Feeding the Hungry, but Not With Pigeons (2/2)

And, he says, exporting them would not be as cost-effective as exporting other forms of protein, such as chicken. Suppose you have a dollar, he says. Half that dollar would be spent catching the pigeon and the other half processing it. With that same dollar, he says, you could buy a processed chicken that offers more meat.

Bob Shipley is president of the Squab Producers of California. These producers are a group of seventy-seven independent squab farms in northern California. They process about one million birds a year.

Bob Shipley says exporting smoked squab would not be a solution either. In the smoking process, squab meat becomes very soft, almost like paste. The meat also breaks down if it is overcooked.

Squab from the United States is generally exported frozen, so there would be a need for refrigeration. And there is something else to consider about raising pigeons as a food source. Both men said it takes a lot of food to raise squab. Generally it takes more than three and a half kilograms of grain to get half a kilogram of meat.

参考译文：

他还说，出口鸽肉不如出口像鸡肉这样其它形式的蛋白质那样划算。他说，假设你有一美元。一半的钱用来抓鸽子而另一半用来加工鸽子。用同样的一美元，他说，可以提供更多肉质的加工好的鸡。

鲍勃·希普利是加利福尼亚州雏鸽生产商的主席。这些生产商是由北加利福尼亚的77个独立的雏鸽饲养场组成。他们一年大约处理一百万只鸽子。

鲍勃·希普利说出口熏制的雏鸽也不是解决的办法。在熏制的过程中，雏鸽肉变得更嫩，几乎像软面团。如果熏制过度肉也被破坏。

美国的雏鸽通常以冷冻的形式出口，所以需要冷冻。饲养肉食鸽子还需要考虑其它因素。他们都说过饲养雏鸽需要很多的食物。通常，需要3.5公斤以上的谷物以得到半公斤的肉。

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