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We are hooked on meat.
我们对肉有瘾。
We chop, slice, and sink our teeth into it,
我们将它们剁碎，切片，然后将它们淹没在我们的牙缝里，
it’s rooted in our genes and culture, and globally speaking, appetites are on the rise.
这种嗜好已经根植在我们的基因和文化里，而且，从全球来看，对于吃肉，人们的胃口是越来越大了。
The average amount of meat consumed per person has nearly doubled in the past 50 years.
过去50年间，人均肉类消费量几乎翻了一番。
And this demand is putting an incredible amount of pressure on the world’s resources.
而且，这一需求已经给全球资源带来了巨大的压力。
Is there a way to feed everyone and help the planet at the same time?
有没有办法是既能养活所有人，同时又能帮助到整个地球的呢？
Scientists think they might have found something in a new supplement plucked from the ocean.
科学家们认为，他们可能在从海洋里提取的一种新的添加物上有了新的发现。
Here at UC Davis’s Beef Barn,
在加州大学戴维斯分校的菜牛牛棚里，
a team of scientists and students are mixing together molasses and a special kind of seaweed.
一群科学家和学生正在把糖蜜和一种特殊的海藻混合在一起。
They’ll sprinkle it over the cow's meals, like a nutritional boost.
之后他们会将这种混合物像撒营养补品一样撒在牛的食物里。
We're using for low dose about a quarter of a percent and our high dose is half a percent.
低剂量的配比大约是0.25%，高剂量的大约是0.5%。
It may not seem like much,
这一配比看起来似乎并不多，
but this dash of seaweed is part of a new diet that could help curb greenhouse gas emissions in cows.
但这么一丢丢的海藻其实是他们新推出的一种有助于抑制奶牛排放的温室气体含量的食谱的一部分。
Livestock are responsible for about 14 and a half percent of the greenhouse gas emissions.
牲畜排放的温室气体约占地球上温室气体排放总量的14.5%。
And cattle are far and away the biggest contributors.
牛无疑是这一比例最大的贡献者。
Usually when you hear about methane from cattle,
一般情况下，当你听说牛排放甲烷的时候，
you think about cow farts and it's actually the complete opposite.
你想到的可能是牛屁，然而，事实恰恰相反。
Methane from cattle mostly comes from the burps.
牛排放的甲烷主要是打嗝的时候排出来的。
But methane does not stay too long in the atmosphere, it actually gets destroyed in about ten to twelve years.
但是，甲烷并不会在大气中停留太久，大约10~12年内就会被分解掉。
However, it does have a global warming potential
尽管如此，它还是具有导致全球变暖的可能，
and traps heat within our atmosphere at about 28 times greater than carbon dioxide.
而且，甲烷促使热量囿于大气层内的能力是二氧化碳的28倍。
But the world’s 1.5 billion cows really can’t help themselves, it’s in their biology.
问题是，世界各地的15亿头牛真的是没办法啊，毕竟是生理需求嘛。
A majority of the methane that comes from the animal itself is actually through enteric fermentation.
动物本身产生的甲烷气体大部分都是肠道内部的发酵反应产生的。
There’s microbial populations within their stomach
它们的胃里有很多微生物群，
and these microbial populations are actually degrading the feed and producing byproducts
这些微生物群会分解饲料，同时带来一些副产品，
that the cows either absorb into nutrients, or other microbes actually ingest them and create other byproducts.
这些副产品要么会被牛自身当作营养物质吸收，要么别其他微生物吸收，同时带来其他的附产品。
Methane is one of these byproducts.
而甲烷就属于这种类型的附产品。
Greenhouse gas emissions are very much related to the quality of diet,
温室气体排放与饮食的质量有着密切的关系，
the more forage, the more fiber, you get proportionately more methane emissions.
草料越多，纤维越多，相应的甲烷排放量也就越多。
And that’s why this seaweed, Asparagopsis, is so intriguing to an international community of scientists.
这就是为什么天冬酰胺这种海藻如此吸引一群国际科学家的原因。
It was first found in Australia.
最初是澳大利亚发现了这种海藻的这一作用。
Some of this Asparagopsis was introduced into a Petri dish with the bacteria from the cow guts.
他们将一些天冬酰胺导入到了含有牛内脏细菌的培养皿中。
They could actually prevent methane from being produced.
这些天冬酰胺可以阻止甲烷的产生。
It struck me that this is something that could also work quite well in real animals.
我灵光一闪，感觉这一反应在动物体内应该也能很好地发挥作用。
Asparagopsis has an active ingredient called bromoform.
天冬酰胺里有一种名为“溴仿”的活性成分。
It basically acts as an inhibitor to an enzyme that's required by the microbes to convert hydrogen into methane.
溴仿大致就是微生物将氢转化为甲烷所需酶的一种抑制剂。
It disrupts that process so that methane is not formed.
它会破坏这个过程，甲烷就无法生成了。
Once the cows finish their dinner,
牛群吃完它们的晚餐之后，
the team will calculate their emissions to see if the seaweed is doing the trick.
研究小组就会计算它们的甲烷排放量，看看海藻是否起到了作用。
We use a machine called green feed.
我们用了一种叫作“绿色饲料”的机器。
When an animal walks in it reads their ear tag, it drops down feed, and they get to stay there and eat feed.
牛走进去之后，机器就会读它们的耳标，然后倒相应量的饲料，牛就可以呆在那里吃饲料了。
Usually they barrel in there, but these young steers were a bit camera shy.
通常，它们都是会朝饲料冲过去的，但这些小家伙们面对镜头便有些不好意思了。
The machine will take their sample of the breath and will then automatically analyze it.
机器会采集他们呼吸的样本，并进行自动分析。
You can actually monitor it in real time.
我们是可以进行实时监控的。
And their first study with dairy cows netted some promising results.
他们对奶牛的首次研究就取得了一些颇有前景的结果。
What we saw was a reduction of up to 60 percent when we feed 1 percent of seaweed to the cows.
我们看到的是，当我们给奶牛喂了配比为1%的海藻后，甲烷的排放量就减少了60%。
What we've seen so far is the amount of methane that can be reduced is proportional to the amount of bromoform that the seaweed contains.
到目前为止，我们看到的是，甲烷排放量的减少是与海藻中溴仿的含量成正比的。
