沙漠

　　Poor access to fresh food is a solvable health problem

　　难于接近新鲜食品是一个可以解决的健康问题

　　THE corner shop on South Honore and West 59th in Englewood is an uninviting sort of place. Those windows that are not bricked up are covered in heavy security grilles; the shopkeeper hides behind a Plexiglas wall. Most of what is on offer is either packaged or carbonated, and is always processed.

　　在恩格尔伍德，南奥诺雷和西59街的拐角商店是个没有吸引力的地方。这些商店没有用砖堵住的窗户被厚重的铁栅栏保护着，店主藏在玻璃墙后面。它们销售的大多数食品是有包装的或者是加气的，都是加工过的。

　　This part of Chicago’s South Side is in the heart of one of America’s many food deserts. These are notable not for the absence of food, but for the kind of food available. Though crisps, sweets and doughnuts are easy to come by, an apple is a rare commodity. Yet all the evidence shows that poor access to quality food results in a higher risk of obesity, diabetes and cancer—and more avoidable deaths.

　　芝加哥南部的这个地区是美国许多的食品荒漠之一。这些地方之所以著名，不是因为缺少某些食品，而是因为一些类型的食品可以得到。虽然炸薯片，糖果和油炸面圈饼很容易得到，但是苹果确实稀缺的农产品。所有证据也证明获取有质量的食品不足导致了还肥胖、糖尿病和癌症以及更多可避免的死亡疾病的几率升高。

　　Although cynics might argue that the market gives people the food they deserve, research published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests otherwise. During the 1990s, when the American government paid for around 1,800 women to move out of public housing, the women who had moved showed a 20% lower rate of obesity and diabetes than those who had not. In other words, their improved environment (which many assume would include better shops) led to their better health.

　　尽管愤青们可能会争辩市场给顾客的食品是顾客应当得到的，但这几个月发表在《新英格兰药物杂志》上的调查研究却有不同的看法。上世纪90年代，美国政府斥资帮约1800名妇女搬离公共住房。调查显示，搬入新居的妇女得肥胖症和糖尿病的概率比未搬迁的妇女低80%。换句话说，改善的环境（包括更好的商店）是让她们的健康得以改善的重要原因。

　　Research published this week by Mari Gallagher, an independent food researcher, suggests that the problem of food deserts may be relatively tractable. Over the past five years, thanks to the arrival of some new grocery stores, Chicago’s desert has shrunk by 40% to a mere 384,000 people. It sometimes takes only one shop to change things vastly for the better. For example, the Food-4-Less store in Englewood improved access to fresh food for almost 41,000 people, most of whom are black.

　　独立的食品研究调查机构Mari Gallagher本周发表的调查表明，食荒的问题可能是相对温和的。在过去的五年中，多亏一些新型食品杂货店的降临，芝加哥地区的食荒已经缩减了40%，反影响384000居民。例如，Food-4-Less一家位于恩格尔伍德的商店就为将近41000户居民改善了新鲜食品的途径，并且，这些居民中的大多数都是黑人。

　　This is all grist to the mills of Michelle Obama, America’s first lady, and Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, who appeared together at a South Side pharmacy on October 25th to promote access to fresh food. Both have been adept in their own ways at twisting the arms of retailers such as Walmart, SUPERVALU and Walgreens to open grocery stores in underserved areas.

　　这对出现在芝加哥南部一家药店，允许药店销售新鲜食品的美国第一夫人米歇尔﹒奥巴马和市长拉姆?伊曼纽尔来说是有利的。两人都擅长于像沃尔玛、超价商店和沃尔格林这样的大零售商在不适合的地方开设零售店。

　　Walgreens, a chain of almost 7,800 drug stores, now has a large selection of fresh food in ten “food oasis” stores in Chicago. It has also promised that over the next five years it will provide more fresh food in 19 other sites in the city, most of them food deserts, and in 1,000 other stores across the country. This could make a big difference. The firm’s chief executive, Greg Wasson, says that two-thirds of all Americans live within three miles of one of his shops.

　　沃尔格林，一家拥有接近7800家分店的连锁药店，现在已经在芝加哥的十家“食品绿洲”商店中拥有一个大的挑选。它还许诺在下一个五年，在城市其他19处有食品荒漠的地方和1000家遍布乡村的分店提供更多新鲜食品。这可以有很大地改变现状。公司的行政总裁格雷格?沃森说三分之二的美国人将要住在距他分店三英里的范围内。

　　Moreover, the opening of a halfway decent grocery store is often the trigger for the arrival of other better-class shops in the area, which then spurs a local economic revival. This could go some way towards reversing a worrying trend pointed out by Ms Gallagher. She says that there tend to be more diet-related deaths in places where “fringe” retailers accept food stamps. Fringe retailers, by her definition, are those shops that specialise in food high in salt, fat and sugar, plus non-food items such as fizzy drinks. The sad thing, as she points out, is that food stamps are supposed to protect the poor from malnutrition, not make them ill.

　　此外，一个中途相当好的食品店的营业经常引起其他更好的上流商店在这里集聚，然后将刺激当地经济的复苏。这也可能朝着加拉格尔指出的一种令人担忧的反面趋势走一段路程。她说在一些边缘零售商接受食物标记的地方将会有更多与节食相关的死亡。用她的定义来说，边缘零售商就是那些特殊的高盐、高脂和高糖食物，还有一些像碳酸饮料这些不属于食物范畴的物品。正如她所说，令人伤心的食品标记本应是保护穷人，让他们远离营养不良，而不是让他们生病。

　　Mrs Obama made a point of saying that nobody in government is telling anyone what they should, or should not, be eating. But good food does have to be available. As any parent can tell you, the fruit bowl always needs to be easier to reach than the cookie jar.

　　奥巴马夫人曾强调政府里没人告诉任何人他们应该或者不应该吃什么，但好的食物总是有的。就像父母告诉你，果盘比饼干罐更接近健康。

　　solvable adj.可以解决的 carbonate v. 使变成碳酸盐 commodity n.日用品 move out 搬出; 开始行动 pharmacy n. 药房, 配药学 malnutrition n. 营养失调