Vegan Agriculture全素農業

文/蘇珊娜·科茲沃夫斯卡 譯/王強

By Zuzanna Koz?owska

Vegan farming has become more and more popular. It is one of the most environmentally-friendly forms of agriculture. Vegan farming or plantbased farming is an approach to grow plants such as vegetables without using animal-derived materials such as manure or animal byproducts (e.g. animal bone meal) and waste. Also, vegan farmers are far from applying synthetic fertilizers. Such an approach to farming also helps preserve the environment and regenerate soil fertility and replenish its biodiversity.

全素農業越來越受歡迎了，它是最環保的農業種植方式之一。全素農業或稱植物源性農業是種植蔬菜等植物的一種方法，這種方法不使用糞肥等動物衍生物料或動物副產品（如動物骨粉）和糞便。此外，全素種植者也絕不會使用合成肥料。這種耕作方式不僅有助于保護環境、恢復土壤肥力，還有助于增加生物多樣性。

2 當今世界，純素飲食和純素生活方式越來越普遍了。根據科爾尼公司的分析，到2040年，預計全球40%的人的飲食中將含有肉類。人們選擇少吃甚至不吃動物衍生產品有許多不同的原因。一些人擔心各行各業對動物權益的侵害；有些人這樣做是考慮到他們自身的健康，或者說動物產品對環境的影響；另一些人選擇這條路只是為了他們自己的幸福安康：不同的人，選擇純素飲食的原因也不同。然而，不管動機是什么，純素食主義的興起促使人們對純素食友好型農業產生了新的需求。

2 In today’s world, the vegan diet and lifestyle are getting more and more popular. According to the AT Kearneyanalysis, it is anticipated that 40% of people globally will have meat in their diet by 2040. People decide to switch to a diet with less or even no animalderived products for many different reasons. Some are worried about animal rights in various industries; some do that for their health, or the environmental effect animal products have; others choose this path simply for their wellbeing: many people, many reasons to choose veganism. However, no matter what the motive is, the rise of veganism creates new demand for more veganfriendly agriculture.

3 It is essential to note that vegan agriculture is not the same as an organic one. Organic farming uses natural products to grow plants—that can include even animal waste as fertilizers.It avoids most if not all synthetic products. On the other hand, vegan agriculture rejects animal-derived products and usually sticks with plant-based organic compounds, which means that, in general, vegan agriculture has stricter rules than organic.

4 You might think that conventional farming doesn’t require many animalderived products, and if it does, they are easily replaceable. However, you would be wrong. For example, to supplement plants with nitrogen-rich compounds,they are often given fertilizers made partly from animal excrement.

3 需要注意的是，全素農業與有機農業是不同的。有機農業使用天然產品來種植植物，連動物糞便都可作為肥料。有機農業基本不使用人工合成肥料。另一方面，全素農業拒絕動物衍生物料，通常只使用植物性有機化合物，這意味著，一般來說，全素農業比有機農業有著更嚴格的規定。

4 你也許會認為傳統農業不需要很多動物衍生品，如果確實需要的話，這些衍生物料也是很容易被替代的。但是，你錯了。比如，為了給植物補充富含氮的化合物，人們經常使用部分由動物糞便制成的肥料。

5 為了保護環境，建議人們減少牲畜養殖數量，說服農民不要像現在這樣只靠動物衍生物料來作為肥料。動物糞便對環境有害嗎？當然，問題并不在于牛和豬之類家畜的要不要存在，而在于這些家畜會排放大量的氨氣。氨是一種堿性化合物，環境中氨氣過量可能非常危險。它會導致地表水富營養化，最終減少該地區的生物多樣性。具有諷刺意味的是，過多的氨還會使較敏感的作物因肥料過量或土壤酸堿度改變而受損。

5 To protect the environment, it would be recommended to reduce the amount of livestock bred, convincing farmers to not count only on animal-derived products in fertilizing as much as they do right now. Are animal-based excrements harmful to the environment? Of course, the problem is not the existence of livestock like cows or pigs; it’s about the fact that they produce a lot of ammonia in such an amount. Ammonia is an alkalic compound that can be very dangerous in an excessive amount in an environment. It can cause the eutrophication of surface waters—which ends up reducing biodiversity in that area.Ironically, too much ammonia can also damage more sensitive crops by overfertilizing them or changing the soil pH.

6 Is replacing all animal-derived products used for soil fertilizing even possible? Well, let’s take a closer look at that field.

Instead of traditional fertilizers made with animal products such as manure or slaughterhouse waste, it is possible to use other options. For example, only using mineral fertilizers seems to be a pretty good option compared to using both animal and mineral ones—it’s unnecessary to use more mineral fertilizer.However, there might be 10% fewer crops, and over time the soil might have a lower concentration of certain macroelements like iron, manganese, etc.,that are needed for the proper growth of plants and other organisms.

6 有沒有可能將所有用于土壤增肥的動物衍生物料都替換掉？我們來仔細看看這個問題。

用糞便或屠宰場廢物等動物衍生品制成的傳統肥料，可以用其他肥料來替代。比如，與同時使用動物肥料和無機肥料相比，只使用無機肥料似乎是一個很好的選擇（沒必要增加無機肥料的使用量）。然而，這樣的話，作物的產量有可能會減少10%，而且隨著時間的推移，土壤中某些常量元素的濃度也可能會降低，如鐵、錳等，這些元素是植物和其他生物正常生長所需要的。

另一方面，還有一種可能性是使用有機植物肥料，包括農作物廢水，并使其成為一種非常可持續的植物施肥方式。這種方法有許多積極的效果，比如，長期使用這種施肥方式，土壤結構會變好，可能有助于提高土壤質量。

On the other hand, there is also a possibility of using organic, vegetal fertilizers, including wastewater from the crops and making it a very sustainable way of fertilizing plants. This method shows many positive effects, such as the better structure of the soil in longterm use, which could potentially help with soil quality.

7 Additionally, vegan-organic farming usually chooses more natural ways to protect the plants, such as breaking cycles of plants’ diseases with mixed cropping, using mechanical barriers such as nets, or even attracting opposing organisms to fight the harmful ones.Those ways affect the environment less than the ways of traditional farming.However, they might be less effective against certain plant diseases or pests.

8 This type of farming also requires a lot of knowledge and good planning. It might be challenging at first, primarily until vegan-organic agriculture would become a standard. However, it seems that it’s not impossible to achieve.

9 One of the reasons to invest in veganorganic agriculture is that the veganorganic way of farming substitutes synthetic pesticides and uses organic pesticides or other non-chemical methods to protect the crops. In contrast, in conventional agriculture, synthetic pesticides are on a very high level, resulting in higher levels of pesticide residues in food products.

7 此外，全素有機農業通常選擇更自然的方式來保護植物，比如通過混作來打破植物疾病的循環周期，使用網子等機械屏障，甚至吸引天敵來對抗有害生物。這些方法對環境的影響小于傳統耕作方式。然而，它們對某些植物病蟲害可能不太有效。

8 這種耕作方式還需要大量的知識和良好的規劃。一開始可能會很難，尤其是在全素有機農業成為一個標準之前。然而，它看起來并不是不可能實現的。

9 投資全素有機農業的理由之一是，全素有機種植不使用合成農藥，而是使用有機農藥或其他非化學方法來保護作物。相比之下，在傳統農業中，合成農藥的用量非常高，導致食物產品中農藥殘留量也很高。

10 近來，養豬業都靠使用抗生素來減少動物疾病。這樣，抗生素很快就會隨著代謝物進入土壤和水中。這些藥物的大量使用是導致細菌對抗生素產生耐藥性的主要原因。用全素農業替代這種養殖業是應對這一問題的一種辦法，可以減少農業生產中抗生素的使用。

10 Swine farming is recently based on antibiotics application towards the reduction of diseases affecting animals. Thus,antibiotics quickly get to the soil and water with the metabolites. Large amounts of these medicines are the main reason causing the growth of bacterias’ resistance against antibiotics. Substitution of such type of farming with vegan one faces that problem enabling reduction of antibiotics in agriculture.

11 In the future, it should be a significant priority not to rely on animals’excrement for fertilizing plants. Doing so is not only beneficial to vegans. It’s advantageous for the whole world, including other animal or plant species.Even if today’s methods of vegan agriculture might not be perfect, scientists worldwide, together with vegan farmers, are working towards developing plant-based solutions as alternatives to animal-derived fertilizers. ■

11 將來，不依賴動物糞便為植物增肥，應該是重中之重。這樣做不僅對純素食者有益，對整個世界，包括對其他動植物物種，都是有利的。即便今天的全素農業種植方法可能不完美，世界各地的科學家正和全素耕作農民一道努力，開發植物性解決方案，以替代動物衍生肥料。 □