It is a battle that has divided East and West for centuries： Are chopsticks superior to the knife and fork？ Now the debate may finally be decided on environmental grounds.

With 1.4 billion people ploughing through 80 billion pairs of throwaway chopsticks each year， China has admitted its forests can no longer provide enough cutlery for its dinner tables.

“We must change our consumption habits and encourage people to carry their own tableware，” a delegate said at the National People’s Congress.

Pointing out that only 4，000 chopsticks can be carved from a 20-year-old tree， this delegate even went so far as to suggest that restaurants offered metal knives and forks instead. If his suggestion is widely adopted， it would be a dark moment in the chopstick’s 4，000-year history.

It was Da Yu， the founder of the Xia Dynasty， who is said to have first used two sticks to eat his food in roughly 2100 BC. It was an invention born of urgency. In his rush to reach a flood zone， Da Yu did not want to wait for his meat to cool， instead seizing a pair of twigs and wolfing down his meal.

Chopsticks quickly became popular around Asia. However Chinese chopsticks are longer than their Korean and Japanese counterparts in order to reach the communal dishes in the centre of the table. Koreans often use metal chopsticks because of their love of barbecue.

Today， however， China is chopping down 20 million mature trees a year to feed its disposable chopstick habit， according to the delegate.

Nor can China find enough wood in its own forests. China is now the world’s largest importer of wood and even imports chopsticks from America， where a company in Georgia realised that the state’s native gum wood would be perfectly suited to make the chopstick.

A previous estimate from China’s state forestry administration， based on statistics from 2008 to 2013， put the yearly total at 57 billion disposable chopsticks， a much lower sum.

筷子好用還是刀叉好用？這是幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來(lái)東方和西方一直有爭(zhēng)議的一個(gè)話題。而現(xiàn)在從環(huán)保角度出發(fā)，這場(chǎng)曠日持久的辯論似乎終于可以塵埃落定了。

每年，14億的中國(guó)人會(huì)使用800億雙一次性筷子，中國(guó)也承認(rèn)因?yàn)楸緡?guó)的森林資源已經(jīng)無(wú)法為人們的餐桌提供足夠的筷子。

一位兩會(huì)代表曾在兩會(huì)期間建議：“我們應(yīng)該改變消費(fèi)習(xí)慣，鼓勵(lì)人們出門(mén)吃飯時(shí)也自己帶餐具?！?/p>

該代表指出，一棵20年樹(shù)齡的樹(shù)木只能生產(chǎn)出4000雙筷子。他甚至還建議，餐館應(yīng)該直接使用金屬制的刀叉代替筷子。如果該建議被廣泛采用，中國(guó)4000多年使用筷子的歷史可能就會(huì)遭遇“黑暗時(shí)刻”。

筷子的起源大約在公元前2100年，夏朝的開(kāi)國(guó)之君大禹?yè)?jù)說(shuō)是第一個(gè)使用兩根棍子來(lái)吃飯的人。當(dāng)時(shí)大禹趕著去治水，因?yàn)闀r(shí)間緊迫，沒(méi)時(shí)間等食物涼下來(lái)，就直接拿起兩根小細(xì)枝狼吞虎咽吃完了飯。

筷子很快在亞洲地區(qū)流行起來(lái)，不過(guò)中國(guó)人使用的筷子比韓國(guó)人和日本人使用的要長(zhǎng)，因?yàn)樾枰獖A到桌子中間的公菜。韓國(guó)人因?yàn)閻?ài)吃燒烤，所以經(jīng)常使用金屬制的筷子。

根據(jù)這位代表的說(shuō)法，如今中國(guó)每年要砍掉2000萬(wàn)棵成熟樹(shù)木來(lái)滿足人們使用一次性筷子的需要。

而中國(guó)的森林里如今已經(jīng)沒(méi)有足夠的木材來(lái)滿足這樣的需求。中國(guó)現(xiàn)在是世界上最大的木材進(jìn)口國(guó)，甚至還需要從美國(guó)進(jìn)口筷子。喬治亞州的一家公司表示，當(dāng)?shù)氐脑z木材很適合制成筷子。

基于2008年到2013年的數(shù)據(jù)，中國(guó)國(guó)家林業(yè)局此前作出估計(jì)，中國(guó)每年的一次性筷子消費(fèi)量可能會(huì)達(dá)到570億雙，這個(gè)數(shù)據(jù)比實(shí)際數(shù)據(jù)要低得多。