VOA标准英语2012--Aquaponics Could Signal Future of Food
时间：2018-12-16 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(一月)
Aquaponics Could Signal Future of Food
Imagine growing vegetables and fish in the same space. That’s the idea behind aquaponics, a marriage of fish farming and soil-less plant cultivation 1 in a single, sustainable closed system.
Supporters believe aquaponics can play a key role in alleviating 2 food insecurity, addressing the problems of climate change, ground water pollution and overfishing.
Recirculating wetlands system
Aquaponics is really as old as nature itself.
“Aquaponics is really a recirculating wetlands system, so it’s happening right on the banks of our lakes," says Sylvia Bernstein.
Bernstein was a hydroponic gardener for years - growing plants without soil using a water-soluble chemical fertilizer - before discovering she could use the waste water from fish to grow organic vegetables and fruits.
“Honestly, I was very skeptical 3 and just couldn’t believe that something as simple as fish waste could become a complete fertilizer," she recalls. "So I had to actually see a system that was in a friend’s basement. But when I did, it changed my life.”
That was three years ago. Bernstein built her first aquaponics system with her 15-year-old son on a concrete pad outside her home in Boulder 4, Colorado. In her greenhouse today, she mainly raises tilapia and trout 5 - feeding them once a day.
There are no weeds in her aquaponics garden, and she doesn’t have to worry about watering. The plants are growing in containers at a table height for easy access.
“I, just this morning, pulled four radishes and some lettuce 6 for lunch," Bernstein says. "In my greenhouse right now, I grow all sorts of herbs, tomatoes, peppers.”
Bernstein started her own business, The Aquaponics Source, with an online store, her own YouTube channel and a blog. She teaches aquaponics at the Denver Botanic Gardens and recently published a book about how to set up an aquaponic garden at home.
According to Berstein, a growing number of people in the U.S. and around the world are doing it, and enjoying the results: a year-round supply of healthful, safe and delicious food.
Earth-friendly food production
The Internet is helping 7 many aquaponic gardeners get connected and learn from one another.
“Aquaponics is a perfect thing to invest one’s mind and heart and elbow grease into," says James Godsil, co-founder of Sweet Water Organics, a commercial aquaponics farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 2010, Godsil helped set up a foundation to promote the approach.
“The Sweet Water Foundation was dedicated 8 to democratizing and globalizing the information and the methodologies required to advance this very Earth-friendly food production system, which, by the way, only uses about 10 percent of the water normal farming does, and uses no pesticides 9. It’s all natural.”
According to Godsil, those advantages have been a powerful incentive 10 for people from all walks of life who are considering a career in aquaponics.
“The Sweet Water Foundation probably has had 500 supporters, including school students, and a community of retired 11 engineers, professionals, social enterprisers, teachers and artists," Godsil says. "There are so many young elders who are retiring and looking for another career for the next 20 years.”
Beyond borders
Through collaboration 12 and joint 13 projects, Godsil is carrying the inspiration beyond U.S. borders.
“I was asked to go to Venezuela this March," he says. "And I’m working with people who have a project in Ecuador, I'm working with people in the Congo, in Uganda and Tanzania.”
A private group called the Society for Appropriate Rural Technology for Sustainability, is partnering with Sweet Water Foundation on an initiative in India.
“We’ve formed this Indo-American Aquaponics Initiative, and we aim to make aquaponics one of the fastest growing economic activities in India within a decade," says Subra Mukherjee, secretary of the group, based in Kolkata, India.
Advocates say, with fuel and fertilizer prices climbing and irrigation water supplies dwindling 14, aquaponics offers a sustainable alternative that can help feed the world’s growing population.
- The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
- The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。
- If it's alleviating pain,who knows what else it's doing? 如果它减轻了疼痛，天知道还影响什么？
- Measuring poverty is not the same as alleviating it, of course. 当然，衡量贫困和减轻贫困是截然不同的。
- Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
- Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。
- We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
- He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。
- Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
- We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。
- Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
- The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
- He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
- His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。
- vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
- There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
- He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。
- The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
- Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
- The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
- He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。