Genetically modified foods -- Feed the
World?

If you want to
spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic of genetically
modified foods. For many people, the concept of genetically altered, high-tech
crop production raises all kinds of environmental, health, safety and ethical
questions. Particularly in countries with long agrarian traditions -- and vocal
green lobbies -- the idea seems against nature.

如果你想在某次晚宴上挑起一场激烈的争论，那就提出转基因食品的话题吧。对许多人来说，高科技的转基因作物生产的概念会带来诸如环境、健康、安全和伦理等方面的各种问题。特别是在有悠久的农业生产传统和主张环保的游说集团的国家里，转基因食品的主意似乎有悖自然。

In fact, genetically modified foods are already very much a part of our lives. A
third of the corn and more than half the soybeans and cotton grown in the US
last year were the product of biotechnology, according to the Department of
Agriculture. More than 65 million acres of genetically modified crops will be
planted in the US this year. The genetic is out of the bottle.

事实上，转基因食品已经成为我们生活重要的一部分。根据农业部的统计，美国去年所种植玉米的1／3，大豆和棉花的一半以上都是生物技术的产物。今年，美国将种植6500多万英亩的转基因作物。基因妖怪已经从瓶子里跑出来了。

Yet there are clearly some very real issues that need to be resolved. Like any
new product entering the food chain, genetically modified foods must be
subjected to rigorous testing. In wealthy countries, the debate about biotech is
tempered by the fact that we have a rich array of foods to choose from -- and a
supply that far exceeds our needs. In developing countries desperate to feed
fast-growing and underfed populations; the issue is simpler and much more
urgent: Do the benefits of biotech outweigh the risks?

但是，显然还有一些非常现实的问题需要解决。就像任何一种要进入食物链的新食品一样，转基因食品必须经过严格的检验。在富裕的国家里，由于有大量丰富的食品可供选择，而且供应远远超过需求，所以关于生物技术的争论相对缓和一些。在迫切想要养活其迅速增长而又吃不饱的人口的发展中国家，问题比较简单，也更加紧迫：生物技术的好处是否大于风险呢?

The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the
world's population reached 6 billion. And by 2050, the UN estimates, it will
probably near 9 billion. Almost all that growth will occur in developing
countries. At the same time, the world's available cultivable land per person is
declining. Arable land has declined steadily since 1960 and will decease by half
over the next 50 years, according to the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

关于人口增长和饥饿的统计数字读来令人感到不安。去年，世界人口达到了60亿。联合国预测，到2D0年，这个数字很可能将接近90亿，而增加的人口几乎都来自发展中国家。与此同时，世界人均耕地正在减少。国际农业生物工程应用技术采购管理局(ISAAA)称，自1960年以来，耕地面积一直持续下降，并将在今后50年减少一半。

The UN estimates that nearly 800 million people around the world are
undernourished. The effects are devastating. About 400 million women of
childbearing age are iron deficient, which means their babies are exposed to
various birth defects. As many as 100 million children suffer from vitamin A
deficiency, a leading cause of blindness. Tens of millions of people suffer from
other major ailments and nutritional deficiencies caused by lack of food.

联合国估计，世界上有近8亿人口营养不良。它产生的效应是破坏性的。大约有4亿的育龄妇女体内缺铁，也就是说，她们的婴儿将可能有各种天生的缺陷。数量多达1亿的儿童缺乏维生素A，这是导致失明的主要原因。还有数千万的人患有因食物匮乏而导致的其他严重疾病和营养不良症。

How can biotech help? Biotechnologists have developed genetically modified rice
that is fortified with beta-carotene -- which the body converts into vitamin A
-- and additional iron, and they are working on other kinds of nutritionally
improved crops. Biotech can also improve farming productivity in places where
food shortages are caused by crop damage attribution to pests, drought, poor
soil and crop viruses, bacteria or fungi.

生物技术对此能做些什么呢?生物技术专家已经培育出了含有β—胡萝卜素(身体可将之转化为维生素A)和更多铁元素的转基因水稻，目前正在研究培育其他一些增进营养成分的农作物。生物技术还可以帮助提高因虫害、干旱、土壤贫瘠和作物病毒、细菌或真菌导致作物减产而出现食物匮乏的地区的农业生产率。

Damage caused by pests is incredible. The European corn borer, for example,
destroys 40 million tons of the world's corn crop annually, about 7% of the
total. Incorporating pest-resistant genes into seeds can help restore the
balance. In trials of pest-resistant cotton in Africa, yields have increased
significantly. So far, fears that genetically modified, pest-resistant crops
might kill good insects as well as bad appear unfounded.

虫害带来的损失令人难以置信。例如，欧洲玉米螟每年毁掉4000万吨玉米，占世界玉米总产量的7％。把抗虫害的基因植入种子可以帮助避免这一损失。在非洲进行的抗虫害棉花试验中，棉花的产量已大幅度提高。有人担心，抗虫害的转基因作物不仅将害虫杀死，而且有可能连益虫也一起杀死，但到目前为止，这种担心似乎没有根据。

Viruses often cause massive failure in staple crops in developing countries. Two
years age, Africa lost more than half its cassava crop -- a key source of
calories -- to the mosaic virus. Genetically modified, virus-resistant crops can
reduce that damage, as can drought-tolerant seeds in regions where water
shortages limit the amount of land under cultivation. Biotech can also help
solve the problem of soil that contains excess aluminum, which can damage roots
and cause many staple-crop failures. A gene that helps neutralize aluminum
toxicity in rice has been identified.

病毒常常在发展中国家造成主要粮食作物的大面积歉收。两年前，花叶病毒使非洲损失了超过一半的木薯，而这种作物是当地人的主要食物。转基因的抗病毒作物可以减少这种损失，就像抗干旱种子在可耕地面积因缺水而受到限制的地区起到的作用一样。含铝过高的土壤会损伤作物的根系并使许多主要作物歉收，对于这种问题生物技术也能帮助解决。目前，研究人员已经识别出一种有助于中和水稻里铝的毒性的基因。

Many scientists believe biotech could raise overall crop productivity in
developing countries as much as 25% and help prevent the loss of those crops
after they are harvested.

许多科学家认为，生物技术能够把发展中国家的农业总产量提高25％，并且帮助防止作物收割后遭受损失。

Yet for all that promise, biotech is far from being the whole answer. In
developing countries, lost crops are only one cause of hunger. Poverty plays the
largest role. Today more than 1 billion people around the globe live on less
than ' 1 a day. Making genetically modified crops available will not reduce
hunger if farmers cannot afford to grow them or if the local population cannot
afford to buy the food those farmers produce.

尽管具有这么多潜力，生物技术还远远不能解决全部问题。在发展中国家，作物歉收只是造成饥饿的一个原因。贫穷才是罪魁祸首。今天，全世界有超过10亿人口每天靠不到1美元维持生计。如果农民没钱种植转基因作物或当地人买不起农民种出的粮食，培育转基因作物就无法减少饥饿。Nor
can biotech overcome the challenge of distributing food in developing countries.
Taken as a whole, the world produces enough food to feed everyone -- but much of
it is simply in the wrong place. Especially in countries with undeveloped
transport infrastructures, geography restricts food availability as dramatically
as genetics promises to improve it.

此外，生物技术也无法克服在发展中国家分配粮食的难题。从整体上看，世界生产的粮食足够养活所有人，但大部分粮食却不是在需要的地方。尤其在运输基础设施落后的国家，地理条件对食物供给的限制正如遗传学为食物供给带来的希望一样大。

Biotech has its own "distribution" problems. Private-sector biotech
companies in the rich countries carry out much of the leading-edge research on
genetically modified crops. Their products are often too costly for poor farmers
in the developing world, and many of those products won't even reach the regions
where they are most needed. Biotech firms have a strong financial incentive to
target rich markets first in order to help them rapidly recoup the high costs of
product development. But some of these companies are responding to needs of poor
countries. A London-based company, for example, has announced that it will share
with developing countries technology needed to produce vitamin-enriched
"golden rice".

生物技术也面临自身的“分配”问题。许多转基因作物方面的尖端研究都是富国的私营生物技术公司进行的。对发展中国家的穷苦农民来说，这些公司的产品通常显得过于昂贵，而且这些产品中的大部分甚至无法到达最需要的地区。强大的经济刺激促使生物技术公司把富裕国家的市场作为第一目标，以便能够尽快回收产品开发的高额成本。不过，有些公司已开始对贫穷国家的需要做出反应。例如，一家总部在伦敦的公司已经宣布，它愿意和发展中国家一起分享生产维生素增强型的“金水稻”所需的技术。

More and more biotech research is being carried out in developing countries. But
to increase the impact of genetic research on the food production of those
countries, there is a need for better collaboration between government agencies
-- both local and in developed countries -- and private biotech firms. The ISAAA,
for example, is successfully partnering with the US Agency for International
Development, local researches and private biotech companies to find and deliver
biotech solutions for farmers in developing countries.

发展中国家正在进行越来越多的生物技术研究。但是，为扩大遗传学研究对这些国家的粮食生产的影响，政府各部门(包括当地政府部门和发达国家的政府部门)与私营生物技术公司之间需要更好的合作。例如，国际农业生物工程应用技术采购管理局目前正与美国国际发展署、当地的研究人员以及私营的生物技术公司进行成功的合作，以帮助发展中国家的农民寻求生物技术方面的解决办法。

Will "Frankenfoods" feed the world? Biotech is not a panacea, but it
does promise to transform agriculture in many developing countries. If that
promise is not fulfilled, the real losers will be their people, who could suffer
for years to come.

“弗兰肯食品”能养活世界吗?生物技术虽不是万灵药，但它确实有希望改造许多发展中国家的农业。如果这种希望不能实现，真正的受害者将是这些国家的人民，他们可能会在未来的岁月里遭受苦难。