評論
打印
Everybody eats.
每個人都要吃飯。
And consumers increasingly try to consider the environmental effects of their food choices.
而越來越多的消費者在選擇食物時會考慮對環境的影響。
For example, if you want to eat meat, how do your choices compare?
比如你想要吃肉，你怎樣去比較選擇呢?
That's what a group of researchers set out to discover.
這是一組研究人員試圖研究的問題。
And they found that raising one animal is dramatically more environmentally draining than all the others:cows.
而且他們發現相比其他動物，牛這種牲畜在飼養上會產生更多的環保排水問題。
The research is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
這項研究已經在《美國國家科學院院刊》上發表。
The scientists noted the challenge in accessing data and creating metrics that can be compared across livestock and to potato, wheat and rice production.
科學家指出在數據訪問和創建標準上所面臨的挑戰，而這一標準可以用于將飼養牲畜同種植土豆、小麥及大米進行比較分析。
They settled on national data from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Interior and Energy.
他們獲得了美國農業部，內政部和能源部授予訪問國家數據的權利。
The team calculated the production costs by assessing land area, water needs and fertilizer.
這一團隊通過評估土地面積、需水量及肥料計算生產成本。
They also analyzed greenhouse gas emissions.
而且分析了溫室氣體的排放。
Producing pork, poultry, eggs and dairy were between two and six times less efficient than growing potatoes, wheat and rice.
生產豬肉、家禽、蛋類和奶制品要比種植土豆、小麥和大米效率低2到6倍。
And in the current agricultural system, beef uses 28 times more land, 11 times more water and 6 times more fertilizer than the average of the other categories of livestock.
而且在當前的農業系統中，牛肉生產土地使用量是其它牲畜的28倍，水用量是11倍，化肥量是6倍多。
Cattle ranching also creates five times more greenhouse gas emissions.
養牛場還排放了相比其它牲畜而言5倍多的溫室氣體。
The researchers hope this data will help consumers make informed choices and policy makers create systems that can reduce the environmental costs of what we eat.
研究人員希望這些數據可以幫助消費者做出明智的選擇，同時也希望政策制定者們制定我們所吃食物減少所產生環境代價的政策。
