TEXT 63

Sickening spinach

讨厌的菠菜（陈继龙 编译）

Sep 21st 2006 | PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA

From The Economist print edition

A SMALL card sits above an empty shelf in the Whole Foods store in Petaluma, California. “Consumers are advised NOT to eat fresh bagged spinach at this time. （1）As a precaution, Whole Foods Market has temporarily removed ALL fresh spinach and fresh salad mixes containing spinach from its stores.”

加利福尼亚佩塔卢马的“全有食品”商店一座空货架上方悬挂着一张小卡片，上面写着：“特此通知各位消费者，暂时请勿食用袋装新鲜菠菜。为了预防起见，‘全有食品店’已临时撤走所有新鲜菠菜及含有来自该食品店的菠菜的新鲜沙拉混合料。”

On September 14th the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued the first of several daily alerts concerning an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7, a potentially lethal pathogen typically associated with adulterated[1] beef. Investigators had traced it to consumption of fresh r_______① spinach sold in bags. （2）A few days later, an investigation conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had narrowed down the culprits to a California-based grower, Natural Selection Foods, and at least one of its distributors. So far, a 77-year-old woman in Wisconsin has died from eating spinach traced back to Natural Selection, and 146 people in 23 states are ill, some very seriously. Half of the victims have been hospitalised, a high rate that may indicate an especially virulent strain of E. coli.

9月14日，亚特兰大疾病控制与预防中心发布了第一份有关O157:H7大肠杆菌暴发传染的每日警报，此后又发布了数次。O157:H7大肠杆菌是一种可能导致死亡的病原菌，一般与掺假牛肉有关。调查人员已经在消费者购买的袋售新鲜生菠菜中发现了这种病菌。几天后，美国食品与药品管理局（FDA）缩小了调查范围，专门对位于加利福尼亚的菠菜种植商“天然选择食品”公司及其至少一家经销商展开了调查。迄今为止，威斯康星州一名77岁的妇女由于食用了“天然选择”菠菜而死亡，并且已有23个州共146人发病，其中有些人病情非常严重。半数受害者都已住院，如此高的住院率表明这可能是一种毒性特别强的大肠杆菌菌株。

Investigators continue to search for the cause of the outbreak. （3）They have scoured the company's processing plant as well as the farms that grow the spinach, looking at everything from irrigation water to the proximity[2] of livestock, with no sure connections made so far. The fact that Natural Selection is in California's Salinas Valley has raised alarms, however. According to the FDA, fresh produce from the valley, including spinach, has been the s________② of nine E. coli outbreaks since 1995.

调查人员继续对暴发根源进行了调查。他们对该食品公司的加工厂和菠菜农场进行了仔细检查，检查内容包括灌溉用水和周边的家畜等所有情况，到目前为止尚未发现确切相关的问题。不过，“天然选择”公司位于加利福尼亚萨莱纳山谷这一情况已经引起了调查人员的警觉。FDA称，1995年以来，有9次大肠杆菌暴发感染的源头都是产自萨莱纳山谷、包括菠菜在内的新鲜食品。

Moreover Natural Selection, which supplies several supermarket c_______③ across the United States with conventionally produced fresh spinach, is also the nation's largest grower and shipper of certified organic produce, under its Earthbound Farm brand. （4）If organic spinach becomes implicated, the financial consequences for the organic sector of the fresh produce market, which prides itself on its purity, could be severe.

此外，“天然选择”也是美国最大的、持有许可证的有机食品生产商和货商，经营商标是“Earthbound Farm”，向全美数个连锁超市供应按常规生产的新鲜菠菜。假如这次事件真的涉及到有机菠菜的话，对于以纯净自居的新鲜有机食品市场而言，可能会造成严重的经济后果。

（5）But with the FDA advising consumers not to eat fresh spinach from any source until further notice, the outbreak could ruin California's whole spinach industry. The state grows about three-quarters of the American crop. In recent years the market for fresh spinach has benefited hugely from what one producers' spokesman calls “a great health profile”. In 2005, per capita consumption[3] in America was f________④ at 2.2 pounds (one kilogram), up from just 0.6 pounds ten years ago. That total isn't likely to increase again for a while.

不过由于FDA已建议消费者在接到进一步通知之前不要食用任何来源的新鲜蔬菜，这一暴发事件很可能殃及整个加利福尼亚蔬菜业。该州种植的农作物占美国总量的四分之三。一名生产商发言人将新鲜菠菜称作是“重要的保健食品”，这使得新鲜菠菜市场近年来从中获利颇丰。据估计，1995年美国人均菠菜消费量仅为0.6磅，到2005年已升至2.2磅（1公斤）。这一总数暂时是不太可能再增长的了。

[QUIZ]

1. 根据上下文和英文释义，补全单词：

①r_______（adj. not cooked）

②s_______（n. a thing, place, activity etc that you get something from）

③c________（n. a number of shops, hotels, cinemas etc owned or managed by the same company or person）

④f________（v. to make a statement saying what is likely to happen in the future, based on the information that you have now [= predict]）

2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](LONGMAN)

1. adulterate v. 掺假，伪造次品

2. proximity n. 接近，邻近，附近

3. per capita consumption 人均消费

[KEY TO QUIZ]

1. ①raw 生的，未加工的（undercooked火候不足的）

②source 来源

③chains 连锁店

④forecast 预测，预报（=foretell，≈prophesy, second-guess）

2.（见译文，仅供参考，欢迎指正）