French Bees Produce Blue Honey

每日一看---French Bees Produce Blue Honey

咱們今天來看看TIME，看看這則讓人怵目驚心的報導吧...究竟是什麼讓蜜蜂產出深藍色的蜂蜜呢？你喜歡吃深藍色的M&Ms嗎？(好像沒那麼有關耶xD)


French Bees Produce Blue Honey
法國出現藍色蜂蜜
By JuJu Kim | @jujkim | October 5, 2012 |

Vincent Kessler/Reuters  

French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample of normal honey (right) besides a blue colored one (left) at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar, Eastern France, October 5, 2012.

Mars Incorporated has proclaimed that “Chocolate is better in color” with its M&Ms. But French beekeepers may beg to differ on that.
生產知名糖果M&Ms的馬斯公司(Mars Incorporated)，向來秉持「有顏色的巧克力是最優的」。但法國的蜂農，可就不這麼認為了。

Since August, beekeepers near the town of Ribeauville, in the northeastern region of Alsace, have been reporting their bees are producing blue and green honey, according to Reuters. And they've traced the cause back to a biogas plant that processes waste from an M&Ms factory.
路透社(Reuters)指出，今年八月起，法國亞爾薩斯北部、希伯維列(Ribeauville)附近的蜂農，不斷抱怨他們的蜜蜂產出藍綠色的蜂蜜。該區的蜂農找尋原因，發現是一家沼氣工廠惹的禍；而該工廠就是負責處理M&Ms生產時排出的廢料。

Bees are apparently picking up vibrantly colored, sugary waste from the plant, operated by the company Agrivalor some 2.5 miles away from their apiaries. A statement from Agrivalor that appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde said the company would clean its containers and store waste in airtight containers to prevent bees from reaching it.
該沼氣工廠由Agrivalor公司經營，距養蜂場約2.5英里(大約4公里)；那些蜜蜂顯然採了工廠排出、顏色鮮豔又有甜味的廢料。Agrivalor在法國報紙Le Monde聲明，他們會清理所有容器，並將廢料貯存在封緊的容器，以免蜜蜂接觸。

“We quickly put in place a procedure to stop it,” Philippe Meinrad, co-manager of Agrivalor, told Reuters.
Agrivalor的經理菲利浦‧曼羅德(Philippe Meinrad)說：「我們立即採取措施，阻止類似事情發生。」

France generates 18,330 tons of honey per year, making it one of the largest honey producers in the European Union. In Alsace alone, about 2,400 beekeepers manage 35,000 colonies, which produce about 1,000 tons of the stuff per year. However, France hasn’t been spared by the largely unexplained decrease in the world bee population in recent years, Reuters reported.
法國每年產出18330噸蜂蜜，是歐盟最大的產蜜國之一。光在亞爾薩斯，每年就產1000噸；該區約有2400名蜂農，負責35000個蜂巢。即便如此，路透社也指出，近幾年蜜蜂數量出乎意料的大銳減，也波及到法國。

Gill Maclean, a spokesperson for the British Beekeepers’ Association, told the BBC that the harsh winter of 2011-2012 may have affected bees’ ability to forage. This could be a reason why the bees sought out the alternate sugar.
英國養蜂協會發言人吉爾‧麥克林(Gill Maclean)告訴英國廣播公司(BBC)，2011-2012的寒冬影響了蜜蜂的覓食能力。這也就是為什麼，該區的蜜蜂會採有甜味的廢料，作為替代。

“Bees are clever enough to know where the best sources of sugar are, if there are no others available,” Maclean told the BBC.
麥克林繼續說，「如果沒有其他影響，蜜蜂倒是曉得最好的『花蜜』在哪裡。」

Rest assured: Consumers won’t see blue honey on store shelves anytime soon. Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists’ union, told Reuters the only similarity between regular honey and their bees’ M&M-tainted byproducts might be taste.“For me, it’s not honey,” Frieh told Reuters. “It’s not sellable.”
相關人員擔保，消費者絕不會在架上看到藍色的蜂蜜。養蜂聯盟主席亞藍‧菲(Alain Frieh)告訴路透社，正常的蜂蜜和「帶有M&Ms成分」的蜂蜜，共通點就是都有各自的味道。他也繼續說，「對我而言，這根本不是蜂蜜。完全不能上架。」