转基因那么的好，为什么还要秘而不宣？

今天从土壤协会网站上面翻译下来的，请大家多多指教！ 我反对转基因！！！ If GM is so great, why hide it in food? 06 July 2016 In this blog, our Policy Director Peter Melchett investigates a declining industry and asks: if GM (Genetically Modified) crops are so great, why does the US Government want to keep GM food a secret? 在这篇文章中，英国土壤协会（Soil Association）政策主管 Peter Melchett 调查了一个走向衰退的产业并提出质疑：如果转基因作物如此的好，为什么美国政府依然想为转基因食物保密？ Last year, Vermont became the first US state to pass a law requiring GM food to be clearly labelled, and the law will come into force on Wednesday (6 July 2016) – or will it? Vermont’s brave stand for transparency in food labelling has already encouraged many US brands to drop GM ingredients or to clearly label their products as containing GM ingredients. But now the US Senate is about to pass a Federal law, known as the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know) that will pre-empt Vermont’s law, and not require clear GM labelling of the sort many countries in the world enjoy, including the UK. Big food companies and the GM industry have poured millions of dollars to back GM secrecy. Why? 去年，佛蒙特州成为美国第一个通过立法要求转基因食品标签透明化的州。该项法律于2016年7月6日生效。佛蒙特州在食品标签透明化的勇敢举措，鼓励和迫使许多美国品牌商放弃了在食品中使用转基因成分或者清楚的标明含有转基因成分。但现在，美国参议院即将通过一项联邦法案，所谓的《黑暗法案》（剥夺消费者的知情权）。该法案将使佛蒙特州标签透明法成为一页废纸，美国的食品将不再需要告知世界诸多国家的消费者，食品中是否含有转基因成分。大型食品公司和转基因行业耗费数百万美金，竭尽全力企图掩盖转基因的真相。 原因何在？ Given a choice, people do not buy GM food - it never really succeeded in the UK or European market. The only significant consumer market in the world where GM food has taken hold is in the USA, but there it has long been known that the overwhelming majority of American citizens say they do not eat GM food (and most do not want to) - the market has flourished in ignorance. That is now breaking down, with a series of state ballots demanding labelling of GM food, and hundreds of millions of dollars being spent by big food manufacturers to try and prevent this happening. Vermont is changing the face of US food, with companies like Danone, Nestle and Del Monte announcing that rather than label their food as containing GM, they will start to get rid of GM ingredients altogether. 假如有的选择，没有人会买转基因食品。 转基因食品从未在英国或者欧洲市场取得成功。美国是转基因食品在全世界范围唯一一个如此重要的消费市场。但众所周知的是，绝大多数美国人都宣称他们没有食用转基因食品（很多人是不愿意食用），转基因市场就在消费者的不知情下泛滥扩张。如今这种局面正在被打破，一系列的州投票呼吁转基因食品透明化，而大型食品制造公司耗费数亿美金企图阻止这种情况的发生。佛蒙特州正在改变美国食品的面孔，很多企业如达能、雀巢、德尔蒙都宣称他们将选择开始在他们的食品中去除转基因成分。 In Europe, countries covering over half the farmed land, like Germany, France and Scotland, have decided against GM crops. European countries are not the only ones with concerns about GM – there are now more countries in the world that have banned GM than allow those that them. 在欧洲，一些耕地面积占半数的国家，如德国、法国和苏格兰，都反对转基因。并非只有欧洲国家对转基因忧心忡忡，现在有更多的国家加入这一阵营明文禁止转基因。 The UK has always been a strong supporter of bringing GM crops to Europe (regularly failing to reflect the opposition to GM in Scotland and Wales, which currently do not have direct representation at EU discussions). When the UK leaves, that will weaken the pro-GM forces inside the EU, especially if Scotland stays in, making Europe more strongly anti-GM than previously. 英国一度是将转基因作物引入欧盟的强有力支持者（通常他不会表达苏格兰和威尔士反对转基因的立场，因为他们目前没有在欧盟讨论中的直接代表）。英国脱欧将会削弱欧盟中支持转基因的力量，特别在苏格兰留下的情况下，欧盟反对转基因的呼声将更甚之前。 The market, not the views of politicians, GM companies and pro-GM scientists, have always decided the fate of GM crops and food, and that looks likely to continue. In England there has been no let-up in the constant stream of GM propaganda from pro-GM campaigners, from the Royal Society to the UK government. There is no doubt most these people genuinely believe that the only way of solving our problems are technical fixes, and they see GM as a prime example of that. The fact that it is clearly incapable of fixing the multiple challenges facing agriculture in regions like Europe and the Americas, to say nothing of developing countries, simply passes them by. There is no way that GM crops can help restore our damaged and still declining farmland wildlife, and there is no evidence of any GM crop helping to reduce farming’s large greenhouse gas emissions by the 80% required. GM crops have not delivered on any of their promises - they haven’t increased yields, they haven’t cured blindness in developing countries and they aren’t better for wildlife. 市场决定了转基因作物和转基因食品的命运，而并非政治家、转基因公司和支持转基因的科学家。在英格兰，从转基因拥护者、英国皇家学会到英国政府，对转基因的鼓吹宣传并未停止。毫无疑问，这些人坚信科学技术能够帮助解决我们的困难，转基因就是其中一个主要的例子。事实上，转基因显然无法解决诸如欧洲和美洲地区在农业上面临的众多挑战（此处对发展中国家不做讨论，他们通常很轻易的接受了转基因）。转基因农作物无法修复每况愈下的农田野生环境，也没有任何证据表明，转基因农作物如预期的那样，能够减少80%农业温室气体的排放。转基因农作物没有兑现它许下的任何承诺——不能提高产量，不能阻止发展中国家盲目过度的开垦，不能更有益于我们的野生环境。 So here we have a technology which is failing on the farm, causing massive problems for some of the richest and the poorest farmers in the world, leading to increases not decreases in chemical spraying, not reducing the need for manufactured fertiliser and not increasing yields. In the market, GM has such a bad name thatSo here we have a technology which is failing on the farm, causing massive problems for some of the richest and the poorest farmers in the world, leading to increases not decreases in chemical spraying, not reducing the need for manufactured fertiliser and not increasing yields. In the market, GM has such a bad name that it can only be sold in quantity if people do not know it is there. Honest labelling, and clear information, like that called for in Vermont, allows free markets to work, and then GM gets nowhere. Whatever happens to Vermont’s honest labelling law, they have lifted the lid on a secret can of worms that can’t be shut again. A ‘non-GM’ label is the fastest growing food label in the US, which also has the largest growing market for organic food, which has more than doubled since 2006, to over $40 billion today Honest labelling, and clear information, like that called for in Vermont, allows free markets to work, and then GM gets nowhere. Whatever happens to Vermont’s honest labelling law, they have lifted the lid on a secret can of worms that can’t be shut again. A ‘non-GM’ label is the fastest growing food label in the US, which also has the largest growing market for organic food, which has more than doubled since 2006, to over $40 billion today.。 所以说，转基因是一项失败的农业技术，给世界上无论贫穷还是富有的农民造成了巨大的问题：增加而并非减少化学喷洒，无法减少化肥的使用需求，也没有提高产量。转基因在市场上臭名昭著，但如果人们并不知晓哪些产品含有转基因成分，转基因制品依然在大量的销售。 正如佛特蒙州呼吁的那样，如实的标签和明确的商品信息会促进市场的自由和公平，转基因产品将无处可遁。无论佛蒙特州的标签透明法将命归何处，他已经解开了一个秘密，一个无法再被掩盖的秘密。 “非转基因”的食品标签在美国大量涌现，伴随而来的是，有机食品的超速增长，超过了400亿美金的规模，比2006年翻了一翻。 If a government decides to build a nuclear power station, there is very little ordinary people can do about it until an election comes around, and even then they may not have a realistic choice of an anti-nuclear government. But food is different. We eat roughly 3 times a day – so we vote about what we eat three times daily, every day of the year, year in year out. We are certainly manipulated by powerful corporations, by fashion, by the media, and particularly, we are influenced by what our friends and family think about food. But at the end of the day, neither the American Senate, the British Prime Minister, nor the President of the Royal Society, decide what you put in your mouth – you do. That is why the GM industry is on the ropes and in decline worldwide. 如果政府决定兴修一座核电站，除非选举投票，我们普通人无计可施。 当然，就算是选举，我们也没办法选择一个反核的政府。 但是食品不一样，这事关我们的一食三餐，我们有权利决定我们在日复一日年复一年中吃什么。长期以来，大型的食品公司通过时尚和媒体等控制我们的选择，甚至我们也受朋友和家庭的食物观影响。但如果这样的时代结束了，不是美国参议院，不是英国首相，也不是皇家学会决定你应该吃什么，而是由你自己决定。 这才是为什么转基因产业走向没落，逐渐 被驱赶出世界市场的原因。