“爆炸瓜”再曝中国食品安全隐患

飞雪寒冰

Housewives across China are fretting that their watermelons are not safe to eat after state media reported melons were being injected with a plant growth stimulant called forchlorfenuron, raising fears of yet another food safety scandal.
中国的家庭主妇们正在担心，西瓜吃起来不安全。此前官方媒体报道称，西瓜被注射了一种名为膨大剂（化学名称为氯吡苯脲）的植物生长刺激素，这引发了对又一桩食品安全丑闻的担忧。

“I don’t know what I can eat after this watermelon explosion event,” said one user on Sina’s microblog platform, which is China’s biggest online comment forum.
中国最大在线论坛——新浪(Sina)微博平台上的一名用户说：“听到这个西瓜爆炸事件后，我不知道自己还能吃什么。”

飞雪寒冰

Watermelons are ubiquitous in the Beijing summer, when most households keep a chilled melon in the fridge to alleviate the summer heat. But this year the innocuous fruit has given rise to its very own food safety scandal.
在北京的夏季里，西瓜随处可见，大多数家庭都会在冰箱里放上一个西瓜，以缓解暑热。但今年，这种无辜的水果却陷入了自己的食品安全丑闻中。

In the city of Danyang, near Nanjing, watermelons planted across 115 acres of land split open after a heavy rainfall, state media reported. According to Wang Liangju, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University who inspected the damaged crops last week, the melons burst open because a plant growth stimulant, forchlorfenuron, was applied too early in the growing cycle.
官方媒体报道，在靠近南京的丹阳市，115英亩瓜地里的西瓜在一次强降雨后出现爆裂。上周视察了现场的南京农业大学(Nanjing Agricultural University)教授汪良驹表示，西瓜之所以爆裂，是因为一种植物生长刺激素——膨大剂——在西瓜生长过程中，被过早地使用了。

飞雪寒冰

The burst watermelons follow on the heels of several food safety scandals this year, from tainted pork, to “recycled” cooking oil, to rice laced with heavy metals. Even three years after the melamine scandal that poisoned thousands of children with toxic infant formula, food scandals have continued unabated and public paranoia over food remains high. In Beijing, some upper-middle class urbanites have even taken to growing their own small plots of vegetables outside the city to ensure their quality.
在此次西瓜爆裂事件之前，今年还爆出了另外几桩食品安全丑闻，从瘦肉精猪肉、地沟油，再到含有重金属的大米。尽管三聚氰胺丑闻——有毒婴幼儿配方奶粉导致数以千计儿童中毒——已过去了三年时间，但食品丑闻仍然势头不减，公众在食品问题方面神经依然高度紧张。在北京，一些中上阶层居民甚至已开始去郊区自己种植蔬菜，以确保其质量。

The exploding watermelon phenomenon has been well-known in Jiangsu province for years, but it captured national attention with a TV report that aired Monday.
西瓜爆裂的现象在江苏省已存在多年，但此次引起全国关注，是因为周一播出的一则电视报道。

飞雪寒冰

“Everyone in the Nanjing area calls this variety the “exploding watermelon” because it has such thin skin that it will easier break open when you try to cut it,” state media quoted Wang saying, adding that this particular strain of melon had been imported from Japan.
官方媒体援引汪良驹的话称：“所有南京地区的人都称这种品种叫做‘爆炸瓜’，因为它的瓜皮薄到你刚一去切它，它就很容易破开。”汪良驹接着表示，这种特殊的西瓜品种是从日本引进的。

The chemical applied to the watermelons is commonly used around the world to stimulate fruit growth. In the US it has been linked to kidney inflammation in rats, according to the US environmental protection agency.
用在西瓜上的这种化学药剂，在全世界范围内被普遍用于刺激水果生长。但美国国家环境保护局表示，在美国的实验中，它被认为与老鼠的肾脏炎症有关。

飞雪寒冰

While exploding watermelons may not be the new melamine, they point to a greater challenge for Chinese agriculture: regulating the use of fertilizers and pesticides. “Chinese farmers, whose education levels are generally low, should be told when and how to use plant hormones, fertilizers and pesticide,” said Wang.
尽管“爆炸瓜”或许不会成为新的三聚氰胺，但它们暴露出了中国农业面临的一个更大挑战：规范化肥和农药的使用。汪良驹表示：“中国农民教育水平普遍较低，应该告诉他们何时、以及如何使用植物生长调节剂、化肥与农药。”

Most Chinese farms are small, family-run plots, and farmers often assume that more fertilizer, or more forchlorfenuron in this case, is always better. Overuse of fertilizer and pesticides has in many areas stripped the soil of nutrients or made it too acidic, as well as contributing to river and lake pollution.
大多数中国农地都是家庭管理的小块田地。农民们通常认为，化肥施得越多——在这个案例中是膨大剂——效果越好。在许多地区，化肥与农药的过度使用已经造成土壤营养成分流失、过度酸化，而且污染了河流与湖水。