一位美国农业高级官员警告说，除非各国立即采取措施，大幅提高农业生产率、粮食产量，减少饥饿，否则世界可能面临新的社会不稳定。
In an interview with the Financial Times, Tom Vilsack, US secretary of agriculture, indicated that food security and global stability were tied, in a sign that Washington‘s worries about the global food crisis go well beyond its humanitarian implications.
在接受英国采访时，美国农业部长汤姆威尔萨克(Tom Vilsack)表示，粮食安全与全球稳定是相互联系的。他的说法表明，美国政府对全球粮食危机的担心，远远超出人道主义影响范畴。
“This is not just about food security, this is about national security, it is about environmental security,” he said on the sidelines of the first meeting of the Group of Eight ministers of agriculture. Although the US has in the past talked about the links, Barack Obama, US president, and his team have made it a priority, officials said.
“它不仅涉及粮食安全，还涉及国家安全、环境安全，”他在八国集团首次农业部长会议期间说。官员们表示，尽管美国过去也曾谈到这种联系，但美国总统奥巴马和他的团队已将其列为优先事项。
Last year‘s spike in food prices caused riots in about 30 countries, from Haiti to Bangladesh. Leading agricultural commodity exporters, including India and Argentina, imposed bans on overseas sales of food products. “I can figure out there are only three things that could happen if people do not have food: people could riot, that they have done, people migrate to places where there is food, which creates additional challenges, or people die,” said Mr Vilsack.
去年粮食价格的上涨，在从海地到孟加拉国的大约30个国家引发了骚乱。包括印度和阿根廷在内，主要的农业大宗商品出口国禁止了食品的海外销售。“我可以想象，如果人们没有食物，只会有三种情况发生：一是人们可能闹事，他们已经这样做了；二是人们迁移到有粮食的地方，从而带来新的挑战；第三就是饿死，”威尔萨克说。
The G8 meeting, which ends today,is expected to release a communiqué highlighting a political consensus to raise global food output and investment in developing countries.
今天结束的八国集团会议预计将发表一份公报，强调提高全球粮食产量、在发展中国家投资的政治共识。
A draft of the communiqué said the world was “very far from reaching” the United Nations‘ goal of halving the number of people facing chronic hunger by 2015, in the clearest admission yet by leading countries of the failure. This came after the group reviewed what it called “alarming data” on malnourishment. The UN told ministers that for the first time more than 1bn people went hungry every day and that this was set to rise this year due because of persistently high food prices and the economic crisis.
公报草案说，当今世界“远未达到”联合国有关到2015年减少一半长期饥饿人口的目标。这是主要发达国家迄今最明确地承认这一失败。此前，农业部长会议审议了“令人震惊的”营养不良数据。联合国对部长们表示，全球首次有超过10亿人每天都在挨饿，而且由于食品价格持续高企和经济危机，这一数字今年将继续增加。
Despite Mr Vilsack‘s comments, the communique is not expected to produce any concrete measures or financial initiatives to resolve in the short-term the problems he highlighted
尽管威尔萨克发表了上述评论，但预计公报不会宣布任何具体的措施，也不会有短期的财务激励手段来解决他指出的问题。
The charity Oxfam called the meeting “another nail in the coffin of the goal to reduce world hunger”.
慈善组织乐施会(Oxfam)把这次会议称为“在减少世界饥饿这一目标的棺材上钉上又一个钉子”。
转载请注明出处。
相关推荐