FoodFight中英对照

I. Reading Task A

Pre-reading questions:

1.Have you heard of genetically engineered food? If yes, how?

2.Do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing? Why?

3.Do you know who are more interested in genetically engineered food?

一、阅读任务

预阅读问题：

1.你听说过转基因食品吗？如果听说过，是怎么听说的？

2.你认为这是一件好事还是坏事？为什么？

3.你知道谁对转基因食品更感兴趣吗？

Food Fight1

食物大战

1 The folks at McDonald's could not have expected an especially warm reception in France, but the manure in the parking lots still must have taken them by surprise. For the past three weeks it's been hard to visit a McDonald's anywhere in France without running the risk of encountering mountains of fresh manure — as well as not-so-fresh fruits and vegetables — dumped in front of the restaurants by protesting farmers.

在法国，麦当劳里的人们并不指望在法国受到特别热烈的欢迎，但停车场的粪便肯定还是让他们大吃一惊。在过去的三个星期里，去法国任何地方的麦当劳而不承担遇到堆积如山的新鲜粪便的风险是很难的——以及不那么新鲜的水果和蔬菜——被抗议的农民倾倒在餐馆前。

2 There's a lot about McDonald's that angers the farmers —its sameness, its blandness, the culinary hegemony it represents —yet at the outset the demonstrations were remarkably genteel, with protesters occupying restaurants and offering customers an alternative meal of baguettes stuffed with cheese or foie gras2. But lately things have turned nasty. Protesters are finding ever more to dislike about the uniquely American food — especially the very genes that make the McDonald's beef or bun or potato what it is.

麦当劳店的许多方面都让农场主们愤怒——它的雷同，它的毫无特色，以及它所代表的餐饮霸权。然而，开始时，示威还很温和，抗议者占领餐馆，给顾客提供一种里面塞着奶酪或鹅肝的面包作为替代食物。但后来情况就非常糟糕了。抗议者发现越来越不喜欢这种典型的美国食物，特别是使麦当劳的牛肉，小面包和土豆成为现在这个样子的基因。

3 Around the world people are taking a closer look at the genetic make-up of what they're eating —and growing uneasy with what they see. Over the past decade, genetically modified (GM) food3 has become an increasingly common phenomenon as scientists have rewoven the genes of countless fruits and vegetables, turning everyday crops into uber-crops able to resist frost, withstand herbicides and even produce their own pesticides. In all, more than 4,500 GM plants have been tested, and at least 40 —including 13 varieties of corn, 11 varieties of tomatoes and four varieties of soybeans — have cleared government reviews4.

全世界的人们都在密切关注他们所食用食品的基因构成，并且对他们所看到的一切变得越来

越不安。在刚刚过去的十年中，科学家们改变了无数蔬菜和水果的基因，把这些日常食用的作物变成了超级作物，能够防霜冻，抗除草剂，甚至本身就能杀虫，因此转基因食物已越来越成为普遍现象。在总共测试的4500多种转基因植物中，至少40种通过了政府复审，包括13种谷类，11种西红柿和4种大豆。

4 For biotech companies such as Monsanto, based in the U.S., and Novartis AG, based in Switzerland, the rise of GM technology has meant boom times. Sales of GM seeds rose in value from $7

5 million in 1995 to $1.5 billion last year, and the crops they produce are turning up not only on produce shelves but also in processed foods from cookies to potato chips to baby food.

对于一些生物科技公司，如生产基地位于美国的蒙生特公司和位于瑞士的那瓦特斯公司，基因技术的兴起意味繁荣时期的到来。基因作物种子售出的总值从1995年的七百五十万增加到去年的十亿五千万，并且他们生产的作物不仅出现在直接生产的产品中，而且出现在从饼干、薯条到婴儿食品的加工食品中。

5 But many people question whether it's a good idea for fallible human beings to go mucking about with the genes of other species. It's one thing if a scientific experiment goes wrong in a lab, they say, but something else entirely if it winds up on your dinner plate. To date, there's nothing to suggest that re-engineered plants have ever done anyone any harm. Nonetheless, the European Union has blocked the importation of some GM crops, and since 1997 has required that foods that contain engineered DNA must be labeled as such. Plenty of trade watchers in Washington see the European actions as one more tweak from an increasingly powerful E.U. no longer intimidated by U.S. economic might. While that may be, the fact remains that the U.S. Congress may address a labeling bill of its own later this year, and some private groups are threatening lawsuits to force the issue. Even without legal action, public opinion is turning a more skeptical eye on GM technology. "The farmers in France are right," observes Dennis Democrat from Cleveland, Ohio, who stumbled across the GM-food issue this year, and is turning it into something of a cause. "There's nothing more personal than food."

但是，许多人提出疑问，让容易犯错的人类摆弄其他物种的基因是否是个好主意。他们说，如果实验室里的科学实验做错了，那是一回事。但如果它最终出现在你的饭桌上，那又是另外一回事。到目前为止虽然还没有什么表明转基因植物对谁有什么害处，但不管怎么说，欧盟已停止进口一些转基因作物，并且从1997年就开始要求含有重组DNA的食物必须如实标注。许多华盛顿贸易观察家都看出，欧盟这一举动是日益强大的欧盟不再害怕美国经济威胁的又一次回击。也许是这样，但事实是美国国会今年晚些时候会制定他们自己的商标法案，而一些民间团体正在威胁要诉诸法律迫使制定这一法案。即使没有立法行为，舆论对转基因技术也持更加怀疑的态度。俄亥俄州克利夫兰的丹尼丝·德莫克利特说，“法国的农民是对的，没有什么比食物跟人类的关系更密切。”他今年碰到了转基因食物这件事，正把它当成一件事业来做。

6 If the outcry in France indeed portends global trouble, it's by no means clear whether it ought to. For all the controversy that GM technology is causing, the fact is that biotech companies have succeeded in dreaming up some extraordinary plants. Monsanto, which produces the hugely popular herbicide Roundup, has made just as big a hit with

its line of genetically modified crops that are immune to the Roundup poison — thanks to a gene that company scientists tweezed out of the common petunia and knitted into their food plants. Other GM crops have been designed to include a few scraps of DNA from a common bacterium, rendering the plants toxic to leaf-chewing insects but not to humans.

如果说法国的抗议确实预示着全球性的麻烦，事情是不是应该如此，则完全不清楚。尽管转基因技术引起这些争论，事实是，一些生物科技公司已经成功地创造出一些奇异的植物。蒙生特公司生产了颇受大众欢迎的除草剂Roundup，他们的转基因作物的生产线也非常轰动，因为这种转基因作物对Roundup毒有免疫作用。这多亏了该公司的科学家，他们从普通的喇叭花中提取一种基因，并将这种基因编织进他们的食用作物中。设计的其他转基因作物，含有来自普通细菌的DNA成分，使作物对吃树叶的昆虫有毒而对人类无害。

7 Such souped-up plants are understandably popular with farmers, for whom even a slight increase in yield can mean a big increase in profits. Last year in the U.S., 35% of the soy crop and 42% of the cotton crop were grown with GM seeds. Says Karen Marshall, a Monsanto spokeswoman: "These really do work and have tremendous benefits to growers."

可以理解，这种经过强化的植物深受农民欢迎，因为对他们来说产量的些微增长就意味着利润的大幅增加。去年美国35%的大豆作物和42%的棉作物采用了转基因种子。蒙生特公司的女发言人凯伦·马歇尔说：“这确实有效，给种植者带来了巨大的利润。”

8 But what happens when they don't work? Several years ago, a company developed a soybean with some genetic threads borrowed from the Brazil nut in an attempt to boost the bean's amino-acid content. The soy began acting like the nut — so much so that it churned out not just amino acids but also chemicals that can trigger allergies in nut-sensitive consumers. The company quickly scrapped the product. Last May a study published by Cornell University showed that pollen from some strains of corn with built-in pesticides can kill the larva of the Monarch butterfly, a pest by nobody's standards. "When butterflies start dying," says Kucinich, "I think it's fair to start asking questions."

但是，如果没有效果会怎么样呢？几年前，一家公司开发了一种大豆，该品种大豆有巴西坚果中的一些基因成分，目的是增加大豆中的氨基苯甲酸含量。结果，这种大豆非常象坚果，不但大量产出氨基苯甲酸而且产出了引起坚果过敏者过敏的化学物质。这家公司很快就将产品停产。去年五月，康奈尔大学的一份调查报告显示，含有杀虫功能的玉米花粉能杀死黑脉金斑蝶的幼虫，而任何人都不会把蝴蝶当成害虫。库钦尼治说：“当蝴蝶开始死亡时，我们就应该开始质疑了。”

9 Overseas, they have been asking them for some time. In recent years Europeans have become increasingly jumpy about bad food — and with good reason. Since the outbreak of mad-cow disease in 1996, the appearance of dioxin-contaminated Belgian chickens last May and the later recall of contaminated cans of Coca-Cola in France and the Benelux5 nations, health officials have grown fussier about what their citizens consume.

在海外,人们提出这样的问题已经有一段时间。最近几年，欧洲人对质量差的食物越来越紧张，并且事出有因。自从1996年爆发疯牛病，去年五月出现比利时受二恶英污染的鸡肉，以及后来法国和比荷卢经济联盟国家受污染的可口可乐罐的销毁，卫生官员对他们居民所吃的食物越来越谨慎挑剔。

10 Since 1990 the E.U. has approved the sale of 18 GM products. (The U.S. Government

views GM components in foods as mere additives and thus does not require the Food and Drug Administration to approve them.) This year the E.U. banned the importation of non-approved GM corn. In the U.S., GM strains are mixed with ordinary strains, so the country's entire corn export to Europe was effectively outlawed. "Until we have new rules, we don't want new substances released," says Jürgen Trittin, Germany's Environment Minister. "It's a de facto moratorium6."

自从1990年，欧盟已经同意销售18种转基因产品（美国政府认为转基因成分只不过是添加剂，因此不需要食品和卫生部的同意。）今年，欧盟已禁止进口未经许可的转基因玉米。在美国，所有的转基因品种和普通品种混在一起，因此该国所有出口的玉米都成了不合法的。德国环境部长于尔根·特里汀说：“只有在制定新法规后，我们才会让新品种进来。这是事实上的暂停审批禁令。”

11 But one country's moratorium is another country's protectionism, and the U.S. is suspicious of Europe's action. Tension between the U.S. and the E.U. was already running high recently after Europe decided to continue a ban on hormone-raised U.S. beef and the U.S. hit back with a100% tariff on some E.U. food exports. Coming in the midst of such a catfight, the GM ban looks like vengeance as much as prudence. What's more, if Europe is so worried about GM products, why is it growing them? France produces its own small crop of GM corn and uses more of the stuff than any other country in Europe.

但是一个国家暂时性的禁止，对另一个国家来说就是保护主义，美国对欧盟的行为表示怀疑。美国和欧盟之间的紧张关系最近加剧，这是因为欧盟决定继续禁止进口美国荷尔蒙饲养的牛肉，而美国则加收欧盟100%食物出口关税。在这样的激烈争吵中，对转基因食品的禁止让人感觉既是谨慎又是报复。并且，如果是如此担心转基因产品，那欧盟自己为什么也在种植呢？法国不仅自己生产转基因玉米，并且使用转基因玉米比其他任何一个欧洲国家都多。

12 The transatlantic food fight will probably be high on the agenda of the World Trade Organization when it meets in November — good news for companies like Monsanto. Two years ago, chief executive Robert Shapiro gambled big on biotech, spinning off the company's chemical division to focus on the new science. While the move made Monsanto a Wall Street darling for a while, investors aren't as sweet on it anymore. A year ago, Monsanto stock perched at a lofty 63; today it's mired in the upper 30s.

横跨大西洋的食品之战在11月召开的世贸组织大会上也许将成为一个重要议题讨论，这对于像蒙生特这样的公司是个好消息。两年前，公司首席执行长官罗伯特·夏皮诺在生物科技上下了大赌注，他将公司的化工部独立出来专门研究这新科学。该举措使蒙生特股一度在华尔街受宠，当然现在投资者对该股不再青睐。一年前，蒙生特股高居63点，而现在却陷在30大几。

13 Events in Washington could make things worse. Since lawmakers have not yet addressed the labeling question, private groups are hoping to take the lead. Environmental organizations, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, have waded in, lobbying the FDA for labeling and in some cases filing suits to compel it. Their legal claim is bolstered by internal FDA memos in which the agency's own scientists expressed doubts about GM products. A scientist noted the "profound difference" between genetically engineered crops — though he stressed that different needn't mean dangerous.

华盛顿的情况可以使事情更加糟糕。由于法律制定者还没有处理商标的问题，民间组织希望起个带头作用。环保组织和犹太以及穆斯林组织已经参与进来，游说食品和药物管理局制定商标

法案，并且在一些情况下还提出诉讼来迫使他们这么做。他们的立法请求从食品药物管理局的内部备忘录中寻求到支持，因为在备忘录里，管理局的科学家们对转基因产品也提出疑问。一位科学家提到转基因作物和传统作物有“重大不同”，虽然他强调不同并不意味危险。

14 Still, it's becoming clear in Washington that the labeling problem is not going away. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman admits that ultimately the activists will probably prevail. Glickman hopes that labels will not be written to alarm consumers but instead to inform them, letting them know that while a product was manufactured with the aid of genetic techniques, it can also, say, lower cholesterol.

在华盛顿，很清楚制定商标的呼声还在继续。美国农业部长丹·哥力克曼承认，最终这些活动家们很有可能获胜。哥力克曼希望商标上写的内容不是去警告而是去告诉人们，基因技术生产出来的产品也同样可以起到降低胆固醇之类的作用。

15 For now, the most GM foes can hope to push through an agri-friendly Congress is

a proposal for voluntary labeling that biotech companies would be free to honor or ignore. In a demand-driven market, however, they would ignore it at their peril. In Europe the Gerber baby-food company, a division of Novartis, gave in to anti-GM sentiments and announced that its products would no longer contain genetically modified ingredients. "This decision was not a safety issue," insists Novartis spokesman Mark Hill, "but rather a response to preference expressed by our consumers." Not for the last time, to be sure, it's consumers who will have the final word.

到目前为止，转基因产品的反对者所能希望的，至多是让亲农业的国会通过一项议案，允许生物技术公司自己选择标注还是不注。在以需求为导向的市场中，他们如不标注，必须自己承担风险。在欧洲，那瓦特斯公司的分部哥布婴儿食品公司已屈服于反转基因产品的呼声，宣布它的产品不再含有转基因成分。那瓦特斯公司的发言人坚持说：“这个决定并不是出于安全问题，而是迎合我们的消费者的喜好。”最终还得由消费者说了算，这肯定不是最后一次。

(1, 411 words) Notes

1. This text is written by Jeffery Kluger, and adopted from Extensive

Reading IV edited by Liu Naiyin (2001).

2. foie gras: 肥鹅肝

3.genetically modified (GM) food: food whose genetic material has been

deliberately modified so as to bear improved characteristics 转基因

食品

4. government review：the government’s formal assessment or examination

of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change

if necessary 政府审核

5. Benelux: a collective name for B e lgium, the Netherlands, and

Luxembourg, especially with reference to their economic union荷比

卢经济联盟

6. It's a de facto moratorium.: It's a moratorium in fact: a temporary

ban on the use of production of something. 这事实上是一个短期禁止。*******************************************************************************

********************************************************************************

***