(单词翻译:单击)
Vegan, a word champion by some as a cure-all for the world's environmental, ethical and health issues，
纯素食主义被一些人视为解决世界环境、伦理和健康问题的灵丹妙药；
and critiques by others who see it as a narrow-viewed approach of food systems.
而另一些人则批评说它是一种狭隘的食物系统方式。
It has quickly moved into the spotlight as a contentious issue across a broad range of communities.
它已经迅速成为一个引起广泛关注的有争议的问题。
Even so, variations on vegan diets, such as meatless Mondays, have become more widespread as the negative impact of the way we raise livestock has become clear.
尽管如此，随着我们饲养牲畜的方式的负面影响变得明显，各种各样的全素饮食的活动（如无肉星期一）变得越来越普遍。
With vegan eaters being cast as finger-wagging activists and those that subscribe to a meat-heavy diet as heartless animal killers, it's important to understand where veganism is going and how we can bridge the ideological gap between these groups.
由于纯素食主义者被视为指手画脚的激进分子，而那些无肉不欢的人则被视为无情的动物杀手，因此，了解素食主义的发展方向以及我们如何弥合这些群体之间的意识形态鸿沟是很重要的。
And caught up in all this is the issue of climate change.
气候变化问题也牵涉其中。
So when talking about veganism we need to interrogate whether or not veganism is truly the answer to mitigating climate change as movies like Cowspiracy claim.
所以当我们谈论纯素食主义时，我们需要质问：纯素食主义是否真的像《奶牛阴谋》等电影宣称的那样，是减缓气候变化的答案。
This makes animal agriculture the number one contributor to human-caused climate change.
这使得畜牧业成为人类造成气候变化的头号因素。
Eaters are drawn to veganism or a herbivorous diet void of any animal products for a number of reasons.
食者被纯素食主义或不含任何动物产品的全素饮食所吸引的原因有很多。
Among them are cruelty towards animals and health benefits.
它可以遏制人们虐待动物并对健康有好处。
But today I'm going to solely focus on the environmental effects of veganism as a driver for eating plant-based foods.
但今天我只关注纯素食主义对环境的影响，它也是素食主义者食用植物食品的原因之一。
In terms of environmentalism and climate change mitigation, veganism is effective in lowering one's personal carbon footprint.
就环保主义和减缓气候变化方面，纯素食主义在降低个人碳足迹方面是有效的。
Part of the reason for this is the large amount of emissions produced by the meat industry.
一部分原因是肉类行业产生了大量的排放物。
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock emissions account for 14.5 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
根据联合国粮食及农业组织统计，牲畜排放的温室气体占全球温室气体排放总量的14.5%。
A majority of these emissions come from ruminants like cows who often require more feed, produce more waste and need higher amounts of energy input than smaller animals like chickens.
这些排放物的大部分来自奶牛等反刍动物，它们通常比鸡等较小的动物需要更多的饲料，产生更多的废物，需要更多的能量摄入。
In addition, the meat industry has led to deforestation in the name of more land to raise cattle.
此外，肉类行业还以增加养牛用地的名义导致了森林砍伐。
And as a result, this has led to a decrease in the Earth's capacity to capture and sequester carbon.
结果，这导致了地球捕获和封存碳的能力下降。
But despite the high impact of meat production on the environment, going meatless has not been embraced by all.
但是，尽管肉类生产对环境的影响很大，但并不是所有人都接受无肉生活。
Strictly from an environmental standpoint, some argue that veganism is not appropriate in some parts of the world because it fails to use the available land efficiently.
严格地从环境的角度来看，一些人认为纯素食主义在世界上的一些地方是不适用的，因为它没有有效地利用可用的土地。
In Peters et al study, in the Elementa Journal, for example, they revealed that a strict plant-based diet would feed less people than other diets like a dairy-friendly vegetarian diet in the United States, because it would fail to make use of perennial grasslands typically used for grazing.
例如，彼得斯等人在《Elementa》杂志上发表的研究表明，在美国，与乳制品友好型素食等其他饮食相比，严格的植物饮食能养活的人更少，因为它没能充分利用通常用于放牧的多年生草地。
Perhaps even more importantly, being vegan is not a possibility for everyone.
也许更重要的是，并不是每个人都能成为纯素食主义者。
To the 23.5 million people living in food deserts in the United States alone, fresh produce and a wide variety of plant-based proteins are simply not available.
仅在美国，就有2.35亿人生活在“食品荒漠”中，他们根本无法获得新鲜的农产品和种类繁多的植物蛋白。
For low-income people buying specialty vegan products is often not an option.
低收入人群通常不会选择购买特色素食产品。
For some people of color, food traditions including those that involve meat are an important connection with heritage and a means of resisting assimilation and oppression.
对于一些有色人种来说，包括肉类在内的饮食传统是与遗产的重要联系，也是抵抗同化和压迫的手段。
Despite these challenges of maintaining a fully vegan diet, veganism is not framed as a form of activism or an aspirational diet but as an identity.
尽管保持全素饮食面临这些挑战，但纯素食主义并没有被框定为一种行动主义或一种理想的饮食，而是一种身份。
You don't do vegan; you are vegan.
你不完全吃素食；但你是纯素食主义者。
This means that any consumption of animal products relegates people to a non-vegan status, which tends to push many from any kind of vegan movement and deters others from attempting a vegan diet.
也就是说，食用任何动物产品的行为都会将人们降级为非素食主义者，这往往会促使许多人放弃任何形式的素食活动，并阻止其他人尝试全素饮食。
As the vice president of the Humane Society Farm Animal Welfare Department points out, getting people to eat less meat may be easier than getting people to eat no meat.
正如人道协会农场动物福利部副部长指出的那样，让人们少吃肉可能比让人们不吃肉容易。
You could probably spare more animals doing that.
这样做，你可能会放过更多的动物。
From an environmental standpoint, this means eating less meat from places like feedlots.
从环境的角度来看，这意味着你要少吃养殖场等地方生产的肉类。
And instead investing in the occasional meal of meat raised from ranchers that employ practices like restorative grazing which by mimicking the grazing patterns of other large grass heaters like buffalo are helping to restore perennial grasslands globally, ultimately returning the ability for grasslands to capture carbon by healing the land and the soil.
相反，你可以偶尔吃一些由采用了有助于草地恢复的放牧方式的牧场主所生产的肉类，他们通过模仿水牛等大型草食性动物的吃草模式，恢复了全球多年生草原，并最终通过修复土地和土壤，恢复了草原捕捉碳的能力。
But this also means understanding what is appropriate for your local food system.
但这也意味着要了解什么适合你当地的食物系统。
For some there are just too many barriers in place to follow a strict plant-based diet.
对于一些人来说，保持严格的植物饮食存在太多障碍。
In terms of the environment, going vegan then doesn't necessarily have to mean giving up meat for the rest of your life.
就环境而言，成为纯素食主义者并不一定意味着你的余生都不吃肉。
That could be a reality for a few.
对于一些人来说，全素食饮食是可以实现的。
But for others who lack access to viable produce and meat alternatives, it could instead be an aspiration, a goal to work towards.
但对于其他无法获得植物食品和肉类替代品的人来说，这反而可能是一种理想，一个努力的目标。
Just because you ate a piece of chicken doesn't mean that you now have to revert back to constantly eating meat, which means that instead of a blanket no-meat approach, we need to unpack the concepts of veganism and apply them in contextually appropriate ways, ones that recognize the strengths and obstacles of local food systems in order to ultimately benefit both its people and its environment.
仅仅因为你吃了一块鸡肉，并不意味着你现在必须回到经常吃肉的状态，这意味着我们需要的不是完全不吃肉的方法，而是要拆解纯素食主义的概念，并以适当的方式加以应用，即认识到当地食品系统的优势和障碍，最终使当地人民和环境都受益。
