VOA慢速英语--藻类可能有助于解决世界饥饿

 

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Nearly 790 million people around the world do not get enough to eat. Most of them live in developing countries.

Many parts of the developing world do not have transportation systems in place that can bring food to people. It can be difficult to get food to those who need it without good roads and other necessary infrastructure¹.

But there is a deeper problem.

Growing or raising enough food to fight world hunger requires land. If we are talking about raising cattle for their meat – that means a lot of farmland and other resources.

A group of researchers in California may have found a way to get protein to hungry people.

Stephen Mayfield is a geneticist at the University of California, San Diego. He notes that many people are concerned about calories, the energy-producing value in food.

Mayfield specializes in algae², the scientific term for simple, plant-like organisms. He says algae have two things that the world needs: protein and lipids, or fatty acids.

"The world, in fact, is not short of calories. What they're short of is proteins and essential fatty acids. So, algae are naturally very high in proteins and in lipids and those are sort of the two things that the world really needs.

So, Mayfield and his team have created a dried, powdered form of algae. They break down the organisms into extremely small particles, which can help simplify the problem of transportation.

Not only is the algae rich in protein and easy to transport, it also tastes good.

Again, here is Mayfield.

"Here's one that we've just finished up and so what we do is we simply take this and dried it out. And as you can see, it makes a very nice green powder and that is perfectly³ edible⁴. In fact, it tastes pretty good."

And growing algae uses less land than other kinds of protein. Mayfield's big idea is that algae farms could one day replace the huge amounts of land used by farmers to produce protein, in beef from cattle or soybeans.

"I'm actually really encouraged by these new companies that had started up to make these synthetic⁵ plant-based protein substitutes that look just like meat, right? Because now, 'oh that looks like something I'm familiar with. I want to eat that.' But if I could make that with algae protein instead of with beef protein, an enormous environmental benefit and probably an enormous cost benefit as well."

The United States government provided money for Mayfield’s research. His team just successfully finished a test in which they grew algae in an outdoor environment.

Mayfield adds that algae food products are not yet available for sale. But in the future algae may be one way to help feed the world’s hungry people

Words in This Story

resources – n. a usable stock or supply, such as money, land or water

fatty acids – n. an acid that is naturally in fats and various oils

lipids – n. any one of various substances that contain fat and that are important parts of living cells

powder – n. a dry substance made up of very tiny pieces of something

edible – adj. suitable or safe to eat

synthetic – adj. made by combining different substances : not natural

substitute – n. a person or thing that takes the place of someone or something else

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 edible   

n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的

参考例句：

• Edible wild herbs kept us from dying of starvation.我们靠着野菜才没被饿死。
• This kind of mushroom is edible,but that kind is not.这种蘑菇吃得，那种吃不得。

5 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。