Is Organic Really Better?

    What started as a countercultural farming movement has now become big business: organic food sales topped $24 billion last year.

    So food grown without conventional chemical pesticides, fertilizers and lacking additives is popular despite the fact that it costs as much as 50 percent more.

    But is it really better for you and the planet?

    According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: yes, at least as far as pesticide residues and energy use goes. Quote: "Organic agriculture already uses less fossil fuel based on inputs and has a better carbon footprint than standard agricultural practices," the said in a 2007 report.

    That's why the Obama administration is offering some $50 million in funding for farmers to go organic.

    But it doesn't seem that organic food is any more nutritious. And scientific studies have split on whether organic practices, if applied globally, could produce enough food to feed 6.7 billion people and counting.

    Remember, the organic label applies to how the food was grown. Organic certification doesn't mean your food is any safer from, say, salmonella contamination when it's packaged. Nor does it mean the food hasn't traveled halfway around the world to reach your dinner plate—another environmental no-no.

    有機食品真的就好些？

    去年有機食品的銷售額已經達到了240億美元，而有機食品在開始階段被認為是只不過是一項反主流文化的運動而已，現在它已經變成一項巨大的商業了。

    盡管有機食品比傳統食品要貴一半，但是因為有機食品的種植過程中沒有使用傳統的化學殺蟲劑，肥料以及添加劑，所以它也越來越流行。

    但是，有機食品真地對你和地球更有益嗎？

    根據聯合國糧農組織（Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations， 簡寫為FAO）的報告，至少就殺蟲劑殘留和能源使用而言，有機食品更加有益。2007年FAO的報告稱：“根據能量的輸入來看，有機農業使用更少的化石燃料，而且與常規的農業做法相比，有機農業留下的“碳足跡”更少（“碳足跡“實際上至二氧化碳的排放---譯者注）

    這就是為什么奧巴馬政府向美國的農場主們投資500億美元以實施有機農業的原因。

    不過有機食品似乎并不比傳統食品更有營養。而且科學研究在有一點上存在分歧：那就是如果全球都實施有機農業的做法，那么這樣的農業方法是否能給全球67億人口（而且還在增加）提供足夠多的食物。

    請記住，食物上的有機標簽只是說明了食物是如何種植的。有機認證并不意味這你的食物在包裝過程中就免于沙門氏菌的污染。這同樣也不意味著有機食品在達到你的餐桌之前沒有繞行半個地球---而這又是一個對環境不好的舉措。

Vocabulary:

Countercultural：反主流文化的
Billion：十億
Conventional：傳統的
Pesticide：殺蟲劑
Fertilizer：肥料
Additive：添加劑
Planet：星球；地球
Residue：殘留
Fossil：化石
Carbon footprint：碳足跡
Nutritious: 有營養的
Split: 分裂
Salmonella: 沙門氏菌
Contamination: 污染
No-no: （口語）不可接受的行為