TE||For better or worse
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导读
有机食品那么贵，值得吗？
（一刻视频，强烈推荐观看）
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For better or worse
更好或更坏
本文英文部分选自经济学人Science and Technology版块
Spraying herbicides changes the flavour and nutritional value of crops
喷除草剂会改变农作物的风味和营养价值
The role of agricultural chemicals in food
农用化学品在食物中扮演的角色
GARDENERS know only too well how hard it is to keep on top of weeds, because hoeing and pulling them out is back-breaking work. With big fields to look after, most farmers turn to herbicides. Over the years these chemicals have become better at knocking out weeds but leaving commercial crops alone. Organic farmers do not use artificial herbicides, and can suffer lower yields as a result. Which system produces the “better” crop is open to debate, although it is known that crops sprayed with herbicides are biochemically transformed in subtle ways. New work shows those changes in treated crops are substantial enough to change both their nutritional value and flavour.
人工除草是一项特别辛苦的工作，因此园丁们都非常了解控制杂草有多困难。由于种植面积很大，绝大多数农户都倾向于使用除草剂。这些年来，这些化学制品可以更好地存良去莠。有机农场场主们不使用化学合成的除草剂，所以产量也更低。虽然我们都知道，喷洒了除草剂的农作物会发生一些细微的生化变化，但哪种方法可以产出“更好”的农作物依然值得商榷。新的研究表明，这些变化足以改变它们的营养价值和风味。
The investigation was led by Matthew Cutulle, a horticulturalist at Clemson University in South Carolina, in collaboration with Greg Armel at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and their colleagues. They ran an extensive series of trials on large fields growing sweet corn, a widely eaten vegetable.
南卡罗来纳州克莱姆森大学园艺学家马修卡特勒（Matthew Cutulle）、诺克斯维尔田纳西大学的格雷格阿梅尔（Greg Armel）以及他们的同事做了一项研究调查，他们对一个广泛食用的、大面积种植的甜玉米进行了一系列广泛的试验。
The team worked with the four commonly used herbicides: mesotrione, topramezone, nicosulfuron and atrazine. These are often used in combination with safeners, which are chemicals that selectively help protect crops from herbicide damage. Hence a safener called isoxadifen-ethyl was also included in the experiment, sometimes pairing it with the herbicides and sometimes allowing the herbicides to work on their own.
研究人员对四种常用除草剂展开了研究：甲基磺草酮、苯吡唑草酮、烟嘧磺隆和阿特拉津。这些（除草剂）通常是结合安全剂一起使用，所谓安全剂就是会选择性地保护农作物免受除草剂伤害的化学物。因此一种名为双苯恶唑酸的保护剂也被加入到这项实验中，或混合使用，或单独使用除草剂。
The researchers planted sweet corn in several plots split between two different locations. When the plants were between five and ten centimeters in height, they exposed each plot to one of seven different herbicide/
safener combinations. As a control, one field was treated with atrazine before the corn was planted (a full control using no herbicides at all would have been destroyed by weeds without an overwhelming amount of hand weeding). After 45 days the sweet corn was gathered. The mature kernels were analyzed for levels of antioxidants, sugars, amino acids, proteins, fatty acids, minerals and fiber.
研究人员在两处不同地点的几片田里种植了甜玉米。他们用除草剂和安全剂配制了七种混合剂，待植株生长到五至十厘米高时, 会在每片玉米田里施加七种之一的除草剂/安全剂组合。。作为对照组，在播种玉米前, 他们用阿特拉津（atrazine）对一片农田作了除草处理 (无法进行大面积人工除草，如果不使用任何除草剂，杂草对田地的破坏会影响参照效果)。45天后, 成熟的甜玉米被收集起来。研究人员对成熟的玉米粒进行了抗氧化物、糖、氨基酸、蛋白质、脂肪酸、矿物质和纤维含量的检测分析。
Sugary outcome
含糖量检测结果
The results, just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that applying herbicides increased the amount of protein that the plants stored in their kernels by as little as 4% and as much as 12% when nicosulfuron was combined with the safener. The amounts of mineral taken up by the plants increased as well, with levels of phosphorous, magnesium and manganese going up by between 14% and 51% and iron content rising by 67% in plants exposed to the nicosulfuron/safener combination. The balance of sugars found in the tissues of the sweet corn changed as well. Fructose concentrations shot up by 48% upon exposure to nicosulfuron; 63% to topramezone and 68% to the nicosulfuron/safener combination. Glucose concentrations increased by 19% with mesotrione, 40% with topramezone and 43% with the nicosulfuron/safener combination. In contrast, sucrose levels in the corn dropped.
刚刚发表在《农业和食品化学》期刊上的研究结果显示, 当安全剂一起使用时，除草剂增加了存储在植物谷粒中蛋白质的量，增幅最少为4%，最多为12%。玉米所占的矿物质含量也增加了：磷、镁和锰含量上升了14%到51% , 铁含量在施加了安全剂和烟嘧磺隆混合剂的玉米中上升了67%。在甜玉米组织中的各糖分浓度也发生了变化。分别施加烟嘧磺隆、苯吡唑草酮(topramezone)和安全剂与烟嘧磺隆混合剂后，果糖浓度分别急速上升了48%、63% 和68%；分别施加硝草酮（mesotrione）、苯吡唑草酮和安全剂与烟嘧磺隆混合剂后，葡萄糖浓度依次上升了19% 、40% 与43%；相比之下, 玉米中的蔗糖含量则下降了。
It remains unclear precisely how these changes affect the flavour of sweetcorn, although Dr Cutulle thinks they are probably big enough to be noticeable. He suggests that further studies are carried out to look into the matter using panels of people carrying out tastings. Perhaps more importantly, the findings show that pesticides are capable of transforming crops in ways that shape their nutritional value. Some of these, like the iron-enhancing property of nicosulfuron combined with the safener, could help with iron deficiency in diets, which is responsible for a number of severe health conditions, such as anaemia.
现在仍然不能准确地清楚这些改变是怎样影响甜玉米的风味，尽管Cutulle博士认为这些改变已经大到足够引起注意。他建议成立专家小组进行测试以进一步研究这些事情。或许更重要的是，这些研究成果表明农药可以通过改变农作物的营养价值的方式来改造农作物。比如烟嘧磺隆和安全剂的组合能提升铁含量，这可以有效改善饮食中缺铁现象，一些严重的健康问题如贫血就是它导致的。，
Other factors, however, might not be so welcome. The fructose-enriching aspects of herbicides may make sweetcorn even sweeter, but that could be detrimental to health because fructose is increasingly being implicated in a number of illnesses, such as fatty-liver disease and diabetes. Working out how to grow the best crops has become a lot more complicated.
其他因素或许不那么被普遍接受。 除草剂里面含有丰富的果糖，这让甜玉米更甜，这可能会对健康造成损害，因为果糖被越来越多人认为能导致一些疾病，比如脂肪肝和糖尿病。 研究如何种出更好的农作物已经变得更加复杂。
翻译组：
Li Xia, 女， HR, 经济学人发烧友
Ellen, 女, 行政，经济学人爱好者
LitFish ，女，药物制剂，Nature追随者
校核组：
Xingyi，男，小硕，经济学人爱好者
Grace , 女，市场公关，经济学人爱好者
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观点 |评论|思考
看到除草剂，小编的第一反应就是草甘膦，然后就想到了转基因，有兴趣可以看上次那篇文章TE||Seeds of change ，感想部分专门提到了转基因，所以今天这里就不扯淡了。
群里和大佬讨论了下，做个简单总结：农药的使用杀死了很多该杀的，例如害虫，杂草等。但是古人云“杀了夏明翰，还有后来人”，害虫和杂草慢慢的有了耐药性，于是杀死了一批，会有另一批卷土起来。于是农药的剂量越来越大，里面加的合成物也越来越新。然而更高剂量和更多的新农药使用后，新的杂草和害虫也能生存并造成越来越多的负面影响，周而复始，恶性循环。
PS：作为一位好奇油腻中年男子，小编上网搜了下农药残留的危害，真的是触目惊心。
医学家研究发现，我国目前每8对夫妻就有一对不育，而残留农药就是造成目前10%以上不孕不育的主要原因之一。中国工程院院士钟南山疾呼：残留农药不控制，再过50年中国人将生不出孩子!
食物残留农药的危害有多大
1.会使人体消化功能紊乱，长期食用有农药残留的食物，会干扰我们的消化系统功能，主要表现为腹痛，腹泻及大便干燥。所以，在食用食物时一定谨慎食用。
2.加重肝脏负担，残留农药进入体内，主要依靠肝脏制造酶进行分解，长期食用带有残留农药的瓜果蔬菜，肝脏就会不停地工作来分解这些毒素。长时间的超负荷工作会肝脏病变。
3.残留农药让要孩子的妈妈怀不上宝宝，据统计，我国目前每8对夫妻就有一对不育，这比20年前提高了3％。医学家对此数字进行研究时发现，我国男性的平均精子数仅有2000多万个，而40年代是6000多万个。残留农药就是造成目前10%以上不孕不育的主要原因之一。著名的科学家钟南山大声疾呼：如此下去，残留农药不控制，再过50年中国人将生不出孩子了！
4.干扰内分泌，由于有些农药的分子与人体的雌性激素十分相似，从而使人体的激素平衡发生紊乱，这些东西能影响我们的行为，大脑及生殖器官的发育，并会导致癌症。
5.导致胃肠道疾病，由于胃肠道消化系统胃壁褶皱较多，易存毒物，这样残留农药容易积存在其中，引起腹痛、慢性腹泻等症状。
6.可能致癌，因为残留农药中常常含有的化学物质，可促使各组织内细胞发生癌变。
7.易导致胎儿内脏发育不全或畸形，残留农药中的有毒物质在孕妇体内会通过胎盘或母乳被胎儿吸收，导致胎儿的某些内脏器官发育不全或畸形，一些出生缺陷的孩子，在子宫内中毒是导致儿童疾病增多的原因。在喂食孩子时，一定谨慎食用。
8.长期食用带有残留农药的蔬菜水果，农药被血液吸收后，会直接损害神经元，造成中枢神经死亡，导致身体各器官免疫力下降。
9.残留农药使怀上宝宝的妈妈流产、死胎或生出畸形儿。而残留农药造成孕妇流产、死胎和胎儿畸形也已为世界所公认。大量统计资料表明，妇女妊娠期接触农药，流产、早产、死胎和先天性畸形的发生率明显增加，农药可造成先天性畸形、先天性愚型等结构或功能异常。严重的可使胎儿发育完全停止，发生流产、早产或死胎。
10.农药的污染可以造成男性生育能力的下降，还能引起癌症和其他内脏损害。由于儿童处于生长发育期，生长迅速的细胞较成人比较静止的细胞更易受到致癌农药的影响。
灰色部分节选自http://www.sohu.com/a/209012058_732466
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