原文標(biāo)題：
Green revolution 2.0
How to fix the global rice crisis
The world’s most important crop is fuelling diabetes and climate change
綠色革命2.0
如何解決全球水稻危機(jī)
全球最重要的農(nóng)作物正在加劇糖尿病和氣候變化問題

[Paragraph 1]

THE GREEN revolution was one of the greatest feats of human ingenuity.

綠色革命是人類智慧的偉大壯舉之一。

By promoting higher-yielding varieties of wheat and, especially, rice, plant-breeders in India, Mexico and the Philippines helped China emerge from a famine and India avoid one.

通過推廣高產(chǎn)的小麥和水稻，印度、墨西哥和菲律賓的植物育種家?guī)椭袊叱隽损嚮模《纫脖苊饬损嚮摹?/span>

From 1965 to 1995 Asia’s rice yields?doubled and its poverty almost halved, even as its population soared.
從1965年到1995年，亞洲的水稻產(chǎn)量翻了一番，盡管人口激增，但貧困率減少了近一半。

[Paragraph 2]

Asia’s vast rice market is a legacy of that triumph. The starchy grain is the main source of sustenance for over half the world’s population.

亞洲龐大的稻米市場是那場勝利的遺產(chǎn)。這種淀粉質(zhì)谷物是全球一半以上人口的主要食物來源。

Asians produce over 90% of rice and get more than a quarter of their calories from it.

全球90%的大米產(chǎn)自亞洲，亞洲人攝入的卡路里有1/4來自大米。

And demand for the crop is projected to soar, on the back of population growth in Asia and Africa, another big rice consumer.By one estimate, the world will need to produce almost a third more rice by 2050.

隨著亞洲和非洲人口增長，大米的需求預(yù)計(jì)將飆升。據(jù)估計(jì)，到2050年，全球?qū)⑿枰霎a(chǎn)近三分之一的大米。

Yet that looks increasingly hard—and in some ways undesirable.
但這看起來越來越難，并且在某些方面是不可取的。

[Paragraph 3]

Rice production is spluttering. Yields have increased by less than 1% a year over the past decade, much less than in the previous one.

水稻產(chǎn)量正在下降。過去十年每年增長不到1％，遠(yuǎn)低于上一個(gè)十年的增長率。

The greatest slowdowns were in South-East Asia, where Indonesia and the Philippines—together, home to 400m people—are already big importers.

東南亞的產(chǎn)量下降最為明顯，印尼和菲律賓共有4億人口，是糧食進(jìn)口大國。

This has many explanations. Urbanisation and industrialisation have made labour and farmland scarcer.

這有很多解釋。城市化和工業(yè)化使勞動(dòng)力和耕地更加稀缺。

Excessive use of pesticides, fertiliser and irrigation have poisoned and depleted soils and groundwater. But the biggest reason may be global warming.
過度使用殺蟲劑、化肥和灌溉已經(jīng)污染和耗盡了土壤和地下水。但最大的原因可能是全球變暖。

[Paragraph 4]

Rice is particularly susceptible to extreme conditions and is often grown in places where they are increasingly evident.

水稻特別容易受到極端氣候的影響，而且常常生長在這種條件越來越明顯的地方。

Patchy monsoon rains and drought last year in India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, led to a reduced harvest and an export ban.

印度是全球最大的大米出口國，但由于去年斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的雨季和干旱，導(dǎo)致收成減少，并實(shí)行了出口禁令。

Devastating floods in Pakistan, the fourth-biggest exporter, wiped out 15% of its rice harvest.

巴基斯坦是第四大稻米出口國，由于毀滅性的洪水，損失了15%的大米收成。

Rising sea-levels are causing salt to seep into the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s “rice bowl”.

海平面上升會(huì)導(dǎo)致鹽份滲入越南的湄公河三角洲，這是越南的“糧倉”。

[Paragraph 5]

It gets worse. Rice is not merely a casualty of climate change, but also a contributor to it.

糟糕的是，水稻不僅是氣候變化的受害者，也是施害者。

By starving soils of oxygen, paddy cultivation encourages methane-emitting bacteria. It is a bigger source of greenhouse gas than any foodstuff except beef.

通過使土壤缺氧，稻田種植會(huì)產(chǎn)生甲烷排放。大米是除牛肉以外產(chǎn)生溫室氣體最多的食物。

Its emissions footprint is similar to that of aviation. If you count the conversion of forestland for rice paddy—the fate of much of Madagascar’s rainforest—that footprint is even bigger.
水稻的碳排放足跡與航空業(yè)相似。如果計(jì)算將森林土地轉(zhuǎn)換為稻田的情況（如馬達(dá)加斯加雨林），碳足跡甚至更大。

[Paragraph 6]

This amounts to an insidious feedback loop and, in all, a far more complicated set of problems than the food insecurity that spurred the green revolution.

這構(gòu)成了一個(gè)隱蔽的反饋循環(huán)，總體而言，這是一系列比綠色革命推動(dòng)的糧食不安全問題更為復(fù)雜的問題。

Indeed, eating too much rice turns out to be bad for people as well as the climate.

事實(shí)上，吃太多米飯不僅對(duì)氣候有害，對(duì)人類健康也不利。

White rice is more fattening than bread or maize, and is not especially nutritious.

白米飯比面包或玉米更容易使人發(fā)胖，且營養(yǎng)價(jià)值并不是很高。

In South Asia rice-heavy diets have been linked to high rates of diabetes and persistent malnutrition.
在南亞，以米飯為主的飲食習(xí)慣與糖尿病和營養(yǎng)不良率有關(guān)。

[Paragraph 7]

Policymakers need to increase rice yields, then, but more selectively than in the 1960s.

政策制定者需要提高稻米產(chǎn)量，如今比20世紀(jì)60年代有更多選擇。

In the places most suitable for rice cultivation, such as hot and sticky South-East Asia, faster adoption of new technologies, such as flood-resistant and more nutritious seeds, could provide a big productivity boost.

在最適合水稻種植的地區(qū)，如炎熱潮濕的東南亞地區(qū)，更快地采用新技術(shù)，如抗洪和更有營養(yǎng)的種子，可以大大提高生產(chǎn)力。

In tandem with improved practices, such as direct seeding of paddy, they could also shorten the growing cycle and reduce the amount of water required, mitigating environmental harm.

與此同時(shí)，改進(jìn)實(shí)踐，如直接播種水稻，他們也可以縮短生長周期，減少所需的水量，從而減輕環(huán)境損害。

Farmers have been slow to adopt such improvements, partly because of overgenerous subsidies that shield them from the rice crisis.

農(nóng)民采用這些改進(jìn)方案的速度較慢，部分是因?yàn)檫^于慷慨的補(bǔ)貼讓他們免受水稻危機(jī)的影響。

A better approach would make state support contingent on best practice. By encouraging crop insurance—a good idea in itself—governments could also help reassure farmers as they switch from old ways to new.
更好的方法是將國家政策與最佳實(shí)踐關(guān)聯(lián)起來。通過鼓勵(lì)農(nóng)業(yè)保險(xiǎn)（本身是一個(gè)好辦法），政府還可以幫助農(nóng)民在轉(zhuǎn)換新舊種植方式時(shí)感到更加安心。

[Paragraph 8]

Governments need to nudge producers and consumers away from rice.

政府需要潛移默化地引導(dǎo)生產(chǎn)者和消費(fèi)者遠(yuǎn)離大米。

India and Indonesia?are promoting millet, which is more nutritious and uses a lot less water.

印度和印度尼西亞正在推廣小米，小米比大米更有營養(yǎng)價(jià)值，水消耗量也少得多。

Scrapping subsidies that favour rice over other crops would make such efforts more effective.

取消大米相關(guān)的補(bǔ)貼將更有效。

India, for example, procures rice from farmers, often at above-market rates, then distributes it as food aid.

例如，印度通常以高于市場價(jià)的價(jià)格從農(nóng)民手里收購大米，然后將其作為糧食援助分發(fā)出去。

It should make its interventions more crop-agnostic, by replacing subsidies and free rice with income support for farmers and cash transfers for the poor.

通過給農(nóng)民收入支持和向貧困人口提供現(xiàn)金轉(zhuǎn)移來取代補(bǔ)貼和免費(fèi)大米，這應(yīng)該使政府干預(yù)更加不受作物影響。

That would encourage farmers to choose the best crop for their local conditions—much of India’s agricultural north-west would switch from rice to wheat overnight.

這將鼓勵(lì)農(nóng)民選擇最適合本土條件的作物——印度的大部分西北農(nóng)業(yè)地區(qū)會(huì)在一夜之間從種稻米轉(zhuǎn)向種小麥。

Poor Indians would be free to choose a more balanced diet. Thereby, it would correct a market skewed towards environmental damage and poor health.
貧窮的印度人將可以自由選擇更加平衡的飲食。從而，它將把偏向環(huán)境破壞和健康不良的市場糾正過來。

[Paragraph 9]

Bringing about such change in Asia and beyond will be far harder than promoting new wonder seeds was.

在亞洲和其他地方實(shí)現(xiàn)這樣的變革將比推廣新的奇妙種子更加困難。

Farmers are almost everywhere a powerful constituency.

農(nóng)民幾乎在任何地方都是一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的利益集團(tuán)。

Yet policymakers should get used to blending complicated economic and technological fixes in this way.Increasingly, it is what fighting climate change will entail.

然而，政策制定者應(yīng)該習(xí)慣于以這種方式混合復(fù)雜的經(jīng)濟(jì)和技術(shù)解決方案。這就是應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化所需的方法。

Sorting out the mounting crisis in the world’s most important foodstuff would be a good place to begin.
解決世界上最重要的食品危機(jī)將是一個(gè)很好的開始。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量783左右）
原文出自：2023年4月1日《The Economist》Leaders版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
Green Revolution綠色革命是指通過使用人工肥料、殺蟲劑和高產(chǎn)作物品種在發(fā)展中國家實(shí)現(xiàn)的大規(guī)模農(nóng)作物生產(chǎn)增長。它始于20世紀(jì)中葉，最初在墨西哥和印度次大陸取得了巨大的成功。新品種需要大量的化學(xué)肥料和殺蟲劑才能產(chǎn)生高產(chǎn)量。綠色革命因其負(fù)面環(huán)境影響而受到批評(píng)，包括土壤退化、水污染和生物多樣性喪失。

Mekong Delta湄公河三角洲是越南西南部的一個(gè)地區(qū)，由湄公河和其支流的河流和分支組成。它是越南最大的稻米和水果生產(chǎn)地之一，也是越南最重要的漁業(yè)中心之一。該地區(qū)還以其美麗的風(fēng)景和獨(dú)特的文化而聞名。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
Rice is particularly susceptible to extreme conditions and is often grown in places where they are increasingly evident.
水稻特別容易受到極端氣候的影響，而且常常生長在這種條件越來越明顯的地方。

Indeed, eating too much rice turns out to be bad for people as well as the climate.
事實(shí)上，吃太多米飯不僅對(duì)氣候有害，對(duì)人類健康也不利。

Bringing about such change in Asia and beyond will be far harder than promoting new wonder seeds was.
在亞洲和其他地方實(shí)現(xiàn)這樣的變革將比推廣新的奇妙種子更加困難。