美国国家公共电台 NPR USDA Unveils Prototypes For GMO Food Labels, And They're ... Confusing

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Foods that contain genetically¹ modified ingredients will soon be required to have a special label. NPR's Merrit Kennedy reports that we're now seeing what that label might look like.

MERRIT KENNEDY, BYLINE²: About two years ago, Congress passed a law that GMO foods had to be labeled.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: On this vote, the yeas are 306. The nays³ are 117.

KENNEDY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture was put in charge of figuring out the specifics. It got 112,000 responses when it asked for feedback from consumers, farmers and manufacturers, among others. Earlier this month, it unveiled the contenders. And they all look kind of like the labels you'd see on health food. Their brightly colored with greens and blues⁴ and yellows. They feature the letters BE. Below that, some of them have a curved line.

GEORGE KIMBRELL: I mean, they look like a little smiley face.

KENNEDY: George Kimbrell is the legal director for the Center for Food Safety, which pushed for labels. He's not happy with this design. The BE stands for bioengineered - a term critics say is unfamiliar⁵ to the public.

KIMBRELL: It's misleading and confusing to consumers to now switch that up and use a totally different term, bioengineered, that has not been the standard commonplace nomenclature for all of this time.

KENNEDY: People are more aware of terms like genetically engineered or GMO, which stands for genetically modified organism. In fact, grocery store shelves already have a lot of products with the label non-GMO. Kimbrell would prefer that foods with genetically modified ingredients be labeled with a circle around a G or GMO. But industry representatives, such as Nathan Fields of the National Corn Growers Association, say the term bioengineered provides a clean slate⁶.

NATHAN FIELDS: There is some connotations around some of the other terms that have been used that do cast the technology in a negative light.

KENNEDY: More than 90 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered. The same is true of crops like soy and sugar beets⁷. Although long-term risks of GMO are hard to pin down, scientists have not found hard evidence that these crops are any less healthy to humans than other crops. Nevertheless, the public wants these labels. Polls show that a majority of Americans want to know whether their food is genetically engineered. Advocates, like George Kimbrell, say the people want to have the tools to make an informed choice about what they buy, and labels should make that possible.

KIMBRELL: It's the tip of the spear as to the future of our food and the debate, as a society, that we're having about it and how we produce it.

KENNEDY: The USDA's proposal, which runs over 100 pages, leaves a lot up in the air. Authorities haven't decided⁸ whether labels should go on foods made with highly refined products, like canola oil or cornstarch. And companies may be able to simply use a QR code, a kind of barcode that a phone can scan, to disclose facts about the product. So despite the debate over the smiley BE labels, a lot of companies might just choose not to use them. The public has until July 3 to submit comments on the USDA's proposal. Merrit Kennedy, NPR News, Washington.

1 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 nays   

n.反对票，投反对票者( nay的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tally was two ayes and three nays. 投票结果是两票赞成，三票反对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tally was three yeas and two nays, so the yeas have it. 投票结果是三票赞成两票反对，投赞成票者胜利。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

5 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

6 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

7 beets   

甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红

参考例句：

• Beets are Hank's favorite vegetable. 甜菜根是汉克最爱吃的蔬菜。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。