals. Thus,antibiotics quickly get to the soil and water with the metabolites. Large amounts of these medicines are the main reason causing the growth of bacterias’ resistance against antibiotics. Substitution of such type of farming with vegan one faces that problem enabling reduction of antibiotics in agriculture.

11 In the future, it should be a significant priority not to rely on animals’excrement for fertilizing plants. Doing so is not only beneficial to vegans. It’s advantageous for the whole world, including other animal or plant species.Even if today’s methods of vegan agriculture might not be perfect, scientists worldwide, together with vegan farmers, are working towards developing plant-based solutions as alternatives to animal-derived fertilizers. ■

11 將來(lái)，不依賴動(dòng)物糞便為植物增肥，應(yīng)該是重中之重。這樣做不僅對(duì)純素食者有益，對(duì)整個(gè)世界，包括對(duì)其他動(dòng)植物物種，都是有利的。即便今天的全素農(nóng)業(yè)種植方法可能不完美，世界各地的科學(xué)家正和全素耕作農(nóng)民一道努力，開發(fā)植物性解決方案，以替代動(dòng)物衍生肥料。 □