Jon Foley: Agriculture turns out to be one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. About 30% of all of our greenhouse gases come from either clearing land or farming land we already have. That's more than all the world’s electricity. It's more than all the world's transportation.
乔恩?福利：据分析，农业是温室气体排放量最大的行业之一。人类温室气体排放量约30%来自已有的开垦地和农田。这比全球电气行业或交通运输业的排放量还大。
You're listening to Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. Using a NASA satellite, Foley's been conducting a large-scale global analysis of agriculture's impact on the environment.
今天节目组采访了明尼苏达大学环境研究所主任乔恩?福利。福利通过国家宇航局卫星观测分析了全球范围内农业对环境的影响。
Jon Foley: It's also the single biggest user of water in the world by a long shot. So a lot of our declining water resources and water problems are also linked to uh, mainly irrigation.
乔恩?福利：在耗水量这一点上，农业也遥遥领先其他行业。因此许多地方出现水资源危机大多是灌溉造成的。
Foley described some of the most visible environmental damage as occurring in the Midwestern United States, with its intensive commercial production of food staples like corn and soybeans. He also indicated that there's rapid environmental change occurring in nations like Brazil and Indonesia, where forests are being stripped to make way for farms.
福利描述了美国中西部随着谷物、大豆等粮食作物的集约型商业化生产而出现的几种最严重的环境破坏。他还表示，在巴西、印尼等国，人们毁林开荒，当地环境发生了急剧变化。
Jon Foley: Let's freeze the footprint of agriculture. How do we figure out ways to incentivize people to not tear down rainforests? Instead, let's boost yields on the farms we've got.
乔恩?福利：我们应停止这种毁林开荒的进程。如何才能阻止人们破坏雨林呢？我们应设法增加已有农田的粮食产量。
Foley believes that, in order to do this, farmers around the world could combine the best aspects of organic and industrial farming practices. That might mean, for example, providing nutrients and water to crops with more precision and better timing.
福利认为，世界各地的农民应将有机耕作与产业化经营的优势充分结合起来，通过合理施肥、应时施肥等方式增加已有农田的粮食产量。
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