The food chain: when foods get famous
食物链：当食物变成网红
Why do some fruits and vegetables
become the A-listers of the food industry
为什么有些水果和蔬菜
能成为食品行业的明星选手呢？
Why is that kale and avocado have seen such a meteoric rise in popularity and sit centre stage basking happily in the spotlight while the humble carrot or poor old turnip remain firmly on the Z-list?
为什么羽衣甘蓝和牛油果的人气如此迅速地上升，它们坐在舞台中央，快乐地沐浴在聚光灯下，而卑微的胡萝卜和可怜的青萝卜在人气榜单上始终只能垫底呢？
The answer is complicated and complex.
答案错综复杂。
How avocados conquered the world
牛油果如何征服了世界？
让我们牛油果开始说起。这种软软的绿色水果价格不菲，但却是千禧一代的心头好，许多公司都想靠牛油果赚钱。
Take UK company Virgin Trains, which started a marketing campaign last year it dubbed “#Avocard”.
以英国VirginTrains公司为例，该公司去年发起了一场名为“Avocard”的营销活动。
After the company sold out of new railcards, it decided to give customers aged between 26 and 30 who showed up at a station holding an avocado a discount on train tickets.
在新的铁路卡售完后，公司决定给26岁到30岁在车站拿着牛油果的顾客提供火车票的折扣。
Millennial response was mixed, with some finding the promotion patronising.
千禧一代的回应褒贬不一，一些人认为这种给顾客一点小甜头的营销有点太自以为是了。
patronizing
adj. to behave in an offensively condescending manner toward
There’s no denying that millennials do eat lots of avocados, though.
不过，不可否认的是，千禧一代的确很爱吃牛油果。
According to the International Trade Centre, global avocado imports hit $4.82 billion in 2016, with imports growing by 21% between 2012 and 2016.
根据国际贸易中心的数据，全球牛油果进口在2016年达到了48.2亿美元，2012年至2016年间进口增长了21%。
One London plastic surgeon said in 2017 that he’d treated so many patients who’d cut themselves slicing the fruit, his staff started calling the injury “avocado hand”.
2017年，伦敦一名整形外科医生表示，他治疗过很多切这种水果时割伤自己的病人，他的员工开始称这种伤为“牛油果手”。
Pricy avocado toast has even been called a cash-sucking frivolity and the reason why so many millennials can’t afford homes.
千禧一代在这方面花起钱来不管不顾，昂贵的牛油果也成了他们买不起房子的原因。
frivolity
n.self-indulgently carefree; unconcerned about or lacking any serious purpose.
There are lots of factors that fuel a food’s favourability among consumers: preened and pretty Instagram pictures of the dish, for example, or adverts funded by organisations that back certain food economies.
推动食品在消费者中受欢迎的因素有很多:例如，在Instagram上精心修饰过的漂亮的菜肴图片，或者由支持某些食品经济的组织资助的广告。
Xavier Equihua is CEO of the World Avocado Organization based in Washington, DC. Its goal is to drive consumption of avocados in Europe.
Xavier Equihua是世界牛油果组织的首席执行官，该组织总部位于华盛顿，目标是促进牛油果在欧洲的消费。
He says that a food like avocado is an easy sell: it’s delicious and nutritious, after all, and a rather meaty substitute for vegetarians and vegans.
他说像牛油果这样的食物很容易出售：毕竟它既美味又营养，并且对于素食者和纯素食者来说是一种很像肉的代替品。
How did kale become cool?
为什么羽衣甘蓝火了？
如果说牛油果是水果中的流量担当，那么在蔬菜中与它享有同样地位的则是羽衣甘蓝。
The dark leafy green has built an image of the ultimate dietary staple for healthy, responsible, conscientious adults everywhere, whether it’s throwing the roughage in a cholesterol-lowering salad or blending it in an antioxidant-brimming smoothie.
无论是将未经加工的菜叶倒入降低胆固醇的沙拉里，还是将它混进抗氧化奶昔，这种深色叶状蔬菜已经为各地健康、负责、认真的成年人打造了最佳食谱。
The number of kale farms in the US doubled between 2007 and 2012, and Beyoncé wore a sweatshirt in a 2015 music video with “KALE” emblazoned on it.
在2007至2012年间，美国种植羽衣甘蓝的农场数量翻了一倍，Beyoncé还在一段2015的音乐视频中穿了一件印有“KALE”的T恤。
远在佛蒙特州，早就有人看出了这股羽衣甘蓝风潮。T恤制造商Robert Muller-Moore从15年前就开始卖印有“多吃羽衣甘蓝”的T恤，销售遍布全球。
He even got into a three-year-long legal dispute with Chick-fil-a, America’s biggest fried chicken fast food chain, whose slogan is the similarly worded “eat more chicken”.
他甚至与美国最大的炸鸡快餐连锁店Chick-fil-a打了三年的官司，因为他“吃更多羽衣甘蓝”的口号与该炸鸡店“多吃炸鸡”相似。
“It got kale loads of attention,” he says.
他坦言道，“这场炒作炒火了羽衣甘蓝。”
多样化饮食推广受阻 “网红食材”难辞其咎
But it’s important to remain somewhat sceptical, and know that no one food is a silver bullet to perfect health, regardless of how famous or nutritious it actually is.
不过，我们还是得保持一点怀疑态度，并记住没有一种食材对健康来说是十全大补丸，无论它人气有多高或者本身多有营养。
Experts say that a varied diet of lots of fruit and vegetables is more nutrient-dense than just devouring the same one type of produce over and over – so mixing and matching between lettuce, spinach and watercress might be even healthier than eating kale only.
专家表示，包含各种蔬果的多样化饮食比只吃同一种食物更有营养。因此，将生菜，菠菜和西洋菜混合搭配着吃比光吃羽衣甘蓝更为健康。
The unfortunate truth is, however, is that it’s likely easier to put one vegetable on a pedestal, rather than trying to make an entire food group’s brand sexier.
但令人遗憾的是，将某一样蔬菜捧上神坛，比提升蔬菜整体的吸引力更简单一点。
That’s the challenge that’s been facing Anna Taylor, who works at the UK think-tank The Food Foundation.
而这就是英国智库食品基金会成员Anna Taylor所面临的挑战。
She recently helped create Veg Power, a primetime TV and film advertising campaign that sounds like a superhero movie trailer and tries to get children to change the way they think about all vegetables. (“For years, grown-ups have been keeping the veg invasion at bay,” a deep voice-over announces.)
她近期协助创作Veg Power——听起来像是超级英雄电影的预告片名——这一黄金时段电视电影的广告。该广告试图改变儿童对整个蔬菜界的看法。（“多年来，大人们早已放弃了让蔬菜占领餐桌的想法，” 广告中低沉的旁白说）
Eat Them To Defeat Them
让我们来看看这个组织都做了些什么吧。比如Eat Them To Defeat Them——这项运动由英国ITV电台和Vega Power联合发起，以鼓励儿童多吃蔬菜。在广告中拟人化的蔬菜占领了世界，长久以来大人与它们艰苦斗争，而现在孩子们也将加入战斗，但是怎样才能战胜蔬菜呢？方法只有一个，那就是：把它们吃掉！
（图片来源：Veg Power官网）
Taylor says the budget was £3m, mostly donations from supermarkets and media companies. But it’s a miniscule sum compared to other food industry figures.
Taylor称，推广蔬果的广告预算有300万英镑，大部分源于超市和传媒公司的捐赠。但是这和其他食品行业的数目相比，就显得微不足道了。
“That compares to £120m on confectionery, £73m on soft drinks, £111m on sweet and savoury snacks,” she says. “So fruit and vegetable advertising is 2.5% of the overall total.”
她说，“甜食行业有1.2亿，软饮料有7300万，甜味和咸味零食有1.1.亿，与它们相比，蔬果广告费用只占总和的2.5%。”
为什么蔬果广告的预算如此之低呢？
是因为人们天然青睐那些高糖高油的食物吗？
A big part of it is that produce isn’t necessarily a brand, like a processed food item is, and without a brand, marketers are less willing to attach themselves to the effort.
导致这个结果的重要原因是，蔬果不像加工食品那样，必须要具有品牌。没了品牌，营销人员就不太情愿花功夫来进行推广宣传。
To help get that number for fruit and vegetable advertising spending up, there needs to be a concerted effort among governments, farmers, advertising companies, supermarkets and many others.
要想提高蔬果广告费用的支出，政府、农民、广告公司、超市和其他许多组织需要通力合作。
So when things like kale or avocados come along, it’s more of a specific item and thus easier to market and brand. Taylor says when one food becomes a runaway hit, it can be a problem.
因此，当羽衣甘蓝或牛油果这样的东西出现时，它更多是一个特定的食品，因此更容易销售以及建立品牌。 Taylor说，当一种食物一炮而红时，这可能也是一个问题。
“Typically, what happens with those campaigns is they end up displacing other vegetables in the category. We see this in the UK where there’s been the huge growth of the berry industry, which has been remarkably successful, but it’s taken market share away from apples and bananas,” she says.
Taylor表示，“通常这些活动最终导致牛油果或羽衣甘蓝取代了其他蔬菜。英国就出现过这种情况，那里的浆果行业非常成功并且取得了巨大的增长，但却抢占了苹果和香蕉的市场份额。
No matter how big a star one particular food becomes, remember – your diet shouldn’t be a one-veg show.
不管哪一种有特色的食物变得非常受欢迎，请记住——你的饮食不该是单一的。
Taylor reminds us that if anyone ever said to you, “’Kale’s the only thing that’s going to do x, y, and z for you’ – that’s patently ridiculous.”
Taylor提醒我们，如果有人曾对你说过“羽衣甘蓝是唯一能为你提供x，y和z的食物”，这种说法显然是荒谬的。
来源∣BBC
编译∣刘与晨 阿孜姑 杨林姗 马林 张萌 陈宇帆
排版∣陈宇帆
指导老师∣刘佳