Pig farming
This little piggy didn’t go to market
Pig farmers mired are in problems because of Brexit and China
Simon Watchorn, a pig farmer in Suffolk, is struggling with his teeming stock.“When you’ve got pregnant sows, you can’t just pop a cork up there and ask them to wait a fortnight.” Brexit and problems with China have left almost 100,000 hogs that should have gone for the chop wallowing on British farms.
标题中的 piggy 是儿童用语，表示“猪猪，小猪”，类似的还有 doggy（小狗）
mired 是形容词，意思是“陷入困境；处境艰难”
teeming 表示“ 大量的”
sow 熟词僻义，在这里指“母猪”，与 boar（野猪）、hog（供食用的猪）形成对比；sow 的常见意思是“播种”
cork 指“（尤指酒瓶的）软木塞”
fortnight 意思是“ 两星期；两周”
hog 表示“（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪”
chop 指“排骨”
wallow 意思是“沉湎；放纵”，在这里就表示这些猪无法流入市场，只能在农场中“快乐玩耍”
Where pork is concerned, Britons are Jack Sprat and continental Europeans are his wife. Brits like loins, legs and back. Europeans want fattier parts—belly and shoulders—for their salami, saucisson and bratwurst and prefer streaky to back bacon. That’s why Britain kills 10m hogs each year, but eats 23m loins, 19m hams and only 5m bellies. The so-called fifth quarter of British pigs—heads, tongues, trotters, offal and tails—mostly goes to China. (Britons also do not like sows, which have tougher meat; Europeans are fine with them.)
Jack Sprat 指“杰克▪斯布拉特”，与下文“his wife”一起可以理解为一个典故，出自于《鹅妈妈童谣》。“鹅妈妈”是英国流传多年的童谣歌集，总共有约两千多首童谣，内容丰富有趣。
涉及到 Jack Sprat 的童谣如下，主要讲的是“杰克▪斯布拉特不吃肥肉，而他老婆不吃瘦肉”，强调二者互补，在本文中亦是如此。
loin 指“腰肉”
salami 表示“萨拉米香肠”
saucisson 指“粗红肠”
bratwurst 指“（供煎食的）德国式小香肠”
streaky 意思是“有条纹（或条痕）的”，本文中 streaky bacon 表示“五花咸肉”
ham 指“火腿；火腿肉”
trotter 意思是“猪蹄”
offal 指“（食用的）动物内脏”
This mutually beneficial trade has collapsed. Towards the end of 2020, outbreaks of covid-19 in several processing plants meant their output was banned from China. Whereas Danish and Dutch exporters, similarly hit, have quickly regained their Chinese certification, British firms have been left waiting. Pig producers blame Britain’s vocal opposition to China’s treatment of Uyghurs.
Then Brexit hit. While European producers have been given a grace period till April 1st before they face border checks when exporting to Britain, British producers have to fill in export health certificates in duplicate, in the language of every country the cargo passes through. They have to be signed off by a vet at every step. The amount of paperwork is “eye-watering”, says Zoe Davies from the National Pig Association. At the worst point, exports were delayed by a week, she says. Some carcasses arrived in Europe so late that they were already spoilt and thus rejected.
plant 指“工厂”，常用意思是“植物” grace period 表示“宽限期”cargo 指“货物”，cargo ship 就表示“货船”vet 意思是“兽医”eye-watering 意思是“多得离谱的”carcass 表示“动物尸体”spoil 在这里意思是“腐败，变质”