联合国粮农组织官员主题演讲 - Translated by Marianne Wang

Engineering Contributions to Global Food Security and Safety工程技术对全球食品保证和安全的贡献

Gavin Wall
Chief, Agricultural and Food Engineering Technologies Service,
Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations

Gavin Wall
联合国粮食及农业组织农业和食品工程技术部主任
Introduction介绍
This paper explores the role of engineering in meeting the challenge of global food security and safety. It begins by describing the current food security situation and highlights the continuing nature of the problem of hunger and poverty for over 842 million people in the world. The background to the issues related to food safety is briefly introduced and placed in the context of world trade with particular reference to developing countries. The role that engineering might play in increasing food production in situations where food deficits exist is acknowledged. Then, in an attempt to broaden dialogue, the paper adopts a focus on wealth creation and uses a number of simple economic indices to elucidate the role of engineering.
本文对工程技术在全球食品保证和安全领域的作用进行了探究。文章的开头描述了目前的食品保证现状，强调了世界上超过八亿四千二百万人口所面临的持续性饥饿和贫困问题。介绍了有关食品安全问题的背景，并将这一背景放在了世界贸易、尤其是发展中国家世界贸易的大环境下考察。本文肯定了工程技术在增加粮食匮乏地区粮食产量方面的潜在作用。然后，为了拓宽对话，本文聚焦于财富的创造，并运用了一系列简单的经济指数以阐明工程技术的作用。
Global Food and Nutrition Status全球食品和营养现状
Current Situation当前局势
Based on 1999-2001 data, the number of undernourished persons in the world was estimated to be 842 million - of which 10 million are in the industrialized countries, 34 million in transition countries and 798 million in the developing world. Comparing this last figure to 817 million undernourished persons in developing countries in 1990-92, the World Food Summit (WFS) benchmark period, reveals a decrease of barely 2.1 million per annum over the 9 years, far below the diminution of 22 million a year required to achieve the WFS goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015. 根据1999年至2001年的数据，全世界营养不足人口估计为八亿四千二百万人，其中大约一千万人来自工业化国家，三千四百万来自转型国家，七亿九千八百万来自发展中国家。而在世界粮食首脑会议确定的基准期间，即1990年到1992年间，发展中国家中营养不足的人数是八亿一千七百万。比较这两个数字我们会发现，9年中每年下降人数仅仅为二百一十万，这远远低于达到世界粮食首脑会议的目标（即到2015年将饥饿人口的数字减少一半）所要求的每年减少两千两百万的标准。
With the slow pace of progress achieved since 1990-1992, prospects for reaching the WFS goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 appears increasingly remote. Closer analysis reveals that these numbers mask an even more alarming trend. If the nine year period is divided in half, figures for the developing countries as a whole indicate that the number of undernourished people has actually increased by 4.5 million per year during the sub-period from 1995-1997 to 1999-2001. Data from individual countries show that only 19 countries succeeded in reducing the number of undernourished in both sub-periods (FAO 2003). In these successful countries, the total number of hungry people fell by over 80 million over the full nine year period. At the other end of the scale are 26 countries where the number of undernourished increased in both sub-periods. In most of these countries, the prevalence of under nourishment was already high (greater than 20 percent) in 1990-1992. Over the next nine years, the number of hungry people in these countries increased by almost 60 million. 从1990－92年至今，我们仅仅取得了缓慢的进展，世界粮食首脑会议的目标，即到2015年将饥饿人口的数字减少一半，离我们似乎越来越遥远。近期的分析显示，这些数字隐藏着一个更加令人担忧的趋势。如果将九年时间一分为二，我们会发现，在1995-1997和1999-2001这两个时间段内，发展中国家的营养不足人口总数竟然每年增加四百五十万。来自各个国家的数据显示，只有19个国家在这两个时间段内都成功地降低了营养不足人数（联合国粮农组织2003）。九年之中，这19个国家的饥饿人口总数减少了八千万。另一方面，26个国家的营养不足人口数字在这两个时间段内都有所增加。这26个国家中的大多数在1990－92年间营养不足状况就已经非常普遍（超过20%）。在其后九年中，这些国家的饥饿人口几乎增加了六千万。
Twenty two countries, including Bangladesh, Haiti and Mozambique, succeeded in turning the tide against hunger, at least temporarily (FAO 2003). In these countries, the number of undernourished declined during the second half of the decade after rising through the first five years. In seventeen other countries, however, the trend shifted in the opposite direction and the number of undernourished people, which had begun falling, began to rise. This group includes a number of countries with large populations, among them India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan. At the same time progress slowed in many of the countries that had scored dramatic gains during the first five year period, including China. With reversals in many large countries and progress slowing in others, the pattern of change in the developing countries as a whole shifted from a declining to a rising trend. Between 1995-1997 and 1999-2001, the number of hungry people in the developing countries increased by 18 million, wiping out almost half the decrease achieved during the previous five years. 孟加拉、海地和莫桑比克等二十二个国家在与饥饿的战斗中取得了胜利，至少是暂时的胜利（联合国粮农组织2003）。最近十年的头五年里，这些国家的营养不足人口有所上升，但是在后五年里开始下降。但是，其它十七个国家的情况刚好相反，本来已经开始下降的营养不足人口数字又开始上涨。这十七个国家当中有些是人口大国，包括印度、印度尼西亚、尼日利亚、巴基斯坦和苏丹。同时，有一些在头五年中取得惊人成绩的国家，近年来的进步变得缓慢，这其中就包括中国。由于一些大国的退步和其它国家的缓慢进展，发展中国家饥饿人口的整体变化趋势从下降变为上升。在1995-1997和1999-2001两个时间段内，发展中国家的饥饿人口增加了一千八百万，头五年中所实现的下降的一半都化为乌有。
The global situation is further aggravated by the increasing hunger in the countries in transition, that is, those countries affected by the break up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Overall, the number of undernourished people in the countries in transition grew from 25 to 34 million between 1993-1995 and 1999-2001. Nearly all of the increases in under-nourishment took place in the Commonwealth of Independent States. 转型国家（即受到苏联和南斯拉夫解体影响的国家）中饥饿人口的增加进一步导致全球趋势的恶化。从整体上讲，转型国家中营养不足人口从1993-1995年间的二千五百万，增加到1999-2001年间的三千四百万。营养不足人口数字的所有增长几乎都发生在独联体国家。
Analysing the Keys to Progress and Reversals in Reducing Hunger进步和倒退的主要原因分析
Preliminary analysis of the data available to FAO suggests a number of factors that may have contributed to success in some countries and setbacks in others. It was found that a combination of six indicators proved most successful at differentiating among countries grouped according to their performance between 1990-1992 and 1999-2001 (FAO 2003). These indicators include population growth, GDP growth per capita, health expenditure as a proportion of GDP, the proportion of adults infected with HIV, the number of food emergencies and the UNDP’s Human Development Index (itself a composite of many economic and social indicators). 对联合国粮农组织所掌握的数据进行初步分析，我们发现，一系列因素导致了一些国家的成功和另一些国家的失败。分析发现，有六个指标对1990-1992和1999-2001年间不同国家的不同表现影响最大（联合国粮农组织2003）。这些指标包括人口增长，人均GDP增长，与GDP成比例的医疗费用的增长，成年人感染HIV的比例，粮食饥荒次数，以及联合国开发计划署人类发展指数（该指数本身就是很多经济和社会指标的组成部分）。
In countries that succeeded in reducing hunger throughout the nine-year period, GDP per capita grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent – more than five times higher than the rate in countries where under-nourishment increased in both sub-periods (0.5 percent). The most successful countries also exhibited more rapid agricultural growth (3.3 percent per year compared to only 1.4 percent for the countries where hunger increased throughout the decade), lower rates of HIV infection, slower population growth and far fewer food emergencies. 在九年来饥饿人口持续减少的国家里，人均GDP以每年2.6个百分点的速度增长――这一数字比两个时间段内营养不良比率均持续上升国家的人均GDP增长率（0.5 个百分点）高出五倍多。对抗饥饿最为成功的国家也显示了较高的农业增长率（每年3.3个百分点，而十年之中饥饿人口持续增长的国家只有1.4个百分点），较低的HIV感染率，较缓慢的人口增长，和较少的粮食饥荒。
The vast majority of the world’s hungry live in rural areas of the developing world far from the levers of power and influence in capital cities. Furthermore, they often occupy resource poor regions subject to drought and other natural disasters. To this must be added the human induced emergencies. In several countries civil strife has disrupted food production and access to food; falling international commodity prices have triggered food crises in countries that depend heavily on agricultural exports. 世界饥饿人口绝大多数居住在发展中国家远离城市中心的农村地区。而且，他们居住的地区往往缺乏资源，并常常遭受干旱和其它自然灾害的侵袭。除此以外还有人类自己引发的灾害。在好几个国家中，社会动荡打乱了粮食生产，让人缺衣少食；持续下降的国际商品价格在强烈依赖农业出口的国家里引发了粮食危机。
Hunger and poverty are closely linked. While the lack of sufficient income to purchase food is clearly a major factor causing household food insecurity, hunger itself contributes to poverty by lowering labour productivity, reducing resistance to disease and depressing educational achievements. In discussing the contribution of agricultural growth to poverty alleviation Dixon et al, 2001, comment: 饥饿和贫困总是紧密相连。没有足够收入购买食品，是导致家庭食品匮乏的主要因素。而饥饿本身又通过降低劳动生产率、降低人们对疾病的抵抗力、压抑教育成就，而进一步导致了贫困。2001年，Dixon等人在讨论农业增长在消除贫困方面的影响时，曾经做了如下阐述：
“The evidence is quite clear that broad-based agricultural development provides an effective means for both reducing poverty and accelerating economic growth. This is normally achieved not only by increasing incomes for producers and farm workers, but also by creating demand for non-tradable goods – namely services and local products. It is this indirect effect on demand, and the associated employment creation in the off-farm sector of rural areas and market towns, that appears to be the main contributing factor to the reduction of rural poverty. Furthermore, as other studies show , agricultural growth can reduce urban poverty more rapidly than does urban growth itself, largely because of the consequent reduction in urban food costs and lower rates of in-migration from rural areas. Mellor concludes that ...the evidence is overwhelming that it is essential to accelerate agricultural growth if poverty is to decline rapidly. “有充分证据表明，广义的农业发展有效地减少了贫困，并加速了经济增长，因为农业的发展不仅仅增加了生产者和农民的收入，还创造了人们对非贸易性物品即服务和地方产品的需求。正是这种对需求的间接作用，以及农村地区和集市城镇中非农业领域就业机会的出现，对农村贫困的减少起到了主导作用。而且，其它研究也表明 ，农业发展能够比城市发展更快地减少城市贫困，这很大程度上是因为农业发展能够降低城市的食品成本，减少农村人口向城市的迁移。Mellor的结论是……大量证据表明，如果要迅速减少贫困，关键要加速农业发展。”
Stern, 2001, identified two key headings as the critical foundations for successful poverty reduction, namely, creating an investment climate conducive to rural growth, and empowering the poor to share in the benefits of the growth. Building on these concepts, the World Bank has adopted five strategic objectives in rural poverty reduction (World Bank 2002), which are geared to accelerate broad-based rural growth by: Stern于2001年发现了成功减少贫困的两个关键基础，即创造有利于农村发展的投资气候，和帮助贫困人口分享发展所带来的利益。基于这两个概念，世界银行在减少农村贫困方面制定了五项战略性目标（世界银行2002），以加速广义的农村发展。这五项战略性目标是：
· fostering an enabling environment for broad-based and sustainable rural growth; 为广义的农村可持续性发展创造有利环境；
· enhancing agricultural productivity and competitiveness; 增强农业生产率和竞争力；
· encouraging non-farm economic growth; 鼓励非农业经济的发展；
· improving social well-being, managing and mitigating risk, and reducing vulnerability; and改善社会福利，控制并降低风险，提高抵抗力；
· enhancing sustainability of natural resource management. 提高自然资源管理的可持续性。
The foregoing emphasises the key role of economic growth in reducing hunger and poverty, particularly growth in agriculture and in rural economies. It also stresses the importance of the social well-being and the capacity of the communities to capture the benefits of economic growth. 上述内容强调了经济增长－尤其是农业和农村经济的增长－在减少饥饿和贫困方面的作用，还强调了社会福利的重要性，以及社区分享经济增长利益的能力的重要性。
Food Safety食品安全
Expanding global trade in perishable agricultural products and high-value foods has served to highlight the extent to which national standards for food safety and animal and plant health diverge, as well as the different capacities of public authorities and commercial supply chains to manage the potential risks associated with trade in these products. For many higher-value foods, including fruit and vegetables, fish, beef, poultry and herbs and spices, the challenges of international competitiveness have moved well beyond price and basic quality parameters to greater emphasis on food safety and agricultural concerns . Across this range of products there is increasing attention to the risks associated, for example, with microbial pathogens, residues from pesticides, veterinary medicines or other agricultural inputs and environmental or naturally-occurring toxins. In turn, there is greater scrutiny of the production or processing techniques employed along these supply chains. 易腐农业食品和高价值食品的全球贸易的扩大，突出了食品安全和动植物健康方面的相关国家标准的差别，以及不同政府当局和商业供应链控制此类贸易风险的能力的差异。包括水果和蔬菜、鱼类、牛肉、禽类和香料等众多高价值食品的国际竞争，已经超越了价格和基本质量参数，而更加注重食品安全和农业问题 。人们对这类产品的相关风险更加重视，比如，微生物病原体、农药残留、兽药、其它农业制剂、以及环境所致或自然产生的毒性。反过来，这些供应链也对其本身所使用的生产和加工技术更为谨慎。
There are various reasons why food safety, public health and agricultural health standards, commonly referred to as sanitary and phytosanitory (SPS) measures within the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), differ between countries. First, there are significant differences in tastes, diets, income levels and perceptions that influence the tolerance of populations toward these risks. Differences in climate and in the available technology (from refrigeration to irradiation) affect the incidence of different food safety and agricultural health hazards. Standards reflect the feasibility of implementation, which by itself is influenced by legal and industry structures as well as available technical, scientific, administrative and financial resources. Some food safety risks, for example, tend to be greater in developing countries due to weaknesses in physical infrastructure (for example standards of sanitation and access to potable water) and higher incidence of certain infectious diseases. Further, tropical or sub-tropical climatic conditions may be more conducive to the spread of certain pests and diseases that pose risks to human, animal and/or plant health. 世界贸易组织（WTO）一般将食品安全、公共卫生和农业卫生标准统称为卫生与植物检疫措施（SPS）。不同国家往往有不同的卫生与植物检疫措施。首先，不同国家的人口味、饮食习惯、收入水平和观念大不相同，这些因素影响了人们对这些风险的忍耐程度。气候和现有技术（从冷冻技术到辐射技术）的不同也影响到食品安全和农业卫生危害的范围。标准反映了实施的可行性，而标准的实施也受到法律和产业结构的影响，以及现有科技资源、行政资源和财政资源的影响。比如，由于物质基础设施（比如卫生标准和饮用水供应状况）的薄弱和某些传染性疾病的蔓延，发展中国家的某些食品安全风险往往更高。而且，某些害虫和疾病更易在热带和亚热带气候条件下蔓延，这也对人类、动物和/或植物卫生构成了威胁。
The intrinsic risks associated with the production, transformation and sale of high-value and perishable food products, combined with different standards and institutional capabilities, can pose major challenges for international trade in these products. This is even more so because the landscape for food safety and agricultural health standards is rapidly changing. Over the past decade there has been greatly increased public awareness and concern about food safety within high-income developed countries in the wake of a series of highly publicised food scares or scandals . In some countries, these events have shaken the underlying confidence of consumers in national or regional systems of food safety regulation. In response, there have been significant institutional changes in food safety oversight and reform of pertinent laws and regulations. For long-held concerns such as pesticide residues, there has been a tightening of many standards in industrialised and other countries. In addition new standards are being applied to address previously unknown or unregulated hazards. 与高价值和易腐食品的生产、加工和销售相关的内在风险，不同的标准，以及不同的制度，对这些产品的国际贸易构成了极大挑战。同时，食品安全和农业卫生标准的迅速变化使这一问题更加严重。在过去的十年里，由于一系列震惊世界的食品恐慌和丑闻，食品安全问题引起了发达国家中高收入人群的极度重视 。在有些国家里，这些事件动摇了国家或地区食品安全规则体系中的消费者的信心，食品安全规则和相关法律法规因此得到了重大修改。工业化国家和其它国家对一直让人担心的农药残留等问题实施了更为严格的标准，并对此前从未引起注意的问题或尚未规范的危害问题制定了新标准.
In parallel with these changes in official standards and public oversight, have accelerated moves by the private sector to address food safety risks and otherwise address the concerns and preferences of consumers and civil society organisations. Much of the motivation behind this trend has been the mitigation of risks to reputation and/or commercial risks, while in some product lines and industries these moves have also been part of commercial strategies of differentiation. The ensuing result has been a growing plethora of private codes of practice’, standards and other forms of supply chain governance. While these efforts have been especially prominent amongst major food retailers, food manufacturers and restaurant chains in industrialised countries, systems of private food safety governance are also being applied more widely in middle-income and some low-income countries, in part through the investments undertaken by multinational supermarket or restaurant chains and competitive responses by local firms. In addition, new food safety standards in industrialised countries are serving to shape the expectations of developing country consumers, especially those with higher incomes in urban areas. 与此同时，私营经济成分也在加速解决食品安全风险问题，并对消费者和民间社会组织的担心和偏好做出了回应。很多机构这样做的目的，是为了保护其名誉并/或降低商业风险，但是，另一些产品系列和产业的这种做法实际是其差别化商业战略的一部分。这种行为导致的结果，是越来越多的过剩的企业内部实务规范、标准和其它形式的供应链监管。这种自发的食品安全监管现象不仅在工业化国家的主要食品零售商、食品制造商和连锁餐馆中非常突出，而且在中等收入国家甚至一些低收入国家中也越来越普遍。造成这种现象的原因，部分是由于跨国超市和连锁餐馆所进行的投资，以及当地企业为了与之竞争所采取的回应。而且，工业化国家所实施的食品安全新标准，也影响了发展中国家消费者的期待值，尤其是城市地区高收入人群的期待值。
The proliferation and enhanced stringency of food safety and agricultural health standards is a matter of concern to developing countries who perceive that the measures may be used as protectionist tools. There is also concern that the combined effects of institutional weaknesses and rising compliance costs further marginalise the weaker economic players at all levels (small-holder farmers, SME’s and poor countries). 食品安全和农业卫生标准的普及和日益严格引起了发展中国家的担心，因为这些标准有可能被保护贸易主义者利用。他们还担心，机构的薄弱和遵守这些标准所要求的越来越高昂的成本，将使得各个级别中的弱小玩家（小自耕农、中小型企业和贫困国家）被进一步边缘化。
An alternative view emphasises the likelihood that some countries can utilise such opportunities to their competitive advantage. That is, countries can overturn a lack of comparative advantage in natural resources required for production through development of recognised food safety and agricultural health standards such that their products are accepted or preferred, where other countries’ products are not. 另一种观点强调，一些国家可以利用这些机会加强其竞争优势。也就是说，通过公认的食品安全和农业标准的发展，一些不具备生产所需自然资源的国家可以改变其相对劣势，从而使得人们接收并优先选择自己国家的产品。