蜂蜜是個不環保的產業，對人類和蜜蜂都有害

Contrary to popular belief, cultivating honey for human consumption isn’t just a matter of letting bees “do what they do” and reaping the benefits.

與人們普遍的看法相反，取蜂蜜供人類食用其實不僅僅是蜜蜂“做自己該做的”，人類順便獲益。

Although the creation of honey is a natural process, humans extract far More honey from bees than they would otherwise create naturally. As a result, bees can suffer during all stages of industrialized honey production.

雖然蜂蜜的產生是自然過程，但人類取的蜂蜜遠超過了自然情況下蜂蜜的產量。所以蜂蜜的工業化生產的各個階段對蜜蜂都有很大影響。

Honey is created when bees suck the nectar out of a flower, regurgitate it, and process it with other bees back at the hive.

蜂蜜的加工過程是蜜蜂先把花蜜吸出來，反流，然後回到蜂巢裏和其他蜜蜂一起加工。

In their natural states, they use this honey as a food source during winter. But on honey farms, beekeepers take that honey and replace it with a cheap sugar substitute—one that’s insufficient to meet honeybees’ nutritional needs.

自然狀態下，冬季蜂蜜是蜜蜂的食物來源，但在蜂蜜農場，養蜂人會取走蜂蜜，用廉價的糖代替，但糖不能給予蜜蜂充足的營養。

As a result, honeybees die of over-exhaustion attempting to reproduce the honey that they require; others die of starvation or malnutrition, while others develop weakened immune systems and contract diseases.

所以蜜蜂在重新生產他們所需的蜂蜜時會過勞死，其他的不是餓死，就是死於營養不良，還有一些免疫力降低，被傳染。

Moreover, the negative consequences of industrial honey production extend far beyond the bees themselves. The honey industry also exacerbates an existing problem, a rather catastrophic one that has the potential to wreak havoc not only on bees, but on humanity itself.

而且蜂蜜的工業化生產不僅會對蜜蜂本身造成負面影響，蜂蜜產業現有問題也在加劇，這一災難性後果不僅對蜜蜂，而且對人類自身都會造成嚴重影響。

As environmentalists often note, worldwide bee populations are in decline. Because of the crucial ecological role that bees play in food production, this decline is nothing short of an existential threat to human beings’ long-term food supply.

環保人士常說，全球的蜜蜂總數在下降。由於蜜蜂在食物生產中起到重要生態作用，所以蜜蜂數量減少是人類長期食物供應的致命威脅。

It would be natural to assume that honey farming en masse, by cultivating and maintaining constant populations of honeybees, is part of the solution. But it’s not. In fact, it’s part of the problem.

人們很自然地會以爲蜂蜜農場集中養殖能解決這一問題，可以培育蜜蜂並保證蜜蜂的總數不變。但事實並非如此，其實這只是問題的一部分。

翻譯：菲菲