TED演讲：中美洲南部的园丁游击队员(1)

 　　I live in South Central. This is South Central: liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots. 我生活在洛杉矶南区。这就是洛杉矶南区：贩酒店、快餐店、闲置的土地。

　　So the city planners, they get together and they figure they're going to change the name South Central to make it represent something else,  因此城市的规划者他们坐在一起讨论想把洛杉矶南区这个名字改的代表点别的什么含义，

　　so they change it to South Los Angeles, like this is going to fix what's really going wrong in the city.  所以他们把它改成了南洛杉矶，好像这将要解决这个城市真正的问题似的。

　　This is South Los Angeles. Liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots. 这是南洛杉矶。贩酒店、快餐店、闲置的土地。

　　Just like 26.5 million other Americans, I live in a food desert, South Central Los Angeles, home of the drive-thru and the drive-by.  和其他两千六百五十万的美国人一样，我生活在食物的荒漠，洛杉矶南区，是得来速（快餐商业模式，顾客不用下车即可获得服务）和飞车的家园。

　　Funny thing is, the drive-thrus are killing¹ more people than the drive-bys.  有趣的是得来速比飞车杀死的人更多。

　　People are dying from curable diseases in South Central Los Angeles.  在洛杉矶南区，人们死于可治愈的疾病。

　　For instance, the obesity² rate in my neighborhood is five times higher than, say, Beverly Hills, which is probably eight, 10 miles away. 举个例子，我所住的街区的肥胖率要比相距我们10英里不到的比佛利山庄高出5倍，也许是8倍。

　　I got tired of seeing this happening.  我厌倦了这些现实。

　　And I was wondering, how would you feel if you had no access to healthy food,  同时我在考虑，如果没有途径去得到健康的食物，你的感受是什么，

　　if every time you walk out your door you see the ill effects that the present food system has on your neighborhood?  如果每次你从家里出来，看到在你的社区现有的食物系统的不良影响，你的感受是什么？

　　I see wheelchairs bought and sold like used cars.  我看到轮椅像二手汽车一样进行买卖。

　　I see dialysis centers popping up like Starbucks.  我看到透析中心像星巴克一样不断涌现。

　　And I figured, this has to stop.  我想不能再这样下去了。

　　So I figured that the problem is the solution. Food is the problem and food is the solution.  我认为答案已经藏在问题之中。食物是问题，食物也是解决方案。

　　Plus I got tired of driving 45 minutes round trip to get an apple that wasn't impregnated with pesticides³. 再加上我着实厌倦了开45分钟的来回去买个没打过杀虫剂的苹果。

　　So what I did, I planted a food forest in front of my house.  因此我做的，就是在我的房子前种上食物森林。

　　It was on a strip of land that we call a parkway.  它位于我们称为公园路的绿化带上。

　　It's 150 feet by 10 feet. Thing is, it's owned by the city. But you have to maintain it. 150英尺乘以10英尺大小。绿化带归政府所有。但是总需要有人维护它。

　　So I'm like, "Cool. I can do whatever the hell I want, since it's my responsibility and I gotta maintain it."  因此我觉得，“太好了！这是我的责任，我必须维护它，所以我想做什么就可以做什么了！”

　　This is how I decided⁴ to maintain it. 这是我为何要维护它的原因。

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

3 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。