About a year ago, I asked myself a question: "Knowing what I know, why am I not a vegetarian?" After all, I'm one of the green guys. I grew up with hippie parents in a log cabin. I started a site called Treehugger. I care about this stuff. I knew that eating a mere hamburger a day can increase my risk of dying by a third. Cruelty, I knew that the 10 billion animals we raise each year for meat, are raised in factory farm conditions that we, hypocritically, wouldn't even consider for our own cats, dogs and other pets. Environmentally, meat, amazingly, causes more emissions than all of transportation combined, cars, trains, planes, buses, boats, all of it. And beef production uses 100 times the water that most vegetables do.
大约在一年以前， 我问自己一个问题：“既然我知道这麽多环保概念， 我为什麽不吃素？” 毕竟，我可是支持绿能生活的人。 我的父母是嬉皮，我从小在木造的小屋里长大， 我架设了一个“拥抱树木(Treehugger)”的网站， 我关心这一类议题。 我知道，就算一天只吃一个汉堡， 也会让我增加三分之一的死亡机率。 残忍的事实是，我知道 人类每年饲养 100亿只动物做为食物， 他们居住在类似工厂的农场里， 我们绝对不会把我们的狗、 猫或其他宠物饲养在那种环境里。 对环境来说， 动物所排放的气体 比所有交通工具加起来还要多， 包括车子、火车、飞机、公车和船等。 生产牛肉所需要耗用的水量， 要比一般植物所需用水高上100倍。
I also knew that I'm not alone. We as a society are eating twice as much meat as we did in the 50s. So what was once the special, little side treat, now is the main, much more regular. So really, any of these angles should have been enough to go vegetarian. Yet, there I was, chk, chk, chk, tucking into a big, old steak.
我知道我不是唯一吃肉的人， 现在的人 吃肉的份量， 是50年代的二倍。 以前视为很珍贵、只能提供一小盘的食物， 现在变成了主食，而且几乎是每天的主食。 说真的，这麽多分析 都在告诉我们该改变自己成为素食者， 但是，我还在嗑..嗑..嗑.. 往嘴里塞进一份大牛排。
So why was I stalling? I realized that what I was being pitched was a binary solution. It was either you're a meat eater, or you're a vegetarian. And I guess I just wasn't quite ready. Imagine your last hamburger. (Laughter) So my common sense, my good intentions, were in conflict with my taste buds. And I'd commit to doing it later. And not surprisingly, later never came. Sound familiar?
我为什麽迟迟无法决定？ 我发现我面对的是 一个二极的选择， 要不做一个肉食主义者， 要不然就做个素食主义者。 但我觉得我还没有准备好。 想想看你最近一次吃的那份汉堡。 (笑声) 所以我的理智、 我的良心 都在和我的味蕾战斗， 所以我决定“以后”再吃素， 你也知道，“以后”就表示“永远不会”， 对吧？
So I wondered, might there be a third solution? And I thought about it. And I came up with one. And I've been doing it for the last year, and it's great. It's called weekday veg. The name says it all. Nothing with a face Monday through Friday. On the weekend, your choice. Simple. If you want to take it to the next level, remember, the major culprits, in terms of environmental damage and health, are red and processed meats. So you want to swap those out with some good, sustainably harvested fish. It's structured, so it ends up being simple to remember. And it's okay to break it here and there. After all, cutting five days a week is cutting 70 percent of your meat intake.
所以我在想，有没有第三种选择？ 我深入思考之后，让我想到了一个方法， 我从去年就已经开始这麽做了，我觉得还不赖。 我把它叫做“上班日吃素”， 从名字就可以知道它的意思。 星期一到星期五不吃肉， 周末的时间自己决定。 很简单吧！ 如果你想要再更进一步， 请记得 对环境及健康破坏最深的 就是红肉和加工肉品， 你可以用品质良好、 人工饲养的鱼类来替代。 这样做下来， 既简单又好记。 你可以在周末的时候放松一下， 反正每周有五天不吃肉， 就可以减少百分之七十的肉类摄取。
The program has been great, weekday veg. My footprint's smaller I'm lessening pollution. I feel better about the animals. I'm even saving money. Best of all, I'm healthier, I know that I'm going to live longer, and I've even lost a little weight.
“上班日吃素”这个方法还不错， 我的脚步变轻盈了、 我减少了污染、 我觉得对得起动物、 还省了一些钱， 最好的是，我变得更健康了， 我知道我会活得更长寿， 而且还减少了一些体重。
So please, ask yourselves, for your health, for your pocketbook, for the environment, for the animals, what's stopping you from giving weekday veg a shot? After all, if all of us ate half as much meat, it would be like half of us were vegetarians.
所以，问问自己， 为了你的健康、 你的钱包、 环境、动物等着想， 你还有什麽理由不试一下“上班日吃素”？ 毕竟，如果我们所有人 都能减少一半的肉类摄取量， 就好像有一半的人 在吃素一样。
Thank you.
谢谢！
Notes:
taste buds: 味蕾