紐西蘭奧克蘭杜慧明 （原文為英文）By sister-initiate Hui-Ming Toh, Auckland, New Zealand (Originally in English)
你會打開冰箱，拿出二十盤義大利麵，把它們倒進垃圾桶，而只吃一盤食物嗎？你會為了一頓午餐，而將五十五平方英尺的雨林夷平，或把二千五百加侖的水倒進下水道裡，你認為這樣做如何？當然，你不會這麼做。但只要食用半公斤的肉就會製造這種情況。吃肉會造成無效率的耗費、破壞我們的資源及環境、造成動物無邊的痛苦，並對我們的健康產生不良的影響。因此，如果燒烤一隻狗來搭配你的馬鈴薯泥會讓你感到不安的話，那你為什麼要燒烤其他溫和的動物呢？
Would you ever open your fridge, pull out twenty plates of pasta and chuck them into the bin, and then, eat only one plate of food? How about leveling fifty-five square feet of rainforest for one lunch or dumping two-thousand-five-hundred gallons of water down the drain? Of course you wouldn't. However, just eating half a kilo of meat will cause this. Eating meat will cause inefficient use and destruction to our resources and environment, cause immense animal suffering, and have detrimental effects on our health. So, if roasting a dog to complement your mashed potato disturbs you, then why roast any other gentle animal?
(廢料湖方圓農場是猶他州一家豬肉供應商，擁有一個三百萬加侖的廢料湖。一九九五年，北卡羅來納州這種廢料湖排放至河川和湖泊時就曾造成環境的災難。 )
Waste Lagoon:Circle Four Farms, a Utah-based pork producer, hosts a three-million gallon waste lagoon. When lagoons like this spill into rivers and lakes as happened in North Carolina in 1995, the result can be environmentally catastrophic.
有份聯合國的報告已經證實：「我們環境的頭號威脅是牛隻而非車子。」報告中的證據顯示，全球牛隻數量快速增加，對於氣候、森林及野生動物最具威脅性。農場動物所排出的糞便，是美國所有人口排出量的一百三十倍，而這些高濃度的排泄物最後會污染水源和空氣，並破壞土壤表層。此外，這些動物排出的腸氣和糞肥所產生的甲烷，超過全球總量的三分之一，這種氣體造成地球暖化的速度，比二氧化碳快上二十倍。動物排泄物每秒就有八萬六千磅產生，肉食者必須對此負完全責任；但只要您戒除動物性食品，就可以免責。
A UN report has identified that “cows not cars, are the top threat to our environment.” It gives evidence that the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle is the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. Farmed animals produce one-hundred-and-thirty times more excrement than the entire human population of the United States and this concentrated slop ends up polluting water, destroying top soil and contaminating our air. Furthermore, their bodily gas and manure emit more than one third of methane, which warms the world twenty times faster than carbon dioxide. Meat-eaters are responsible for the production of one hundred percent of these wastes which is about eighty-six-thousand pounds per second. But, by giving up animal products, you will be responsible for none of these.
此外，我們對肉食的喜好，正不斷地耗損許多無法再生的能源。每生產一磅牛肉就需要二千五百加侖的驚人水量；相較之下，生產一磅番茄卻只需二十九加侖的水，生產一磅的全麥麵包也只要一百三十九加侖的水。美國一半的用水和百分之八十的農地，以及幾乎所有收成的黃豆和全球一半以上的榖物，都耗費在飼養肉用動物上。當我們在吃肉的同時，正有十億人口遭受饑餓及營養不良之苦，每天有二萬四千名孩童餓死在種植穀物的田野旁，而這些穀物卻拿去餵食西方國家的家畜。然而，我們若能善用有限的資源，將土地改為種植供人類食用的農作物，就可以消除世界的饑荒問題。
Moreover, our taste for meat is taking a toll on our supply of non-renewable resources. A staggering two-thousand-five-hundred gallons of water is needed for the production of each pound of beef, but, in contrast, it takes only twenty-nine gallons to produce a pound of tomatoes and a hundred-and-thirty-nine gallons for a pound of whole wheat bread. Half the water, eighty percent of agricultural land in the United States, almost all the soy bean harvest and over half of the world's grain is used to raise animals for food. While we are doing this, one billion people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition and twenty-four-thousand children die every day alongside fields of grain destined for the West's livestock. However, world starvation would be eliminated if our scarce resources were utilized efficiently by converting land to raising crops for feeding people.
(索馬利亞饑荒：索馬利亞的饑荒根源於食物的短缺。製造一磅牛肉需要四點八磅穀類，近代農業評論報導指出：肉食的推廣加重了世界的饑荒。 )
Somali Famine Victims:Somalian famine victims line up for food handouts. Producing a pound of beef requires 4.8 pounds of grain, and critics of our modern agricultural system say that the spread of meat-based diets aggravates world hunger.
你可知道在紐西蘭每年有一億三千萬隻動物遭到宰殺嗎？大部分的動物被飼養在工廠化養殖場中，這套系統力求以最少的成本達到最大的產量。因此，這些動物活著時，他們的身心分分秒秒都承受著極大的痛苦。他們擠在骯髒又不見天日的狹小空間裡，無法養育他們的家人，不能扒土為樂或做任何符合他們天性的事情。他們甚至體會不到陽光照在背部的舒服感，也呼吸不到新鮮的空氣，一直到被載上卡車待宰的那一天為止。在紐西蘭，就有超過九千萬隻動物遭受這種不人道的對待，還有許多動物是在清醒的狀況下被割喉而流血致死。
Are you aware that one-hundred-and-thirty million animals are murdered annually in New Zealand? Most animals are raised on factory farms, the system which strives to maximize output at minimum costs. As a result, the animals suffer immense pain mentally and physically every second of their lives. They are crammed into filthy windowless confinement systems and will never raise their families, rummage in the soil or do anything that is natural to them. They won't even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks, destined for slaughter. Over ninety million animals in New Zealand suffer these conditions and many remain conscious as their throats are cut, then, left to bleed to death.
農場經營者常用的另一種殘忍做法是：剝奪禽類的食物長達十四天之久，使他們的身體產生恐慌反應而生產更多的蛋，以供人類食用。由於小公雞對肉品業毫無用處，因此每年有一億隻小公雞被活活碾碎，或被棄置於袋子裡悶死。尤有甚者，在屠宰場中，雞隻被割了脖子後，有許多還活生生地就被浸在滾燙的熱水中，以便拔除身上的羽毛。 Another cruel practice farmers often carry out is the deprivation of food from birds for fourteen days in order to shock their bodies into laying more eggs for human consumption. And, because male chicks are useless in the meat industry, each year a hundred million of them are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate. What's more, at the slaughter house, the chickens throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers while many are still alive.
即使現在，牧場經營者為了幫牛隻做記號以易於辨認，就直接用熱火鉗烙在牛皮上，造成第三度灼傷，令他們痛苦哀嚎。還有，在完全沒有麻醉的情況下，小公牛的睪丸從陰囊中被剝除。更加深他們痛苦的是：放牧牛隻的土地上瀰漫著化學藥劑，這些煙霧造成他們慢性呼吸系統的問題，致使呼吸變得困難。
Even nowadays, to mark cows for identification, ranchers push hot fire irons into their flesh as they bellow in pain. Consequently, third degree burns occur and male calves' testicles are ripped from their scrotums all without pain relief. To add to their suffering, the land which cattle graze on has air saturated with chemicals and these fumes cause chronic respiratory problems, therefore making breathing painful.
專門供應牛乳的母牛不斷地受孕，然後她們的小孩又被帶走，原本要給小牛喝的牛奶卻供人類飲用。她們每天有好幾次被接上擠奶器，經由基因控制法、強效賀爾蒙及密集擠奶，被迫生產比自然產量還多十倍的牛奶，結果引發令她們極度痛苦的乳腺炎，有高達百分之五十的乳牛深受其苦。
Cows used for their milk are repeatedly impregnated and their babies taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. They are hooked up to machines several times daily and using genetic manipulation, powerful hormones, and intensive milking, they are forced to produce ten times more milk as they naturally would. This contributes to the immensely painful inflammation of their udder which up to fifty percent of dairy cows suffer from.
現今，對於工廠化養殖場的動物，沒有法令保護他們免於殘酷的虐待，而這些行為若加諸在家庭寵物身上，則屬違法，例如：疏於照顧、致殘、基因操控、導致長期痛苦和殘害的施藥、及殘暴的屠宰。小說家兼詩人羅伯特‧路易士‧史蒂文生（Robert Louis Stevenson）說：「我們吃下與我們具有相似慾望、熱情與器官的動物屍體。」我們疼愛狗兒、貓咪，視他們為夥伴，然而，農場動物的智能與感受痛苦的能力並不亞於這些寵物。
Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on household pets: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug programs that cause chronic pain and crippling and, violent slaughter. Robert Louis Stevenson, a novelist and poet said, “We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own.” Yet, farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.
這一點可以經由一些常見的報導來證實，例如：牛隻跳過六英尺高的圍籬，逃離了屠宰場，然後走了七哩路，只為了與小牛團聚，接著他們一起游泳渡河奔向自由。豬也是一樣；英國政府的科學顧問唐納德‧布魯姆博士（Dr. Donald Broom）發現豬是具有洞察力的動物：「豬具有很高的認知能力，因此會顯得相當世故，他們的認知能力甚至比狗還高，當然也高於三歲小孩。」
This is demonstrated by the frequent reports of cows leaping over a six-foot fence to escape a slaughterhouse, walking seven miles to be reunited with a calf and swimming across a river to freedom. Pigs, too, are insightful animals as discovered by Dr. Donald Broom, scientific advisor to the British government - “[Pigs] have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds.”
為了要拯救地球，減少人類及動物的苦難，你所能採取的最重要行動就是吃素。富含複合碳水化合物、蛋白質、纖維素、omega-3多元不飽和脂肪酸、維他命及礦物質的素食餐飲，可以提供我們最理想的營養，並奠下良好的飲食習慣基礎，讓我們享有健康的人生。柯林‧坎貝爾教授（Professor T. Colin Campbell）所著的《中國研究》（The China Study）一書，也提出許多有力的證據：「在未來十年中，你一定會得知一項訊息：動物性蛋白質是所有食物中最具毒性的營養素…只要飲食中含有少量的動物性蛋白質，就會大大地提高罹患疾病的風險。」根據研究顯示，吃素的小孩比同儕具有更高的智商，而素食者的平均壽命也比肉食者長六至十年。此外，他們罹患心臟病和癌症的機率減少了百分之五十。肉食者過胖的情況，則比素食者高出九倍。素食提供我們所需的全部營養，且不含飽和脂肪、膽固醇和污染物。
The most important step you can take to save our planet and diminish both human and animal suffering is to go vegetarian. A meat free diet rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, omega-three, vitamins and minerals provides optimal nutrition, forming the foundation for dietary habits that support a lifetime of good health. Compelling evidence can be found in the book “The China Study” by Professor T. Colin Campbell which says, “in the next ten years, one of the things you're bound to hear is that animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients of all…risk for disease goes up dramatically when even a little animal protein is added to the diet.” Studies have shown that vegetarian kids have higher IQs than their classmates and vegetarians live, on average, six to ten years longer than meat-eaters. In addition to this, they are fifty percent less likely to develop heart disease and cancer, plus, meat eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are. Vegetarian foods provide us with all the nutrients we need, minus the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants.
許多人反而辯稱植物也具有生命。確實如此，但植物只有百分之十的意識，而動物的意識卻與人類相似。由於植物無法移動，它們不太需要具備感知痛苦的能力，因此，植物與哺乳動物在生理上全然不同。如果你修剪樹上的枝葉，它會長得更多、更茂盛。而動物卻不希望被定期修剪；你能砍掉牛的一條腿，然後期待他再長出四條腿嗎？
Conversely, many argue that plants are alive too. This is true, but plants have only ten percent consciousness while animals have consciousness equivalent to humans. Since plants cannot locomote, the sensation of experiencing pain would be superfluous. Thus, plants differ completely physiologically from mammals. If you cut a branch or leaves off a tree, it will flourish and grow more. On the other hand, animals do not desire regular pruning. Can you cut off a leg from a cow and expect it to grow four more legs?
飼養動物來食用，已造成了地球的浩劫，環境、資源及我們的健康正日益惡化。儘管我們大部分的人不會輕易饒恕殺生之事，但卻在社會的助長下養成了吃肉的習慣，而沒有真正去了解我們所吃下的動物遭到什麼樣的對待。有人說：「走一趟屠宰場就能使你終生茹素，因為正是我們造成了他們痛苦與恐懼的哀號。」因此，如果你打算再燒烤一隻溫和的動物…請記得，你所吃下的動物和你所深愛的寵物並沒有兩樣；唯一不同的是，這隻動物慘遭痛苦折磨。
Raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on Earth. The environment, resources and our health are deteriorating and although most of us do not actively condone killing, humans have developed the habit, supported by society, of eating meat without any real awareness of what is being done to the animals we eat. It is said that, “one visit to a slaughterhouse will make you a vegetarian for life. Because it is us who created their screams of pain and fear.” So, if you ever decide to roast a gentle animal again…remember you are consuming the flesh of one equivalent to your much loved pets. But, the only difference is that this animal was tortured.
以下的網址有很多令人震驚的圖片:http://www.goveg.com/photos.asphttp://www.viva.org.uk/photogallery/galleryindex.htm
家畜對環境的影響，請搜尋全球地圖連結網:http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/a0701e/A0701E09a.pdf
There are many shocking pictures on the following websites:http://www.goveg.com/photos.asphttp://www.viva.org.uk/photogallery/galleryindex.htm
Please find global maps on livestock's environmental impact through following link :http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/a0701e/A0701E09a.pdf
雨林 - 綠色地球的肺
焚燒雨林 破壞自然生態系統
枯萎和荒蕪之地 是幾個漢堡付出的代價！
This scorched and barren landscape is the cost of just a few hamburgers!
*作者是一位十七歲的中學應屆畢業生，她的這篇校內評估之用的文章獲得特優的成績
* The author is a 17-year-old student in her final year of secondary school. The article was an internal assessment for which she was awarded the top grade of excellence.
來源:
http://al.godsdirectcontact.org/your_food/English.htm