【文章內容簡介】 0。 去年秋天，在檢驗了4500個飲食與癌癥的研究報告之后，世界癌癥研究基金會直截了當?shù)刂赋觯骸拔覀円幌蚶貌缓线m的養(yǎng)料來維持人類生理引擎的運轉?！?8 This wrong fuel has helped boost the cost of degenerative disease inCanadato an estimated $400 billion a year, according to Bruce Holub, a professor of nutritional science at theUniversityofGuelph. 據威爾夫大學營養(yǎng)科學教授布魯斯?霍拉勃稱，這一“不合適的養(yǎng)料”致使加拿大每年用于治療變性疾病的費用高達4000億（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. 肉類食品存在嚴重的營養(yǎng)缺陷：它們不含纖維，含有過多的飽和脂肪和膽固醇，甚至可能含有微量的激素、類固醇和抗菌素。牛肉、豬肉、雞肉或魚肉都一樣。 10 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. It39。s like playing Russian roulette with your health. 肉類食品也是越來越廣為人知的大腸桿菌、彎曲菌以及其他致病細菌的孳生地。據加拿大食品檢驗機構稱，十分之六的雞染有沙門氏菌。吃肉無異于玩俄式輪盤賭，拿你的健康做賭資。 11 So why aren39。t governments doing anything about this? Unfortunately, they have bowed to pressure from powerful lobby groups such as theBeefInformationCenter, the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency and the Dairy Farmers of Canada. According to documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act, these groups forced changes toCanada39。s latest food guide before it was released in 1993. 既然如此，政府為什么不采取任何措施？很遺憾，政府屈服于強有力的院外活動集團的壓力，如牛肉信息中心、加拿大禽蛋營銷公司、加拿大乳牛場場主協(xié)會等。根據信息自由法案獲得的有關文件記載，這些集團迫使加拿大最新食品指南在1993年公布前作出修改。 12 This should e as no surprise: Even a minor reduction in remended intakes of animal protein could cost these industries billions of dollars a year. 這并不奇怪。即使建議動物蛋白質的攝入量減少一丁點兒都會給這些企業(yè)帶來每年數(shù)十億元的損失。 13 While health and food safety are pelling reasons for choosing a vegetarian lifestyle, there are also larger issues to consider. Animalbased agriculture is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the face of the Earth. 健康和食品安全是選擇素食生活方式令人信服的理由，但此外還有更為重大的因素要考慮。以飼養(yǎng)動物為基礎的農業(yè)是世界上對環(huán)境破壞最嚴重的產業(yè)之一。 14 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. 想一想培育、飼養(yǎng)、建牲畜欄、運輸、加工和包裝加拿大每年宰殺的5億頭牲畜所需的巨大資源。其中的每一個環(huán)節(jié)都耗費水和能源。阿爾伯達農業(yè)署估計，生產肉耗費的能源比生產谷物多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. 用于直接為人們提供食物的土地還不到農業(yè)用地的四分之一。其余的都用來放牧和種飼料。森林、濕地和草原的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)遭受相當嚴重的破壞，以滿足對土地的需求。土地的大量利用加劇了表土的流失，增加了會帶來負面作用的化肥和殺蟲劑的施用，增加了從筑有水壩的河流中引水灌溉的需求。如果人們能摒棄肉食，許多土地就能回復到未開墾狀態(tài)。 16 The problem is that animals are inefficient at converting plants to edible flesh. It takes, for example, kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of pork, theU. estimates. 問題在于，動物在把植物轉化為可食用的肉類這方面的效率很低。舉例來說，美國政府估測， 公斤的谷物。 17 After putting so many resources into animals, what do we get out? Manure — at a rate of over 10,000 kilograms per second inCanadaalone, according to the government. EnvironmentCanadasays 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. 我們把這么多資源耗費在動物身上，又得到什么回報呢？糞肥—— 據官方資料，僅加拿大，就以每秒10,000多公斤的速度排出。加拿大環(huán)境部稱，牛每產1公斤可食牛肉需排出40公斤糞便。安大略省農業(yè)部估測，一家大型禽蛋工廠每星期可產出50－100噸禽糞。 18 And where does it go? In the 1992 Ontario Groundwater Survey, 43 per cent of tested wells were contaminated with agricultural runoff containing fecal coliform bacteria and nitrates. Earlier this month, charges were laid against a largeAlbertafeedlot operator for dumping 30 million litres of cattle manure into theBowRiver, killing everything in its path, as a news story described it. 這些糞便都到哪兒去了？1992年安大略省地下水調查發(fā)現(xiàn)， 43%的被測試水井都受到含有糞便大腸桿菌和硝酸鹽等農業(yè)生產排出的廢物的污染。本月初，阿爾伯達一家大型圍欄肥育地經營者被指控將3千萬升牛糞排入博河，“沿途生靈悉數(shù)被毀”，一則新聞這么報道。 19 And then there is methane, a primary contributing gas in global warming and ozone layer depletion. Excluding natural sources, 27 per cent ofCanada39。s and 20 per cent of the world39。s methane es from livestock. 此外還有沼氣，那是促使全球氣候變暖和臭氧層減少的主要氣體。不把天然沼氣資源包括在內，加拿大27%的沼氣、全世界20%的沼氣都來自牲畜。 20 John Robbins, author of the Pulitzer prizenominated 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. 獲普利策提名獎的《新美洲飲食》一書作者約翰?羅賓斯說得好：“食用食物鏈較低部分的食物或許是我們可用以阻止環(huán)境破壞、保護自然資源的最最有效的行動?！?21 Our environment also includes the animals killed for their meat. It has bee an accepted fact that today39。s factoryfarmed animals live short, miserable, unnatural lives. 我們的環(huán)境也包括為食其肉而被宰殺的動物。當今工廠化農場的牲畜壽命極短，過著悲慘的、不正常的生活，這已是公認的事實。 22 As part of my research at theUniversityofWaterloo, I toured some of the country39。s largest processing plants. The experience has left me with recurring nightmares. 作為我在沃特盧大學研究工作的一部分，我參觀過一些全國最大的“加工”廠。這個經歷讓我日后盡做噩夢。 23 I saw stubborn cows being beaten and squealing pigs chased around the killing floor with electric calipers. 我見到“固執(zhí)”的牛被打、尖叫著的豬在屠宰室被人用電卡鉗追逐。 24 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. 我萬分震驚地目睹一頭牛躲過了眩暈槍，結果被縛住后腿倒掛起來，慘遭活剮，一直掙扎到斷氣。 25 N