Are you really worried about the safety of your produce? This futuristic-looking contraption may be the somewhat impractical but fun solution.
你有没有担心过你自己吃的东西呢？这个看起来很有未来主义的玩意儿，可能有点不切实际，但不失为一个有趣的解决方案。
I dug my Aerogarden out of the attic on my trip back home to California this week. A friend had graciously given it to me a couple of years ago but I sort of forgot about it up there. Since I’m at home for exactly the growing period of a batch of seeds (8 weeks), I decided to try it out.
我这个星期回到了加州的家，从家中的阁楼翻出了Aerogarden，它是一位朋友几年前慷慨地送给我的，但我早就忘记了有这么一个东西。因为我在家的时间有8周，刚好够一批种子生长，我就决定尝试一下。
Leave it to Americans to develop an agricultural machine that let’s you avoid any physical labor or contact with the outdoors.You place prepared seed packets in the holes, add some water and a fertilizer tablet, and press “start.” About once every two weeks you raise the hydroponic lamp that sits above the plants and add more water and a fertilizer tablet.
这是一个让美国人可以尝试一下农业耕作的机器，并且让我们避免任何体力劳动或到户外的机会。你只要在机器的孔里面加入种子，放入水和肥料片剂，然后按“开始”就可以了。你大概每两周需要开一次在植物上面的水培灯，并且补充水和肥料片剂。
I do have to admit, it’s been much more manageable than my previous gardening project:
我不得不承认，它已经远远比我以前的园艺项目要好管理：
Real gardening = real hard 真正的花园=真的很难
Besides the convenience factor and ease of use, the main benefit of the Aerogarden is guaranteed chemical-free, clean vegetables or herbs that you can grow at home anytime of year. For those who are paranoid about food safety, this is one way to solve the problem.
除了方便性和易用性，Aerogarden的主要好处就是能保证这些蔬菜或者药草都是干净的、没有添加化学品的，你可以在家任何时候都种这些植物。对于那些对食品安全很偏执的人，我觉得这是解决问题的途径之一。
The Aerogarden blog had this to say about food safety:
Aerogarden博客对食品安全的是这样描述的：
Giving people the ability to grow their own fresh lettuces, herbs and vegetables year round brings people one step closer to their food and knowing where it comes from, who has handled it, and how it’s been treated. When you watch your food grow on your kitchen counter you’re less likely to spray it with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides (and who knows what other ‘cides), because you know that sooner or later, you or a friend or family member is going to eat it.
它能使我们在一年的任何时候都可以种植的新鲜生菜、草药和蔬菜，这样可以带给我们一个逐步接近我们的食物、知道它们来自的地方、谁处理它们和它们是怎么被处理的机会。当你看到你的食物生长在你的厨房柜台，你就不太可能喷洒杀虫剂，除草剂，杀菌剂（谁知道还有什么其他“杀X剂”），因为你知道迟早你或你的朋友或家庭成员要吃掉它。
Aerogarden also claims their vegetables are more nutritious than store bought produce, as you eat directly after harvest, citing several studies that show nutrient loss in produce during transport to the store. They also claim that their produce has more vitamin C than store brands, although they don’t specify the methods they used to test this.
Aerogarden还声称他们的蔬菜比商店买的更有营养，因为你收割后就直接吃Aerogarden还声称他们的蔬菜比商店买的更有营养，因为你收割后就直接吃，引用的几个研究中显示，商店买到的产品在运输过程中有很多营养流失。虽然他们没有指明他们使用的检测方法，但是他们声称他们的产品也比商店卖的有更多的维生素C，引用的几个研究中显示，商店买到的产品在运输过程中有很多营养流失。虽然他们没有指明他们使用的检测方法，但是他们声称他们的产品也比商店卖的有更多的维生素C，
Planting in plastic soil 在塑料泥土中种植
Downside: you only get one batch of plants every 8 weeks. I suppose you could buy 8 Aerogardens and harvest every week, but at $170 per machine and $20 per 7 seed capsules, it could get a bit pricey. Ironically, it’s even more expensive if you buy it in China, where it’s manufactured. It’s almost cheaper per unit of produce to go rent your own plot of land, which is coming into vogue with Chinese urban dwellers. Outside Beijing at Little Donkey Farm, the yearly fee is only 1500rmb/30 meters sq or 3000rmb if you need assistance from the farmers there. More on Little Donkey here.
Another downside: The plastic+electricity+packaging to plant ratio is quite high, which is not especially sustainable or efficient. I think might be true even considering the energy you save by cutting out the transport required to get produce from farms to supermarkets.
缺点：你只能每8个星期吃到一批你自己种的植物。我想，你也许可以买8个这样的机器，那么你就可以每周都能吃上收割的菜；但是每台机器需要170美元并且每包种子需要20美元，这还是很贵的。具有讽刺意味的是，在中国买这个产自中国的机器，价格只会更高。按照每单位你的产品价钱来算的话，你直接去租一块地种菜可能还省钱一些，况且对于中国城市居民来说租地已经很普遍了。在北京郊外的小毛驴农场，30平米的土地每年的费用只是1500元，或者你再请农民帮你打理的话会是3000块钱。从这里你可以了解更多关于小毛驴。
另一个缺点：塑料+电+包装和植物的比例是相当的高，这样是不可持续或不高效的。我觉得即使你把你去超市买菜的运输所需的能源减去以后再考虑，这样种菜依然是很浪费的。
One plastic wrapped box per seven plants: efficient or sustainable? 一个塑料袋子里有7种植物种子：有效么？高效么？
Though while the Aerogarden can’t provide for all your food needs, as a novelty it can get people more familiar with food production and puts fresh clean produce on the table. This is a fun and easy experiment for people who are curious about growing food.
虽然Aerogarden不能提供你所有的粮食需求，但是作为一个新生事物它可以让人们更熟悉与粮食生产，并且可以为人们餐桌提供一些新鲜干净的产品。对于那些对种植食物好奇的人来说，这确实是很有趣和容易的实验。
翻译者：麦毓麟
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