Vegan Agriculture全素农业

文/苏珊娜·科兹沃夫斯卡 译/王强

By Zuzanna Kozłowska

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.

全素农业越来越受欢迎了，它是最环保的农业种植方式之一。全素农业或称植物源性农业是种植蔬菜等植物的一种方法，这种方法不使用粪肥等动物衍生物料或动物副产品（如动物骨粉）和粪便。此外，全素种植者也绝不会使用合成肥料。这种耕作方式不仅有助于保护环境、恢复土壤肥力，还有助于增加生物多样性。

2 当今世界，纯素饮食和纯素生活方式越来越普遍了。根据科尔尼公司的分析，到2040年，预计全球40%的人的饮食中将含有肉类。人们选择少吃甚至不吃动物衍生产品有许多不同的原因。一些人担心各行各业对动物权益的侵害；有些人这样做是考虑到他们自身的健康，或者说动物产品对环境的影响；另一些人选择这条路只是为了他们自己的幸福安康：不同的人，选择纯素饮食的原因也不同。然而，不管动机是什么，纯素食主义的兴起促使人们对纯素食友好型农业产生了新的需求。

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，全素农业与有机农业是不同的。有机农业使用天然产品来种植植物，连动物粪便都可作为肥料。有机农业基本不使用人工合成肥料。另一方面，全素农业拒绝动物衍生物料，通常只使用植物性有机化合物，这意味着，一般来说，全素农业比有机农业有着更严格的规定。

4 你也许会认为传统农业不需要很多动物衍生品，如果确实需要的话，这些衍生物料也是很容易被替代的。但是，你错了。比如，为了给植物补充富含氮的化合物，人们经常使用部分由动物粪便制成的肥料。

5 为了保护环境，建议人们减少牲畜养殖数量，说服农民不要像现在这样只靠动物衍生物料来作为肥料。动物粪便对环境有害吗？当然，问题并不在于牛和猪之类家畜的要不要存在，而在于这些家畜会排放大量的氨气。氨是一种碱性化合物，环境中氨气过量可能非常危险。它会导致地表水富营养化，最终减少该地区的生物多样性。具有讽刺意味的是，过多的氨还会使较敏感的作物因肥料过量或土壤酸碱度改变而受损。

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 有没有可能将所有用于土壤增肥的动物衍生物料都替换掉？我们来仔细看看这个问题。

用粪便或屠宰场废物等动物衍生品制成的传统肥料，可以用其他肥料来替代。比如，与同时使用动物肥料和无机肥料相比，只使用无机肥料似乎是一个很好的选择（没必要增加无机肥料的使用量）。然而，这样的话，作物的产量有可能会减少10%，而且随着时间的推移，土壤中某些常量元素的浓度也可能会降低，如铁、锰等，这些元素是植物和其他生物正常生长所需要的。

另一方面，还有一种可能性是使用有机植物肥料，包括农作物废水，并使其成为一种非常可持续的植物施肥方式。这种方法有许多积极的效果，比如，长期使用这种施肥方式，土壤结构会变好，可能有助于提高土壤质量。

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，全素有机农业通常选择更自然的方式来保护植物，比如通过混作来打破植物疾病的循环周期，使用网子等机械屏障，甚至吸引天敌来对抗有害生物。这些方法对环境的影响小于传统耕作方式。然而，它们对某些植物病虫害可能不太有效。

8 这种耕作方式还需要大量的知识和良好的规划。一开始可能会很难，尤其是在全素有机农业成为一个标准之前。然而，它看起来并不是不可能实现的。

9 投资全素有机农业的理由之一是，全素有机种植不使用合成农药，而是使用有机农药或其他非化学方法来保护作物。相比之下，在传统农业中，合成农药的用量非常高，导致食物产品中农药残留量也很高。

10 近来，养猪业都靠使用抗生素来减少动物疾病。这样，抗生素很快就会随着代谢物进入土壤和水中。这些药物的大量使用是导致细菌对抗生素产生耐药性的主要原因。用全素农业替代这种养殖业是应对这一问题的一种办法，可以减少农业生产中抗生素的使用。

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 将来，不依赖动物粪便为植物增肥，应该是重中之重。这样做不仅对纯素食者有益，对整个世界，包括对其他动植物物种，都是有利的。即便今天的全素农业种植方法可能不完美，世界各地的科学家正和全素耕作农民一道努力，开发植物性解决方案，以替代动物衍生肥料。 □