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Urban Food Foraging¹ Looks Fruitful 城市水果优点多

Foraging for food in urban areas is on the rise. Not dumpster diving. Collecting fruits and herbs.

在城市觅食越来越流行。当然啦，不是在垃圾堆里翻找食物。而是采摘水果和香草。

Throughout cities, forgotten fruit trees still produce, well, produce. For example, there was a peach tree in my former backyard in Somerville, near Boston. And today there are even maps to some of those trees so foragers can take advantage of free produce that otherwise goes largely uneaten—by people, anyway.

城市里被遗忘的果树仍在结果实。例如，我以前的家在波士顿、 萨默维尔市，后院里，就有一颗桃树。现在，甚至有关于这些树木的地图，这样采摘者们就可以利用自由生产的水果，不然的话，大部分的这些水果也不会被人们吃掉。

But after one member of what’s called the League of Urban Canners in the Boston area was discovered to have relatively² high levels of blood lead, researchers at Wellesley College decided³ to test urban fruit and herbs. They wanted to see if the fruit posed a threat due to lead or other contaminants in urban soils.

但是人们发现波斯顿地区的罐头联盟的某种产品血铅含量相当高。之后，威尔斯利学院的研究人员决定对城市水果以及香草进行检测。他们想知道城市土壤中的铅或者其他污染物是否导致城市的水果已构成威胁。

The League of Urban Canners provided 166 samples of foraged⁴ fruit, including apples, peaches, and cherries, and herbs. The scientists dehydrated samples in a manner similar to that of the urban canners, and they compared those specimens⁵ to commercially available fruit.

城市罐装罐头联盟提供了166个采摘水果的样本，其中有苹果、桃子、樱桃和香草。科学家们采用城市罐头制作的类似方法对水果样本进行脱水，并将这些标本与商业水果进行比较。

Apples did indeed contain lead. But the amount in an average apple was significantly lower than what the EPA considers safe in a day’s supply of tap water.

苹果样本中的确含有铅。但是，苹果的平均含铅量远低于EPA认为的日均自来水中含铅量安全标本。

Next, the team investigated the nutrients⁶ in foraged urban fruit. And the picked fruit in general had higher levels of most micronutrients than did store-bought fruit. Calcium⁷ and iron were higher in all urban samples, and other nutrients including manganese, zinc⁸, magnesium⁹ and potassium were higher in some urban fruits. The study was presented at a recent meeting of the Geological Society of America.

接下来，研究团队调查了城市采摘水果的营养含量。与在商店中购买的水果相比，总体而言，采摘水果的微量元素含量偏高。在所有的样本中，钙和铁的含量都偏高，同时在一些城市采摘水果中，锰、锌、镁、钾的含量都较高。该研究结果在美国地质学会最近召开的一次会议上公布。

The scientists thus conclude that it’s safe and healthy to eat fruit from most urban trees in common spaces. Just make sure that peach does not belong to somebody else before you pick it.

因此，科学家们得出结论，大多数地区城市树木结的水果是安全无害的。你只需要确认自己拿的不是别人的桃子就行了。