别再花钱买有机食物了
作者：Deena Shanker
译者：邓小雪 & 倪停
校对：鲁城华
策划：陈怡蓓 & 周伍豪
Buying organic veggies at the supermarket is a waste of money
在超市里买有机蔬菜根本不值
本文选自 Quartz | 取经号原创翻译
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It has happened to all of us. You’re standing in the produce aisle, just trying to buy some zucchini, when you face the inevitable choice: Organic or regular?
我们都遇到过这样的情况。你站在蔬果区的走道上，想买点西葫芦，这时你必须要做出选择：买有机的还是普通的？
It’s a loaded question that can mean many different things, sometimes all at once: Healthy or pesticide-drenched? Tasty or bland? Fancy or basic? Clean or dirty? Good or bad?
这是一个说不清的问题，因为涉及很多不同方面，有时可以归结为：健康的还是有杀虫剂的？美味的还是平淡无味的？高级的还是一般的？干净的还是脏的？好的还是坏的？
But here’s the most important question for many customers: Is it worth the extra money?
但很多顾客都有一个最重要的问题：多花出来的钱值得么？
The answer: Probably not.
答案是：很可能不值得。
Higher price doesn’t really mean higher quality
高价格不等于高质量
It’ll come as no surprise to most shoppers that organic produce is typically more expensive than the other options. In March, a Consumer Reports analysis found that, on average, the prices on organic foods were 47% higher than on their conventional
counterparts
. USDA numbers bear out this difference too. The wholesale price of a 25-pound sack of organic carrots in San Francisco in 2013, for example, was more than three times the price of a conventional bag.
大多数消费者都会发现有机产品卖的更贵。3月的《消费者报告》分析指出，有机食品的价格平均比
同类普通食品
高出47%。美国农业部的数据也印证了这一点。2013年，25磅一袋的有机胡萝卜在旧金山的批发价比普通胡萝卜贵三倍。
counterpart
/ˈkaʊntəˌpɑːt/ N-COUNT Someone's or something's counterpart is another person or thing that has a similar function or position in a different place. 对应的人或物
(It’s worth noting that not all items see such drastic markups all the time: Three-pound cartons of mesclun were only 23% more expensive, according to the USDA, and sometimes organic produce is actually the less expensive option—but that’s a rarity.)
（这并没有什么代表性，因为不是所有的有机食品都能达到如此差价：美国农业部的数据显示，3磅一盒的有机蔬菜沙拉只贵了23%，而有时有机产品的价格还更低——当然这是少数。）
But this price difference does not just reflect the added cost of organic agriculture techniques: It’s also because people will pay more for the label—often without knowing what it means. “Organic” has essentially become another way of saying “luxury.”
然而，有机产品的差价并非只包括附加其上的农业技术，也包括人们愿意为“有机”标签所付出的溢价，但通常人们并不知道“有机”意味着什么，只是单纯把它当成“奢侈”的代名词。
As a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found, the “
premium
” markup on organic food is 29-32%, when only a 5-7% markup would be needed to break even—making organic farms more profitable than conventional ones. (Of course, it takes three years of organic practices to get certified, so farmers may still be left covering their additional investment after that period.)
《美国国家科学院学报》上的一篇文章指出，有机食品的
溢价
高达29%~32%，但实际上只需要5%~7%就能保证收支平衡——令有机农场比普通农村的利润更高（当然，有机产品获得认证还需要3年，所以农场主后续可能还会有其他的投入）。
premium
/'priːmiəm,ˋprimɪəm/ n.[C] an additional amount of money, above a standard rate or amount 加付款；额外费用
Organic produce is not necessarily better for the environment
有机产品不一定对环境有益
There is little doubt that synthetic pesticides and fertilizers substances can have negative impacts on the environment, from potentially endangering pollinators to polluting natural waterways. But many organic farmers, especially the large ones, don’t skip pesticides and fertilizers—they just use natural options, which are hardly risk-free.
有人认为人工合成杀虫剂和化肥会对环境带来负面影响，比如可能会危及传粉的昆虫或污染自然水域，但这一说法并没有定论。很多有机农场主，尤其是大型有机农场，并没有停止使用杀虫剂和化肥——他们只是用天然材料替代而已，这并非万无一失。
In 2010, a study found that some organic pesticides can actually have a worse environmental impacts than conventional ones. Plus, a recent study found that because organic agriculture is now done mostly en masse by big corporations (what’s known dismissively by advocates as “Walmart organic”), the lower yields combined with the use of heavy machinery means it actually releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than conventional farming.
2010年，有研究表明，某些有机杀虫剂对环境的影响可能比传统杀虫剂更糟。另外，最近的一项研究也指出，现在很多有机农作物都是由大型企业批量生产（很多有机食品支持者对此不屑一顾，称其为“沃尔玛有机”），收益率较低再加上重型机械的运用，有机农作物释放的温室气体与传统农业相比反而更高。
Any health benefits from organic produce are teeny-tiny
有机产品对健康的好处微不足道
The science available thus far says any additional nutritional benefits from organic produce, compared with conventional, are very small.
有机作物比传统作物更有营养的说法，迄今为止并没有得到广泛的科学证实。
A 2009 meta-analysis said there was no nutrient difference in organic versus conventional. Since then, two larger meta-analyses have found slight differences, but ones that are probably too small to really matter. The 2012 study found slightly higher phosphorous levels in the organic produce, and a 2014 study found higher
antioxidant
levels and lower cadmium levels in organic foods.
2009年一项综合分析认为，有机食品和常规食品在营养上并不存在差异。此后，两项更大规模的研究发现两者之间存在轻微的差别，但是差异很可能微小到可以忽略不计。2012年的一项研究发现，有机产品的含磷量稍高，2014年的研究则发现，有机食品的
抗氧化
水平更高，而且含镉量更低。
antioxidant
[ˌæn.ti'ɒk.sɪ.dənt] noun countable a substance which slows down the rate at which something decays because of oxidization (= combining with oxygen) 抗氧化剂，阻氧化剂，防老（化）剂
But as Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University told NPR, because there are so many variations within organic and conventional production systems, drawing
overarching
conclusions about their products isn’t really methodologically sound. And any differences in nutrition are relatively insignificant. Ultimately, if you want more nutrients, eat more vegetables, organic or not.
塔夫茨大学营养学教授杰弗里 •布隆伯格在接受美国国家公共广播电台采访时指出，由于有机产品和常规产品在生产系统上存在很多差异，对有机食品和常规食品做出一个
总体性
结论，这在研究方法上是有问题的。并且，两者在营养上的差异微乎其微。从根本上来说，如果要摄入更多的营养，可以多吃蔬菜，无论是有机的或是常规的。
overarching
[ˌoʊ.vɚ'ɑ:r-] adjective most important, because including or affecting all other areas 首要的；包罗万象的，支配一切的
Even the “Dirty Dozen” vegetables we’re told to avoid aren’t really that dirty
蔬果黑名单上的蔬果也并非完全不堪
Every year, the Environmental Working Group puts out a highly anticipated list called the “Dirty Dozen“—the fruits and vegetables it says have the highest pesticide residues, and are therefore most worth buying organic.
美国环境工作组每年都会公布一份倍受期待的榜单，榜单名为“蔬菜黑名单”，即农药残留物最高的水果和蔬菜，因此也成为了最应该购买有机产品的榜单。
But in 2011, scientists from the University of California published a report finding that even the fruits and vegetables in the Dirty Dozen had less than 2% of the maximum allowable amount of the measured pesticides established by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The researchers criticized EWG’s methodology and concluded that that there was no “appreciable reduction of consumer risks” in eating these organic foods.
但在2011年，加州大学科学家发表的一项报告指出，即使是那些上了黑名单的蔬果，其农药残留物水平还不到美国环保署制定的农药残留最高允许量的2%。研究人员批评了美国环境工作组的测量方法，同时指出，食用这些蔬果的有机产品“并不能显著降低消费者风险”。
For its part, EWG told Quartz that it disagrees with Winters’ conclusions for several reasons, including that they used the risk for adults, not children, in their calculations, and that they looked at average amounts instead of the highest levels used.
针对这个问题，美国环境工作组告诉Quartz，出于以下几种原因他们不同意温特斯的结论，比如，温特斯团队只评估了对成年人的风险，而没有将儿童纳入评估对象，同时，他们只测量了农药使用的均值而没有测量最高值。
Organic farms don’t treat their workers any better
有机农场的员工境遇也很糟糕
Farm work is hard and those doing it are often exploited. Unfortunately, this is no less true at organic farms—the USDA certification doesn’t include any labor requirements.
农场工作很辛苦，农场工人经常受到剥削。不幸的是，有机农场也同样存在这样的问题，因为美国农业部对有机农场的认证并不包括任何劳工要求。
In 2006, the eco-minded news site Grist published a story detailing the many ways organic farmworkers were being mistreated, including violations of minimum wage laws, laborers allegedly being barred from speaking with inspectors, and sexual discrimination.
2006年，环保新闻网站Grist发布的一篇文章详细报道了有机农场工人在很多方面遭受虐待的情况，包括违反最低工资法、严禁工人与认证检查员交谈，此外，还存在性别歧视。
“The exploitative conditions that farmworkers face in the US are abysmal—it’s a human-rights crisis,” Richard Mandelbaum, a policy analyst at the Farmworker Support Committee, told Grist. “In terms of wages and labor rights, there’s really no difference between organic and conventional.”
“美国农场工人遭受剥削的现象极为严重，这是一场人权危机。”农业工人支持委员会的政策分析师理查德·曼德尔鲍姆告诉Grist：“就工资和劳工权利而言，有机农场和传统农场实际上没有差别。”
And there’s no reason to expect your organic vegetables to taste better, either
