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  3. The chicken industry is a dirty business, but it is also a profitable one. I

The chicken industry is a dirty business, but it is also a profitable one. I

游客2023-12-28  28
问题     The chicken industry is a dirty business, but it is also a profitable one. In the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, pork and beef consumption has remained unchanged since 1990.Chicken consumption has grown by 70％.
    Humans gobble so many chickens that the birds now count for 23 bn of the 30 bn land animals living on farms. According to a recent paper by Carys Bennett at the University of Leicester and colleagues, the total mass of farmed chickens exceeds that of all other birds on the planet combined. In London, some 50 miles west of Colchester, fried-chicken shops are ubiquitous. Many are named after American states (including Kansas and Montana, not to mention Kentucky). But schoolchildren and late-night partiers are unfazed by the strange names. Nor do they worry much about where their meal came from.
    And why should they? Chicken is cheap and delicious. A pound of poultry in America now costs $1.92, a fall of $1.71.Meanwhile the price of beef has fallen by $1.17 a pound to $5.80.
    It is not just fussy Western eaters who increasingly favour chicken. Rising incomes mean that demand for the meat is growing even faster in poorer countries. As a result, chickens are now the world’s most widely traded meat. In economic terms they are, in effect, the opposite of cars. They are produced whole. But their value is maximized once they are broken up.
    The fact that different countries specialize in different kinds of production also boosts trade. America and Brazil, the world’s two biggest chicken exporters, are agricultural powerhouses that grow huge amounts of feed, the main cost in poultry production. Thailand and China, in contrast, dominate the processed-meat market which requires cheap, skilled labour. Russia and Ukraine, once net importers of chicken, have become net exporters as their grain industries have grown.
    Producers that sell their meat abroad expose themselves to risks. Chicken has been a flashpoint in trade negotiations. China imposed tariffs on American birds and then banned all imports shortly after an outbreak of avian flu. Similarly, the European Union banned the import of chlorinated American chicken in 1997, owing to concern that a chlorine wash allows lower hygiene standards in farms.
    Although the chicken boom has been good for consumers, animal-welfare advocates worry that the meat industry’s costcutting measures have come at the expense of the birds. Vicky Bond of the Humane League, an animal-welfare campaign group, says the size of modem chickens is the cause of the worst problems. Broilers have breast muscles which are too big for their bones to support, leading to lameness. In Colchester the chickens are so unresponsive to humans that they resemble zombies.
    Partly because of advocacy by animal welfare charities, and partly because meat has become so affordable, more consumers are now willing to pay for meat raised in better conditions. Sales of free-range and organic chickens, which—unlike most broilers—have access to the outdoors, are surging.
    Although larger numbers of people might be willing to pay more for organic or free-range products, most still prefer whatever is cheapest. And, despite growing interest in vegetarianism and veganism, surveys find little evidence that many people in the rich world are turning into herbivores. People may like flirting with plant-based diets. But what they really love is chicken.
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答案     虽然养鸡又脏又臭，但养鸡业有利可图。在经济合作与发展组织(简称OECD，主要是由富庶的国家组成)的成员国中，猪肉和牛肉的消费量自1990年以来一直保持不变，但鸡肉的消费量则增长了70％。
    鸡肉攻占全球餐桌，以至于农场里饲养的300亿只陆地动物中，鸡便占了230亿只。莱斯特大学(University of Leicester)的卡里斯.贝内特(Carys Bennett)及其同事最近发表的论文指出，饲养鸡的总量超过了地球上所有其他鸟类的总和。在伦敦科尔切斯特(Colchester)以西约50英里处，炸鸡店随处可见。许多店以美国的州命名(包括堪萨斯州和蒙大拿州，更不用说肯塔基州了)，但是学生和参加深夜派对的人并不在意这些奇怪的名字，他们也不太担心食物来源。他们为什么要担心呢?鸡肉既便宜又美味。在美国，一磅鸡肉现在的价格是1.92美元，下降了1.71美元。与此同时，牛肉的价格下跌了1.17美元，降至每磅5.8美元。
    不仅挑剔的西方食客越来越喜欢吃鸡肉，在较为贫穷的国家，收入的不断增加意味着国民对肉类的需求也正逐渐增长。因此，鸡肉成为世界上交易量最大的肉类。从经济学角度来看，实际上售卖鸡肉与销售汽车截然不同。虽然鸡是被完整地饲养大的，但一旦将它分解为不同部分进行出售，它的价值才会最大化。
    不同国家专于生产不同类型的产品也促进了鸡肉贸易。农业大国美国和巴西是世界上最大的两个鸡肉出口国，它们生产大量饲料，而饲料则是家禽养殖中最主要的成本构成。相比之下，泰国和中国在加工肉类市场占据主导地位，因而需要廉价、熟练的劳动力。俄罗斯和乌克兰曾是鸡肉的净进口国，但随着粮食工业的发展，它们已经转变为鸡肉的净出口国。
    但出口鸡肉的生产商会面临风险，因为鸡肉一直是贸易谈判的焦点。中国对美国禽类征收关税，并在禽流感爆发后不久禁止所有鸡肉进口。同样，由于担心屠宰场用氯水漂洗鸡肉后会降低农场的卫生标准，欧盟在1997年禁止进口美国的氯化鸡肉。
    尽管养鸡热潮对消费者有利，但动物福利倡导者担心肉类行业削减成本措施是以牺牲禽类为代价的。动物福利运动组织人道联盟(Humane League)的维基.邦德(Vicky Bond)说，现代鸡的体型是造成最严重问题的原因。童子鸡由于骨架无法支撑过大的胸肌导致跛足。在科尔切斯特，鸡就像僵尸一样对人类毫无反应。
    有可能是因为动物福利慈善机构的倡导，也有可能是因为肉类价格低廉，现在越来越多的消费者愿意为在更好条件下饲养的鸡买单——因为与其他嫩鸡不同，走地鸡和有机土鸡可以在户外走动，因此它们的销量正在飙升。
    尽管越来越多的人愿意买有机土鸡和走地鸡，但大多数人还是更喜欢买最便宜的鸡肉。尽管人们对素食主义和纯素食主义的兴趣日益浓厚，但调查发现，几乎没有证据表明富裕阶层的人正在变成素食主义者。人们可能喜欢偶尔尝试植物性饮食，但他们真正喜欢的还是鸡肉。
解析     1.第2段第四句name after为固定搭配，意思是“给某人／某事起与某人／某事相同的名字”，因此，此处可译为“以……命名”。
    2.第2段第四句not to mention为固定搭配，意为“更不用说……，更不必说……”。
    3.第6段第二句flashpoint，原义为“爆发点”，而“鸡肉为贸易谈判的爆发点”可理解为“鸡肉是贸易谈判的主要争论内容”，故此处可考虑译作“焦点”。
    4.第7段第一句at the expense of为固定搭配，意为“以牺牲……为代价”。
    5.第9段第一句的for organic or free-range products在此实际是回指了第8段第二句的free-range and organic chickens，英文为了不重复。所以用了products来代替chickens，故译为“有机土鸡和走地鸡”会比译为“有机和分散产品”更加合理，且与上文的逻辑关系也能更加紧密。
    6.第9段第三句plant-based diets为专有名词，意为“植物性饮食”。
    7.第9段第四句因为与第三句在语义上联系较为紧密，因此，在翻译时可与第三句合并为一句。
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