一詞日曆：樂事薯片的土豆竟是御用？隨便用要吃官司

2019.05.23

週四 Thursday

moisture ['mɔɪstʃɚ] 

n. 水分；溼度；降雨量

圖片來源：視覺中國

PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said.

零食兼飲料生產商百事公司因四位印度農民種植了一個土豆品種而起訴了他們，該公司聲稱他們侵犯了其專利權，百事公司及該土豆品種的種植者說道。

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, grown exclusively for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

百事公司起訴了種植FC5土豆品種的農民，因爲該土豆品種是專供其備受歡迎的樂事薯片的。FC5土豆品種的水分含量較低，滿足生產薯片等零食的需求。

The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840) each for alleged patent infringement.

該公司請求對侵犯其專利權的每個人罰款1000萬盧比（14.284萬美元）。

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

這些農民在古吉拉特邦西部種植土豆，而且印度多數食用蔬菜主要產於該地區。

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

“我們種了很長時間土豆了，從未遇到過這種問題，而且我們主要用收穫的土豆留出的種子來種植下一年的作物，”畢品·巴特爾說道，他是被百事公司起訴的四位農民之一。

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

巴特爾沒有說明他是如何獲得百事公司的這個土豆品種的。

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the farmers’ lawyer.

星期五古吉拉特邦商業中心艾哈邁達巴德當地的法院同意於6月12日審理這一案件，這幾位農民的律師安納德·雅格尼克說道。

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” a PepsiCo India spokesman said.“

在這一事件中，對於那些非法種植我們註冊過的土豆品種的人，我們對其進行了司法追索，”百事公司在印度的發言人說道。

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

百事公司於1989年開設了其在印度的第一家薯片廠，並向一羣農民提供了其FC5土豆品種，而這些農民則以固定的價格把他們種植的土豆賣給百事公司。

The company said the four farmers could join the group of growers who exclusively grow the FC5 variety for its Lay’s potato chips.

百事公司表示，這四位農民可以加入專門爲樂事薯片種植FC5土豆品種的種植者團隊。

今日詞彙

moisture ['mɔɪstʃɚ] 

n. 水分；溼度；降雨量

這個詞的形容詞形式是 moist，adj.潮溼的；溼潤的

如 moist air 潮溼的空氣

文中moisture content，是指“含水量”。

市面上的薯片應該是各有各的御用土豆吧，含水量什麼的，也許真的是差之毫釐失之千里。