We Eat so Much Chicken That We've Altered Earth’s Biosphere
人類吃了太多的雞肉,以至于已經改變了地球生物圈
BY HANNAH OSBORNE
作者:漢娜·奧斯本
Humans eat so much chicken that it will become a marker of the Anthropocene era, a study has found. With over 21 billion broiler chickens in existence, human production of the species has fundamentally reconfigured Earth’s biosphere, researchers say.
一項研究發現,人類食用大量雞肉,雞肉將成為人類時代的標志。研究人員稱,人類生產的210億只肉雞從根本上改變了地球生物圈的結構。
Carys Bennett, from the U.K.’s University of Leicester, and colleagues were looking at how humans have altered the biosphere—the parts of Earth where life exists. They considered that with over 21 billion broiler chickens in existence, the industrial production of this species would have had a major impact on the planet.
來自英國萊斯特大學的卡莉斯·班尼特和同事們正在研究人類是如何改變生物圈的,生物圈是地球上存在生命的地方。他們認為,超過210億只肉雞的存在使這這一物種的工業生產將對地球產生重大影響。
Chicken consumption rose dramatically from the 1950s. Since then, the size and shape of the species—including changes to their skeleton, bone chemistry and genetics—has changed far beyond the wild chicken ancestors they were domesticated from.
自20世紀50年代以來,雞肉消費量大幅上升。從那以后,這些物種的大小和形狀——包括骨骼、骨骼化學成分和基因的變化——已經發生了很大的變化,遠遠超出了它們被馴化的野雞祖先的范圍。
Further to this, broiler chickens cannot survive without “intensive human intervention”—its rapid growth of leg and breast muscle means its organs, including the heart and liver, are smaller than normal. This restricts their function and, in turn, the chicken lifespan.
除此之外,肉雞如果沒有“密集的人類干預”是無法生存的——雞腿和胸肌的快速增長意味著它的器官,包括心臟和肝臟,都比正常的要小。這就限制了它們的功能,反過來也限制了雞的壽命。
In their study published in Royal Society Open Science, researchers argue that because we engineered the species, and because it has become such a major feature of food consumption, it will be considered a marker of the Anthropocene—the proposed geological age where human activity is the dominant influence over the planet.
發表在《英國皇家學會開放科學》上的一項研究中,研究人員認為,因為我們改造了這個物種,而且雞已經成為食物消費的一個主要特征,所以雞將被視為人類時代的一個標志——這個被提出的地質時代表明人類活動是對地球的主要影響。
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