VOA慢速英语:Agriculture Report

The United States Department of Agriculture has agreed to meet industrial proposals to change the design of meat labels and how meat is described. The Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board plans more than 300 changes to the familiar words found on meat labels.
美国农业部同意满足工业提议，改变肉产品标签的设计以及关于肉的描述。美国养牛人牛肉推广与研究委员会计划对肉类标签上的常用词汇做出超过300个变更。

Meathead Goldwyn writes for the Huffington Post website. His own website, Amazing Ribs is about barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking. Meathead, as he called himself, says meat labels have always confused as well as informed. The food writer sees some improvement in the proposed labels, but he says some planned label changes will continue years of confusion.
Meathead Goldwyn为赫芬顿邮报网站撰稿，他自己的网站Amazing Ribs涉及野餐、烧烤和户外厨艺。自称Meathead的他说肉产品标签除了告知信息外，也一样会令人混淆。这名美食作家在建议标签上看到了一些进步，但他表示，一些计划的标签变更会延续多年的混淆。

"Pork butt, for example, does not come from the part of the animal most people think. It doesn't come from the butt which is flying(?) for the rear end, it comes from the shoulder. And instead of naming it "pork shoulder" which would be really logical, they now call it "Boston roast", so they went from confusing to meaningless."
“梅头肉(Pork butt)并非来自人们通常认为的部位，也并非来自臀部，而是肩部。如今不是改为符合逻辑的"猪肩胛"(pork shoulder)，而是改为波士顿烤肉(Boston roast)。这种变更从原来的混淆变成了现在的不知所谓。”

Today's common names developed overtime, as meat cutters used terms that described parts of animals, as well as cuts made by butchers.
今天的普通名字会与日改变，像肉类零售商会使用术语来描述牲畜部位和屠夫切下来的肉块。

After the new changes, people may have to read more of the label to know what kind of meat they are buying. For example, labels currently say "beef" or "pork" on the first line. The new labels will use smaller print and will identify the animal on the second line. Also, cuts of meat that were traditionally names for beef products like rib steak, will now also being used for pork, that means a rib steak could come from either a cow or a pig.
有了新的改变，人们只得仔细读标签以明白所购买肉的来源。比如，标签上通常会在第一行写明“猪肉”或“牛肉”，新标签会用较小的字体，在第二行标明动物名。此外，通常用于牛肉制品的rib steak现在也将被用于猪肉。这就意味着，rib steak可能是指牛排，也可能是指猪排。

The labels for chicken and other poultry will not change, labels for fish will not change either. Meathead  questions the use of French words that will replace the traditional descriptions of some cuts of meat.
而鸡和其他家禽的标签将保持不变，鱼的标签也不变。Meathead质疑使用法语单词来取代一些肉类的传统描述。

"As that, I mean why is that, what I mean, you know, at least, somewhat descript it. And 'bottom round' is now 'maralow steak', that's sounds like a way to raise the price, you know, calling it a 'maralow steak'."
“我质疑的是为什么这么描述呢？底中圆腿肉如今成了maralow排，听起来像是为了提高价格，就改了这么个名字。”

The meat industry wants meat producers and supermarkets to voluntarily adopt the new description. There are no legal requirements to make the changes. But the Food and Drug Administration is considering new rules that would require complete details on labels about where meat was raised, and processed. Meathead  says the combined label changes would be even more confusing to some people.
肉食行业希望厂家和超市能自动改变新描述，并无作此改变的法律规定。但食品与药物管理局正考虑一些新规定，要求在标签上详细描述肉的饲养地和加工地。Meathead表示，这两种标签变更结合起来对一些人会更加困扰。

"What if there are two steaks side by side, or three, Mexican, American, and Canadian, which one they gonna pick up? And then how do they respond to a piece of meat from Shanghai, that's labelled Denver roast."
“如果有两三块肉排放在一起呢，墨西哥的、美国的、加拿大的，消费者该买哪个呢？又或者，如果一块来自上海的肉标注为丹佛，他们又该怎么办呢？”