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经济学人双语精读TE-2023-05-09期|食品生产商：是的，他们行！

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5.9每日一篇 | 英语外刊社

Food producers：Yes, they can (and box, and package)
Fat times for America’s big food

【1】For years nutritionists have advised Americans to steer clear of grocery shops’ central aisles and instead fill their trolleys from the outlying shelves. Fresh meat, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables often line supermarket walls; cans, boxes and other packages of less salubriousprocessed food are stacked in the middle. Some shoppers have heeded that advice: sales of canned soup have been lacklustre in recent times, even as those of fresher refrigerated potages have grown. Now makers of the packaged stuff are staging a comeback. This says as much about shifting economic conditions as it does about products on shelves.

【2】This month Conagra, which owns brands including Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Bird’s Eye frozen veg and Duncan Hines cake mixes, reported bumper results for its latest quarter. Sales and margins were all up year on year. The company expects higher earnings in the fiscal year to May than it had previously forecast. A few weeks earlier General Mills, which peddles canned soups, frozen vegetables and breakfast cereals, unveiledsimilarly juicy quarterly numbers. McCormick & Company, which sells spices and sauces, and the J.M. Smucker Company, best known for jams and peanut butter, are likewise having a sweet time of it. Investors are licking their lips: Conagra’s share price has risen by 8% in the past 12 months, compared with a decline of 7% for the S&P 500 index of large American firms. General Mills’ has shot up by 23%.

【3】For America’s packaged-food firms, the past decade was a cycle of famine and feast. Lean years before the pandemic ended when restaurants closed amid covid-19 and people stocked their pantries. Stimulus cheques from the government meant that shoppers were flush and the food companies were not being nagged by their retail partners to offer discounts. Then in 2022 people began dining out again, putting pressure on volumes even as commodity-price shocks caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed up costs.

【4】As big food’s results show, the industry is managing to ride out the latest tumult. For one thing, the pandemic may have altered consumer habits, leading to a lasting bump in the consumption of frozen and packaged meals. Americans are still eating more meals at home than they were before the first covid-19 lockdowns. According to EY, a consultancy, nearly three in four consumers anyway do not carefully distinguish frozen vegetables from the fresh sort, treating them as the same category. And though inflation is leading shoppers to trade down from branded products to retailers’ cheaper private-label offerings when buying things like cosmetics or home goods, they are still happy to pay a bit extra for premium grub; 20- and 30-somethings in particular seem readier to spend larger shares of their income on food and are less likely to trade down than their elders.

【5】The food giants also benefit from a diverse range of products and brands, which they are adapting to changing consumer tastes. Conagra has introduced (Italian readers avert your eyes) “crustless pizzas”—microwavable boxes of sauce, cheese and meat—to appeal to the carb-phobic. Its vegan Power Bowls seem tailor-made for the avocado-loving yoga crowd. General Mills is marketing cereal as an after-school snack and alternative to dessert in the evening, rather than just something to munch for breakfast. And although they managed to maintain or even expand their margins by raising prices in line with their costs or faster, they might be all too content to take advantage of cheaper inputs without concomitant price cuts.

【6】Can the good times last? The biggest question-mark hangs over sales volumes, which could be crimped by those higher prices and a loomingeconomic slowdown that may prompt shoppers to start pinching pennies. If wage growth slows or unemployment ticks up, at some point people will probably cut back even on smaller luxuries. Should one food firm decide to trim prices in an effort to boost volumes at its competitors’ expense, an old-fashioned price war may erupt. For the time being, though, the foodmakers will keep reaping the peace dividend.

①短语：

1.原文：For years nutritionists have advised Americans to steer clear of grocery shops’ central aisles

词典：steer clear of sb/sth 避开，躲避，绕开

例句：I think a lot of people, women in particular, steer clear of these sensitive issues.

我认为很多人，特别是女性，都会回避这些敏感问题。

2.原文：Now makers of the packaged stuff are staging a comeback.

词典：make/stage a comeback 1.复出，重返，东山再起 2.再度流行

例句：Tight fitting T-shirts are making a comeback.

紧身T恤再度流行起来。

Sixties singing star Petula Clark is making a comeback.

60年代的歌星佩杜拉·克拉克复出了。

3.原文：Investors are licking their lips

词典：lick/smack one’s lips 1.（在吃好东西前）舔嘴唇 2.迫不及待，渴望

例句：They were licking their lips at the thought of clinching the deal.

他们一想到马上要做成这笔交易就显得急不可待了。

4.原文：General Mills’ has shot up by 23%.

词典：shoot up 1.蹿个儿，迅速长高 2.陡增，猛涨

例句：Ticket prices shot up last year.

去年票价猛涨。

Their kids have shot up since I last saw them.

自我上次见了以后，他们家几个孩子一下子长高了。

5.原文：Then in 2022 people began dining out again

词典：dine out 下馆子，外出就餐

例句：She does not enjoy parties or dining out.

她不喜欢参加派对，也不喜欢出去吃饭。

6.原文：the industry is managing to ride out the latest tumult

词典：ride out sth 安然渡过，挺过（风暴或者危机）

例句：The ruling party think they can ride out the political storm.

执政党认为他们可以安然度过这场政治风暴。

7.原文：nearly three in four consumers anyway do not carefully distinguish frozen vegetables from the fresh sort

词典：distinguish (between) A and B | distinguish A from B 区分；辨别；分清

例句：It was hard to distinguish one twin from the other.

很难分辨出一对孪生儿谁是谁。

Sometimes reality and fantasy are hard to distinguish.

有时候现实和幻想很难区分。

8.原文：treating them as the same category

词典：treat sth as sth 把…看作；把…视为

例句：I decided to treat his remark as a joke.

我决定把他的话当作戏言。

9.原文：20- and 30-somethings in particular seem readier to spend larger shares of their income on food and are less likely to trade down than their elders.

词典：trade down 降低消费

例句：They are selling their five-bedroom house and trading down to a two-bedroom cottage.

他们要把 5 居室的房子卖掉，换一所较便宜的 2 居室小屋。

10.原文：which they are adapting to changing consumer tastes

词典：adapt (oneself) (to sth) 适应（新情况）

例句：We have had to adapt quickly to the new system.

我们不得不迅速适应新制度。

A large organization can be slow to adapt to change.

大机构可能应变迟缓。

11.原文：Conagra has introduced (Italian readers avert your eyes) “crustless pizzas” to appeal to the carb-phobic

词典：appeal to sb 有吸引力，有感染力，引起兴趣

例句：The design has to appeal to all ages and social groups.

设计得要雅俗共赏，老幼皆宜。

12.原文：And although they managed to maintain or even expand their margins by raising prices in line with their costs or faster

词典：in line with sth 与…相似（或紧密相连）

例句：Annual pay increases will be in line with inflation.

每年加薪幅度将与通货膨胀挂钩。

13.原文：If wage growth slows or unemployment ticks up

词典：tick up 增长

例句：Inflation is persistent and economists expect it to tick up more this year.

通货膨胀居高不下，经济学家预计今年还会进一步加剧。

14.原文：at some point people will probably cut back even on smaller luxuries

词典：cut back on sth 缩减，减少

例句：If we don't sell more we'll have to cut back on production.

我们若不能多销，就必须减产。

②长难句

1.原文：And though inflation is leading shoppers to trade down from branded products to retailers’ cheaper private-label offerings when buying things like cosmetics or home goods, they are still happy to pay a bit extra for premium grub.

2.分析：主句是简单的主系表结构+状语they are happy to pay a bit extra for premium grub，其中不定式介词短语to do sth为原因状语。though引导让步状语从句，在该从句中，主句是inflation is leading shoppers to trade down，后面的from ... to ...作状语。when buying things like cosmetics or home goods是时间状语。

3.译文：并且尽管通货膨胀正让购物者在购买化妆品或家居品时降级消费，选择从名牌产品到零售商售卖的更为廉价的私有商标商品，购物者仍然乐意多花费一些钱去购买高档食品。

1.原文：The biggest question-mark hangs over sales volumes, which could be crimped by those higher prices and a looming economic slowdown that may prompt shoppers to start pinching pennies.

2.分析：首句是主谓宾结构The biggest question-mark（主语）hangs over（谓语动词）sales volumes（宾语）。which引导非限制性定语从句，修饰先行词sales volumes，表示“销量会被高价以及潜在的经济放缓削减”。that引导定语从句，修饰a looming economic slowdown，表示这一潜在的经济放缓“或许会促使购物者开始节约”，此处涉及表达prompt sb to do sth“促使某人做某事”。

3.译文：最大的问题出在销量上，而更高的售价以及潜在的经济下滑或许会使购物者开始缩衣节食，进而降低销量。

③写作技巧:

The biggest question-mark hangs over sales volumes

最大的不确定性在于销量

表达：当写作中想表达“对……不确定”时，可以用上述句型“The question mark hangs over sth”，或者是“There is a question mark over sth”代替“The question/problem is that ...”。

例句：There are bound to be question marks over his future...

他的未来必然还存有很多不确定的因素。

④背景知识：

康尼格拉公司（Conagra）：康尼格拉食品公司（ConAgra Foods, Inc.）的主要业务是生产和销售加工及袋装食品。康尼格拉食品公司是一家包装食品公司，客户包括百货零售店、餐厅、食品服务公司以及食品加工商，而公司旗下的大众消费品牌则包括Banquet、男厨牌、Egg Beaters, 健康之选, 希伯来热狗、亨氏, Marie Callender's、奥利华•雷登巴赫以及PAM。康尼格拉食品公司成立于1861年，总部位于内布拉斯加州奥马哈市。康尼格拉公司是美国最大的食品制造商，第二大的食品零售商。美国人的餐桌上几乎少不了康尼格拉公司的产品，不管是在家（蔬菜产品）还是在外面（饭店、宾馆、学校和其他机构）。