Are forgotten crops the future of food?
{A} On a small fruit farm near the Straits of Malacca（马六甲海峡）, Lim Kok Ann is down to just one tree growing kedondong, a crunchy, sour berry that Malaysians mostly use in pickles and salads."It's not very well-known," says the 45-year-old, who is instead focusing on longan berries and pineapples（凤梨）, which have bigger markets."We have to grow what is profitable," he says.
{B} But less than an hour away in the Malaysian countryside, inside three giant, silver domes, scientists are trying to change the future of food.They're pushing the boundaries （界限）of what humans eat by growing and processing so-called 'alternative' crops 一 such as kedondong.At the headquarters of global research centre Crops For the Future (CFF) this particular under-used fruit has been turned into a sugar-free juice, high in vitamin C and getting top marks in sensory evaluations（感官评估）."Anything you see here is a forgotten crop," says Sayed Azam-Ali of the abundant plants weaving through the gardens of CFF outside Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.
{C} Prof Azam-Ali explains that just four crops -wheat, maize（玉米）, rice and soybean（大豆） -provide two-thirds of the world's food supply."We're dependent on these four," he says."But actually there's 7,000 crops we've been farming for thousands of years. We ignore all of those."Researchers are trying to unlock the potential of these ignored crops -plants they describe as forgotten, under-used or 'alternative' as they are displaced by increasingly uniform diets fuelled by processed ingredients from the major crops.
{D} It's a timely quest.The food sector （部门）is already responsible for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.By 2050 it estimates the world must produce 50% more food to feed the projected global population of 10 billion. Meeting this demand without contributing to climate change calls for urgent solutions.
{E}Forgotten crops hold key answers.By investing in neglected local plants, countries can reduce their reliance on imported crops and their carbon-heavy supply chains.
Bringing back the variety of crops humans once ate also boosts food security at a time warming climates threaten existing crops.On top of that forgotten crops are among the most climate-resilient（气候区） and nutritious, argues Azam-Ali. His summary is plain: "Dietary diversification（多样化） is critical to the future of humanity."
{F} Food security experts （食品安全专家）agree."There is no food insecurity in the world, there is food ignorance," says Cecilia Tortajada, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy at the National University of Singapore."Whenever we have native crops we tend to disregard them as if they were not valuable but they are," she adds.
{G} Azam-Ali knows that scepticism （怀疑）firsthand.（直接的）He came across alternative crops in the 1980s through the work of women farmers he met in Niger.The then-PhD student remembers marvelling （惊奇于）at the crops they grew in their backyards, without the benefits of technology, to feed their families when the big crops failed.He saw a tremendous opportunity to build alternative food systems.But "the resistance （阻力）was enormous" , he recalls.
{H} Undeterred, he ploughed on（继续前进）.Project after project helped prove these crops were viable in different environments as alternatives to the staple （主要作物）ones.But the question of whether these crops would be marketable remained."That's the critical thing," he says.In one of the centre's domes, food technologist Tan Xinlin uses powdered moringa leaves in place of some wheat flour to bake a cake lower in gluten and higher in nutrients.Tan's job is to create recipes（食谱） with these still-unfamiliar ingredients that will appeal to both local and international tastes.In recent years she has used some of the forgotten crops grown at CFF, such as moringa and bambara groundnut, to make everything from instant（速溶） soup to Indian snacks."I try to modernise （现代化）forgotten crops instead of using old recipes" , says Tan, who is also a trained chef.It's a strategy to appeal to the world's growing middle class who are increasingly turning to the fast and processed food industries.It's also a way to help counter perceptions（观念） of local crops as "old or poor people's food" or as inferior "women's crops", adds Tan.
{I} The roots of these connotations about local foods can run deep.The bambara groundnut, a protein-rich native crop of sub-Saharan Africa that is also grown in parts of southeast Asia, can trace its marginalisation（边缘化） to colonial（殖民化） rule（统治）."African women who grew bambara groundnut were actually punished for growing it" , says Azam-Ali."Colonial powers said you can't grow it because there's no oil. We can't get a market for it" .But today the bambara murukku is one of CFF's best-reviewed foods and they are aiming to get it into grocery stores, pointing to the success of crops like quinoa（藜麦） to potential investors.Some 30 years ago, quinoa was virtually unheard of outside its native mountains in Bolivia and Peru.Today the nutritious grain is found on the menus of lavish（豪华） restaurants across the world.
{J} Measuring crops by nutrition instead of yield is at the heart of the forgotten foods enterprise（企业）.Ever since the "green revolution" of the 1960s, high-yielding crops have dominated modern agriculture.That was in part a crucial response to devastating （毁灭性的）famines（饥荒） at a time when the world needed to increase its food supply.Today "nutrition is becoming a time bomb" , says Azam-Ali, as growing carbon dioxide levels strip crops of their minerals（矿物质）.Instead of bio-fortifying（生物强化） major crops we should be investing in those forgotten crops that are already more nutritious, he asserts.
{K} In the bowels of CFF's third dome, lab manager Gomathy Sethuraman opens a window into the centre's "crown jewels" , revealing vines （葡萄藤）of winged beans growing under a bright yellow light.It's one of three chambers where scientists are studying the impact of higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels on the nutritional make-up of alternative crops.
This research is "the game changer" , says Azam-Ali, ensuring that "future foods" are also the healthiest ones in warmer climates.
{L} There is a growing global momentum （动力）around forgotten foods, says Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a US-based think tank.Other than CFF, which bills itself as the world's first research centre dedicated solely to under-utilised crops, there are other key groups championing agricultural diversity including Crop Trust, Slow Food, Icrisat and Bioversity International.Add to that more middle-income consumers searching for nutritious foods and others eager to try the unprocesse- d foods their grandparents once ate, she says.
{M} But the rising interest in forgotten foods in some quarters is overtaken （压到）by the global spread of Western-style diets heavy in sugar, fat and processed foods in others.
{N} A key obstacle（障碍） to promoting fading local crops in Malaysia, for example, is "the obsession （困扰）with imported products" , says Jenifer Kuan, co-founder of a restaurant that champions （冠军）locally-sourced food in an affluent suburb of Kuala Lumpur.Customers at Sitka, regarded as the pioneer（先驱） in the country's small farm-to-table dining scene, still seek foreign ingredients as a "status symbol" , she says.
{0} The argument for forgotten foods feels intuitive（直观的）. Some analysts say it is in fact inevitable."Climate change is going to mean almost certainly tastes are going to be forced to change," says Tim Lang, profess- or of food policy at City University of London.
We "have to get used to eating other crops" as yields of staple crops fall, he says.
36.According to a senior researcher, we will have secure food supply if we rid ourselves of ignorance about native crops.
37.Most of the world's food supply comes from a tiny number out of thousands of crops that have been grown for centuries.
38.To provide their family with food when the staple（主食） crops failed, some African women farmers grew local crops in their backyards.
39.High-yielding crops have occupied a dominant position in modern agriculture since the green revolution in the last century.
40.Growing alternative crops proved feasible in a variety of environments, but the critical question was whether they would be marketable.
41.According to a professor, when the yields of staple crops fall, we will have to adapt to eating foods from alternativ- e crops.
42.Urgent measures have to be taken to provide food for the projected world population without aggravating the climate.
43.Colonial rule marginalised local crops by punishing Africans who grew them.44.
As existing crops are endangered by global warming, we can increase food security by bringing back the many forgotten food crops.
45.Researchers are trying to find out how higher temperatures and co2 levels affect the nutritional composition of alternative crops.
Key:1-5 FCGJH 6-10 ODREK
The Free-Trade Paradox（悖论）
{A} Trade is one of the policy areas where the hostility（敌意） that exists between populists （平民主义的）and classical（古典自由主义） liberals is most visible（明显的）.Free-traders point to the undeniable good that tariff-free （免税）trade has done for consumers across the world and to the observable （显著的）alleviation （缓和）of poverty in corners of the world where previously closed markets have been opened up.Protectionists（保护主义者） point to the domestic producers who've paid the price for this globalized economy in the form of lost livelihoods and hollowed-out （掏空）communities.
{B} The ongoing conservative（保守派） civil war often degenerates（恶化） into content-free tribal warfare（部落）, but trade is a rare excption.There are substantial（大量的）, thought-out policy proposals（建议） on both sides of the argument.
{C}Consequently, trade as a topic of discussion provides an opportunity for liberals and populists to have a real meeting of minds.Fruitful debates might actually take place in this area, as opposed to the familiar ritual （仪式）we've become accustomed to of condemnation（谴责） met with counter-condemnation.（相反）
{D} Strange as it might sound, the problem with trade in the modern world isn't a matter of dollars and cents.It's a matter of false consciousness.This observation is bound to set Marxist（马克思主义者） alarm bells ringing in the minds of some readers, but it was first made by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840.
{E} Tracking the economic development of mankind from primitive to modern societies, Tocqueville observed a paradox （悖论）unfolding over the centuries as economic realities and human experience of those realities strayed（迷路） further and further from each other.In primitive societies, he notes, the division of labor was as yet undeveloped for the most part, requiring each person, family, or tribe to be relatively independent when it came to meeting their own basic material needs. Men built their own dwellings（住处）, farmed their own land, tended to their own livestock.This is not to deny that basic forms of trade took place, but, for the most part, our primitive ancestors lived fairly self-reliant（自力更生）, if crushingly poor, lives.
{F} However, the exclusively local and face-to-face nature of economic and political organization in the ancient and prehistoric（史前的） worlds constantly impressed upon these primitive peoples the uncontrollable reality of others and their needs.As Tocqueville notes, "as soon as a man begins to deal with common affairs （公共事务）in public, he begins to perceive that he is not so independent of his fellow men as he had first imagined, and that in order to obtain their support he must often lend them his cooperation."
{G}At the advent of the modern world, the division of labor spread further and further throughout society. Each person became more and more dependent on others for their basic needs.And yet, robbed （剥夺）of the engagement with our neighbors and with our local communities that our ancestors were forced into by circumstance, we feel ourselves to be more and more independent of one another.As we become more and more dependent on others, we become less and less conscious of our dependence on others.This is the paradox of trade in the modern world.
{H} The false consciousness that this paradox generates causes havoc （浩劫）on the debates we have about free trade.There is scarcely a single commodity in any American household that isn't dependent for its manufacture and sale, through one supply chain or another, on scores of different people spread out across the entire globe. But as Tocqueville already foresaw in 1840, we do not feel dependent on these strangers for our way of life. No sense of the dependence of our own material welfare on their work ever strikes our national consciousness. We rarely contemplate（沉思） the globalized avenues （途径）of free trade with gratitude.
{I}There are two reasons for this.The first, to put it bluntly（说白了）, is money.Money allows us to purchase the work of others without giving any thought to them as human beings.Unlike our ancestors in their primitive townships, we rarely have to meet face-to-face the people who've invented, built, shipped, or supplied our goods.No relationship has to be built before an exchange can take place.Simply agree on a price, and you can have any goods you wish without taking a second thought for the human being involved on the other side of the transaction（交易）.In this way, money makes us feel more independent than we actually are. Each of us senses the hold that it has over our fellows.We know that if we bid（出价） highly enough we can buy ourselves out of the time-consuming labor of building relationships.Money is kind of like magic in that way.
It gives us a set of rituals（规定程序） to perform （执行）and promises that if we do so we'll be able to wield power over others.The illusion（错觉） is created that having enough money to buy something is the equivalent （等价物）of knowing how to make it yourself.Gratitude for the anonymous men and women who make up the supply chain rarely makes its way into our consciousness.
{J} Anonymity（匿名性）, in fact, is the second root cause of the free-trade paradox.
Modernity has emancipated （解放）everyone from the limits of location and community.
By and large, when we trade, we trade with strangers; when we vote, we vote for strangers; when we watch, read, or listen to stories, the tellers of the tales are strangers.As opposed to the ancestors Tocqueville compares （比较）us to, we do not know the people with whom we have to do, in either the economic or the political sphere.This is simply the shadow side of the miracle of markets, which, for the frst time in history, have allowed strangers to look after each other.
They've also allowed each of us to live more and more of our lives exclusively（唯一的） as strangers to other people. This is how Tocqueville——rather pessimistically（悲观地）——describes us: Each, standing apart, is like a stranger to the destiny（命运） of others; his children and personal friends forming for him the entire human race.As for the remainder of his fellow citizens, he is beside them, but he does not see the
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