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經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人二則：英國(guó)雞為何如此不值錢？日不落發(fā)的電為何如此骯臟？  一、養(yǎng)雞事業(yè) Chickens are the most populous bird on the planet. 雞（學(xué)名：Gallus gallus domesticus），是原雞屬原雞中被人類馴化后而成的亞種，是家畜及家禽中數(shù)量最多，分布也最廣的，2011年的總數(shù)超過(guò)190億只，世界上雞的數(shù)量比所有其他的鳥都多。家雞最初的馴化作為家禽目的是為人們提供肉、蛋等食品，為人們提供廉價(jià)優(yōu)質(zhì)的動(dòng)物蛋白質(zhì)。 There are 23 billion of them at any given time. 據(jù)統(tǒng)計(jì)，2019年3月，地球人養(yǎng)了大約230億只地球雞。 That's 10 times more than any other bird. 十倍于鳥類 It's an astonishing achievement for a bird that originated as a small, wild, jungle bird in South East Asia. 對(duì)于一只起源于東南亞的小型野生叢林鳥類來(lái)說(shuō)，這是一項(xiàng)驚人的成就。 It's by far the fastest growing meat product but pound for pound, the price of chicken has fallen sharply. 這是目前為止增長(zhǎng)最快的肉類產(chǎn)品，但雞肉價(jià)格卻大幅下跌。 How as this happened? 怎么了？  Chickens were first domesticated over 8,000 years ago. 雞最早在8000多年前就被馴養(yǎng)了。 But it wasn't until the 1940's that major efforts were made to create a super breed. 但直到1940年代才做出重大努力來(lái)創(chuàng)造一個(gè)超級(jí)品種。 The chicken-of-tomorrow competition in America would change chickens forever. 然而養(yǎng)雞事業(yè)競(jìng)賽面臨美國(guó)（肯得雞金拱萌躺槍？）的壓力，影響雞兒深刻 The aim of that competition was to try and encourage the development of a fast growing chicken that could provide a larger amount of protein at an affordable cost. 這一競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的目的是試圖鼓勵(lì)發(fā)展一種能夠以負(fù)擔(dān)得起的價(jià)格提供更多蛋白質(zhì)的快速生長(zhǎng)的雞。 The success of the contest rose conclusively that it is possible to breed chickens with superior meat-type characteristics. 養(yǎng)雞事業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的初步結(jié)果最終表明，有可能培育出具有優(yōu)良肉型特性的雞。 Today, the life cycle of broilers, chickens that are bred purely for their meat, is entirely pre ordained. 悲哀的是：今天，肉仔雞的生命周期完全是注定的。  That starts around day 34, the biggest birds for us off of this farm are around 39 days of age. 只要34天，農(nóng)場(chǎng)的最老的雞大約是39天。 Then we have a really frantic seven to ten days to clean everywhere, get it all nice and warm and fresh ready for the next batch of chicks. 然后我們就有七到十天的時(shí)間去打掃所有的地方，場(chǎng)舍理應(yīng)溫暖而新鮮，坐等下一批小雞的到來(lái)。 We do that seven and a half, eight times a year. 我們一年七次半到八次輪回。 This efficiency is passed on to the consumer. 消費(fèi)者感同身受。 It's good value, I don't like referring to it as cheap. 它有價(jià)值，我不喜歡“便宜”。 These are not cheap, these are animals. 寧有貴種乎？低端動(dòng)物的命也是命呀！ 二、可再生能源的骯臟秘密 We often do covers on things that are in the news, 我們經(jīng)常做新聞報(bào)道 things that are right there on the front page of your newspaper. 那些你看得見的新聞?lì)^條 But sometimes we like to look behind an issue that we think's being neglected. 但有時(shí)候你會(huì)想更深入了解一些被忽略的問(wèn)題  But it means that there's an oversupply of generating capacity which is weighing down on prices. 但這代表著電力過(guò)度供給，導(dǎo)致價(jià)錢下降 The second problem is the supply of renewable energy is intermittent. 第二個(gè)問(wèn)題是，可再生能源發(fā)電是間接性的 And for those moments when you don't have wind or sunshine, you need to get your electricity from somewhere else. 當(dāng)沒有風(fēng)在吹或是沒有陽(yáng)光在照時(shí)，我們必須從別的地方獲得電力 And that somewhere else is the old dirty power stations that we used to rely on in the past. 而那個(gè)源頭就是我們現(xiàn)在正在仰賴的老舊又骯臟的發(fā)電廠 And the third point is that renewables inherently cost very little. 第三點(diǎn)則是可再生能源的成本很低 Because the sun shines free and the wind blows free. 因?yàn)殛?yáng)光跟風(fēng)都不用錢 Now that means that suppliers of this energy bid very low prices to supply to the grid. 這代表供給需求里能源的供給商用非常低的價(jià)錢來(lái)供應(yīng) That brings down the cost for everybody which lowers profits. 這使價(jià)錢整個(gè)降低，導(dǎo)致利潤(rùn)也相對(duì)受到影響 Now this has a number of implications. 這有幾個(gè)含義 One is that the whole grid requires vast subsidies, 其中一個(gè)是要平衡原本的供給需求，需要巨額的津貼 which actually raises the price for the consumer even though the industry's not earning very much. 我們可以撇開上述的成本問(wèn)題，提高消費(fèi)者的電價(jià) To fix this mess, 要解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題  and we wrote the lead of this week to try and get people to face up to the problem, and how to fix it. 而我們這篇報(bào)導(dǎo)的用意是要試著，讓人們正視這個(gè)問(wèn)題，以及如何解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。 |
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來(lái)自： 徒步者的收藏 > 《國(guó)外網(wǎng)友看》
