TED2007
Michael Pollan: A plant's-eye view
Michael Pollan以植物角度看世界
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如果人類的意識並不是達爾文演化論的最極致表現，那會怎麼樣？如果我們只是玉米企圖統治世界所操弄的棋子呢？作家Michael Pollan希望我們能以植物的角度看世界。
Michael Pollan - Environmental writer
Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which he explains how our food not only affects our health but has far-reaching political, economic, and environmental implications. His new book is In Defense of Food. Full bio
Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which he explains how our food not only affects our health but has far-reaching political, economic, and environmental implications. His new book is In Defense of Food. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
It's a simple idea about nature.
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關於自然，我有一個單純的想法，
00:20
I want to say a word for nature
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我想為自然講幾句話，
00:22
because we haven't talked that much about it the last couple days.
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因為我們這幾天都沒怎麼談到大自然。
00:24
I want to say a word for the soil and the bees and the plants and the animals,
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我要為土壤、蜜蜂、植物和動物說幾句話，
00:29
and tell you about a tool, a very simple tool that I have found.
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並向大家介紹我所發現的一個相當簡單的工具，
00:34
Although it's really nothing more than a literary conceit; it's not a technology.
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它其實只不過是一種想法，不算是什麼科技，
00:39
It's very powerful for, I think, changing our relationship to the natural world
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但我認為它有能力改變我們跟大自然的關係，
00:45
and to the other species on whom we depend.
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也能改變我們與我們所仰賴的生物間的關係。
00:48
And that tool is very simply, as Chris suggested,
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這個工具就像克里斯所說的一樣簡單，
00:51
looking at us and the world from the plants' or the animals' point of view.
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就是從植物或動物的觀點來看我們人類和看這個世界。
00:56
It's not my idea, other people have hit on it,
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這不是我獨到的見解，先前就有人提過了，
01:00
but I've tried to take it to some new places.
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但我希望能以新的角度來詮釋。
01:04
Let me tell you where I got it.
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我的靈感是從哪裡來的呢？
01:06
Like a lot of my ideas, like a lot of the tools I use,
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就如同我想出的其他點子跟工具一樣，
01:09
I found it in the garden; I'm a very devoted gardener.
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我是在花園裡找到靈感的。我是一個認真的園丁，
01:13
And there was a day about seven years ago: I was planting potatoes,
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七年前的某一天，我在種馬鈴薯，
01:17
it was the first week of May --
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那時是五月的第一個星期，
01:19
this is New England, when the apple trees are just vibrating with bloom;
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我住在新英格蘭，蘋果花正迎風搖曳，
01:24
they're just white clouds above.
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像一朵朵白雲高掛在天上，
01:26
I was here, planting my chunks,
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我則忙著栽種馬鈴薯，
01:29
cutting up potatoes and planting it,
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一塊塊的切好，種進土裡。
01:31
and the bees were working on this tree;
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蜜蜂們也在樹梢間穿梭忙碌著，
01:34
bumblebees, just making this thing vibrate.
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大黃蜂飛舞著，樹枝因而顫動。
01:36
And one of the things I really like about gardening
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我喜歡園藝，
01:39
is that it doesn't take all your concentration,
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其中一個原因是我不需要太專心，
01:42
you really can't get hurt -- it's not like woodworking --
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這不像木工，你不會因為不專心而弄傷自己，
01:44
and you have plenty of kind of mental space for speculation.
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你可以放手讓思緒在別處飛舞。
01:48
And the question I asked myself that afternoon in the garden,
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那天下午，我和大黃蜂一起在花園裡工作，
01:52
working alongside that bumblebee,
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我問了我自己一個問題：
01:55
was: what did I and that bumblebee have in common?
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我倆有何相似之處？
01:59
How was our role in this garden similar and different?
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我倆在這花園裡所扮演的角色，有何相似或相異之處?
02:03
And I realized we actually had quite a bit in common:
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這時我才發現，我們其實有很多共同點。
02:05
both of us were disseminating the genes of one species and not another,
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我們都在為我們選定的品種傳播基因，
02:11
and both of us -- probably, if I can imagine the bee's point of view --
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而且如果我能聽得見蜜蜂的心思，它一定也和我一樣
02:16
thought we were calling the shots.
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覺得我們是萬物的主宰。
02:18
I had decided what kind of potato I wanted to plant --
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我決定要種哪個品種的馬鈴薯，
02:22
I had picked my Yukon Gold or Yellow Finn, or whatever it was --
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不管是什麼品種，都是我做決定選的，
02:26
and I had summoned those genes from a seed catalog across the country,
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我從全國的種子目錄裡挑選我要的種子，
02:31
brought it, and I was planting it.
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帶回來並把它種下。
02:33
And that bee, no doubt, assumed that it had decided,
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而蜜蜂也認為它有決定權，
02:37
"I'm going for that apple tree, I'm going for that blossom,
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我要去那棵蘋果樹，我要去那朵花，
02:40
I'm going to get the nectar and I'm going to leave."
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我要去採花蜜，我要走了。
02:43
We have a grammar that suggests that's who we are;
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我們都習慣以這種角色自居，
02:48
that we are sovereign subjects in nature, the bee as well as me.
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認為自己是大自然的主宰，蜜蜂和我都這麼想。
02:53
I plant the potatoes, I weed the garden, I domesticate the species.
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我種下馬鈴薯，我除掉雜草，我培育這些品種。
02:59
But that day, it occurred to me:
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可是就在那一天，我突然發覺，
03:01
what if that grammar is nothing more than a self-serving conceit?
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這種想法或許只是我們自欺欺人的妄想？
03:04
Because, of course, the bee thinks he's in charge or she's in charge,
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當然，蜜蜂也認為自己有主宰權，
03:08
but we know better.
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但我們知道不是這樣，
03:10
We know that what's going on between the bee and that flower
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我們很清楚蜜蜂和花之間是怎麼回事，
03:14
is that bee has been cleverly manipulated by that flower.
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蜜蜂其實是被那朵聰明的花操縱著。
03:18
And when I say manipulated, I'm talking about in a Darwinian sense, right?
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我所謂的「操縱」，是以進化論的角度來講，
03:21
I mean it has evolved a very specific set of traits --
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花朵發展出一套獨特的特徵來誘惑蜜蜂，
03:24
color, scent, flavor, pattern -- that has lured that bee in.
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包括顏色、氣味、味道和花色等。
03:29
And the bee has been cleverly fooled into taking the nectar,
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蜜蜂被花朵巧妙地拐來採蜜，
03:33
and also picking up some powder on its leg,
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採蜜時一些花粉會沾到腳上，
03:36
and going off to the next blossom.
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並隨著蜜蜂到下一朵花上。
03:38
The bee is not calling the shots.
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蜜蜂不是花朵的主宰，
03:41
And I realized then, I wasn't either.
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我發現我也不是馬鈴薯的主宰。
03:43
I had been seduced by that potato and not another
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我被這種馬鈴薯誘惑，卻沒有被其他品種誘惑，
03:46
into planting its -- into spreading its genes, giving it a little bit more habitat.
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因此我種植這種馬鈴薯，為它傳播基因，用更多的田來繁殖它。
03:51
And that's when I got the idea, which was, "Well, what would happen
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就在這時我有了這個想法，
03:55
if we kind of looked at us from this point of view of these other species who are working on us?"
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何不從這些利用我們的生物的角度來審視自己？
03:58
And agriculture suddenly appeared to me not as an invention, not as a human technology,
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以這種觀點來看，農業就不再是人類的發明，也不是人類的科技，
04:03
but as a co-evolutionary development
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而是種同步進化的發展。
04:05
in which a group of very clever species, mostly edible grasses, had exploited us,
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這一群很聰明的植物，大部分都是可食的穀物，利用了我們，
04:11
figured out how to get us to basically deforest the world.
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讓我們來為它們砍伐森林，拓展耕種面積，
04:16
The competition of grasses, right?
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這簡直就是植物之間的競爭，對嗎？
04:19
And suddenly everything looked different.
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以這種觀點來看事情，每一件事都有不同的意義了，
04:21
And suddenly mowing the lawn that day was a completely different experience.
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就連割草這件事，也變成了一個前所未有的經驗。
04:25
I had thought always -- and in fact, had written this in my first book;
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我在我的第一本書裡提及一件事，那是一本談園藝的書，
04:28
this was a book about gardening --
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我提到我一直認為
04:29
that lawns were nature under culture's boot,
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草坪是被踐踏在人類文化腳下的大自然，
04:34
that they were totalitarian landscapes,
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是專制人類塑造出的景觀，
04:36
and that when we mowed them we were cruelly suppressing the species
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每次我們割草，我們就是在殘忍的壓制它，
04:40
and never letting it set seed or die or have sex.
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不讓它自由播種、死亡或交配，
04:44
And that's what the lawn was.
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這就是草坪。
04:46
But then I realized, "No, this is exactly what the grasses want us to do.
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但我發現，「不，這其實正是草所期望的，
04:50
I'm a dupe. I'm a dupe of the lawns, whose goal in life is to outcompete the trees,
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我是個傻瓜，我上了草的當！草生存的目標就是戰勝大樹，
04:57
who they compete with for sunlight."
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戰勝一直與它競爭陽光的大樹。」
05:00
And so by getting us to mow the lawn, we keep the trees from coming back,
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每次當我們割草或修剪樹葉，我們就抑制樹的生長，
05:04
which in New England happens very, very quickly.
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要不然在新英格蘭，樹葉很容易就長回來。
05:07
So I started looking at things this way
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我開始從這樣的角度來看事情，
05:10
and wrote a whole book about it called "The Botany of Desire."
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甚至寫了一本書叫《慾望植物園》。
05:12
And I realized that in the same way you can look at a flower
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我發現，以相同的角度來看待花朵，
05:16
and deduce all sorts of interesting things about the taste and the desires of bees --
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你就可以推測出蜜蜂的口味和需求，
05:21
that they like sweetness, that they like this color and not that color, that they like symmetry --
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看它們是否喜歡甜味、喜歡某種顏色、喜歡對稱的花朵。
05:27
what could we find out about ourselves by doing the same thing?
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那麼，以同樣的角度來看我們自己，又可以發現什麼呢？
05:30
That a certain kind of potato, a certain kind of drug,
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某種馬鈴薯、某種藥物、
05:33
a sativa-indica Cannabis cross has something to say about us.
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甚至是工業大麻和印度大麻的混種，都有對人類的觀察評語，
05:39
And that, wouldn't this be kind of an interesting way to look at the world?
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用這種角度來觀察世界不是很有趣嗎?
05:44
Now, the test of any idea -- I said it was a literary conceit --
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我說過這個想法只是一種妄想，要證實這個想法
05:48
is what does it get us?
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就得看我們從中學到什麼？
05:51
And when you're talking about nature, which is really my subject as a writer,
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當各位談到大自然，也就是我寫作的主題，
05:55
how does it meet the Aldo Leopold test?
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你一定想知道這個想法是否符合阿爾多．李奧帕得標準？
05:58
Which is, does it make us better citizens of the biotic community?
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它能否幫助我們成為生物界的好公民？
06:02
Get us to do things that leads to the support and perpetuation of the biota,
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讓我們做出能支持生物圈永續生存的事，
06:09
rather than its destruction?
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而不去破壞它？
06:10
And I would submit that this idea does this.
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我在此報告，這種想法確實能幫助我們做到這一切。
06:12
So, let me go through what you gain when you look at the world this way,
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讓我為各位介紹，你以這樣的角度看世界會有什麼好處，
06:15
besides some entertaining insights about human desire.
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先撇開有關人類慾望的有趣觀察不談，
06:20
As an intellectual matter, looking at the world from other species' points of view
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就身為有智能的人類來說，以其他生物的觀點來看世界，
06:27
helps us deal with this weird anomaly,
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能幫助我們解釋這種怪異的現象，
06:30
which is -- and this is in the realm of intellectual history --
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也就是在人類的歷史中，
06:34
which is that we have this Darwinian revolution 150 years ago ...
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150年前所發生的達爾文革命...
06:39
Ugh. Mini-Me. (Laughter)
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啊！渺小的人類...
06:44
We have this intellectual, this Darwinian revolution in which, thanks to Darwin,
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感謝達爾文讓我們瞭解，
06:50
we figured out we are just one species among many;
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我們只是眾多物種中的一種。
06:52
evolution is working on us the same way it's working on all the others;
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我們跟其他生物一樣會演進，
06:56
we are acted upon as well as acting;
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會影響別的物種，同時被別的物種影響，
06:58
we are really in the fiber, the fabric of life.
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我們的命運深深地交纏在一起。
07:02
But the weird thing is, we have not absorbed this lesson 150 years later;
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但奇怪的是，150年後竟然沒有人能記取教訓，
07:06
none of us really believes this.
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沒有人真的相信達爾文的話。
07:08
We are still Cartesians -- the children of Descartes --
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我們還是笛卡爾的信徒，甚至是笛卡爾的後代，
07:13
who believe that subjectivity, consciousness, sets us apart;
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我們相信個人的主觀意識讓我們彼此不同，
07:18
that the world is divided into subjects and objects;
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這個世界有主觀意識，也有客觀意識，
07:21
that there is nature on one side, culture on another.
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有大自然，也有人類文化。
07:24
As soon as you start seeing things from the plant's point of view or the animal's point of view,
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一旦我們開始以植物或動物的角度來觀察事情，
07:29
you realize that the real literary conceit is that --
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我們就會發現真正可笑的想法是：
07:33
is the idea that nature is opposed to culture,
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「大自然是和文化對立的」、
07:37
the idea that consciousness is everything --
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「意識代表一切」。
07:41
and that's another very important thing it does.
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但以動植物的角度來看世界
07:44
Looking at the world from other species' points of view
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還有另一個重要的功能，
07:47
is a cure for the disease of human self-importance.
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就是去治療人類妄自尊大的毛病。
07:51
You suddenly realize that consciousness --
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你會突然發現，我們所謂的意識，
07:56
which we value and we consider
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我們所珍視的意識，
08:00
the crowning achievement of nature,
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我們認為是大自然傑作的意識，
08:02
human consciousness -- is really just another set of tools for getting along in the world.
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只不過是另一種讓我們得以在世上生存的工具罷了。
08:07
And it's kind of natural that we would think it was the best tool.
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一般人都自然地認為意識是最好的工具，
08:11
But, you know, there's a comedian who said,
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但就像一位喜劇演員所說過的：
08:13
"Well, who's telling me that consciousness is so good and so important?
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「是誰說意識有多好？有多重要？
08:17
Well, consciousness."
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不過就是意識嘛。」
08:19
So when you look at the plants, you realize that there are other tools
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所以當你觀察植物時，你會發現他們也有自己的工具，
08:23
and they're just as interesting.
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也是一樣的神奇。
08:25
I'll give you two examples, also from the garden:
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我來舉兩個花園裡的例子，
08:29
lima beans. You know what a lima bean does when it's attacked by spider mites?
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例如青豆。你知道紅蜘蛛危害青豆時，青豆會怎樣嗎？
08:34
It releases this volatile chemical that goes out into the world
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它會散發出一種化學氣味，
08:37
and summons another species of mite
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吸引另一種蜘蛛來，
08:40
that comes in and attacks the spider mite, defending the lima bean.
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攻擊紅蜘蛛，以保護青豆。
08:44
So what plants have -- while we have consciousness, tool making, language,
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人類有意識，可以運用工具和語言，
08:50
they have biochemistry.
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植物則有自己的生化武器，
08:52
And they have perfected that to a degree far beyond what we can imagine.
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這種武器的精良程度遠超過我們所能想像，
08:57
Their complexity, their sophistication, is something to really marvel at,
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其複雜與精細度也是令人歎為觀止。
09:02
and I think it's really the scandal of the Human Genome Project.
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我認為這是人類基因組計劃的大醜聞，
09:04
You know, we went into it thinking, 40,000 or 50,000 human genes
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因為一開始我們以為人類會有4、5萬個基因，
09:09
and we came out with only 23,000.
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可是卻只發現2萬3千個，
09:13
Just to give you grounds for comparison, rice: 35,000 genes.
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再和稻米做比較：3萬5千個基因。
09:21
So who's the more sophisticated species?
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到底誰才是比較複雜的物種呢？
09:24
Well, we're all equally sophisticated.
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其實，我們一樣複雜，
09:25
We've been evolving just as long,
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我們都花了同樣長的時間進化，
09:28
just along different paths.
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只是循著不同的路徑進化而已。
09:31
So, cure for self-importance, way to sort of make us feel the Darwinian idea.
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所以，治療人類妄自尊大的解藥，也可以讓我們體會到達爾文的真意。
09:39
And that's really what I do as a writer, as a storyteller,
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而我，身為一個作家，一個說故事的人，
09:42
is try to make people feel what we know and tell stories that actually
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就是要告訴大家我們知道的事、我們是如何成為人，
09:49
help us think ecologically.
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幫助大家從生態的角度思考。
09:50
Now, the other use of this is practical.
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另一個例子很實際，
09:52
And I'm going to take you to a farm right now,
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我要說的是─我要帶大家到農場去，
09:54
because I used this idea to develop my understanding of the food system
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我以植物的觀點來看事情，也幫助我瞭解了整個食物鏈，
09:58
and what I learned, in fact, is that we are all, now, being manipulated by corn.
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我發現，其實我們都被玉米操弄了。
10:03
And the talk you heard about ethanol earlier today,
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各位今天所聽到有關生化乙醇的演說，
10:08
to me, is the final triumph of corn over good sense. (Laughter) (Applause)
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在我看來，正是玉米的最終勝利。（笑）
10:13
It is part of corn's scheme for world domination.
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這是...（掌聲）這是玉米佔領地球的陰謀。
10:21
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
10:22
And you will see, the amount of corn planted this year will be up dramatically from last year
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各位會發現，自去年以來，玉米的種植面積已大幅提升，
10:26
and there will be that much more habitat
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因為人類認為自己需要生化乙醇，
10:28
because we've decided ethanol is going to help us.
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將來玉米田面積將更大。
10:30
So it helped me understand industrial agriculture,
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這讓我...這讓我瞭解了工業化農業，
10:34
which of course is a Cartesian system.
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這種農業當然也信奉笛卡兒的教條，
10:36
It's based on this idea that we bend other species to our will
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相信我們可以依照人類的意志栽種植物，
10:39
and that we are in charge, and that we create these factories
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我們具有主控權，是我們創造了這種工廠，
10:42
and we have these technological inputs and we get the food out of it
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我們具有這種科技技術，我們可以栽種植物獲取食物，
10:45
or the fuel or whatever we want.
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或是取得燃油，或任何我們想要的東西。
10:48
Let me take you to a very different kind of farm.
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我們來看看另一種完全不同的農場，
10:50
This is a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
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這個農場位於維吉尼亞州的謝南德谷地，
10:53
I went looking for a farm where these ideas
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我在那裡找到了一個
10:56
about looking at things from the species' point of view are actually implemented,
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完全以植物的觀點看世界的農場，
11:00
and I found it in a man. The farmer's name is Joel Salatin.
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農場主人是喬依．薩拉丁，
11:02
And I spent a week as an apprentice on his farm,
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我花了一個星期的時間在他的農場裡參與實作。
11:05
and I took away from this some of the most hopeful news about our relationship to nature
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我在那裡看到了人類與自然所能發展出最有希望的關係，
11:11
that I've ever come across in 25 years of writing about nature.
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那是我25年來以大自然為素材的寫作經驗裡第一次看到，
11:14
And that is this:
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就是這個。
11:15
the farm is called Polyface, which means ...
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這個農場叫做「眾生農場」(Polyface)，
11:18
the idea is he's got six different species of animals, as well as some plants,
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在這個農場，他以共生的方式，
11:22
growing in this very elaborate symbiotic arrangement.
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養了六種不同的動物，還有一些植物。
11:25
It's permaculture, those of you who know a little bit about this,
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他們採用永續農藝，你們懂一些的，
11:27
such that the cows and the pigs and the sheep and the turkeys and the ...
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牛、豬、羊、火雞和...
11:35
what else does he have?
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還有什麼呢？
11:37
All the six different species -- rabbits, actually --
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反正有六種不同的動物，對，還有兔子，
11:39
are all performing ecological services for one another,
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每一種動物都能為另一種動物提供生態服務，
11:42
such that the manure of one is the lunch for the other
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像是某種動物的糞便可能就是另一種動物的食物，
11:45
and they take care of pests for one another.
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他們彼此也會互相幫忙抓害蟲。
11:47
It's a very elaborate and beautiful dance,
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我很難描述，那真是大自然的精心設計，
11:50
but I'm going to just give you a close-up on one piece of it,
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但我還是想讓你們看看其中一個實例，
11:53
and that is the relationship between his cattle and his chickens, his laying hens.
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就是牛和雞之間的關係，那種雞是蛋雞，
11:59
And I'll show you, if you take this approach, what you get, OK?
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我要告訴各位，如果你採用這種方法，會有什麼結果，好嗎？
12:04
And this is a lot more than growing food, as you'll see;
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你會看到，這不僅僅只是人類在生產食物而已，
12:06
this is a different way to think about nature
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這讓我們以另一種方式來思考大自然，
12:08
and a way to get away from the zero-sum notion,
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也讓我們擺脫零和遊戲，即笛卡兒
12:12
the Cartesian idea that either nature's winning or we're winning,
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不是天勝就是人勝，
12:15
and that for us to get what we want, nature is diminished.
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我們盡取所需，耗損自然的觀點。
12:19
So, one day, cattle in a pen.
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牧場的牛關在廉價電圍欄裡，
12:21
The only technology involved here is this cheap electric fencing:
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是這裡唯一稱得上科技的東西，
12:24
relatively new, hooked to a car battery;
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只用個還算新的汽車電池供給電力，
12:26
even I could carry a quarter-acre paddock, set it up in 15 minutes.
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就連我也能在15分鐘內架設好約0.1公頃的圍欄。
12:30
Cows graze one day. They move, OK?
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牛群們在牧場上吃草，輪流在不同地點放牧，
12:34
They graze everything down, intensive grazing.
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他們會吃光所有的草，一點也不剩。
12:36
He waits three days,
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農場主人等了三天，
12:38
and then we towed in something called the Eggmobile.
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然後牽來一台載雞的拖車，
12:41
The Eggmobile is a very rickety contraption --
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拖車搖搖晃晃，
12:44
it looks like a prairie schooner made out of boards --
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像是用紙板做成的牧場大篷車，
12:47
but it houses 350 chickens.
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裡面住了350隻雞。
12:49
He tows this into the paddock three days later and opens the gangplank,
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三天後，他把拖車牽到牧場裡，放下一個跳板，
12:55
turns them down, and 350 hens come streaming down the gangplank --
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350隻母雞立刻從跳板上走下來，
12:59
clucking, gossiping as chickens will --
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嘰嘰咕咕地叫個不停。
13:01
and they make a beeline for the cow patties.
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直直走向牛糞，
13:06
And what they're doing is very interesting:
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做著你想不到的事情，
13:08
they're digging through the cow patties
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他們在翻啄牛糞，
13:10
for the maggots, the grubs, the larvae of flies.
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找尋蛆、雞母蟲和蒼蠅的幼蟲。
13:14
And the reason he's waited three days
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農場主人之所以等上三天，
13:16
is because he knows that on the fourth day or the fifth day, those larvae will hatch
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是因為他知道蒼蠅的幼蟲會在第四天或第五天就會長成蒼蠅，
13:21
and he'll have a huge fly problem.
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到時麻煩可就大了；
13:23
But he waits that long to grow them as big and juicy and tasty as he can
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但他還是希望儘可能讓這些蟲子長大一點，才會更美味，
13:29
because they are the chickens' favorite form of protein.
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因為這些蟲子是母雞最喜愛的蛋白質來源。
13:32
So the chickens do their kind of little breakdance
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這些母雞跳來跳去，
13:34
and they're pushing around the manure to get at the grubs,
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把牛糞翻得到處都是，只為了找到蟲子，
13:38
and in the process they're spreading the manure out.
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但他們卻順道把牛糞給散佈出去了。
13:41
Very useful second ecosystem service.
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這一招很有用，算是第二層的生態服務。
13:45
And third, while they're in this paddock
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第三層則是由在牧場上的母雞
13:48
they are, of course, defecating madly
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排出糞便，
13:51
and their very nitrogenous manure is fertilizing this field.
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裡面含有大量氮肥，順道再為牧草施肥。
13:57
They then move out to the next one,
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接下來牛和雞都會移到下一塊牧場，
13:59
and in the course of just a few weeks, the grass just enters this blaze of growth.
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而幾個星期之後，這塊牧場上又會長出亮眼的牧草。
14:07
And within four or five weeks, he can do it again.
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讓牧人於四五星期後再如法炮製一番，
14:09
He can graze again, he can cut, he can bring in another species,
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再放牧牛，收割牧草，帶來另一種動物，
14:12
like the lambs, or he can make hay for the winter.
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像是羊，農場主人也可以為過冬準備乾草。
14:17
Now, I want you to just look really close up onto what's happened there.
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我希望各位仔細看看這個農場裡發生的事，
14:21
So, it's a very productive system.
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這是一個很有生產力的系統，
14:22
And what I need to tell you is that on 100 acres
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我要告訴各位，這個牧場有40.5公頃，
14:24
he gets 40,000 pounds of beef; 30,000 pounds of pork; 25,000 dozen eggs;
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生產出約1.8萬公斤牛肉，1.4萬公斤豬肉，2萬5千打雞蛋，
14:29
20,000 broilers; 1,000 turkeys; 1,000 rabbits --
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還有2萬隻嫩雞，1千隻火雞，1千隻兔子等，
14:32
an immense amount of food.
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真是龐大的食物量。
14:34
You know, you hear, "Can organic feed the world?"
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老是有人問：「有機農業能餵飽全世界的人嗎？」
14:36
Well, look how much food you can produce on 100 acres if you do this kind of ...
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看看這個農場，你就會知道40.5公頃的土地能生產出多少食物，
14:41
again, give each species what it wants,
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你只要給每種生物它所需要的東西就行了。
14:44
let it realize its desires, its physiological distinctiveness.
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他們自己知道自己要些什麼，每種生物都有不同的需求，
14:48
Put that in play.
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順應自然就對了。
14:50
But look at it from the point of view of the grass, now.
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現在，我們以牧草的角度來看這件事，
14:53
What happens to the grass when you do this?
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當我們這樣經營牧場時，牧草會怎麼樣？
14:55
When a ruminant grazes grass, the grass is cut from this height to this height,
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當有動物吃掉牧草時，牧草的高度就下降，
15:01
and it immediately does something very interesting.
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這時它立刻做出個有趣反應。
15:03
Any one of you who gardens knows that there is something called the root-shoot ratio,
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如果有人喜歡園藝，應該就聽過「根冠比」這個名詞，
15:07
and plants need to keep the root mass
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植物讓根部與莖葉
15:11
in some rough balance with the leaf mass to be happy.
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維持某種特定比例，植物才能長得好，
15:14
So when they lose a lot of leaf mass, they shed roots;
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所以當牧草的葉子都被吃掉後，他們的根部也會脫落，
15:18
they kind of cauterize them and the roots die.
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有點像是腐蝕掉根部，讓根部脫落死亡。
15:21
And the species in the soil go to work
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接下來在土壤裡的生物就有得忙了，
15:24
basically chewing through those roots, decomposing them --
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他們會嚼食這些牧草根，分解他們，
15:28
the earthworms, the fungi, the bacteria -- and the result is new soil.
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包括蚯蚓、真菌和細菌都以此為生，接下來就產生了新的土壤。
15:34
This is how soil is created.
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土壤是這麼產生的，
15:37
It's created from the bottom up.
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是由土裡的生物製造的，
15:38
This is how the prairies were built,
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因此才會有草原，
15:40
the relationship between bison and grasses.
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牛和牧草的關係才會因應而生。
15:43
And what I realized when I understood this --
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當我瞭解了這一層關係後，我發現─
15:46
and if you ask Joel Salatin what he is, he'll tell you he's not a chicken farmer,
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如果你問喬依．薩拉丁是扮演什麼角色，他會說他不是雞農，
15:50
he's not a sheep farmer, he's not a cattle rancher; he's a grass farmer,
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他不是牧羊人，他也不是放牧牛的人，他只是個牧草農人，
15:55
because grass is really the keystone species of such a system --
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因為牧草才是這整個體系裡最重要的一環。
15:59
is that, if you think about it, this completely contradicts the tragic idea of nature we hold in our heads,
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如果你仔細思考這件事，這完全顛覆了我們對於大自然的刻板印象，
16:08
which is that for us to get what we want, nature is diminished.
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以往我們只在乎我們得到什麼，卻不在乎大自然損失了什麼，
16:14
More for us, less for nature.
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我們給自己很多，給大自然卻很少。
16:16
Here, all this food comes off this farm, and at the end of the season
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這個農場能生產各式食物，然而在歲末時，
16:21
there is actually more soil, more fertility and more biodiversity.
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土壤卻更多更肥沃，物種更豐富多樣。
16:28
It's a remarkably hopeful thing to do.
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這是一件很值得我們去做的事，
16:31
There are a lot of farmers doing this today.
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有許多農人已經在這樣做了，
16:33
This is well beyond organic agriculture,
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這已經超越了有機農業，
16:36
which is still a Cartesian system, more or less.
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因為有機農業或多或少還是信奉笛卡兒教條。
16:39
And what it tells you is that if you begin to take account of other species,
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這種農業給我們的教訓是，如果我們開始考慮其他物種的生存，
16:45
take account of the soil, that even with nothing more than this perspectival idea
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考慮土壤的肥沃，那麼只要我們秉持這種理念，
16:52
-- because there is no technology involved here except for those fences,
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我們就能取得我們所需要的食物，並藉此復育地球生態，
16:56
which are so cheap they could be all over Africa in no time --
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因為這裡面除了圍欄之外，沒有什麼高科技的東西，
17:01
that we can take the food we need from the Earth
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推廣的成本很低，
17:05
and actually heal the Earth in the process.
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我們可以將這種農業推廣到非洲去。
17:10
This is a way to reanimate the world,
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我們可以讓地球生態恢復生機，
17:12
and that's what's so exciting about this perspective.
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這也是這觀點如此令人振奮的原因。
17:14
When we really begin to feel Darwin's insights in our bones,
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當我們打從內心服膺達爾文理論時，
17:18
the things we can do with nothing more than these ideas
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光是抱持這種觀點，就能讓我們
17:23
are something to be very hopeful about.
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做出非常有前景的事來。
17:25
Thank you very much.
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謝謝各位！
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Pollan - Environmental writerMichael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which he explains how our food not only affects our health but has far-reaching political, economic, and environmental implications. His new book is In Defense of Food.
Why you should listen
Few writers approach their subjects with the rigor, passion and perspective that's typical of Michael Pollan. Whereas most humans think we are Darwin's most accomplished species, Pollan convincingly argues that plants — even our own front lawns — have evolved to use us as much as we use them.
The author and New York Times Magazine contributor is, as Newsweek asserts, “an uncommonly graceful explainer of natural science,” for his investigative stories about food, agriculture, and the environment. His most recent book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, was named one of the top ten nonfiction titles of 2006.
As the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley, Pollan is cultivating the next generation of green reporters.
Michael Pollan | Speaker | TED.com