評論
打印
Leaders
頭條關注
Genetically modified crops
轉基因作物
Fields of beaten gold
遭受搗毀
Greens say climate-change deniers are unscientific and dangerous. So are greens who oppose GM crops
環保主義者表示,氣候變化否認者是不科學和危險的。反對轉基因作物的環保主義者也同樣危險.
IN AUGUST environmentalists in the Philippines vandalised a field of Golden Rice, an experimental grain whose genes had been modified to carry beta-carotene, a chemical precursor of vitamin A.
8月，環保主義者在菲律賓蓄意破壞了一片金大米田地, 金大米是一種實驗性的谷物，其基因被修改為維生素a的化學前體b胡蘿卜素。
Golden Rice is not produced by a corporate behemoth but by the public sector.
金大米不是由企業巨頭,而是公共部門種植的。
Its seeds will be handed out free to farmers.
它的種子將免費發放給農民。
The aim is to improve the health of children in poor countries by reducing vitamin A deficiency, which contributes to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and cases of blindness each year.
用于改善貧困國家兒童的健康狀況，緩解這些兒童的維生素A缺乏情況, 每年都會10%以上的人因缺乏維生素過早死亡和失明。
Environmentalists claim that these sorts of actions are justified because genetically modified crops pose health risks.
環保人士聲稱,此類搗毀行為是合理的, 因為轉基因作物對健康構成風險。
Now the main ground for those claims has crumbled.
現在，此類聲稱的理由已被擊破。
Last year a paper was published in a respected journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology.
去年，一篇論文在權威雜志《食品與化學毒理學》上發表。
It found unusual rates of tumours and deaths in rats that had been fed upon a variety of maize resistant to a herbicide called Roundup, as a result of genetic modification by Monsanto, an American plant-science firm.
它發現在老鼠中出現不尋常的腫瘤和死亡狀況，而這些老鼠被喂食過一種玉米，此種玉米是, 美國植物科學公司生產的轉基因作物，對草甘膦農藥具有抵抗力。
Other studies found no such effects, but this one enabled campaigners to make a health-and-safety argument against GM crops—one persuasive enough to influence governments.
其他研究并沒有發現此種的影響。然而，此文章致使倡議人士以健康與安全問題為理由反對轉基因作物，甚至對政府也產生了影響。
After the study appeared, Russia suspended imports of the grain in question. Kenya banned all GM crops.
這項研究發表之后, 俄羅斯暫停進口存在疑慮的糧食。肯尼亞禁止了所有的轉基因作物。
And the French prime minister said that if the results were confirmed he would press for a Europe-wide ban on the GM maize.
法國總理表示, 如果結果得到證實, 他將敦促歐洲禁止轉基因玉米。
But the methodology of the study, by Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues, was widely criticised and, on November 28th, the journal retracted the paper.
但是卡昂大學的塞拉利尼和他的同事們這項研究的方法論,被廣泛批評。 11月28日,《食品與化學毒理學》撤銷該論文。
There is now no serious scientific evidence that GM crops do any harm to the health of human beings.。
現在沒有足夠的科學證據表明,轉基因作物對人類的健康有任何危害。
There is plenty of evidence, though, that they benefit the health of the planet.
然而，卻有大量的證據表明，轉基因作物可以造福于人類的健康。
One of the biggest challenges facing mankind is to feed the 9 billion-10 billion people who will be alive and richer in 2050.
人類面臨的最大挑戰之一是到2050年，人們有糧食可吃以及有充足的食物。
This will require doubling food production on roughly the same area of land, using less water and fewer chemicals.
這將需要在大致相同面積的土地上使用更少的水和更少的化學物質生產出高達兩倍的糧食。
It will also mean making food crops more resistant to the droughts and floods that seem likely if climate change is a bad as scientists fear.
這也將意味著倘若氣候變化如科學家們擔心的那樣糟糕，糧食作物要更耐旱和洪澇。
Organic farming—the kind beloved of greens—cannot meet this challenge. It uses far too much land.
有機作物-環保主義者鐘愛的作物，不能承受這種挑戰。它需要太多的土地。
If the Green revolution had never happened, and yields had stayed at 1960 levels, the world could not produce its current food output even if it ploughed up every last acre of cultivable land.
如果綠色革命從未發生過, 糧食產量一直停留在1960年的水平, 人類即使利用每一英畝的可耕種的土地，也不能產生出目前的糧食產量。
In contrast, GM crops boost yields, protecting wild habitat from the plough.
相比之下,轉基因作物可以提高糧食產量,保護野生棲息地不遭受開墾。
They are more resistant to the vagaries of climate change, and to diseases and pests, reducing the need for agrochemicals.
他們更能承受變幻莫測的氣候變化，疾病和害蟲,減少對農藥依賴性。
Genetic research holds out the possibility of breakthroughs that could vastly increase the productivity of farming, such as grains that fix their own nitrogen.
遺傳研究給大大提高農業的生產力帶來了突破的可能性, 例如谷物可以修復自己的氮。
Vandalising GM field trials is a bit like the campaign of some religious leaders to prevent smallpox inoculations: it causes misery, even death, in the name of obscurantism and unscientific belief.
搗毀轉基因試驗田和一些宗教運動的領袖防止天花接種有點像: 它以蒙昧主義和信仰不科學的名義會造成痛苦,甚至死亡。
Follow your principles
遵循你的原則
America takes little notice of this nonsense.
美國需要很少關注此類無稽之談。
But green groups in Europe, with the support of influential figures such as Prince Charles, have succeeded in shaping policy.
但在歐洲，環保組織在查爾斯王子等具有影響力的人士的支持下,已經成功地塑造了政策。
Governments have hedged genetic research around with so many restrictions that much of the business has fled a continent that could be doing more than most to feed the world.
政府限制了遺傳研究, 大部分業務已經逃離歐洲大陸。
Some developing countries—Kenya, India and others—have turned their backs on technologies that could literally save their peoples’ lives.
一些發展中國家肯尼亞、印度等國也對此項能夠挽救人民的生命的技術嗤之以鼻。
And European governments spend taxpayers’ money financing groups encouraging them to do so.
歐洲政府花納稅人的錢資助團體鼓勵他們這樣做。
The group in the Philippines that trashed the rice trials, MASIPAG, gets money from the Swedish government.
菲律賓的組織,破壞了瑞典政府出資的MASIPAG水稻試驗田。
On moral, economic and environmental grounds, this must stop.
無論是從道德、經濟和環境上來說 ,此類舉動都必須停止。
