好英语网牛油果和羽衣甘蓝为何成为明星食品
Avocado toast. Kale shakes. Goji berry smoothies. Quinoa bowls.
牛油果吐司，羽衣甘蓝奶昔，枸杞浆果冰沙，藜麦球。
If foods were celebrities, these would be just a handful of the treats that have received the red-carpet treatment in the last few years.
如果用明星来比喻食物，这些是过去几年里受到红地毯礼遇的少数明星。
But why do some fruits and vegetables become the A-listers of the food industry – highly desired produce with the ability to jump-start profits and shape the daily eating habits of billions?
一些水果和蔬菜就像食品行业的一线明星，成为备受期待、可以快速获利的农产品，而且改变了数十亿人的日常饮食习惯。这是为什么呢？
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受欢迎程度急速上升，好像是坐在舞台中央，在聚光灯下愉快地接受赞美，而不起眼的胡萝卜或可怜的老萝卜却一直无人问津？
The answer is complicated and complex.
答案十分复杂。
How avocados conquered the world
牛油果是如何征服世界的
Let’s start with the avocado – a millennial darling that’s often found these days spread on toast at bistros for a bloated price. So famous is the avocado and so strong is its pull on hungry millennials, it’s hard to find a company that isn’t trying to cash in on the soft green fruit’s star power.
我们从牛油果开始说起。它是千禧一代（millennial）的宠儿，如今在小餐馆里，经常被涂在吐司上，价格不菲。牛油果如此出名，对饥饿的千禧一代的吸引力又如此之强，没有哪一家公司不想利用这种软绿色水果的明星效应赚钱。
Take UK company Virgin Trains, which started a marketing campaign last year it dubbed “#Avocard”. 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. (Millennial response was mixed, with some finding the promotion patronising.)
以英国的维珍铁路公司(Virgin Trains)为例，该公司去年发起了一场名为“#牛油果卡（#Avocard）”的营销活动。新火车优惠卡售罄后，该公司决定给26岁至30岁、持牛油果出现在火车站的顾客提供车票折扣。(千禧一代的反应不一，有些人觉得这种推广活动态度傲慢。)
There’s no denying that millennials do eat lots of avocados, though.
不过，不可否认的是，千禧一代的确会吃很多牛油果。
Humans have been eating them for thousands of years, but young people in their 20s and 30s have recently sent demand skyrocketing. According to the International Trade Centre, global avocado imports hit $4.82 billion in 2016, with imports growing by 21% between 2012 and 2016. 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”. Pricy avocado toast has even been called a cash-sucking frivolity and the reason why so many millennials can’t afford homes.
几千年来，人类一直在食用牛油果，但最近二三十岁的年轻人对它们的需求飙升。根据国际贸易中心（International Trade Centre）的数据，2016年全球牛油果进口额达到了48.2亿美元；2012年至2016年间进口增长了21%。2017年，伦敦的一名整形外科医生表示，他治疗过很多切牛油果时割伤自己的病人，他的工作人员开始把这种伤称为“牛油果手（avocado hand）”。昂贵的牛油果吐司甚至被称为一种吸钱的轻浮行为，以及许多千禧一代买不起房子的原因。
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，Instagram上精心修饰、漂亮的菜肴图片，或者由支持某些食品的机构资助的广告。
Long, exotic histories also generate an allure around certain foods, especially in regions far from the food’s origin. Jessica Loyer, a researcher in food values at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, points to examples like “superfoods” acai berries and chia seeds.
悠久的异国历史也让某些食物产生了诱惑力，尤其是在远离食物原产地的地区。南澳大利亚州（South Australia）阿德莱德大学(University of Adelaide)的食品价值研究员洛耶尔(Jessica Loyer)举了一些例子，比如“超级食物”巴西莓和奇亚籽。
“A lot of these foods may have a history of being eaten in [the developing world],” she says. “Overall, the people I have met – the experience has been positive: they are quite happy to be taking the money.”
“(发展中国家)可能有食用这些食品的历史，”她说。“总的来说，我遇到的人的体验都是积极的：他们很高兴能挣到钱。”
She says one example is Peru’s maca root, which is ground into a powdered supplement and is known for high quantities of vitamins, minerals, and fertility- and energy-boosting properties. A community in the central Andes adores the gnarled, spindly root so much it has a 5-metre-tall statue of it in the town square, Loyer says.
她说，秘鲁（Peru）的玛卡根（maca root）就是一个例子。玛卡根被磨成粉末状的营养品，以富含维生素和矿物质，能提高生育能力和能量而闻名。洛耶尔说，安第斯山脉（Andes）中部的一个社区非常喜欢这种多节、细长的树根，小镇广场上有一尊5米高的玛卡根雕像。
But she also flags some problems that can arise when a food hits the big time, especially if it is from a developing nation and the trend is taking off in developed ones.
但她也指出，当一种食品大受欢迎时，可能会出现一些问题，尤其是如果这种食品产自发展中国家，而在发达国家开始流行。
“It has good and bad points,” she says. “Of course, the benefits are not evenly distributed, but it will create jobs. Of course, that means there are opportunities for exploitation in those regions, as well, and exploitation of land rights of marginalised people… [and] it certainly has consequences for biodiversity.”
“它有好处也有坏处，”她说。“当然，利益并不是平均分配的，但它将创造就业机会。当然，这意味着这些地区可能会遭到剥削，包括边缘人群的土地权利……(而且)这肯定会对生物多样性产生影响。”
Xavier Equihua is CEO of the World Avocado Organization based in Washington, DC. Its goal is to drive consumption of avocados in Europe. 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. But celebrities blasting photos on social media helps, too.
伊奎华（Xavier Equihua）是总部位于华盛顿特区（Washington,DC）的世界牛油果组织（World Avocado Organization）的首席执行官。该组织的目标是推动牛油果在欧洲的消费。他说，像牛油果这样的食物很容易卖出去，毕竟它既美味又有营养，是素食者和纯素食者的肉类替代品。名人在社交媒体上晒照片也有帮助。
People in China, where avocados are also taking off in popularity, see “Kim Kardashian and her Instagram, that she put an avocado mask on her hair. They see Miley Cyrus tattooed an avocado on her arm.”
牛油果在中国也越来越受欢迎。人们看到卡戴珊（Kim Kardashian）在她的Instagram上晒出自己做牛油果发膜的照片。还有赛勒斯（Miley Cyrus）在她的手臂上纹了一个牛油果。
And why kale is king
为什么羽衣甘蓝如此风靡
If avocado is an A-list fruit, then its vegetable equivalent has got to be kale.
如果水果界的一线明星是牛油果，那在蔬菜界无疑是羽衣甘蓝。
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. 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.
无论是把其纤维倒进降低胆固醇的沙拉里，还是把它和富含抗氧化剂的冰沙混在一起，这种深色叶状蔬菜已经幻化成为世界各地健康、负责、认真的成年人的终极膳食。从2007年到2012年，美国羽衣甘蓝农场的数量翻了一番，碧昂丝（Beyoncé）在2015年的一段音乐视频中穿着印有“羽衣甘蓝（KALE）”字样的运动衫。
How did kale become cool?
羽衣甘蓝是如何流行起来的呢？
Vermont-based T-shirt-maker Robert Muller-Moore says he saw the trend coming from miles away and has sold “eat more kale” T-shirts across the globe over the last 15 years. He estimates having given away over 100,000 bumper stickers singing kale’s graces.
位于佛蒙特州（Vermont）的T恤制造商穆勒-摩尔(Robert Muller-Moore)表示，他很早就看到了这一趋势，在过去15年里，他在全球各地销售印有“多吃羽衣甘蓝（eat more kale）”字样的T恤。他估计已经分发了10万多张为羽衣甘蓝唱赞歌的贴纸。
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”.
穆勒-摩尔甚至陷入了与美国最大炸鸡快餐连锁店Chick-fil-a长达三年的法律纠纷，后者的广告语十分相似，是“多吃鸡肉（eat more chicken）”。
“It got kale loads of attention,” he says.
“这让羽衣甘蓝得到大量关注，”他说。
Still, like avocados, kale does have actual health benefits, so its celebrity status shouldn’t just be boiled down to legal headlines or pop idol endorsements.
不过，和牛油果一样，羽衣甘蓝确实对健康有益，所以它的名人地位不应该仅仅归结为诉讼新闻或流行偶像代言。
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. 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.
但重要的是要保持一定的怀疑，没有一种食物是完美健康的灵丹妙药，无论它实际上有多出名或多有营养。专家说，大量水果和蔬菜的多样饮食比只吃一种农产品更有营养，所以生菜、菠菜和豆瓣菜的混合搭配可能比只吃羽衣甘蓝更健康。
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.
然而，事实是，相较让一组食物受欢迎，让某一种蔬菜风靡似乎更容易。
That’s the challenge that’s been facing Anna Taylor, who works at the UK think-tank The Food Foundation. 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.)
在英国智库食品基金会（The Food Foundation）工作的泰勒（Anna Taylor）正面临这种挑战。她最近帮助制作了“素食力量”(Veg Power)广告宣传片，在黄金时段的电视节目和电影中播放，听起来像是一部超级英雄电影的预告片，试图让孩子们改变他们对所有蔬菜的看法。
Taylor says the budget was £3m ($3.95m), mostly donations from supermarkets and media companies. But it’s a miniscule sum compared to other food industry figures.
泰勒说该广告片的预算为300万英镑（395万美元），主要来自超市和媒体公司的捐款。但与其他食品行业的数据相比，这个数字微不足道。
“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.”
“相比之下，糖果的广告预算为1.2亿英镑，软饮料为7300万英镑，甜食和开胃小吃为1.11亿英镑，” 她说。“所以水果和蔬菜广告只占总广告预算的2.5%。”
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. 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.
其中很大一部分原因是，农产品并不一定是一个品牌，就像加工食品一样。没有品牌，营销人员就不太愿意付出努力。要想帮助提高水果和蔬菜的广告支出，需要政府、农民、广告公司、超市和其他各方的共同努力。
So when things like kale or avocados come along, it’s more of a specific item and thus easier to market and brand – as opposed to advocating for fruit and vegetables as a whole. 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等食物出现时，它更多的是一种特定的食品，因此更容易营销和树立品牌。这和将水果和蔬菜作为一个整体进行推广截然相反。泰勒说，当一种食物大受欢迎时，这就会成为一个问题。
“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.
“通常来说，这些宣传活动的结果是，它们最终取代了该类型的其他蔬菜。英国出现了这种情况，那里的浆果产业取得了巨大的增长，非常成功，但它夺走了苹果和香蕉的市场份额，”泰勒说。
No matter how big a star one particular food becomes, remember – your diet shouldn’t be a one-veg show.
不管某种食物多受欢迎，记住，你的食谱中不应该只有一种蔬菜。
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.”
泰勒提醒我们，如果有人对你说羽衣甘蓝是唯一能让你如何如何的食物，这显然是荒谬的。