纽约时报 疫情下的屠宰场 食品链最薄弱的环节(4)（在线收听）

Another major meatpacking company, JBS, changed its mind about large-scale testing over a single weekend.

另一家大型肉类包装公司JBS只用了一个周末的时间就转变了对大规模检测的看法。

On April 10, JBS announced that it had worked with Gov. Jared Polis and other officials in Colorado

4月10日，JBS宣布，公司已与科罗拉多州州长贾里德·波利斯及其他官员达成合作，

to obtain thousands of coronavirus testing kits for its work force at a beef production facility in Greeley where there had been a surge of cases.

为该公司位于感染人数已经激增的格里利的一家牛肉加工厂的员工争取到了数千个新冠病毒检测试剂盒。

But after it began testing the next day, the company changed course,

然而，第二天刚开始检测，该公司就改变主意，

saying it would not administer the tests and would instead close the plant until April 24 so employees could go into quarantine.

称公司决定暂停提供测试，改为停工到4月24日，以便员工能加入隔离队伍。

The company recognized the "potential positive impact of temporary closure on public health," Cameron Bruett, a JBS spokesman, said.

因为公司认识到“暂时停工对公众健康具有潜在的积极作用”，JBS发言人卡梅隆·布鲁特说道。

On Wednesday, Colorado officials reported that four workers at the JBS plant had died of the virus.

周三，科罗拉多州官员报告称，JBS工厂已有四名工人感染新冠病毒不治身亡。

Mr.Polis has urged the federal government to "help get JBS open as soon as possible, because of their critical role in food security," said Conor Cahill, a spokesman for the governor.

州长波利斯已经敦促联邦政府“帮助JBS尽快复工，因为它们在食品安全方面扮演着不可或缺的角色，”据州长发言人康纳·卡希尔透露。

"It is still unclear whether JBS will conduct testing."

“目前仍不清楚JBS是否会重启检测。”

Large numbers of employees have become infected in other businesses where people work close together, like grocery stores and e-commerce warehouses.

超市和电商仓库等需要工作人员密切配合的场所也出现了大量员工感染的情况。

But the pandemic has caused more serious disruption in the meat industry,

不过，相比之下，这场疫情对肉类行业造成的破坏最为严重，

where decades of consolidation have given outsize importance to a relatively small number of plants.

因为经过数十年的行业整合，如今，大部分蛋糕都掌握在了一小部分加工厂手里。

In the 1980s and ‘90s, companies like Smithfield, which is now owned by a Chinese pork company,

上世纪80~90年代，史密斯菲尔德——如今已经被中国的一家猪肉公司收购——等公司

bought out competitors and designed massive plants that could slaughter more than a million animals a year.

就已买断竞争对手的股份，随后规划出的大型工厂年屠宰量可达100万头以上。

At the same time, meatpacking became more concentrated in a few states where animal feed is grown, like Iowa and South Dakota.

与此同时，整个肉类加工行业也开始了往为数不多的几个种植动物饲料的州收缩，如爱荷华州和南达科他州。

In the pork industry, the portion of hogs slaughtered in plants that could process more than one million a year

农业部的数据显示，在猪肉行业，从1977年到1997年，

rose to 88 percent in 1997 from 38 percent in 1977, according to the Department of Agriculture.

每年能够加工100万头生猪以上的加工厂的屠宰比例从38%上升到了88%。

A bigger plant meant more profits on the initial investment.

工厂更大意味着初步投资的利润也就更大。

In recent years, critics of the meat industry have blamed that rapid consolidation for the spread of animal diseases like avian flu, as well as the rise of environmentally harmful practices like factory farming.

禽流感等动物疾病的传播，有害环境的工厂化养殖日益普遍，近年来，这些问题都被肉类行业的评论人士归结到了上述快速整合的做法上。

The pandemic has reignited those longstanding concerns.

这次的新冠肺炎疫情再次点燃了这一由来已久的担忧。

"When you get to this kind of size, it increases risk," said Ben Lilliston, who helps run the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a farm advocacy group.

“当你加工厂的规模达到了这个级别，你面临的风险也就大了，”正在帮助运营农业权益组织“农业与贸易政策研究所”的本·利利斯顿说道。

"When something goes wrong in a really big plant like this, you have a really big problem.

“这么大的工厂一旦出问题，就绝不会是小问题。

These are vulnerable systems."

这些系统都是很脆弱的。”