《经济学人》双语：如何应对全球水稻危机？

原文标题：
Green revolution 2.0
How to fix the global rice crisis
The world’s most important crop is fuelling diabetes and climate change
绿色革命2.0
如何解决全球水稻危机
全球最重要的农作物正在加剧糖尿病和气候变化问题

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THE GREEN revolution was one of the greatest feats of human ingenuity.

绿色革命是人类智慧的伟大壮举之一。

By promoting higher-yielding varieties of wheat and, especially, rice, plant-breeders in India, Mexico and the Philippines helped China emerge from a famine and India avoid one.

通过推广高产的小麦和水稻，印度、墨西哥和菲律宾的植物育种家帮助中国走出了饥荒，印度也避免了饥荒。

From 1965 to 1995 Asia’s rice yields doubled and its poverty almost halved, even as its population soared.
从1965年到1995年，亚洲的水稻产量翻了一番，尽管人口激增，但贫困率减少了近一半。

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Asia’s vast rice market is a legacy of that triumph. The starchy grain is the main source of sustenance for over half the world’s population.

亚洲庞大的稻米市场是那场胜利的遗产。这种淀粉质谷物是全球一半以上人口的主要食物来源。

Asians produce over 90% of rice and get more than a quarter of their calories from it.

全球90%的大米产自亚洲，亚洲人摄入的卡路里有1/4来自大米。

And demand for the crop is projected to soar, on the back of population growth in Asia and Africa, another big rice consumer.By one estimate, the world will need to produce almost a third more rice by 2050.

随着亚洲和非洲人口增长，大米的需求预计将飙升。据估计，到2050年，全球将需要增产近三分之一的大米。

Yet that looks increasingly hard—and in some ways undesirable.
但这看起来越来越难，并且在某些方面是不可取的。

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Rice production is spluttering. Yields have increased by less than 1% a year over the past decade, much less than in the previous one.

水稻产量正在下降。过去十年每年增长不到1％，远低于上一个十年的增长率。

The greatest slowdowns were in South-East Asia, where Indonesia and the Philippines—together, home to 400m people—are already big importers.

东南亚的产量下降最为明显，印尼和菲律宾共有4亿人口，是粮食进口大国。

This has many explanations. Urbanisation and industrialisation have made labour and farmland scarcer.

这有很多解释。城市化和工业化使劳动力和耕地更加稀缺。

Excessive use of pesticides, fertiliser and irrigation have poisoned and depleted soils and groundwater. But the biggest reason may be global warming.
过度使用杀虫剂、化肥和灌溉已经污染和耗尽了土壤和地下水。但最大的原因可能是全球变暖。

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Rice is particularly susceptible to extreme conditions and is often grown in places where they are increasingly evident.

水稻特别容易受到极端气候的影响，而且常常生长在这种条件越来越明显的地方。

Patchy monsoon rains and drought last year in India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, led to a reduced harvest and an export ban.

印度是全球最大的大米出口国，但由于去年断断续续的雨季和干旱，导致收成减少，并实行了出口禁令。

Devastating floods in Pakistan, the fourth-biggest exporter, wiped out 15% of its rice harvest.

巴基斯坦是第四大稻米出口国，由于毁灭性的洪水，损失了15%的大米收成。

Rising sea-levels are causing salt to seep into the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s “rice bowl”.

海平面上升会导致盐份渗入越南的湄公河三角洲，这是越南的“粮仓”。

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It gets worse. Rice is not merely a casualty of climate change, but also a contributor to it.

糟糕的是，水稻不仅是气候变化的受害者，也是施害者。

By starving soils of oxygen, paddy cultivation encourages methane-emitting bacteria. It is a bigger source of greenhouse gas than any foodstuff except beef.

通过使土壤缺氧，稻田种植会产生甲烷排放。大米是除牛肉以外产生温室气体最多的食物。

Its emissions footprint is similar to that of aviation. If you count the conversion of forestland for rice paddy—the fate of much of Madagascar’s rainforest—that footprint is even bigger.
水稻的碳排放足迹与航空业相似。如果计算将森林土地转换为稻田的情况（如马达加斯加雨林），碳足迹甚至更大。

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This amounts to an insidious feedback loop and, in all, a far more complicated set of problems than the food insecurity that spurred the green revolution.

这构成了一个隐蔽的反馈循环，总体而言，这是一系列比绿色革命推动的粮食不安全问题更为复杂的问题。

Indeed, eating too much rice turns out to be bad for people as well as the climate.

事实上，吃太多米饭不仅对气候有害，对人类健康也不利。

White rice is more fattening than bread or maize, and is not especially nutritious.

白米饭比面包或玉米更容易使人发胖，且营养价值并不是很高。

In South Asia rice-heavy diets have been linked to high rates of diabetes and persistent malnutrition.
在南亚，以米饭为主的饮食习惯与糖尿病和营养不良率有关。

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Policymakers need to increase rice yields, then, but more selectively than in the 1960s.

政策制定者需要提高稻米产量，如今比20世纪60年代有更多选择。

In the places most suitable for rice cultivation, such as hot and sticky South-East Asia, faster adoption of new technologies, such as flood-resistant and more nutritious seeds, could provide a big productivity boost.

在最适合水稻种植的地区，如炎热潮湿的东南亚地区，更快地采用新技术，如抗洪和更有营养的种子，可以大大提高生产力。

In tandem with improved practices, such as direct seeding of paddy, they could also shorten the growing cycle and reduce the amount of water required, mitigating environmental harm.

与此同时，改进实践，如直接播种水稻，他们也可以缩短生长周期，减少所需的水量，从而减轻环境损害。

Farmers have been slow to adopt such improvements, partly because of overgenerous subsidies that shield them from the rice crisis.

农民采用这些改进方案的速度较慢，部分是因为过于慷慨的补贴让他们免受水稻危机的影响。

A better approach would make state support contingent on best practice. By encouraging crop insurance—a good idea in itself—governments could also help reassure farmers as they switch from old ways to new.
更好的方法是将国家政策与最佳实践关联起来。通过鼓励农业保险（本身是一个好办法），政府还可以帮助农民在转换新旧种植方式时感到更加安心。

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Governments need to nudge producers and consumers away from rice.

政府需要潜移默化地引导生产者和消费者远离大米。

India and Indonesia are promoting millet, which is more nutritious and uses a lot less water.

印度和印度尼西亚正在推广小米，小米比大米更有营养价值，水消耗量也少得多。

Scrapping subsidies that favour rice over other crops would make such efforts more effective.

取消大米相关的补贴将更有效。

India, for example, procures rice from farmers, often at above-market rates, then distributes it as food aid.

例如，印度通常以高于市场价的价格从农民手里收购大米，然后将其作为粮食援助分发出去。

It should make its interventions more crop-agnostic, by replacing subsidies and free rice with income support for farmers and cash transfers for the poor.

通过给农民收入支持和向贫困人口提供现金转移来取代补贴和免费大米，这应该使政府干预更加不受作物影响。

That would encourage farmers to choose the best crop for their local conditions—much of India’s agricultural north-west would switch from rice to wheat overnight.

这将鼓励农民选择最适合本土条件的作物——印度的大部分西北农业地区会在一夜之间从种稻米转向种小麦。

Poor Indians would be free to choose a more balanced diet. Thereby, it would correct a market skewed towards environmental damage and poor health.
贫穷的印度人将可以自由选择更加平衡的饮食。从而，它将把偏向环境破坏和健康不良的市场纠正过来。

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Bringing about such change in Asia and beyond will be far harder than promoting new wonder seeds was.

在亚洲和其他地方实现这样的变革将比推广新的奇妙种子更加困难。

Farmers are almost everywhere a powerful constituency.

农民几乎在任何地方都是一个强大的利益集团。

Yet policymakers should get used to blending complicated economic and technological fixes in this way.Increasingly, it is what fighting climate change will entail.

然而，政策制定者应该习惯于以这种方式混合复杂的经济和技术解决方案。这就是应对气候变化所需的方法。

Sorting out the mounting crisis in the world’s most important foodstuff would be a good place to begin.
解决世界上最重要的食品危机将是一个很好的开始。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量783左右）
原文出自：2023年4月1日《The Economist》Leaders版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
Green Revolution绿色革命是指通过使用人工肥料、杀虫剂和高产作物品种在发展中国家实现的大规模农作物生产增长。它始于20世纪中叶，最初在墨西哥和印度次大陆取得了巨大的成功。新品种需要大量的化学肥料和杀虫剂才能产生高产量。绿色革命因其负面环境影响而受到批评，包括土壤退化、水污染和生物多样性丧失。

Mekong Delta湄公河三角洲是越南西南部的一个地区，由湄公河和其支流的河流和分支组成。它是越南最大的稻米和水果生产地之一，也是越南最重要的渔业中心之一。该地区还以其美丽的风景和独特的文化而闻名。

【重点句子】（3 个）
Rice is particularly susceptible to extreme conditions and is often grown in places where they are increasingly evident.
水稻特别容易受到极端气候的影响，而且常常生长在这种条件越来越明显的地方。

Indeed, eating too much rice turns out to be bad for people as well as the climate.
事实上，吃太多米饭不仅对气候有害，对人类健康也不利。

Bringing about such change in Asia and beyond will be far harder than promoting new wonder seeds was.
在亚洲和其他地方实现这样的变革将比推广新的奇妙种子更加困难。