VOA慢速英语 2007 0116a

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

In the United States, the term organic has a legal meaning set by the Department of Agriculture. The department has an official label to mark products that have met the requirements of its National Organic Program.


Fish

Organic products usually cost more, but their sales are growing. As a result, so is competition to label more products organic because many people believe they are healthier.

Now Agriculture Department officials are trying to decide whether fish can be called organic. There are rules for organic produce, organic dairy products, organic meat and chicken -- but nothing about fish.

Many operators of fish farms believe they could sell more fish if they could label them organic.

The industry that sells wild-caught fish is already under pressure from farm-raised seafood¹. That pressure could increase if the Agriculture Department approves proposed requirements for labeling fish organic.

Earning the organic label requires controlled conditions. The question is whether fish that swim wild and free -- like Alaskan salmon² -- could meet the proposed requirements.

Yet fish farms might not all be able to meet them either. Some operations are criticized for their treatment of fish and the risk of pollution to waterways. Fish farmers and the wild-caught industry also argue about the possible presence of harmful chemicals in each other's products.

In two thousand, an advisory³ committee considered requests by fish farmers to call their products organic. The experts said farm-raised fish should be labeled organic only if they were fed almost completely organic plant food. Farmed fish often have little or no fish in their diet. But those proposed guidelines⁴ were not used.

In two thousand five, the Agriculture Department formed another group to examine possible requirements. This time, the committee suggested several kinds of food that farmed fish could eat and still be called organic.

A decision about whether fish can be sold with the organic label may still take two years or more.

For now, the American fishing industry has to deal with growing competition from imported seafood. Some foreign companies already call their fish organic because, they say, it meets the requirements of their own countries.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can read and listen to our reports online at www.unsv.com. I'm Bob Doughty⁵.

1 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

2 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

3 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

4 guidelines   

n.指导方针，准则

参考例句：

• The government has drawn up guidelines on the treatment of the mentally ill. 政府制订了对待精神病人的指导方针。
• Planners seem a little uncomfortable with the current government guidelines. 规划师似乎不太接受现行的政府指道方针。

5 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。