如何閱讀食品標簽?散養(yǎng)?公平貿(mào)易?

如何閱讀食品標簽?散養(yǎng)?公平貿(mào)易?

These days, shopping for eggs or coffee can feel like an ethical dilemma. Organic? Cage-free? Fair trade?

如今，買雞蛋或咖啡可能讓人感到道德上的兩難。有機嗎?散養(yǎng)嗎?公平貿(mào)易?

There are good reasons to care about where our food comes from. Agriculture has enormous consequences — it can cause deforestation, destroy habitat for wildlife, pollute rivers and release greenhouse gases. But can any of us reduce those problems by buying food with an eco-label?

我們有充分的理由關(guān)心我們的食物來自哪里。農(nóng)業(yè)有巨大的后果，它會導致森林砍伐，破壞野生動物的棲息地，污染河流并釋放溫室氣體。但是，我們當中有誰能通過購買貼有環(huán)保標簽的食品來減少這些問題呢?

Life Kit is here to help. We won't tell you what to buy — many of these labels, such as organic, come with a higher price tag, and some certifications may accomplish things that aren't important to you. But we can explain how to read food labels, so you know what you're actually buying.

生活工具箱在這里幫助你。我們不會告訴你該買什么，很多這樣的標簽，比如有機的，都有一個更高的價格標簽，一些認證可能會完成一些對你不重要的事情。但我們可以解釋如何閱讀食品標簽，這樣你就知道你實際上買了什么。

Here are a few tips to separate what's meaningful from mere marketing.

這里有一些技巧來區(qū)分什么是有意義的，什么是單純的營銷。

1. Organic. It's more than just a ban on pesticides.

有機的。這不僅僅是禁止使用殺蟲劑。

Organic is the label with the most specific meaning, laid out in volumes of rules that farmers and food manufacturers have to follow if they want that "USDA Organic" seal.

有機食品是最具特殊含義的標簽，農(nóng)民和食品制造商如果想要獲得“美國農(nóng)業(yè)部有機食品”的認證，就必須遵守大量的規(guī)定。

Some of those rules are well-known. They include a ban on most industrially produced pesticides, weedkillers and fertilizers.

其中一些規(guī)則是眾所周知的。其中包括禁止大多數(shù)工業(yè)生產(chǎn)的殺蟲劑、除草劑和化肥。

Instead, organic farmers fertilize their fields with composted manure. They try to control insect pests and harmful fungi with natural predators, by rotating their crops or by using chemicals that exist in nature, such as copper. Growing grains, fruits and vegetables organically typically takes more work, and the fields typically produce a little less food, which is one reason that it's more expensive.

相反，有機農(nóng)民用堆肥來施肥。他們通過輪作或使用自然界中存在的化學物質(zhì)，如銅，來控制害蟲和有害真菌。用有機方式種植谷物、水果和蔬菜通常需要更多的工作，而田地里通常只生產(chǎn)少量的食物，這就是有機種植成本更高的一個原因。

Organic farmers get audited every so often to make sure they're following the rules. Occasionally, cases of fraud come to light.

有機農(nóng)業(yè)的農(nóng)民經(jīng)常被審查，以確保他們遵守規(guī)則。偶爾也會曝光欺詐案件。

2. Beware of ill-defined labels.

小心定義不清的標簽。

Some labels, unlike organic, don't mean anything specific. It's easy for food companies to print the word "natural" on their products, because there's no legal standard that defines what it means.

一些標簽，不像有機的，沒有任何具體的意思。食品公司在他們的產(chǎn)品上印上“天然”這個詞很容易，因為沒有法律標準來定義它的含義。

The Food and Drug Administration has stated only that products carrying the "natural" label should not contain artificial colors or synthetic flavors.

美國食品和藥物管理局只表示，帶有“天然”標簽的產(chǎn)品不應(yīng)含有人工色素或合成香料。

3. Non-GMO is not organic.

非轉(zhuǎn)基因生物不是有機的。

"I'm going to say, offhand, that [non-GMO] is probably my least favorite label," says Rebecca Thistlethwaite, who runs a program at Oregon State University, that helps young farmers figure out how to be successful.

麗貝卡•思韋特在俄勒岡州立大學經(jīng)營著一個幫助年輕農(nóng)民找到成功之道的項目。她說:“我會馬上說，(非轉(zhuǎn)基因)可能是我最不喜歡的標簽。”

GMO, which stands for "genetically modified organism," refers to varieties of crops that have been genetically modified in the lab to make them easier for farmers to grow. Non-GMO means that the food does not contain any ingredients from such GMO crops.

GMO是“轉(zhuǎn)基因生物”的縮寫，指的是在實驗室里進行了轉(zhuǎn)基因以使農(nóng)民更容易種植的各種作物。非轉(zhuǎn)基因食品是指食品中不含任何來自轉(zhuǎn)基因作物的成分。

Companies do it to differentiate themselves, even though their product is exactly the same as everything else on the shelf.

公司這樣做是為了讓自己與眾不同，即使他們的產(chǎn)品和貨架上的其他產(chǎn)品完全一樣。

4. If you care about animal welfare, look for third-party certifications.

如果你關(guān)心動物福利，那就去找第三方認證吧。

The many different labels on animal products, such as eggs, can be especially confusing. So we asked Thistlethwaite to explain. "I used to raise 5.000 laying hens on pasture, and it was also certified organic. So I know quite a bit about this," she says, laughing.

動物產(chǎn)品(如雞蛋)上的許多不同標簽可能尤其令人困惑。所以我們請思韋特解釋。“我曾經(jīng)在牧場上飼養(yǎng)了5000只蛋雞，它也被證明是有機的。所以我對這個很了解，”她笑著說。

Cage-free, she explains, simply means that the hens are not in individual cages. But they're still living inside a barn, not running around the countryside.

她解釋說，散養(yǎng)只是意味著母雞不在單獨的籠子里。但是他們?nèi)匀蛔≡诠葌}里，而不是在鄉(xiāng)村跑來跑去。

5. Fair trade gives small farmers a little more money and power.

公平貿(mào)易給了小農(nóng)場主更多的錢和權(quán)力。

Fair trade is a common label on products like coffee or chocolate that typically come from countries where farmers are often poor. Kim Elena Ionescu, chief sustainability officer for the Specialty Coffee Association, explains that the fair trade certification guarantees a minimum price to coffee producers, which, most of the time, is higher than the market price.

公平貿(mào)易是咖啡或巧克力等產(chǎn)品的常見標簽，這些產(chǎn)品通常來自農(nóng)民通常很窮的國家。特種咖啡協(xié)會首席可持續(xù)發(fā)展官金·埃琳娜·伊涅斯庫解釋說，公平貿(mào)易認證保證了咖啡生產(chǎn)商的最低價格，在大多數(shù)情況下，最低價格高于市場價格。

But Ionescu also says that there are limits to what fair trade can accomplish and that no one should expect that fair trade by itself will lift entire communities out of poverty. "Poverty is so much more complicated than just a price for coffee," she says. "I mean, it's possible that that producer has a very small amount of land and there is no price high enough to make that tiny plot of land a viable economic support system for the family."

但伊涅斯庫也說，公平貿(mào)易所能達到的效果是有限的，沒有人應(yīng)該指望公平貿(mào)易本身就能讓整個社區(qū)擺脫貧困。“貧困比咖啡價格復(fù)雜得多，”她說。“我的意思是，那個生產(chǎn)者可能只有非常少的土地，而且沒有足夠高的價格使那一小塊土地成為家庭可行的經(jīng)濟支持系統(tǒng)。”