As industrial-scale farms flourish in the European Union, its fields have grown quiet—robbed of the birds that once filled them with song. Since 1980 the number of birds that typically inhabit Europe's farmlands has shrunk by 55 percent. And in the last 17 years alone, French farmland-bird counts dropped by a third -- a "level approaching an ecological catastrophe," according to a recent survey.
隨著工業(yè)規(guī)模的農(nóng)場在歐盟蓬勃發(fā)展,那里的農(nóng)田變得安靜起來,不再有鳥兒在歌唱。自1980年以來,通常棲息在歐洲農(nóng)田中的鳥類的數(shù)量減少了55%。而根據(jù)最近的一次調(diào)查,僅在過去的17年里,法國農(nóng)田中的鳥類的數(shù)量就減少了三分之一--這是“接近生態(tài)災(zāi)難的水平”。
Intensified agriculture is driving the losses. Habitats where birds once bred, nested, and wintered now bear crops, and pesticides have killed off birds' prey. In the past 27 years Germany has lost 75 percent of its flying insects by mass. Even avian species that typically adapt to humans have dwindled on farms, suggesting that the land is less able to sustain all kinds of birds.
集約農(nóng)業(yè)是造成這一數(shù)字下降的主要原因。鳥類曾經(jīng)繁殖、筑巢和越冬的棲息地現(xiàn)在都種植了莊稼,而殺蟲劑殺死了鳥類的獵物。在過去27年里,德國飛行昆蟲的總數(shù)已經(jīng)下降了75%。即使是那些一般來說已經(jīng)適應(yīng)人類的鳥類,在農(nóng)場上也有所減少,這表明該土地不具備養(yǎng)活所有鳥類的能力了。
To curb the losses of farmland birds, researchers contend that agriculture must be remade in nature's image: less dependent on the addition of chemicals, more diverse in its flora, and more hospitable to local fauna.
為了控制農(nóng)田鳥類數(shù)量的減少,研究人員主張農(nóng)業(yè)必須按照自然的形象重塑:減少對化學(xué)物質(zhì)的依賴,植物群更加多樣化,對當(dāng)?shù)氐膭游锔佑押谩?/p>