Congress has passed sweeping legislation aimed at making the U.S. food supply safer.
The bill gives the government broad new powers to inspect processing plants, order recalls and impose stricter standards for imported foods. And, rather than having to waiting for an outbreak to start before it can order a recall, the Food and Drug Administration will now require producers to draw up detailed food safety plans to reduce contamination risks before food goes to market.
While the new law tightens regulations on food producers, it does exempt small producers. That's a concession to the growing local-food movement in the United States.
Sickened
U.S. health authorities say one in six Americans gets sick from food borne illness each year. Rylee Gustafson was one of them.
美国卫生当局说，每年，每六个美国人中就有一人得食源性疾病。
When she was nine years old, Rylee ate spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria. She was one of the worst affected of at least 200 people in 26 states who got sick in that 2006 outbreak.
2006年的“毒菠菜”事件影响了全美26个州的消费者。当时只有9岁的赖利·古斯塔夫森因为吃了被大肠杆菌污染的菠菜而患病，是至少200名重症患者之一。
She says it started with cramps and diarrhea, but got much worse. "Blood just started coming out and it was just really gruesome and very terrifying because I didn't know what was happening to me."
古斯塔夫森说，最初，她只是肚子疼和腹泻，之后，病情越来越严重，“最后，我开始便血，非常可怕，我不知道到底怎么了。”
Rylee got so sick her kidneys shut down and she may eventually need a transplant.
古斯塔夫森说，她病得非常严重，结果导致肾衰竭。她最终可能需要肾脏移植。
More recently, outbreaks linked to eggs, peanut butter and other foods affecting hundreds of people in multiple states have also drawn a great deal of attention.
最近几年，美国有好几个州爆发了与鸡蛋、花生酱以及其它食品有关的污染事件，导致数百人中毒 ，引起社会的高度关注。
Making changes
The new law aims to prevent those outbreaks.
皮尤慈善信托基金会的食品安全运动主任桑德拉·埃斯金指出，新的法律旨在避免这类事件爆发。
"You've got a real shift here, a paradigm shift in how the government ensures that the food supply is safer," says Sandra Eskin, food safety campaign director at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
她说：“我们有了一个真正的转变，政府在如何确保食品供应的安全方面有一个质变。”
She says tightened regulation is especially important in today's food production system. While contamination is rare, a little bit can go a long way. "Any initial contamination can be compounded and, again, spread widely if a product is mixed with other non-contaminated products."
埃斯金认为，这在当今的食品生产体系中尤其重要。她说，虽然食品污染非常罕见，但是，千里之堤，溃于蚁穴，“任何最初的污染都会使问题加重。如果一种食品和其它没有被污染的食品混在一起，病菌就会广泛传播。”
She says it was the mixing of contaminated and non-contaminated spinach, shipped nationwide, that caused the widespread 2006 outbreak.
埃斯金指出，导致2006年“毒菠菜”事件大爆发的原因就是被污染和没有被污染的菠菜混在一起，被运送到了全美各地。
Industrial v. local food
Opposition to the industrial food system is one of the factors behind a growing local food movement. The number of markets where consumers can buy directly from small, local farmers has more than doubled in the last decade, to more than 6,000 nationwide.
消费者直接购买当地小农场主出产的农产品，这类市场过去10年来增加了一倍多，超过了6千个。
Monika Blaumueller lives near one such market in Washington, D.C. "I have a lot of confidence in the food. I know that things are done in small batches. That makes it more sanitary."
莫妮卡·布劳穆勒在华盛顿的住家附近就有这么一个市场。布劳穆勒说：“我非常相信这里的食品。我知道，它们都是小批量生产，所以更加卫生。”
She might feel safer but experts say local food carries the same risks. However, fewer people would be affected by an outbreak at a smaller-scale farmers' market than at a food factory.
但是，专家不同意这种说法。他们指出，和食品加工厂相比，如果农贸市场发生食品污染事件，受影响的人比较少，但是地方出产的食品存在同样的风险。
Small farmers worried that rules intended for big corporations would squash the local food movement.
全美可持续性农业联盟执行主任苏珊·普罗曼说，一些小农场主担心，针对大食品厂商制定的食品安全法会把食品本地化运动压垮。
"A one-size-fits-all approach would have put small farmers and ranches out of business or prevented them from providing locally produced, healthy, fresh food to consumers who want it," says Susan Prolman, executive director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
她说：“采取一刀切的方法会导致一些小农场主和农场倒闭，或者使他们无法向有需要的消费者提供地方出产的健康、新鲜的食品。”
In an indication of how popular the movement has become, advocates won an exemption from the regulations for growers below a certain size who sell to local markets.
食品地方化的推动者为供应当地市场的小种植者争得了免受相关规定约束的权利，从而显示了这个运动是多么受欢迎。
That's a mistake, says Tom O'Brien, an attorney for the industry trade group the Produce Marketing Association.
但食品业贸易组织农产品市场协会的律师汤姆·奥布莱恩认为，这种作法是错误的。
"There's an assumption that there are two separate and distinct markets for food: one of large guys and one of small. At least in the produce industry, that's not how it works. It's really an integrated market."
他说：“有人认为，有两个分开的独立的市场，一个是大市场，另一个是小市场。但是，至少农产品市场不是这样的。这是一个综合性市场。”
And, he notes, a growing number of restaurants and big supermarket chains buy locally grown produce. That will make it hard for consumers to know whether or not their food is protected by the new law.
奥布莱恩指出，目前，越来越多的大型超市连锁店和餐馆也都购买本地出产的农产品。这使消费者很难了解他们的食品是否受到新法律的保护。
Despite that drawback, most food safety advocates support the new law and say it should reduce the number of Americans like Rylee Gustafson who get sick from tainted food.
大多数食品安全倡议人士支持新通过的食品安全法。他们指出，尽管存在一些缺陷，但这个法律有助于减少因为吃污染食物而患病的人数。 |