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英语翻译
1
Eating Food
That’s Better for You, Organic or Not
吃对你有益的食物，无论是否有机
In the six-and-one-half years since the
federal government began certifying food as
“organic,” Americans have taken to the
idea with considerable enthusiasm.
自从联邦政府六年半前开始对食物“有机”认证以来，
美国人以相当大的
激情接受了这个
概念。
Sales
have at least doubled, and
three-
quarters of the nation’s grocery
stores now
carry
at least
some organic food.
销售额至少翻倍，国内
3/
4
的食品杂货现在都在出售有机食品。
A Harris Poll in October 2007 found
that about 30 percent of Americans buy organic
food at least on occasion, and most
think it is safer, better for the environment and
healthier.
2007
年<
/p>
10
月的一份哈里斯民意调查发现大约
3
0%
的美国人至少会偶尔买有机食品，
大部分人认为它更为安全
，更有利于环境和更健康。
People believe
it must be better for you if it’s organic,” says
Phil Howard,
an assistant
professor of community, food and
agriculture at Michigan State University.
< br>密歇根州立大学的社区、
食品和农业助理教授
Phil
Howard
说，
“人们认为如果它是有机
的话一定会对你更好。
”
So
I discovered on a recent book tour around the
United States and Canada.
最近我在美国和加拿大宣传新书时发现了这个问题。
No matter ho
w carefully I
avoided using the word “organic” when I spoke to
groups of
food enthusiasts about how to
eat better, someone in the audience would
inevitably ask,
“What if I can’t afford
to buy organic food?”
当我和食物爱
好群体交流如何吃得更好时，无论我再怎么小心地避免使用“有机”这个词
语，读者中还
是会有人不可避免地问及“如果我买不起有机食品怎么办？”
Organic food seems to have become the
magic cure for all.
有机食品似乎变成万能的神奇疗法。
When people think of eating it, they
think they are eating well, healthily, reasonably,
even morally.
人们在吃它的时候，他们认为自
己吃得好，吃得健康，吃得合理甚至是有道德的。
But
eating “organic” offers no guarantee of any of
that.
但是吃“有机”食品不能对这些提供保障。
And the truth is that most Americans
eat so badly
—
we get 7
percent of our calories
from soft
drinks, more than we do from vegetables; the top
food group by caloric intake is
“sweets”; and
one
-
third of nation’s adults
are now obese —
that the organic
question is a
secondary one.
而事实是大部分美国人吃得很糟糕——我们从软饮料（不含酒
精的饮料）中获取
7%
的
卡路里，多于
我们从蔬菜中所获取的卡路里；卡路里摄取量最多的食品类别是糖果；国内
1/3
的成年人现在都超重——这样一来有机食品问题成了次要问题。
It’s not unimportant, but it’s not the
primary issue in the
way Americans eat.
它不是不重要，但它不是美国人饮食的首要问题。
To eat well, says Michael Pollan, the
author of In Defense of Food, means avoiding
“edible food
-
like
substances” and sticking to real ingredients,
increasingly from the plant
kingdom.
(Americans each consume an average of nearly two
pounds a day of animal
products.)
《食物防御》的作者
Michael
Pollan
说，要吃得好就意味着要避免‘可食用的类似食品
食品的物质’
，并逐渐地坚持从蔬菜中获取真正的营养成分。
（平均每个美国人每天消费近
两磅的肉类产品。
）
There’s plenty of
evidence that both a person’s health —
as well as
the environment’s
—
will improve with a simple
shift in eating habits away from animal products
and highly
processed foods to plant
products and what might be called “real
food.”
有充足的证据表明，
只
要对饮食习惯做简单的改变，
把吃肉类食品和高度加工食品的习
惯转为食用蔬果类食品和那些能被成为“真正的食品”
，
就能增
进一个人的健康和改善环境。
From these
changes, Americans would reduce the amount of
land, water and
chemicals used to
produce the food we eat, as well as the incidence
of lifestyle diseases
linked to
unhealthy diets, and greenhouse gases from
industrial meat production.
这些转变会使美国人减少
用于生产食物的土地，
水和化学品，
同时降低与不健康饮食有<
/p>
关的生活方式引发的疾病的发病率，减弱因工业肉类生产产生的温室效应。
The government’s organic program,
says Joan Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the
Agriculture Department, “is a marketing
program that sets standards for what can be
certified as r the enabling legislation
nor the regulations address food
safety
or nutrition.
”
“政
府的有机计划，
”农业部发言人
Joan Shaffer
说，
“是给可以认证为有机的食品设立标
准
的一项市场计划，无论是授权法条或是规定都没有处理食品安全和营养问题。
”
People don’t understand that,
nor do they realize “organic” doesn’t mean
“local.”
人们不明白这些东西，也不知道“有机”
并不意味“本土”
。
“It
doesn’t matter if it’s from the farm down the road
or from Chile,” Ms. Shaffer said.
“As
long as it meets the standards, it’s
organic.”
“无论食品是从路边的农场或是从智利运
来”
，
Shaffer
女士说，
“只要符合标准，它就是有
机的。
”
Hence, the organic status of
salmon flown in from Chile, or of frozen
vegetables
grown in China and sold in
the United States
—
no
matter the size of the carbon footprint
left behind by getting from there to
here.
因此，
从智利空运来的鲑鱼或是在美国出售的中国
种植的冷冻蔬菜都是有机的，
与食物
从哪里飞到这里来所留下的
碳排放量无关。
Today, most farmers
who practice truly sustainable farming, or what
you might call
“organic in spirit,”
operate on small scale, some so small that they
can’t afford the
requirements to be
certified organic by the government.
今天
大部分农民在实践真正的可持续农业，或者你可能称之为“精神上的有机”的农民都
实行
小规模经营，有一些的规模小到无法承担让政府进行有机认证的费用。
But the organic food business is now
big business, and getting bigger.
但有机食品商业现在是大产业，而且日益壮大。
Professor Howard estimates that major
corporations now are responsible for at least
25 percent of all organic manufacturing
and marketing.
Howard
教授估计现在大公司至少占整个有机生产与销售市场的
25%
。
In 2006, sales of
organic foods and beverages totaled about $$16.7
billion, according
to the most recent
figures from Organic Trade Association.
根据来自有机贸易协会的最新数据，
2006
年有机食物和饮
料的销售总额大约
$$167
亿。
But the questions remain over how we
eat in general.
但问题仍然普遍存在于我们怎么吃。
It may feel better to eat an organic
Oreo than a conventional Oreo, but, says Marion
Nestle, a professor at New York
University’s department of nutrition, food studies
and
public health, “Organic junk food
is still junk food. ”
人们可能觉得
吃一块有机奥利奥比吃传统的奥利奥要好。但纽约大学的营养
,
食品研究
和公共健康系教授
Marion Nestle
说，
“有机垃圾食品仍然是垃圾食品。
”
Last week, Michelle Obama
began digging up a patch of the South Lawn of the
White
House to plant an organic
vegetable garden to provide food for the first
family and, more
important, to educate
children about healthy, locally grown fruits and
vegetables at a time
when obesity and
diabetes have become national concerns.
上周
Michelle Obama
开
始在白宫南边的草坪上挖一个洞来开垦一个有机蔬菜种植园，
用来为第一家庭提供食物，
更重要的是，
在肥胖与糖尿病已经成为举国关注的问题时，
以此
教育孩子有关健康以及当地种植的水果和蔬菜的知识。
But Mrs. Obama also emphasized
that there were many changes Americans can
make if they don’t have the time or
space for an organic garden.
但与此同时
Obama
夫人强调，如果，美国民众没有时间或
空间去打理有机蔬果园，那
还有许多美国人可以做的改变。
“You can begin in your own cupboard,”
she said, “by eliminating processe
d
food,
trying to cook a meal a little
more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and
vegetables.
“你可以从你的食橱开始”
，
她说，
“清除加工食品，尝试平常多做饭，尝试将更多的水果
和蔬菜加进去。
”
Popularizing such choices may not be as
marketable as creating a logo that says
“organic.”
推广这样的
选择可能不像创造一个说是“有机的”标志那样可市场化的。
But when Americans have had their fill
of “value
-
added” and
over
-processed food,
perhaps
they can begin producing and consuming more food
that treats animals and the
land as if
they mattered.
但当美国人民厌倦了“增值
的”和“过度加工的”食品时，他们可能会开始生产和消费更多
重视动物和土地的食品。
Some of that food will be
organic, and hooray for that. Meanwhile, they
should
remember that the word itself is
not synonymous to “safe,” “healthy,” “fair” or
even
necessarily “good.”
这些食品当中的一部分将是有机的，
这是再好不过了。
同时，
人们应该记住这个词本身
不是“安全”
、
“健康”
、
“公平”
甚至或是“好”的同义词。
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