新視野大學(xué)英語第四冊 unit7B A worldwide food crisis

1、【精品文檔】如有侵權(quán)，請聯(lián)系網(wǎng)站刪除，僅供學(xué)習(xí)與交流新視野大學(xué)英語第四冊 unit7B A worldwide food crisis.精品文檔.A worldwide food crisis會有全球糧食危機(jī)嗎？Historically, only local governments worried about a widespread food crisis, but today, a sharp spike in food prices and the resulting food crisis can quickly become a worldwide phenomenon. Rece

2、nt droughts along the equator, and in Russia and Ukraine - two countries which account for one-fourth of world wheat exports - caused wheat prices to surge. Many worry the tight supply will cause inflationary prices. They fear the skyrocketing grain costs in 2007, which harshly struck the world'

3、s poor and led to food riots, will recur.在歷史上，只有地方政府才會擔(dān)心大范圍的糧食危機(jī)，而如今，糧食價格的急劇上漲及由此導(dǎo)致的糧食危機(jī)會很快成為一種全球現(xiàn)象。最近發(fā)生在赤道沿線、俄羅斯及烏克蘭的干旱使小麥價格不斷飆升俄羅斯和烏克蘭兩國小麥出口總量占世界出口總量的四分之一。許多人擔(dān)心小麥供應(yīng)短缺會引發(fā)其價格膨脹，他們害怕 2007 年使世界窮人遭受重創(chuàng)并引發(fā)食品騷亂的飛漲的糧食價格會再次出現(xiàn)。Is their fear grounded? Consultancy firms measuring the status of commodities like

4、 wheat don't think so. Stocks of wheat are at sufficiently high levels, and harvest turnout from other big producers like the US is expected to stay strong. So unlike in 2007, the supply situation isn't desperate, meaning wheat prices should eventually calm down and level off.他們的擔(dān)心有根據(jù)嗎？負(fù)責(zé)對像小

5、麥這樣的商品現(xiàn)狀進(jìn)行評估的咨詢公司并不這樣認(rèn)為。目前小麥的儲備非常充足，并且，重要農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)國如美國等的農(nóng)作物生產(chǎn)也有望十分強(qiáng)勁。所以，與 2007 年不同，現(xiàn)在糧食供應(yīng)狀況并不那樣令人絕望，這也意味著小麥價格最終會恢復(fù)正常并平穩(wěn)下來。However, this rosy picture provides only temporary security. The bigger picture discloses a reality not so optimistic. Though current prices aren't as sky-high as in the panicked

6、market of 2007, they're still at higher levels than before and are likely to stay that way. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development sees the average prices of products classified as essential such as grains, vegetable oils, and dairy products rising for the next decade.但是，這一美好的

7、畫面只能帶來短暫的安心。更大的畫面所揭示的現(xiàn)實不容樂觀。雖然目前糧食價格沒有達(dá)到 2007 年引起恐慌的市場上的那種天價，但和以前相比，價格仍然居高不下，而且很有可能維持這樣。經(jīng)濟(jì)合作與發(fā)展組織認(rèn)為，谷物、植物油和奶制品這些基本食品的平均價格在未來十年都將持續(xù)上漲。 It doesn't take an oracle to foretell that the fight to feed the world will be a huge challenge facing the global economy over the next 20 years. Food production

8、is suffering from decades of neglect of agriculture, a period when the sector was starved of the resources and technology it needed to keep up with rising world demand. Though more and more people are intrigued by the issue and there is a growing global consensus about the need for reform in farming

9、, we're really only at the beginning of a long, expensive, process of repairing world agricultural practices. That means food prices will stay high over the next several years, as will the risk of dangerous price fluctuations like the current one with wheat.未來 20 年，讓世界上所有人都吃飽飯將是全球經(jīng)濟(jì)所面臨的巨大挑戰(zhàn)，這一點很

10、明確，不需要通過行家來預(yù)言。由于過去幾十年對農(nóng)業(yè)的疏忽，糧食生產(chǎn)受到影響，而這幾十年正是農(nóng)業(yè)這一行業(yè)急需得到資源和技術(shù)支持以滿足日益增長的世界需求的重要時期。雖然現(xiàn)在越來越多的人對這一問題表示出興趣，對農(nóng)業(yè)耕作進(jìn)行改革的需要也獲得全球越來越廣泛的認(rèn)同，但事實上，在修復(fù)全球農(nóng)業(yè)作業(yè)這樣一項耗時長、代價高的工作中，我們還只處于起步階段。這也意味著，糧食價格在未來幾年會居高不下，正如目前小麥價格波動所帶來的風(fēng)險也會居高不下一樣。Food isn't like garments or other products traded on world markets. The issue of fo

11、od is filled with emotion. Intermittent uncertainty in food markets will animate people to act when they would otherwise remain calm. No country, for example, wants to run out of food or watch sky-high prices push people into poverty and malnourishment. That can lead to riots or even revolutions. Wh

12、en emotions are running high enough, grain exporters and importers may take extreme measures to prevent a shortage, like hoarding and panic-driven wholesale purchases. In other words, the overreaction of market players will act like a pistol to the head, creating a crisis when none should exist.糧食這一

13、商品和世界市場上交易的衣服或其他商品有所不同。糧食問題是充滿感情色彩的。糧食市場時斷時續(xù)的不確定性會促使人們采取行動，而這種不確定性如果涉及的是其他商品，人們則會保持冷靜。比如，沒有哪個國家希望出現(xiàn)糧食短缺，眼睜睜看著糧價飛漲而使人們陷入貧窮和營養(yǎng)不良的困境，因為這樣會引發(fā)騷亂甚至革命。當(dāng)人們的情緒積聚到足夠高度的時候，糧食出口商和進(jìn)口商就會采取一些極端的手段，以防止糧食出現(xiàn)短缺。比如，他們會囤積糧食及因恐慌而大批量購買等等。換句話說，市場操縱者如果反應(yīng)過度，其作用就如同指向頭部的手槍，會無中生有地制造危機(jī)。Will current prices stay high and volatile?

14、 Probably yes. There are enormous structural problems with the agriculture industry that have caused the great imbalance between supply and demand. These problems have a dual nature, one part of it on the production side, and the other on the consumption side.目前的價格會一直居高不下且變化不定嗎？很可能會的。農(nóng)業(yè)產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)方面存在的諸多問題

15、已經(jīng)引發(fā)了供求關(guān)系的巨大失衡。這些問題具有兩面性，一個是生產(chǎn)方面的，另一個是消費(fèi)方面的。On the production side, global funding for rural infrastructure or technological research to keep yields growing has been very small, well below what is needed to keep crises at bay and to meet our future food demands. But in the past, whenever economists

16、predicted massive shortages, technological advances like higher-yield strains of wheat would overcome the difference and rescue civilizations from large-scale starvation.在生產(chǎn)方面，全球用于鄉(xiāng)村基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施建設(shè)或農(nóng)業(yè)技術(shù)研究以保持糧食產(chǎn)量持續(xù)增長的資金非常少，大大低于能夠使我們避免危機(jī)、滿足人類未來食品需求所必需的資金投入量。但是，在過去，一旦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們預(yù)測會有大規(guī)模的糧食短缺，就會有像高產(chǎn)量小麥之類的技術(shù)進(jìn)步來解決這一供需差異，

17、使人類免受大規(guī)模挨餓之苦。On the consumption side, citizens of wealthier countries have grown accustomed to consuming more food than they need and eating more costly types of food like meat. This means more grain gets turned into livestock feed instead of food for people. Add in the new demand for bio-fuels, and

18、 you get a recipe for disaster. As an excerpt from a pamphlet by activist Peter Singer explains: ". the problem isn't that we are producing too little food; rather we're not eating the food we grow. Nearly 100 million tons of grain per year is turned into bio-fuel that goes into gas tan

19、ks. The problem is that we -the relatively affluent - have created a system of piracy where we consume four or five times as much food as would be possible if we were to actually eat the crops we grow directly."在消費(fèi)方面，富裕國家的人們已經(jīng)漸漸習(xí)慣了消耗比他們實際需求更多的食品，也習(xí)慣了吃肉等更加昂貴的食物。這就意味著更多的谷物要被變成家畜的詞料而不是成為人們的糧食。再加上對

20、生物燃料的新需求，災(zāi)難的發(fā)生就是可能的了。正如從活動家彼得.辛格的一個手冊中所節(jié)選出來的一段話所表述的那樣：“問題不是我們生產(chǎn)的糧食太少，而是我們沒有食用我們生產(chǎn)出來的糧食。每年幾乎有一億噸的谷物被轉(zhuǎn)變成了油箱中的生物燃料。問題是我們相對比較富裕的國家的人已經(jīng)創(chuàng)建了一種強(qiáng)盜體系，我們所消耗掉的糧食，與我們要是直接食用我們所生產(chǎn)的糧食比起來，可能是其四到五倍之多?！盚ow can we neutralize this problem and dodge the future crisis? The solution lies at the intersection of money and ti

21、me. Councilors, legislators and bureaucratic agencies of some countries like India and Senegal have had the foresight to realize this fact and are giving more subsidies to agriculture.怎樣才能化解這一問題并規(guī)避未來的風(fēng)險呢？其解決辦法就是通過金錢和時間的共同作用。印度、塞內(nèi)加爾等一些國家的議員、立法人員及政府機(jī)構(gòu)已經(jīng)獨具慧眼地認(rèn)識到了這一事實，并且正在給予農(nóng)業(yè)更多的資助。More than ever we nee

22、d the appropriation of time and money away from the army and the militia and toward creating a coherent international plan to deal with hunger. We are about to rapture at the seams, with the world population expected to grow by 2.3 billion between 2009 and 2050. It is estimated that feeding a popula

23、tion of nine billion would require a 70 percent increase in global food production between 2007 and 2050. Why such a discrepancy? The rapidly growing population not only needs more basic foods, like grains, but also enjoys foods higher up on the food chain, like meat. They desire not only the basic

24、essentials of life, but also more sophisticated technologies like automobiles that use bio-fuels!我們現(xiàn)在比以往任何時候都需要把撥款和時間從軍隊和民兵建設(shè)方面轉(zhuǎn)移到致力于創(chuàng)建一個有條理的解決饑餓問題的國際計劃上來。我們就要在接縫處崩塌，面臨食品供應(yīng)與需求之間的巨大缺口，因為在 2009 到2050 年之間，世界人口預(yù)計將增加 23 億。而要讓 90 億人有飯吃估計需要將全球糧食產(chǎn)量在 2007 至 2050 年間提高 70%。為什么會有如此巨大的差異呢？因為快速增長的人口所需要的不僅是像谷物之類的基本食品，他們也要享用食物鏈上的高端食品，比如肉類食品。他們不僅渴望生活的必需品，也渴望享受高端的技術(shù)產(chǎn)品，比如使用生物燃料的汽車！All signposts point to the need for food production in developing countries to almost double. To achieve this goal, an enormous investment in agriculture from various sources is need