By Deborah Koons Garcia

不管是小麦、大米，还是藜麦、小米；不管是自家煮，叫外卖，还是下馆子，吃饱才是硬道理。可让人人都吃饱并不容易。根据World Hunger组织的数字，在2010年，全球有九亿两千多万的人吃不饱饭，相当于世界人口的13.6%。科学家挠破头皮，想尽各种办法以解决这个问题。要相信科学哦，办法总会有的。

Over recent years， the warnings have been growing louder and more urgent. Food scarcity is an issue that no one can ignore. With food demands predicted to double over the next four decades， as world population rises， and diets change， conventional farming methods will struggle to keep pace. If harvests stay at their present levels， then， by 2050， we will need new agricultural land the size of Brazil to produce enough food to feed the world. So， if an increasingly industrialized form of agriculture is not going to feed the worlds growing population， what is？

In the U.S.， Professor Dickson Despommier believes his multi-story vertical farms could not only grow everything we need， but do it in the urban areas where most people live.

Dickson： The idea of a vertical farm is quite simple actually. It means simply to take existing greenhouses， and instead of making them flat and spread out all over the place， stack them on top of each other and turn them into a building， maybe 5， 10 or 15 stories tall. An outdoor farm of 10 acres of tomatoes is equivalent to one indoor acre of tomatoes. Because there are no crop failures due to weather events， and you can grow them year round. So that means you can actually feed as many people with a single acre indoors as you can with 10 acres of outdoor land. Vertical farming doesnt necessarily mean just plants， because we dont eat just plants. We eat various animals too. Its possible to connect plants to animals indoors， in separate facilities but connected together， so that I can now have an ecosystem in a building. And I think， in 10 years from now， this idea， although crude at the moment， will be refined enough so that almost every city that you go to will have a project on vertical farming.

Despomiers vertical farm is still only a computer graphic， but the different farming technologies that could make it a reality already exist.

In the UK， a project linking fish and plant production is already underway. Its called “aquaponics，” and Charlie Price is the man behind it.

Charlie： Aquaponics is the 1）integration of 2）aquaculture， or growing fish， with 3）hydroponics， which is growing plants without soil in water. In an aquaponics system， effectively， waste products from fish provide a nutrient source for plants and plants act as a filter for the fish. Then we take the off-cuts of the plants， produce worms in 4）wormeries to feed the fish， so its a constant recirculating loop.

This is what you could call a “virtuous cycle，” and it uses surprisingly little water.

Charlie： The water thats here stays here and gets recirculated through the system. Any small losses that we have through evaporation will get topped-up through rainwater harvesting， so aquaponics provides a really good solution for areas where water scarcitys an issue.

近年来，关于粮食短缺的警告之声日渐响亮，也日渐紧迫。粮食短缺的危机已经到了不容忽视的境地。随着人口上涨，膳食习惯改变，预计人类的粮食需求在未来的40年里会增加一倍。传统的农耕方法已经无法跟上形势的变化。若粮食产量维持在现有水平不变，那么到了2050年，人类就需要新增面积相当于巴西领土般大小的耕地，才能生产出足够的粮食，满足全球的需求。那么，要是日趋工业化的农耕方法也追不上人口增长的需求，还有什么方法呢？

美国的迪克森·德斯波米亚教授认为，垂直的多层农场不仅让我们要什么有什么，还可将其设在居民集中的市区内。迪克森：垂直农场的概念其实很简单，就是利用现有温室的概念，但不是把它平摊开来，而是变成层层叠叠的一栋楼，楼高五层、十层或十五层。这样，在户外十亩地种的番茄，转入室内只要一亩地就够了，加上不怕天气变化带来的失收，我们可以全年栽种。室内一亩地的产出可与户外十亩地相媲美。垂直农场还不限于植物，因为我们不光吃作物，还吃禽畜。动、植物可以共用温室，既各有专区，又互相关联，这样，一栋楼内就是一个生态系统。垂直农场现在只是一个粗略的概念，但相信在未来十年内经过改良，几乎所有城市都会有垂直农耕计划。

迪克森的垂直农场暂时还只是纸上谈兵，但另一种能把这个设想变成现实的农耕技术业已存在。

英国正研究如何把养鱼与种植结合起来，这种新方法名为“复合水培”，其创始人是查尔斯·普赖斯。

查尔斯：复合水培把水产养殖与无土的水栽培技术结合起来。在复合水培系统内，鱼的排泄物变成植物的养分，植物则为鱼过滤水质，再把从植物上修剪下来的无用枝叶送入饲虫箱，养虫喂鱼，环环相扣，循环不息。

这可谓是良性循环，耗用的水也出奇地少。

查尔斯：里面的水不会流失，会循环再用，而蒸发流失的少量水分则可透过收集雨水进行补充，所以复合水培最适合在缺水地区进行。栏目

翻译：T Boy

基塘农业

文章中提到的复合水培技术让人想到中国南方独有的基塘农业。基塘农业是珠江三角洲人民根据当地的自然条件，创造的一种独特的农业生产方式。基塘农业利用生物链良性循环的道理，把涝地挖成池塘，堆泥成基，在鱼塘的塘基上种桑、种蔗、种果树等，用鱼的排泄物做桑树、甘蔗、果树的肥料，基塘互相促进，使鱼和桑、甘蔗、果兼得，有利于渔业和副业的发展。这种与鱼塘结合的特殊生产方式被称为“三基鱼塘”，即桑基鱼塘、蔗基鱼塘、果基鱼塘。