ISG 1108 The Food Crisis I - Article Translating

[Kooper]

Hi Sherry,

Even if farmers don't use fossil fuel-based fertilizer to cultivate, petroleum products would be used indirectly for harvesting, processing, distributing, and packing.

"Cultivate" is a transitive verb. You may add a word like "crops" after it.

To put it plainly, petroleum products are necessary almost at every step of the food production process, for food from harvesting to readying for eating.

"For food" seems to be redundant here. I would revise it as ...., from harvesting to readying food for eating.

[Kooper]

Sherry,

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued an alarming report in 2008, in which it warned that, the poor around the world were facing a worsening food crisis.

"in which it warned that" seems to be wordy. How about "which warned that ..."? BTW, comma cannot be added after THAT.

To take an overall view of the events happened in 2008, what has been revealed by the report might not be serious enough.

Not sure if mine is better, but here is my revision. Given what happened in 2008, the report might underestimate the severity of global food crisis.

Food Riots broke out in Mexico, Egypt, Haiti and Somalia; in Australia, the worst drought in 100 years has made wheat produce drop by 60 percentages; the average price of food in the world has risen by 75 percentages of the price in 2000.

Since all of them took place in the past, the tense need to be past tense.

[Sherry Liao]

Hi Sherry,

Even if farmers don't use fossil fuel-based fertilizer to cultivate, petroleum products would be used indirectly for harvesting, processing, distributing, and packing.

"Cultivate" is a transitive verb. You may add a word like "crops" after it.

To put it plainly, petroleum products are necessary almost at every step of the food production process, for food from harvesting to readying for eating.

"For food" seems to be redundant here. I would revise it as ...., from harvesting to readying food for eating.

You are right... I didn't notice that "ready" is also a transitive verb. But the sentence still sounds a bit awkward to me. I think the wording "serving" in your translation sounds much better.

[jacksonwang]

Thanks for Kooper and Sherry great help to correct my translation.~

[gavintsai]

Hi, Kooper:

I think using "for" is better. Agreed with you.

Gavin

Hi Gavin and Ivy,

"Although the situation has improved in 2009 based on certain unexpected reason, ..."

"Although the situation somewhat improved in 2009 (yet it’s based on some unanticipated reason), ..."

Correct me if I am wrong. It seems to be Chinese English to use the phrase "based on" here. You were probably misled by the Chinese translation 而且是基於某個意想不到的原因. In this case, I would use "for" instead. Its' not difficult to find out many sentences containing the expression "for ... reasons" in dictionaries.