In fact, pretty much everything we consume has hidden costs associated with it, especially the meat, dairy, and eggs that make up a quarter of the American diet.

事實上，我們消費的幾乎所有東西都附帶了隱藏成本，特別是占美國人飲食四分之一的肉類、乳製品和蛋。

To start, there's the cost of raising the animals which the government helps cover by offering crop insurance, cheap water, low-interest loans, and insanely low fees for grazing on public lands.

首先，政府負擔了相當多飼養動物的成本費用，包括提供作物保險、便宜的水、低利率貸款，還有在公有地上飼養家畜的費用也極低。

If the cost of these subsidies showed up on the weekly grocery bill of an average American family of four, instead of hiding in their tax statement, they would add about $10 per trip.

如果這些政府補助的經費加至美國普通一家四口家庭每週的食品雜貨帳單，而不是隱藏在他們的稅金裡的話，每筆帳單大概會增加 10 美元。

Then there are the healthcare costs associated with producing and eating the animals.

接著是與動物飼養和食用相關的醫療費用。

We raise them in a way that breeds antibiotic-resistant illnesses that sicken humans, and the large quantities in which we eat them:

我們飼養家畜的方式會衍生出使人類生病的抗藥性疾病，還有我們大量地消耗肉類：

25 pounds of meat, 5 gallons of milk, 2 dozen eggs, and a pound of animal fats per family per week contribute to major chronic diseases like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

每個家庭每週吃掉 25 磅的肉、 5 加侖牛奶、兩打雞蛋和一磅的動物脂肪，造成許多主要的慢性疾病，像是中風、心臟病、糖尿病和一些癌症。

If the medical costs and lost wages from all these diseases were included in the family's weekly grocery bill, they would add another $25.

如果醫療費用和因為生病而損失的薪資也算進家庭每週食品雜貨帳單上，就會再加上另外的 25 美元。

Then there's the potentially disastrous cost of damaging our planet's ability to sustain us; only a tenth of the food livestock eat gets turned into food we can eat.

接下來，破壞地球維持我們生活的能力所造成的潛在成本也要算進去，家畜吃下的食物當中只有十分之一能轉化成我們人類可以吃的，

The animals use the rest just to stay alive, and along the way, they pollute our water with their poop and our air with their methane breath... and their poop.

動物賴剩下的部分以維生，而且同時他們的排泄物汙染水源，空氣也會被動物呼出的甲烷和排出的排泄物汙染。

To feed the 9 billion animals we eat each year, we need to grow roughly 3 times as many crops as we would if we just ate plants.

為了餵飽我們每年吃下的 90 億隻動物，我們需要種植的作物大約是人類只吃植物時的三倍。

All that effort emits huge amounts of greenhouse gases adds poisonous chemicals and concentrated nutrients to the soil, air, and our water sources, and erodes billions of tons of topsoil each year.

而這造成了溫室氣體的大量排放，土壤、空氣和水資源中也會增加有毒的化合物和聚合有機物 ，每年腐蝕掉數十億噸的表土層。

Paying for these damages up front would add a whopping $240 to the family's grocery bill.

負擔這些損害的費用會在家庭食品雜貨帳單上加上高達 240 美元。

Of course, the average American family doesn't actually fork over $475 at the checkout counter each week, because we as a society have defaulted to paying for those costs in other ways.

當然，普通美國家庭並不用真的每週在結帳櫃檯繳出 475 美元，因為社會默認用別的方式負擔了這些費用。

But understanding just how expensive meat, dairy, and eggs really are might lead us to eat less of them, because an additional $275 per week is enough to make even a mouth-watering bacon cheeseburger harder to swallow.

但了解到這些肉類、乳製品和蛋實際上有多貴，也許我們可以少吃一點這些東西，因為每週多出的這 275 元能讓超好吃的巨無霸培根起士堡食之無味。

Hey, this is Henry. Thanks for watching!

嘿，我是 Henry，感謝你的收看！

For some really nuanced unpacking of the strong feelings people have in both directions about eating less meat, we recommend Brian Kateman's TEDx talk and Hank Green's video "Why Are Vegetarians Annoying?" Links in the video description.

有些人可能會對少吃肉這件事抱以強烈的想法，可能是好或壞，我們推薦 Brian Kateman 的 TED 演講，以及 Hank Green 的影片「為何素食者會討人厭？」 連結放在影片的資訊欄裡。

This video was sponsored by audible.com, a leading provider of audiobooks including periodicals, fiction, and nonfiction.

這部影片由 audible.com 贊助，他們是電子書的領導品牌，種類包含了期刊、小說和非小說。

In our research, we used the book "Meatonomics," by David Simon which, unsurprisingly, is about the economics of producing and consuming meat.

我們的研究當中參考了 David Simon 的著作《Meatonomics》，該書毫不意外的是關於製造及消耗肉類的經濟學。

It's the first attempt we've seen at inclusively quantifying the hidden costs of animal-based foods in America, and Simon includes enough solid statistics and figures to help you consider the issue on your own,

這是我們首次看到動物製食品的隱藏成本被量化，Simon 也用了大量的數據和圖表，讓你可以深入思考這個議題，

though it may not surprise you that he concludes Americans eat too much meat and dairy.

而最後「美國人實在吃太多肉及乳製品」的結論也算是在預料之中。

You can get a free 30-day trial, and download Meatonomics or any audiobook of your choice, by going to audible.com/minuteearth.

到 audible.com/minuteearth 這個網頁，你可以獲得 30 天的免費試用期，下載 Meatonomics 或是其他你有興趣的電子書。

Again, that's audible.com/minuteearth, and we'd love to hear your thoughts about eating animals.

重複一次，網址是 audible.com/minuteearth，我們也會很高興聽到你對食用動物的看法。