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In Madagascar, soaring vanilla prices have a bittersweet cost
马达加斯加香草价格飞涨 但也付出了沉重的代价
ON A RECENT SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN Sahabevava village, on the east coast of Madagascar,
最近一个周六的下午，在马达加斯加东海岸的沙贝瓦瓦村，
vanilla farmer Lydia Soa wielded a small wooden stamp studded with steel pins spelling out her producer number: MK021.
种植香草的农民莉迪亚·索瓦正挥舞着一个钉满钢钉，印着她的生产商编号“MK021”的小木章。
Soa, 46, had recently branded thousands of green vanilla pods at her small plantation with this unique code.
最近，46岁的索瓦在她那片不大的种植园里用这个独特的代码标记了数千个青绿色的香草荚。
If a thief steals her crop, it can be traced at the local market.
就算有人偷，她也能在当地市场找到她被偷的香草荚。
“Now I can sleep at night,” she says.
“总算能睡个安稳觉了，”她说。
These days vanilla theft is a big business.
如今，盗窃香草之风十分猖獗。
Climate change, crime and speculation have led to skyrocketing prices of the fragrant spice, from $20 per kilo five years ago to $515 in June.
气候变化、犯罪以及投机等因素导致该香料价格飞涨，目前已经从五年前的每公斤20美元涨到今年6月的每公斤515美元。
A pair of tropical cyclones wiped out a third of 2017’s crop in Madagascar—
2017年，两大热带气旋摧毁了马达加斯加——
which supplies 80% of the world’s vanilla—and sent the global price soaring.
全世界80%的香草的原产地——三分之一的香草，导致香草价格出现了全球性的飙升。
A byword for boring, vanilla tends to be taken for granted.
作为“无趣”的代名词，香草一贯被认为是理所当然的存在。
Yet without it, cookies lose their zing, creme brulee its flare and Calvin Klein’s Obsession its sweet, woody base.
然而，没有了它，饼干就会失去其精髓，焦糖布丁会失去光芒，CK的激情款香水也会失去甜甜的木质基调。
And without vanilla, some 80,000 farmers in Madagascar—one of the poorest countries in the world—would lose their livelihood.
没有了香草，马达加斯加——世界上最贫穷的国家之一——还将有约8万名农民失去生计。
High prices rarely benefit the small family farmers whose futures depend on the fickle fruit.
然而，高昂的价格很少福泽到那些要靠变化无常的香草果实维生的小农小户。
Vanilla, which blooms only once a year, for one day, has to be pollinated by hand, and the fruit takes nine months to mature.
香草——一年只开一次花，一次只开一天——需要人工授粉，其果实需要9个月才能成熟。
New vanilla vines take three years to mature, and at a dollar per bean,
种植新的香草藤需要3年才能成熟，加上香草荚一美元/根的价格，
farmers have to contend with thieves who snatch the just-before-ripe pods straight from the vines,
窃贼们会直接从藤上掐走即将成熟的香草荚，因为他们知道，即便没有成熟，那些果实也能卖出不错的价钱，
knowing they will still fetch a decent price.
农民们不得不与他们斗智斗勇。
Some farmers have responded by harvesting their crops early,
为此，一些农民选择提前采摘，
flooding the market with low-quality beans that lack the intense flavor that emerges just before the mid-July harvest.
以致于7月中旬收获季节到来之前，市场上就已经充斥着缺乏浓郁口感的低品质香草荚。
The quality plummets, and so does the price.
那些香草荚的质量直线下降，价格也不例外。
Farmers tear out their vines in frustration, until the price climbs again, creating a vicious cycle of vanilla boom and bust.
农民们便失望地拔掉了他们的香草藤，直到价格再次攀升才开始重新种植，继而催生出了一个香草一时繁荣一时萧条的恶性循环。
Although most people would struggle to tell the difference between real vanilla and artificial flavoring,
尽管大多数人都很难区分纯正的香草和人工增味的香草，
consumers are increasingly demanding natural products in their food.
消费者对天然食品的诉求却一直在上升。
That’s why Mars Inc., Danone, and Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned flavor and fragrance supplier,
这也是玛氏，达能以及全球最大的香精香料私营企业芬美意
have invested $2 million in a fund to stabilize a crop most people don’t even think about—
为什么要向某基金投资200万美元，用于稳定香草这种大多数人甚至想没有想过的作物的种植的原因——
part of a growing trend of food companies’ streamlining their supply chain.
食品公司精简产品供应链也是当下的趋势。
Through the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming,
通过家庭农业生计基金，
they have partnered with an NGO to provide farmers with vanilla seedlings,
他们同某非政府组织展开了合作，为农民提供香草幼苗，
teach them sustainable practices that avoid the slash-and-burn methods of traditional agriculture and organize neighborhood vanilla-watch programs.
教他们可持续种植方法，避免刀耕火种的传统种植方法，在社区组织香草-观察项目等。
They are also supplying farmers with the antitheft stamps.
他们还向农民提供了防盗印章。
Vanilla thieves now face up to four years in jail.
如今，香草窃贼会面临长达四年的监禁处罚。
To Soa, that’s not enough.
然而，对于索瓦来说，这一处罚还不够严重。
She wants a life sentence.
她希望判处窃贼无期徒刑。
“You invest all your life in growing the vanilla.
“我们把一辈子都投入到种植香草上了。
Stealing it is the same thing as killing someone.”
偷我的香草就是在要我的命。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
