科學家要掀起“餐桌革命”

Remarkably few plant and animal species dominate global agriculture and food production. Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry make up most of the livestock sector, while wheat, maize, rice and soya account for 60 per cent of the world’s total crop output. Fewer than 30 species account for more than 95 per cent of human food needs.

為數(shù)極少的植物和動物種類在全球農(nóng)業(yè)和糧食生產(chǎn)中占據(jù)了主導地位。畜牧業(yè)主要由牛、羊、豬和禽類占主導，而小麥、玉米、水稻和大豆則占全球谷物總產(chǎn)量的60%。不到30個物種占據(jù)了逾95%的人類食物需求。

Food security experts are pressing for diversification. “We rely too much on a very small number of crops,” says Professor Toby Bruce, a plant pest expert at Keele University.

糧食安全專家一直在推動糧食來源多樣化。“我們對極少數(shù)作物種類依賴過大，”英國基爾大學(Keele University)的植物害蟲專家托比•布魯斯(Toby Bruce)教授說。

“We see four crops travelling around the world, yet as human beings we have harvested 7,000 crops,” says Sayed Azam-Ali, professor of food security at Nottingham University, who runs the Crops for the Future research centre near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“我們注意到，全世界都在種植的作物只有4種，而事實上，人類種植或采集過的作物種類多達7,000種，” 馬來西亞吉隆坡附近的未來作物(Crops for the Future)研究中心的負責人、諾丁漢大學(Nottingham University)食品安全教授賽義德•阿扎姆-阿里(Sayed Azam-Ali)說。

His institute is one of several aiming to identify underexploited food sources — sometimes known as orphan, neglected or underutilised crops — that could be grown more widely, particularly in the developing world.

這家研究機構(gòu)旨在發(fā)現(xiàn)目前開發(fā)不足的食物來源——有時也被稱為“孤兒作物”、被忽視的作物、或未被充分利用的作物——這些作物可以被更加廣泛地種植，特別是在發(fā)展中國家。類似的研究機構(gòu)在全球還有幾家。

One of Prof Azam-Ali’s favourite examples is the Bambara groundnut, which is traditionally grown by female subsistence farmers in west Africa. It is a so-called “complete food”, containing a healthy combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat. The nuts are versatile; they can be eaten whole after boiling or roasting — or dried and milled to yield a flour for making dumplings, cakes and biscuits.

阿扎姆-阿里教授最喜歡舉的例子之一是班巴拉豆(Bambara groundnut)。這種作物傳統(tǒng)上是由西非自給自足的女性農(nóng)戶種植。班巴拉豆是一種所謂的“完整食物”，其碳水化合物、蛋白質(zhì)和脂肪含量配比非常有益健康。這種豆子有多種食用方法：可以在煮熟或烤熟后直接食用，也可以在風干后磨成面，做成餃子、蛋糕和餅干等不同的食物。

Although Bambara groundnut is easily cultivated in poor, arid soil, it only grows well in the tropics. Research by Prof Azam-Ali and colleagues showed that this is because development of the nuts depends on the amount of daylight in any given day, which should not change much over the year. However, cross-breeding is now producing Bambara varieties that will do well in places further from the equator that have significant seasonal changes in the length of night and day, such as the Mediterranean.

雖然班巴拉豆很容易在貧瘠干旱的土壤里種植，但它只有在熱帶地區(qū)才長得好。阿扎姆-阿里教授及其同事的研究表明，出現(xiàn)這一情況的原因是，班巴拉豆的生長發(fā)育取決于每一天的日照量，且日照量在一年中不應(yīng)有太大的變化。不過，通過雜交育種培育出的班巴拉豆品種在離赤道較遠、晝夜長短有明顯季節(jié)性變化的地方，例如地中海地區(qū)，也能有很好的長勢。

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is promoting the rediscovery of crops that have been forgotten over the last century, in collaboration with the African Orphan Crops Consortium. Examples include the African yam bean, desert date, prickly pear cactus, baobab tree, teff (a grain native to Ethiopia and Eritrea) and ber (a stocky tree with a vitamin-rich berry).

聯(lián)合國糧農(nóng)組織(The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation)正在與非洲孤兒作物聯(lián)合會(African Orphan Crops Consortium)合作，推動重新發(fā)現(xiàn)過去一個世紀被遺忘的作物。這些作物包括非洲豆薯、沙漠棗、梨果仙人掌、猴面包樹、苔麩(原產(chǎn)自埃塞俄比亞和厄立特里亞的一種谷物)和沙棗樹(一種果實含豐富維生素的樹干低矮的漿果樹)。

The collaboration aims to enhance Africa’s food security, with “African scientists using some of the best tools and equipment available anywhere in the world to make safe, nutritious and affordable foods available on a sustainable basis,” says Tony Simons, director-general of the World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi. “This information will allow breeders to use the same strategies and technologies as those for western crops, such as maize, to make rapid improvements in African crops.”

此項合作旨在加強非洲的糧食安全，“非洲科學家利用世界上最好的一些可用工具和設(shè)備，以可持續(xù)的方式生產(chǎn)安全、營養(yǎng)和負擔得起的食品”，總部設(shè)在肯尼亞首都內(nèi)羅畢的世界農(nóng)林中心(World Agroforestry Centre)的總干事托尼•西蒙斯(Tony Simons)說。“這一信息將有助于育種人員使用與西方作物(如玉米)相同的育種策略和技術(shù)，來快速改良非洲作物。”

When talk turns to diversifying from livestock to new sources of food from animals, insects usually top the list of alternatives, followed by lab-grown meat. In the past six months two UK research teams, one at Edinburgh University and Scotland’s Rural College, and the other at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire and Nottingham University, have published studies of the potential of entomophagy — the consumption of insects — to replace conventional livestock production.

當談到動物性食物多元化時，昆蟲通常是替代家畜的新動物性食物來源的首選，其次是實驗室培養(yǎng)的肉類。在過去六個月里，兩個英國研究小組，一個在愛丁堡大學(Edinburgh University)和蘇格蘭農(nóng)業(yè)學院(Scotland’s Rural College)，另一個在赫特福德郡的洛桑研究所(Rothamsted Research)和諾丁漢大學，已經(jīng)發(fā)表了關(guān)于以食蟲——以昆蟲為食物——來取代傳統(tǒng)家畜養(yǎng)殖可能性的研究論文。

The Scottish study found that replacing half of the meat eaten worldwide with crickets and mealworms would cut farmland use by a third, substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. However, in practice, the aversion of many western consumers to eating insects — and the infrastructure investment that would be required — mean that this will not happen on such a large scale.

蘇格蘭的研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，用蟋蟀和黃粉蟲取代全球食用的一半肉類，將會使農(nóng)場用地減少三分之一，并大大減少溫室氣體的排放。 不過，實際情況是，由于許多西方消費者對吃昆蟲很排斥，且需要進行基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施投資，意味著昆蟲大規(guī)模取代家畜成為人類盤中餐的可能性不大。

The researchers say, though, that even a relatively small increase in entomophagy, for example by using insects as ingredients in some pre-packaged foods, would bring environmental benefits. By contrast, they found that lab-grown meat was no more sustainable in environmental terms than poultry production.

不過，研究人員表示，用昆蟲取代家畜哪怕只邁出一小步，例如，在部分預(yù)包裝食品中使用昆蟲作為配料，也會造福環(huán)境。相反，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在環(huán)境可持續(xù)性方面，實驗室培養(yǎng)肉類并不優(yōu)于禽類養(yǎng)殖。

The Rothamsted/Nottingham study also found that “insects present a huge nutritional opportunity as an increasing global population seeks sustainable sources of food and feed”, but large-scale entomophagy faces cultural, social and economic hurdles, the researchers say.

洛桑研究所和諾丁漢大學的研究小組也發(fā)現(xiàn)，“隨著全球人口與日俱增，人們尋求可持續(xù)的食品和飼料來源，昆蟲提供了巨大的營養(yǎng)機會”，但是大規(guī)模食用昆蟲會面臨文化、社會和經(jīng)濟因素的阻礙，研究人員說。

“In ideal conditions, insects have a smaller environmental impact than more traditional western forms of animal protein,” says Darja Dobermann, study leader. “Less known is how to scale up insect production while maintaining these environmental benefits.”

該研究小組的負責人達爾然•多貝曼(Darja Dobermann)說：“理想狀況下，昆蟲對環(huán)境的沖擊小于西方較為傳統(tǒng)的動物蛋白來源?，F(xiàn)在還不太清楚的是，如何在維持這種環(huán)保優(yōu)勢的情況下擴大昆蟲養(yǎng)殖規(guī)模。”

The review found that more than 2,000 insect species are food sources, particularly in Asia and Africa. In parts of central Africa as much as half of dietary protein has historically come from insects; their market value is often higher than other sources of animal protein. In order of popularity, species for consumption include: beetles; caterpillars; bees, wasps and ants; grasshoppers, locusts and crickets; cicadas, leafhoppers, planthoppers, scale insects and bugs; termites; dragonflies, and flies. They are eaten raw, fried, boiled, roasted or dried and ground into meal.

該研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，目前有2000多種昆蟲被當做食物，特別是在亞洲和非洲。 在中部非洲的部分地區(qū)，歷史上多達一半的膳食蛋白質(zhì)來自昆蟲;昆蟲的市場價值通常高于其他動物蛋白質(zhì)來源。按照普及的程度排列，人們食用的昆蟲品種包括：甲蟲;毛毛蟲;蜜蜂、黃蜂和螞蟻;蚱蜢、蝗蟲和蟋蟀;蟬、葉蟬、飛虱、介殼蟲;白蟻;蜻蜓和蒼蠅。他們可以生吃、油炸、水煮、烘烤，或干燥后磨成粉再制作成食物。

There may be more scope for breeding insects for animal feed, including fishmeal in aquaculture, than for direct human consumption. For example, nextProtein, an agritech start-up based in Paris, rears larvae from the black soldier fly on fruit and vegetable waste from the food industry. These grubs are turned into components for aquaculture, livestock feed, pet food and agricultural fertiliser.

繁殖昆蟲用于生產(chǎn)動物飼料，包括水產(chǎn)養(yǎng)殖中的魚粉等，比直接供人類食用的空間更大。以一家總部位于巴黎的農(nóng)業(yè)科技創(chuàng)業(yè)型公司nextProtein為例，該公司用從食品行業(yè)回收的水果和蔬菜垃圾養(yǎng)殖黑水虻的幼蟲。然后以這些幼蟲為原料，生產(chǎn)水產(chǎn)和家畜養(yǎng)殖使用的飼料、寵物食品，以及農(nóng)業(yè)肥料等。