実践ビジネス英語ディクテーション (aired 4/25,26)

こんにちは。実践ビジネス英語Talk the Talkのコーナーのディクテーションです。番組の4月後半のテーマは、‘Vertical Farming’（垂直農法）でした。
番組vignetteではシカゴとシンガポールでの垂直農法の様子が話題になりました。水耕栽培がどんどん進化しているんですね。Vertical farming で画像検索したのですが、その光景は圧巻です。栄養価やエネルギー消費など賛否が分かれるようですが、風景として面白い・・・。予測される食糧・耕地面積の不足の救世主となるでしょうか。
“Talk the Talk”では、Heatherさんが、“intriguing and a bit unsettling”と形容されているのが印象的でした。

（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

Vertical Farming

S: In our current vignette, the H&B staffers talk about vertical farming ― a practice of growing food in multi-story facilities. Advocates of vertical farming believe it can address many problems facing modern society including the world’s growing population.

H: Yes. I have to admit I didn’t know much about vertical farming before this, and it’s been an intriguing subject to look into―intriguing and a bit unsettling.
Apparently, the world’s population will increase to about 9.2 billion by the year 2050. And many experts say there could be serious shortages of food and arable land if drastic measures aren’t taken.
It reminded me of a famous science fiction film from the 1970s. The movie depicts earth in 2022 as massively overcrowded and fresh food is extremely rare and expensive.
You just hope for not heading for something like that in reality.

S: The vignette also mentions how urban-based vertical farming can benefit the environment by reducing how far produce has to be delivered.

H: Yes. Proponents say this would make agriculture more of a closed system with everything from cultivation to waste disposal taking place in the same metropolitan areas.
This would essentially eliminate the pollution created by shipping foods across long distances. I’m surprised to learn that food travels an average of 2,400 km from fields to the dinner table.
It can be much more in colder weather when produce has to be flown in from tropical locations.
Advocates say that crops could be tailored to each local community, and land that was used for horizontal farming could go back to being forests.
They say that would rejuvenate various spices, reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and create a lot of beautiful areas for tourism and recreation.

S: But the H&B staffers also touch on concerns about how the high-energy consumption of indoor vertical farms might negate the benefits of reduced shipping.

H: Right. But this is something that many vertical farms are actively working to address. They’re trying to utilize things like renewable energy systems and smart grids to cut back on the power use.
I read that one vertical farming business in America is planning to use something called an anaerobic digester. It would gather things like leftover plant roots to generate power.
And they’re hoping to eventually power the entire system with the 5,000 tons of biowaste they generate every year.

S: We also hear that things are looking up for American agribusiness, right?

H: Once again, I have to admit that I wasn’t aware of this, either. But, yes, indeed agriculture appears to be booming in America.
The department of agriculture predicted that net farm income would reach a record 128.2 billion dollars in 2013; that’s the highest level in forty years.
As a result, graduates of agricultural colleges, “aggies” as we called them at my university, are enjoying a robust job market. And enrollment at such colleges is way up.
Science and technology skills are particularly valuable. In fields such as plant sciences, companies are reportedly struggling to find all the personnel they need.

最後までお読みくださり、ありがとうございました♪