气候变化：如何改变食物风味

To describe wine, sommeliers use the French term terroir to describe how environmental conditions like soil and climate affected the taste of wine grapes. But wine isn’t the only food with terroir.

为了描述葡萄酒，侍酒师使用法语术语“风土”来描述土壤和气候等环境条件如何影响酿酒葡萄的味道。但葡萄酒并不是唯一具有风土特色的食物。

Kathryn De Master, an environmental resource scientist at University of California, Berkeley, explains that terrior is even more expansive than just the ecological components that go into the taste and quality of food. Terroir also encompasses the social practices that go into making a food, like the way Cinco Jotas’ managers do everything in the curing process by hand, without machinery. The term is fluid, though, because many factors influence a food’s terroir and end flavor. Flavor, which is comprised of both aroma and taste, starts long before we dice, cure, and cook. When we taste something, we’re reacting to specific chemical compounds. Identifying these chemicals has allowed us to make foods that contain tastes like strawberry flavoring, without harming any strawberries in the process.

加州大学伯克利分校的环境资源科学家凯瑟琳·德马斯特 (Kathryn De Master) 解释说，地域的含义比影响食物味道和质量的生态成分还要广泛。风土还包括制作食品的社会实践，比如 Cinco Jotas 的经理在腌制过程中手工完成所有工作，无需使用机械。不过，这个术语是不稳定的，因为许多因素都会影响食物的风土和最终风味。风味由香气和味道组成，早在我们切块、腌制和烹饪之前就已经开始了。当我们品尝某种东西时，我们会对特定的化合物产生反应。识别这些化学物质使我们能够制造出含有草莓调味料味道的食品，而在此过程中不会伤害任何草莓。

Soil, fungi, temperature, moisture, shade—each plays a role. Even pests influence the way produce tastes, inducing certain plants to release more chemicals that attract the pests’ predators or repel the insects themselves. By isolating the compounds, scientists are beginning to better understand the environmental factors that influence them. For foods like meat and dairy, the plants the animals eat—and when and how they eat it—creates variations in fat, chemical compounds, and muscle.

土壤、真菌、温度、湿度、遮荫——每一个都发挥着作用。甚至害虫也会影响产生味道的方式，诱导某些植物释放更多的化学物质来吸引害虫的天敌或排斥昆虫本身。通过分离这些化合物，科学家们开始更好地了解影响它们的环境因素。对于肉类和奶制品等食品，动物吃的植物以及吃的时间和方式会造成脂肪、化合物和肌肉的变化。

In North Carolina, Matt Schwab is thinking about flavor, too. Schwab is the owner and farmer at Hold Fast Oyster Co., which farms its oysters at two locations in the New River. The water there is brackish, a mix of salt and freshwater. But already, as sea levels rise and the salinity in the river increases, the two locations will become more similar in flavor. “The oysters that are less briny, you can get more complexity in the flavor profile,” Schwab says. “But as the salinity has gone up you kind of lose some of that more subtle flavor.”

在北卡罗来纳州，马特·施瓦布 (Matt Schwab) 也在考虑风味。施瓦布是 Hold Fast Oyster Co. 的所有者和养殖者，该公司在新河的两个地点养殖牡蛎。那里的水是咸水，是咸水和淡水的混合物。但随着海平面上升和河流盐度增加，这两个地方的味道将变得更加相似。 “咸味较少的牡蛎，味道会更加复杂，”施瓦布说。 “但随着盐度的上升，你会失去一些更微妙的味道。”

Other foods’ flavor compounds are highly susceptible to moisture and temperature fluctuations. studies have shown that temperature has more impact on strawberry’s sweetness or acidity than the method by which they are grown. Warm days and cool nights increase the fruit’s sugar and acid content, both of which are needed for optimum flavor. In Japan, the strawberry crop peaks in winter—the most immaculate ones selling for hundreds of dollars apiece to be given as special gifts. Changes in temperatures influence how sweet or acidic the berries taste.

其他食品的风味化合物非常容易受到湿度和温度波动的影响。研究表明，温度对草莓的甜度或酸度的影响比草莓的种植方法更大。温暖的白天和凉爽的夜晚会增加水果的糖和酸含量，这两者都是最佳风味所必需的。在日本，草莓的收成高峰在冬季，最完美的草莓每颗售价数百美元，可作为特殊礼物赠送。温度的变化会影响浆果的甜度或酸度。

Similarly, temperature-driven early blooms and high temperature during maturation have both been shown to influence the flavor of apples in Japan. The acid level, fruit firmness, and water content all decreased, meaning the apples were less crisp and flavorful. In Yunnan province in China, tea grown in a typical dry season has higher concentrations of the compounds that create high quality, flavorful tea, meaning the product has to be grown before the monsoons. Yet Yunnan is in the midst of extreme drought, which means it’s harder to grow tea plants at all in the pre-monsoon season when the quality is highest.

同样，温度驱动的早期开花和成熟过程中的高温都被证明会影响日本苹果的风味。酸度、果实硬度和水分含量均下降，这意味着苹果的脆度和风味较差。在中国的云南省，在典型的旱季种植的茶叶含有较高浓度的化合物，可以生产出高品质、可口的茶叶，这意味着该产品必须在季风到来之前种植。然而，云南正处于极度干旱之中，这意味着在季风前的品质最高的季节种植茶树变得更加困难。

Cheesemakers in both the United States and Europe are grappling with new flavors, too. In Italy, early research indicates that the quality of Bettelmatt cheese, which relies heavily on the alpine pastures where cows graze, is likely to decline. The government in France, where cheese is deeply embedded in culture, is even considering loosening the strict rules that govern its cheesemakers. These accommodations have become increasingly necessary as pastures and milking barns suffer in more extreme heat.

美国和欧洲的奶酪制造商也在努力开发新口味。在意大利，早期研究表明，严重依赖奶牛吃草的高山牧场的贝特尔马特奶酪的质量可能会下降。奶酪深深融入法国文化，法国政府甚至正在考虑放宽对其奶酪制造商的严格规定。随着牧场和挤奶房遭受更加极端的高温，这些住宿变得越来越必要。

These changes in flavor have social repercussions; farmers who produce tea during the monsoon season make 30 to 50 percent less income because the leaves are lower quality and less flavorful. For Schwab, hotter, saltier water raises the risk of diseases and oyster mortality.

这些风味的变化会产生社会影响。在季风季节生产茶叶的农民收入减少 30% 至 50%，因为茶叶质量较差且味道较差。对于施瓦布来说，更热、更咸的水会增加疾病和牡蛎死亡的风险。