By Deborah Koons Garcia

不管是小麥、大米，還是藜麥、小米；不管是自家煮，叫外賣，還是下館子，吃飽才是硬道理?？勺屓巳硕汲燥柌⒉蝗菀住８鶕?jù)World Hunger組織的數(shù)字，在2010年，全球有九億兩千多萬(wàn)的人吃不飽飯，相當(dāng)于世界人口的13.6%。科學(xué)家撓破頭皮，想盡各種辦法以解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。要相信科學(xué)哦，辦法總會(huì)有的。

Over recent years， the warnings have been growing louder and more urgent. Food scarcity is an issue that no one can ignore. With food demands predicted to double over the next four decades， as world population rises， and diets change， conventional farming methods will struggle to keep pace. If harvests stay at their present levels， then， by 2050， we will need new agricultural land the size of Brazil to produce enough food to feed the world. So， if an increasingly industrialized form of agriculture is not going to feed the worlds growing population， what is？

In the U.S.， Professor Dickson Despommier believes his multi-story vertical farms could not only grow everything we need， but do it in the urban areas where most people live.

Dickson： The idea of a vertical farm is quite simple actually. It means simply to take existing greenhouses， and instead of making them flat and spread out all over the place， stack them on top of each other and turn them into a building， maybe 5， 10 or 15 stories tall. An outdoor farm of 10 acres of tomatoes is equivalent to one indoor acre of tomatoes. Because there are no crop failures due to weather events， and you can grow them year round. So that means you can actually feed as many people with a single acre indoors as you can with 10 acres of outdoor land. Vertical farming doesnt necessarily mean just plants， because we dont eat just plants. We eat various animals too. Its possible to connect plants to animals indoors， in separate facilities but connected together， so that I can now have an ecosystem in a building. And I think， in 10 years from now， this idea， although crude at the moment， will be refined enough so that almost every city that you go to will have a project on vertical farming.

Despomiers vertical farm is still only a computer graphic， but the different farming technologies that could make it a reality already exist.

In the UK， a project linking fish and plant production is already underway. Its called “aquaponics，” and Charlie Price is the man behind it.

Charlie： Aquaponics is the 1）integration of 2）aquaculture， or growing fish， with 3）hydroponics， which is growing plants without soil in water. In an aquaponics system， effectively， waste products from fish provide a nutrient source for plants and plants act as a filter for the fish. Then we take the off-cuts of the plants， produce worms in 4）wormeries to feed the fish， so its a constant recirculating loop.

This is what you could call a “virtuous cycle，” and it uses surprisingly little water.

Charlie： The water thats here stays here and gets recirculated through the system. Any small losses that we have through evaporation will get topped-up through rainwater harvesting， so aquaponics provides a really good solution for areas where water scarcitys an issue.

近年來(lái)，關(guān)于糧食短缺的警告之聲日漸響亮，也日漸緊迫。糧食短缺的危機(jī)已經(jīng)到了不容忽視的境地。隨著人口上漲，膳食習(xí)慣改變，預(yù)計(jì)人類的糧食需求在未來(lái)的40年里會(huì)增加一倍。傳統(tǒng)的農(nóng)耕方法已經(jīng)無(wú)法跟上形勢(shì)的變化。若糧食產(chǎn)量維持在現(xiàn)有水平不變，那么到了2050年，人類就需要新增面積相當(dāng)于巴西領(lǐng)土般大小的耕地，才能生產(chǎn)出足夠的糧食，滿足全球的需求。那么，要是日趨工業(yè)化的農(nóng)耕方法也追不上人口增長(zhǎng)的需求，還有什么方法呢？

美國(guó)的迪克森·德斯波米亞教授認(rèn)為，垂直的多層農(nóng)場(chǎng)不僅讓我們要什么有什么，還可將其設(shè)在居民集中的市區(qū)內(nèi)。迪克森：垂直農(nóng)場(chǎng)的概念其實(shí)很簡(jiǎn)單，就是利用現(xiàn)有溫室的概念，但不是把它平攤開(kāi)來(lái)，而是變成層層疊疊的一棟樓，樓高五層、十層或十五層。這樣，在戶外十畝地種的番茄，轉(zhuǎn)入室內(nèi)只要一畝地就夠了，加上不怕天氣變化帶來(lái)的失收，我們可以全年栽種。室內(nèi)一畝地的產(chǎn)出可與戶外十畝地相媲美。垂直農(nóng)場(chǎng)還不限于植物，因?yàn)槲覀儾还獬宰魑?，還吃禽畜。動(dòng)、植物可以共用溫室，既各有專區(qū)，又互相關(guān)聯(lián)，這樣，一棟樓內(nèi)就是一個(gè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。垂直農(nóng)場(chǎng)現(xiàn)在只是一個(gè)粗略的概念，但相信在未來(lái)十年內(nèi)經(jīng)過(guò)改良，幾乎所有城市都會(huì)有垂直農(nóng)耕計(jì)劃。

迪克森的垂直農(nóng)場(chǎng)暫時(shí)還只是紙上談兵，但另一種能把這個(gè)設(shè)想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)的農(nóng)耕技術(shù)業(yè)已存在。

英國(guó)正研究如何把養(yǎng)魚(yú)與種植結(jié)合起來(lái)，這種新方法名為“復(fù)合水培”，其創(chuàng)始人是查爾斯·普賴斯。

查爾斯：復(fù)合水培把水產(chǎn)養(yǎng)殖與無(wú)土的水栽培技術(shù)結(jié)合起來(lái)。在復(fù)合水培系統(tǒng)內(nèi)，魚(yú)的排泄物變成植物的養(yǎng)分，植物則為魚(yú)過(guò)濾水質(zhì)，再把從植物上修剪下來(lái)的無(wú)用枝葉送入飼蟲(chóng)箱，養(yǎng)蟲(chóng)喂魚(yú)，環(huán)環(huán)相扣，循環(huán)不息。

這可謂是良性循環(huán)，耗用的水也出奇地少。

查爾斯：里面的水不會(huì)流失，會(huì)循環(huán)再用，而蒸發(fā)流失的少量水分則可透過(guò)收集雨水進(jìn)行補(bǔ)充，所以復(fù)合水培最適合在缺水地區(qū)進(jìn)行。欄目

翻譯：T Boy

基塘農(nóng)業(yè)

文章中提到的復(fù)合水培技術(shù)讓人想到中國(guó)南方獨(dú)有的基塘農(nóng)業(yè)?；赁r(nóng)業(yè)是珠江三角洲人民根據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)氐淖匀粭l件，創(chuàng)造的一種獨(dú)特的農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)方式?；赁r(nóng)業(yè)利用生物鏈良性循環(huán)的道理，把澇地挖成池塘，堆泥成基，在魚(yú)塘的塘基上種桑、種蔗、種果樹(shù)等，用魚(yú)的排泄物做桑樹(shù)、甘蔗、果樹(shù)的肥料，基塘互相促進(jìn)，使魚(yú)和桑、甘蔗、果兼得，有利于漁業(yè)和副業(yè)的發(fā)展。這種與魚(yú)塘結(jié)合的特殊生產(chǎn)方式被稱為“三基魚(yú)塘”，即桑基魚(yú)塘、蔗基魚(yú)塘、果基魚(yú)塘。