【词汇】雅思阅读常⽤词（029）-TheTrueCostOfFood
Test 2 - Passage 2: The True Cost Of Food
For more than forty years the cost of food has been rising. It has now reached a point where a growing number of people believe that it is far too high, and that bringing it down will be one of the great challenges of the twenty first century. That cost, however, is not in immediate cash. In the west at least, most food is now far cheaper to buy in relative terms than it was in 1960. The cost is in the collateraldamage of the very methods of food production that have made the food cheaper: in the pollution of water, the enervationof soil, the destructionof wildlife, the harm to animal welfareand the threat to human health caud by modern industrial agriculture.
First mechanisation, then mass u of chemical fertilirsand pesticides, then monocultures, then battery rearing of livestock, and now genetic engineering - the onward march of intensive farming has emed unstoppable in the last half-century, as the yields of produce have soared. But the damage it has caud has been colossal. In Britain, for example, many of our best-loved farmland birds, such as the skylark, the grey partridge, the lapwingand the corn bunting, have vanished from huge stretches of countryside, as have even more wild flowers and incts. This is a direct result of the way we have pro
duced our food in the last four decades. Thousands of miles of hedgerows, thousands of ponds, have disappeared from the landscape. The faecal filth of salmonfarming has driven wild salmon from many of the a lochsand rivers of Scotland. Natural soil fertility is dropping in many areas becau of continuous industrial fertilir and pesticide u, while the growth of algaeis increasing in lakes becau of the fertilir run-off. Put it all together and it looks like a battlefield, but consumers rarely make the connection at the dinner table. That is mainly becau the costs of all this damage are what economists refer to as externalities: they are outside the main transaction, which is for example producing and lling a field of wheat, and are bornedirectly by neither producers nor consumers. To many, the costs may not even appear to be financial at all, but merely aesthetic- a terrible shame, but nothing to do with money. And anyway they, as consumers of food, certainly aren't paying for it, are they?
But the costs to society can actually be quantified and, when added up, can amount to staggeringsums. A remarkable exerci in doing this has been carried out by one of the world's leading thinkers on the future of agriculture, Professor Jules Pretty, Director of the Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Esx. Professor Pretty and his colleagues calculated the externalities of British agriculture for one particular year. They added up the costs of repairing the
damage it caud, and came up with a total figure of ￡2,343m. This is equivalent to ￡208 for every hectare of arableland and permanent pasture, almost as much again as the total government and EU spend on British farming in that year. And according to Professor Pretty, it was a conrvativeestimate.
The costs included: ￡120m for removalof pesticides; ￡16m for removal of nitrates; ￡55m for removal of phosphatesand soil; ￡23m for the removal of the bug cryptosporidiumfrom drinking water by water companies;
￡125m for damage to wildlife habitats, hedgerows and dry stone walls; ￡1,113m from emissions of gas likely to contribute to climate change; ￡106m from soil erosionand organic carbon loss; ￡169m from food poisoning; and ￡607m from cattle dia. Professor Pretty draws a simple but memorable conclusion from all this: our food bills are actually threefold. We are paying for our suppodly cheaper food in three parate ways: once over the counter, condly through our taxes, which provide the enormous subsidiesproppingup modern intensive farming, and thirdly to clean up the mess that modern farming leaves behind.
So can the true cost of food be brought down? Breaking away from industrial agriculture as the soluti
颜色三要素on to hunger may be very hard for some countries, but in Britain, where the immediate need to supply food is less urgent, and the costs and the damage of intensive farming have been clearly en, it may be more feasible. The government needs to create sustainable, competitive and diver farming and food ctors, which will contribute to a thriving and sustainable rural economy, and advance environmental, economic, health, and animal welfare goals.
But if industrial agriculture is to be replaced, what is a viable alternative? Professor Pretty feels that organic farming would be too big a jump in thinking and in practices for many farmers. Furthermore, the price premium would put the produce out of reach of many poorer consumers. He is recommending the immediate introduction of a ‘Greener Food Standard', which would push the market towards more sustainable environmental practices than the current norm, while not requiring the full commitment to organic production. Such a standard would compriagreed practices for different kinds of farming, covering agrochemicalu, soil health, land management, water and energy u, food safety and animal health. It could go a long way, he says, to shifting consumers as well as farmers towards a more sustainable system of agriculture.
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collateral
英 [kə'læt(ə)r(ə)l] 美 [kə'lætərəl]
adj. 并⾏的；旁系的；附属的
enervation
英 [,enə:'veiʃən] 美 [,enə:'veiʃən]
n. 衰弱；虚弱；削弱；神经⽆⼒
言而有信的故事welfare
英 ['welfeə]美 ['wɛl'fɛr]
n. 福利；幸福；福利事业；安宁
adj. 福利的；接受社会救济的
mechanisation
英 [,mekənai'zeiʃən, -ni'z-][,mekənai'zeiʃən, -ni'z-] n. 机械化
fertilir
英 ['fɜːtɪlaɪsə] 美 ['fə:tilaisə]
n. 化肥（等于fertilizer）pesticide
英 ['pestɪsaɪd] 美 ['pɛstɪsaɪd]
n. 杀⾍剂
monoculture
英 ['mɒnə(ʊ)kʌltʃə] 美 ['mɑnəkʌltʃɚ] n. 单作；单⼀栽培
soar
英 [sɔː] 美 [sɔr]
vi. ⾼飞；⾼耸；往上飞舞colossal
英 [kə'lɒs(ə)l] 美 [kə'lɑsl]
adj. 巨⼤的；异常的，⾮常的skylark
英 ['skaɪlɑːk] 美 ['skaɪlɑrk]
n. 云雀；发疯般的胡闹
partridge
英 ['pɑːtrɪdʒ] 美 ['pɑrtrɪdʒ]
n. [鸟] 鹧鸪；松鸡
lapwing
英 ['læpwɪŋ] 美 ['læpwiŋ]
n. 鸟头麦鸡；⽥凫
让子弹飞影评
bunting
英 ['bʌntɪŋ] 美 ['bʌntɪŋ]
n. 触击；旗布；⽩颊鸟hedgerow
英 ['hedʒrəʊ] 美 ['hɛdʒro]
n. 灌⽊篱墙
faecal
英 ['fi:kəl] 美 ['fikl]
adj. 渣滓的；排泄物的（等于fecal）
salmon
英 ['sæmən] 美 ['sæmən]
n. 鲑鱼；⼤马哈鱼；鲑⾁⾊；鲑鱼⾁；橙红⾊，粉橙⾊adj. 浅澄⾊的
loch
英 [lɒk] 美 [lɑk]
n. 湖；海湾（狭长的）
algae
英 [ˈældʒiː] 美 ['ældʒi]
n. [植] 藻类；[植] 海藻
externalities
n. 外部性；外部效应
transaction
英 [træn'zækʃ(ə)n; trɑːn-; -'sæk-] 美 [træn'zækʃən]
n. 交易；事务；办理；会报，学报
狗坐轿子
borne
英 [bɔːn]美 [bɔrn]
v. 忍受；负荷；结果实；⽣⼦⼥（bear的过去分词）aesthetic
英 [i:sˈθetɪk] 美 [esˈθetɪk; ɛsˈθɛtɪk]
adj. 美的；美学的；审美的，具有审美趣味的staggering
英 ['stæɡərɪŋ] 美 ['stæɡərɪŋ]
洛哌丁胺胶囊
英 ['stæɡərɪŋ] 美 ['stæɡərɪŋ] adj. 惊⼈的，令⼈震惊的
sum
英 [sʌm] 美 [sʌm]
n. ⾦额；总数
就业协议书
equivalent睡前5分钟
英 [ɪ'kwɪv(ə)l(ə)nt] 美 [ɪ'kwɪvələnt] adj. 等价的，相等的；同意义的hectare
英 ['hekteə; -ɑː] 美 ['hɛktɛr]
n. 公顷（等于1万平⽅⽶）arable
英 ['ærəb(ə)l] 美 ['ærəbl]
n. 耕地
小红丸adj. 适于耕种的；可开垦的pasture
英 ['pɑːstʃə] 美 ['pæstʃɚ]
n. 草地；牧场；牧草conrvative
英 [kən'sɜːvətɪv] 美 [kən'sɝvətɪv] adj. 保守的
removal
英 [rɪ'muːv(ə)l] 美 [rɪ'muvl]
n. 免职；移动；排除；搬迁nitrate
英 ['naɪtreɪt] 美 ['naɪtret]
n. 硝酸盐
