阿凡提经典故事 文字版:美国的农业政策是美国肥胖流行的原因之一？

美国的农业政策是美国肥胖流行的原因之一？

sThese days, U.S. farm policy is blamed for a lot of things — even the nation's obesity epidemic. The idea is that the roughly $15 billion in annual subsidies that the federal government gives to farmers encourages them to grow too much grain. As a result, the theory goes, prices drop, food gets cheaper and we end up eating too much.

最近，美国的农业政策饱受指责，并且有人还认为美国农业是导致美国肥胖流行的原因之一。持这种观点的人认为美国联邦政府每年为美国农业提供的约一百五十亿美元的补助，正是这种补助让美国农民生产出了过多的粮食；这些人想当然地认为就是这个原因，让美国食品的价格下降，美国消费者可以购买更多的食品，自然也吃得更多了。

It seems like a simple equation. But the truth is rarely simple.

上述观点看起来有点道理，但事实却并非如此。

Americans Eat Cheap

美国人花很少的钱购买食品

Americans, on average, spend less than 10 percent of our money on food. A lot of people buy too much fast food — but from an economicstandpoint, it is a good decision.

一个普通美国人花在购买食品上的费用不到其正常收入的百分之十，而且有很多美国人在日常生活中购买快餐食品，从经济学的角度来说，这是个不错的选择。

"The smartest, most rational decision is to eat the crappiest food, because everywhere you turn it's more accessible, more affordable and more convenient," says David Wallinga, a senior adviser in science, food and health at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. He is one of the people who say federal farm subsidies lead directly to overeating.

大卫.沃利咖是明尼阿波里斯市农业与贸易政策研究所的科学、食品和健康方面高级顾问，大卫.沃利咖就是认为美国联邦政府的补助让美国人大吃特吃的人员之一。大卫.沃利咖表示：“美国人最聪明和最理智的够吗食品的方式就是购买最便宜的食品来吃，因为这些最便宜的食品随处可见，每个人都能够以很便宜的价格十分方便地购买。”

"What we've had is a cheap feed grain policy, or a cheap calorie policy, and that's been pretty consistent from farm bill to farm bill over the last 30-odd years," he says, referring to the bundle of legislation that includes agricultural subsidies.

大卫.沃利咖说：“我们所吃的便宜食品都是美国廉价食品政策造成的，也可以叫他廉价卡路里政策，这些政策就是过去三十年里一个接一个关于农业政策的法案。”大卫.沃利咖所指的就是包括农业补助在内的一揽子法规。

So the farm bill helps make us fat, right?

因此，就是这些农业政策让我们美国人变得肥胖，不是吗？

Maybe not. Let's take a closer look at this whole picture.

可能不是。让我们全程回顾一下食品的流通过程。

Technology Has Made Farmers More Productive

农业技术让美国农民的生产效率提高了。

Ken McCauley, a farmer from White Cloud, Kan., says he is indeed growing more corn — but not because of subsidies.

肯恩.麦考雷是白云镇的农民，他表示他种植的玉米的确比以前多了，但多种植玉米的原因不是因为美国政府给了补贴。

"The expansion that you're hearing about in agriculture today, or for the past several years, is all about the machinery and the easy of work," McCauley says. "Your work is easier because of machinery and technology."

肯恩.麦考雷说：“我种植玉米面积的增加在过去几年到现在都是在增加，这是我采用了农业机械，让我能更加轻松地干农活了；我的工作因为农业机械和农业技术的进步变得更加轻松了。”

On McCauley's farm, his son Brad charges back and forth over the land in a self-propelled sprayer. The machine, which looks like a monster bug – a green tractor on stilts with booms stretching 90 feet like enormous wings – is trailing a finely calibrated mist of herbicide.

在麦考雷的农场，麦考雷的儿子布拉德在农场里跑前跑后地调整着一台自动农药喷洒机。这台农药喷洒机看起来就像是一个怪物虫子——安装在拖拉机上的支撑杆有九十英尺长，看起来像极了一个大翅膀，一边走一边喷洒出薄雾般配置好的除草剂药水。

"It steers itself, shuts itself on and off, so I basically just turn around and make sure everything's running right," Brad says.

布拉德说：“这台机器可以自动导航，自动开启和停止，因此我只要四处看看，保证机器运转正常就行了。”

The spray kills everything but the corn, because the corn has been genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. And for good measure, the corn has also been designed to produce its own insecticide.

除草剂能杀死除玉米外地一切植物，而麦考雷种植的玉米已经通过基因工程改良，能够抵抗除草剂的药效；此外，这种玉米还能分泌出自身的除草剂，这又为粮食增产提供了保证。

So now the corn plants grow much closer together than they used to and, weather permitting, produce twice as much grain per acre.

现在，美国的各个玉米种植农场都比以前更加紧密地聚集在一起，只要气候合适，这些玉米种植农场就生产的玉米虫产量可以达到以前的两倍。

"Food productivity is more than doubled, so the real cost is less than half what it was 40 to 50 years ago," says Julian Alston, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Davis. "That's the big story. And that wasn't caused by subsidies. That was caused by improvements in productivity on the farm."

朱利安.阿尔斯通是加州大学的农业经济学家，他说：“现在美国食品的产量是以前的两倍多，因此食品的价格是四五十年前的价格的一半还少。这是将了不起的事情，但这不是美国农业补贴造成的，是农业生产效率的改进的结果。”

Farmers are proud of all that productivity, and it has driven crop prices down.But shouldn't farm subsidies themselves make food cheaper? When the government picks up part of the cost of something, shouldn't the price go down?

美国农民对如此高的产量感到自豪，同时粮食的高产也是食品价格下降的原因之一。但美国农民因为得到了补助而让粮食的价格下降了吗？如果美国政府不再给农民补助，食品的价格就能上涨吗？

Alston says not necessarily. "What's wrong with that line of thinking is that it doesn't pay attention to how farm subsidies actually do work."

阿尔斯通认为没有美国政府的补助，美国食品价格不一定上涨。阿尔斯通说：“认为美国政府的补助让食品价格维持在低位想法的人没有看到美国政府的补助到底起了什么作用。”

Some Government Policies Actually Raise Food Prices

一些美国政府的政策实际上提高了食品的价格

Subsidies are not the only way the government influences farmers. Some federal programs do make crops cheaper: Subsidized crop insurance and other traditional price supports make food more abundant and reduce prices. But some policies actually increaseprices.

对农业提供补助只是美国政府对美国农民施加影响的手段之一。一些联邦政府的规划确实让粮食价格下降，如补助农作物保险及其他传统农作物价格保障措施，手段让美国食品的种类变得更丰富而价格却更低廉。但另一些美国政府的政策却让食品价格上涨。

In that category would be "getting paid not to plant": some farmers get federal money to let land lay fallow. That cuts production and raises prices. Same goes for tariffs – if there's a tariff on imported sugar, it tends to boost the price of all sweeteners, including corn syrup. And ethanol production, which is supported by a federal mandate, now buys up about 40 percent of the corn crop — again raising prices.

美国政府有一项政策名为“不种地，得补贴”的政策：美国联邦政府给一些农民钱，让他们的土地休耕；这项政策毫无疑问使得美国粮食产量下降，食品价格变得更高。一些关税措施也让食品的价格上涨，例如美国政府对进口糖类征收关税，在美国国内，包括糖浆在内的甜味剂也会涨价。此外，美国联邦政府还授权支持甲烷生产业，现在美国的甲烷生产也购买了美国玉米产量的百分之四十，这肯定会让食品的价格上涨。

"The net effect of the whole set of farm supports is to make food more expensive and actually to discourage obesity," Alston says.

阿尔斯通：“这些让价格上涨的政府政策产生的效果就是食品的价格越来越贵；很明显，这不是导致美国人肥胖的原因。”

Robert Paarlberg, who teaches political science at Wellesley and Harvard, has tried pointing this out. "Farm subsidies have nothing to do with it," he says. "You almost never get any interest in trying to make the counter-argument. People assume that you're a crank if you dare to challenge what everyone knows to be true."

罗伯特.帕勒贝格是在韦尔兹利大学和哈佛大学教政治科学的教师，他指出：“美国政府的农业补助与美国食品价格的关系不大。没有人对此会提出反对意见；实际上，如果某个人对已经是公认的事实提出质疑，人们会认为这个人是个脾气古怪的人。”

There are some obesity experts who agree with Paarlberg and Alston, including Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

一些肥胖专家对帕勒贝格和阿尔斯通的观点表示赞同，玛格.伍坦就是其中之一。玛格.伍坦是公众利益科学中心的营养政策主管。

"I'm very concerned about how hard it is to eat well in America today," she says. "Our food environment has evolved in a way that it's almost perfectly engineered to promote or cause obesity."

玛格.伍坦说：“我注意到要在美国吃到健康食品是一件很困难的事情，我们的食品环境已经变得使用工程手段来增加或导致美国人肥胖。”

Wootan says that environment isn't shaped by farm policy nearly as much as it is by food processors and marketers.

伍坦说美国食品环境是美国食品加工厂商和食品市场经销商决定的，美国农民在其中起到的作用十分有限。

For example, even when corn prices doubled, the price of corn flakes barely moved. That's because food ingredient costs are miniscule compared to other expenses. On average, less than one in five dollars consumers spend on food actually goes to farmers and ranchers. Shipping, packaging, processing and marketing and selling make up the rest of your grocery bill.

例如，当玉米的价格翻了一番时，加工好的玉米粒的价格却没有多少变动。因为食品原料的价格只是食品价格的很小的一部分。平均下来，消费者每天花在食品上的钱，只有不到五美元的钱转到了美国农民或牧民的手中，而食品运输、包装、加工、营销和销售包装的花费占到了食品价格的大部分。

"Companies are really competing very aggressively to sell their food and not somebody else's food," Wooten says. "And that's creating more and more food that Americans are eating, and as a result, we're gaining a lot of weight."

伍坦表示：“各个食品公司想尽办法来销售自己的食品，这就是美国人越吃越多的原因，也是导致美国人肥胖的原因。”

And as a Wooten's group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, regularly points out, processed foods are often loaded with salt, sugar and fat.

正如伍坦所在的公众利益科学中心的团队经常指出的一样，加工食品通常含有盐、糖和脂肪的成分。