2021年考研英语二阅读 Text 2 原文翻译及答案解析

With the global population predicted to hit close to 10 billion by 2050, and forecasts that agricultural prodnction in some regions will need to nearly double to keep pace,food security is increasingly making headlines.In the UK, it has become a big talking point recently too,for a rather particular reason: Brexit. Brexit is seen by some as an opportunity to reverse a recent trend towards the UK importing food.The country produces only about 60 per cent of the food it eats,down from almost three-quarters in the late 1980s.A move back to self-sufficiency, the argument goes,would boost the farming industry, political sovereignty and even the nation's health.Sounds great-but how feasible is this vision? According to a report on UK food production frorn the University of Leeds, UK, 85 per cent of the country's total land area is associated with meat and dairy production. That supplies 80 per cent of what is consumed, so even covering the whole country in livestock farms wouldn't allow us to cover all our meat and dairy needs. There are many caveats to those figures, but they are still grave. To become much more self-suficient, the UK would need to drastically reduce its consumption of animal foods,and probably also farm more intensively—meaning fewer green fields and more factory-style production. But switching to a mainly plant-based diet wouldn't help. There is a good reason why the UK is dominated by animal husbandry:most of its terain doesn't have the right soil or climate to grow crops on a commercial basis.Just 25 per cent of the country's land is suitable for crop-growing,most of which is already occupied by arable fields. Even if we converted all the suitable land to fields of frit and veg—which would involve taking out all the nature reserves and removing thousands of people fiom their homes—we would achieve only a 30 per cent boost in crop production. Just 23 per cent of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK are currently home-grown, so even with the most extreme measures we could meet only 30per cent of our fresh produce needs. That is before we look for the space to grow the grains, sugars,seeds and oils that provide us with the vast bulk of our current calorie intake.

随着全球人口预计到2050年将接近100亿，并且预测一些地区的农业生产需要近乎翻倍以跟上步伐，粮食安全正日益成为头条新闻。在英国，它最近也成为了一个热门话题，原因相当特别：英国脱欧。一些人认为英国脱欧是一个机会，可以扭转英国进口食品的近期趋势。该国只生产大约60%的食物，低于1980年代末的近四分之三。据称，回归自给自足将促进农业产业、政治主权甚至国家健康。听起来不错——但这个愿景有多可行？根据英国利兹大学的一份关于英国食品生产的报告，该国85%的总面积与肉类和乳制品生产相关。这供应了消费量的80%，因此即使将全国覆盖为畜牧场，也无法满足我们所有的肉类和乳制品需求。这些数据有许多注意事项，但仍然严重。要变得更加自给自足，英国需要大幅减少动物食品的消费，并可能更密集地耕作——意味着更少的绿地和更多的工厂化生产。但转向主要植物性饮食也无济于事。英国以畜牧业为主是有充分理由的：其大部分地形不具备在商业基础上种植作物的合适土壤或气候。只有25%的土地适合种植作物，其中大部分已被耕地占据。即使我们将所有适合的土地转化为水果和蔬菜田——这将涉及拆除所有自然保护区和迁移数千人——我们也只能实现30%的作物产量提升。目前英国消费的水果和蔬菜只有23%是本土种植的，因此即使采取最极端的措施，我们也只能满足30%的新鲜农产品需求。这还没有考虑为我们提供当前大部分卡路里摄入的谷物、糖、种子和油的种植空间。