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In Madagascar, soaring vanilla prices have a bittersweet cost
馬達加斯加香草價格飛漲 但也付出了沉重的代價
ON A RECENT SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN Sahabevava village, on the east coast of Madagascar,
最近一個周六的下午，在馬達加斯加東海岸的沙貝瓦瓦村，
vanilla farmer Lydia Soa wielded a small wooden stamp studded with steel pins spelling out her producer number: MK021.
種植香草的農民莉迪亞·索瓦正揮舞著一個釘滿鋼釘，印著她的生產商編號“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歲的索瓦在她那片不大的種植園里用這個獨特的代碼標記了數千個青綠色的香草莢。
If a thief steals her crop, it can be traced at the local market.
就算有人偷，她也能在當地市場找到她被偷的香草莢。
“Now I can sleep at night,” she says.
“總算能睡個安穩覺了，”她說。
These days vanilla theft is a big business.
如今，盜竊香草之風十分猖獗。
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.
氣候變化、犯罪以及投機等因素導致該香料價格飛漲，目前已經從五年前的每公斤20美元漲到今年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，兩大熱帶氣旋摧毀了馬達加斯加——
which supplies 80% of the world’s vanilla—and sent the global price soaring.
全世界80%的香草的原產地——三分之一的香草，導致香草價格出現了全球性的飆升。
A byword for boring, vanilla tends to be taken for granted.
作為“無趣”的代名詞，香草一貫被認為是理所當然的存在。
Yet without it, cookies lose their zing, creme brulee its flare and Calvin Klein’s Obsession its sweet, woody base.
然而，沒有了它，餅干就會失去其精髓，焦糖布丁會失去光芒，CK的激情款香水也會失去甜甜的木質基調。
And without vanilla, some 80,000 farmers in Madagascar—one of the poorest countries in the world—would lose their livelihood.
沒有了香草，馬達加斯加——世界上最貧窮的國家之一——還將有約8萬名農民失去生計。
High prices rarely benefit the small family farmers whose futures depend on the fickle fruit.
然而，高昂的價格很少福澤到那些要靠變化無常的香草果實維生的小農小戶。
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——一年只開一次花，一次只開一天——需要人工授粉，其果實需要9個月才能成熟。
New vanilla vines take three years to mature, and at a dollar per bean,
種植新的香草藤需要3年才能成熟，加上香草莢一美元/根的價格，
farmers have to contend with thieves who snatch the just-before-ripe pods straight from the vines,
竊賊們會直接從藤上掐走即將成熟的香草莢，因為他們知道，即便沒有成熟，那些果實也能賣出不錯的價錢，
knowing they will still fetch a decent price.
農民們不得不與他們斗智斗勇。
Some farmers have responded by harvesting their crops early,
為此，一些農民選擇提前采摘，
flooding the market with low-quality beans that lack the intense flavor that emerges just before the mid-July harvest.
以致于7月中旬收獲季節到來之前，市場上就已經充斥著缺乏濃郁口感的低品質香草莢。
The quality plummets, and so does the price.
那些香草莢的質量直線下降，價格也不例外。
Farmers tear out their vines in frustration, until the price climbs again, creating a vicious cycle of vanilla boom and bust.
農民們便失望地拔掉了他們的香草藤，直到價格再次攀升才開始重新種植，繼而催生出了一個香草一時繁榮一時蕭條的惡性循環。
Although most people would struggle to tell the difference between real vanilla and artificial flavoring,
盡管大多數人都很難區分純正的香草和人工增味的香草，
consumers are increasingly demanding natural products in their food.
消費者對天然食品的訴求卻一直在上升。
That’s why Mars Inc., Danone, and Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned flavor and fragrance supplier,
這也是瑪氏，達能以及全球最大的香精香料私營企業芬美意
have invested $2 million in a fund to stabilize a crop most people don’t even think about—
為什么要向某基金投資200萬美元，用于穩定香草這種大多數人甚至想沒有想過的作物的種植的原因——
part of a growing trend of food companies’ streamlining their supply chain.
食品公司精簡產品供應鏈也是當下的趨勢。
Through the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming,
通過家庭農業生計基金，
they have partnered with an NGO to provide farmers with vanilla seedlings,
他們同某非政府組織展開了合作，為農民提供香草幼苗，
teach them sustainable practices that avoid the slash-and-burn methods of traditional agriculture and organize neighborhood vanilla-watch programs.
教他們可持續種植方法，避免刀耕火種的傳統種植方法，在社區組織香草-觀察項目等。
They are also supplying farmers with the antitheft stamps.
他們還向農民提供了防盜印章。
Vanilla thieves now face up to four years in jail.
如今，香草竊賊會面臨長達四年的監禁處罰。
To Soa, that’s not enough.
然而，對于索瓦來說，這一處罰還不夠嚴重。
She wants a life sentence.
她希望判處竊賊無期徒刑。
“You invest all your life in growing the vanilla.
“我們把一輩子都投入到種植香草上了。
Stealing it is the same thing as killing someone.”
偷我的香草就是在要我的命。”
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
