JABUGO, Spain — On a vast farm dotted with oak and cork trees, about 350 pigs are enjoying the final weeks of a short but blissful life. They roam freely, sleep outdoors or shelter in spacious pigsties. Above all, autumn is when they get to feast all day on acorns recently fallen from the trees.

西班牙哈武戈——在一座散布着橡树与栓皮栎的广袤农场上，有大约350只猪正享受着它们短暂却幸福的生命的最后几周。它们自由地漫步，在野外或宽敞猪舍的庇荫下安睡。最重要的是，秋季是它们终日饱食新近离枝的橡果的日子。

“Pigs are known for eating everything, but when it comes to their favorite acorns, they are real connoisseurs and very selective — and the sweeter the acorn, the better,” said Juan Carlos Domínguez Lorenzo, 49, who was born on the farm and has been looking after its pigs since he was a teenager.

“大家都知道猪不挑嘴，不过要说到它们最爱的橡果，这些猪可是十足的行家，非常挑剔——橡果是越甜越好，”胡安·卡洛斯·多明尼奎兹·洛伦佐(Juan Carlos Dominiguez Lorenzo)说。他今年49岁，在这座农场出生，从年少的时候就开始照养这里的猪只。

The way these pigs of Spain’s Ibérico breed are fed and raised here is a far cry from how most meats are produced almost anywhere, making the cured ham a delicacy prized for its unique texture and taste, which is enhanced by the sweet and nutty flavor of the acorns the pigs eat.

此处喂养这些西班牙伊比利亚猪的方式，和世界各地大部分肉类产品的生产过程有着天壤之别。这使得这种猪肉腌成的火腿以其独特的口感与味道而异常鲜美，又因为这些猪食用的橡果的那股甜美的坚果风味而更上一层楼。

So when the World Health Organization, in a recent report, linked processed meats to colorectal cancer, the news came as an affront to many Spaniards, who have been eating cured hams produced this way for generations.

世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)近来一份报告指出加工肉品与肠癌有关。消息一出，冒犯了不少西班牙人。世世代代，他们都吃着以这种方式腌制出来的火腿。

Today, Spain’s Ibérico hams are increasingly sought after worldwide, particularly among Chinese consumers concerned about the safety of their own homegrown food.

世人对西班牙伊比利亚火腿的追求在今日益发热烈，特别是那些对自家出产的食物有安全顾虑的中国顾客。

“Spanish ham is a very unique product, but it’s also seen as healthy, which is a real asset when you’re selling to the Chinese,” said Oliver Win of Olivier Pacific Limited, a fine foods distribution company based in Hong Kong that imports the Cinco Jotas brand of Spanish ham.

“西班牙火腿是非常特别的产品，人们也认为它有益健康，而和中国人作买卖的时候这是很有利的筹码，”永兴太平洋贸易公司的奥立弗·荣(Oliver Win)表示。这是一家位于香港的高级食材分销商，进口5J牌(Cinco Jotas)的西班牙火腿。

Spain’s producers, in fact, took no small measure of umbrage at the World Health Organization’s attempt to lump their luxury ham together with cheaper products like processed sausages and hamburger meat.

事实上，对于世界卫生组织竟然将他们的极品火腿与加工香肠、汉堡肉这类廉价商品混为一谈，西班牙火腿生产商的火气可不小。

A single leg of the finest ham from Cinco Jotas — weighing almost 18 pounds — costs about $670 in Spain. (In the United States, the price is about double.) Even the way the ham is sliced is considered something of an art form.

单单一条5J牌最高档的腌火腿——重达18磅（约合8千克)——在西班牙的售价大约为670美元（约合4300元人民币)。（这个价格在美国还要翻上一番）。就连该怎么给这种火腿切片都被认为是一门艺术。

“This ham is as natural as food can get — no added heavy metals, preservatives or colorings — and it comes from an animal that has built up muscle by eating the best food and exercising a lot in beautiful surroundings,” said José Gómez, the owner of Joselito, another top brand of ham. “There are thousands of products that present a higher cancer risk.”

“这种火腿是再天然不过的食物了——没有添加重金属、防腐剂或染色剂——而且它来自一种摄取顶级养分、在优美的环境中大量运动而锻炼出肌肉的动物，”另一个高级火腿品牌小何塞(Joselito)的老板何塞·戈麦斯(José Gómez)说。“还有数不清的食品的致癌风险更高呢。”

With a passion for pork products, and rising incomes, the Chinese have entered the market for Ibérico hams with gusto, even while paying slightly more for Spanish ham than prices set for the American market. The next step, according to Spanish producers, is to get China to lift a cumbersome restriction that forces them to remove the bone from the leg.

因着对猪肉类产品的热爱与收入的增加，中国人津津有味地进入了伊比利亚火腿的市场，即使他们得为了这些西班牙火腿付出比美国市场还要再稍高的价钱。根据西班牙生产商所言，他们的下一步是让中国取消强制他们给火腿剔除骨头的麻烦规定。

In fact, the Chinese appetite for Spanish pork stretches all the way down its production chain, including innards that Spanish companies struggle to export to many Western countries.

事实上，中国人对西班牙猪肉的胃口一路扩大到了生产链的所有环节，包括西班牙公司难以推销给众多西方国家的内脏类产品。

Fresh pork exports to China from Spain — including heads, ears and other parts — rose 35 percent last year, making it the second-largest market in volume after neighboring France, according to figures from the Spanish Meat Export Office.

西班牙肉类出口办公室(Spanish Meat Export Office)的数据显示，去年西班牙向中国出口的新鲜猪肉产品——包括猪头、猪耳朵和猪的其他部位——增长了35%，就出口量而言，中国已成为西班牙猪肉产品的第二大市场，仅次于临近的法国。

Last year, Fosun, one of China’s largest financial and industrial conglomerates, bought a stake in the parent company of Cinco Jotas, one of Spain’s top brands of Ibérico ham, which is based in Jabugo.

去年，中国最大的金融和工业集团公司之一复兴国际入股了5J的母公司，5J是西班牙顶级伊比利亚火腿品牌之一，其总部位于哈武戈。

“We generally think that our culture is closer to that of America, but when it comes to ham, Chinese gastronomy is really in tune with ours,” Bernardino Rodríguez, the general director of Cinco Jotas, said during a tour of cellars where legs of ham are hooked from the ceiling and left to age.

“我们通常认为，自己的文化和美国更接近，但说到火腿，中国美食文化的确和我们的更一致。”5J总裁贝尔纳迪诺·罗德里格斯(Bernardino Rodríguez)一边带领大家参观火腿储藏窖一边说，火腿被挂在地窖顶部，一直腌制到足够的年份。

“I can’t think of anybody more capable of distinguishing between different qualities of ham than the Chinese,” he said.

“我觉得，在分辨不同品质的火腿的差别方面，谁也比不过中国人，”他说。

But the health and quality of the animals have also become a big driver of Chinese demand. Early this year, the Chinese police arrested more than 110 people who were accused of trafficking pork from diseased pigs.

但动物的健康和品质问题也是促使中国人需求增加的一个重要因素。今年早些时候，中国警方还以走私病猪肉的罪名逮捕了110多人。

“Many Chinese come and buy food in Hong Kong and have turned it into a parallel import market largely because of their safety worries about food in China,” Mr. Win, the importer, said.

“很多中国人来香港买食物，将这里变成一个平行进口市场，这在很大程度上是因为他们对内地的食品安全存在担忧，”香港进口商奥立弗·荣说。

Paradoxically, however, the same things that have lured the Chinese about the natural way the pigs here are raised, slaughtered and cured are some of the chief sources of tension between Spain’s producers and the United States.

然而，有些矛盾的是，这些火腿吸引中国人的地方，即这些猪在西班牙当地被饲养、屠宰然后进行腌制的方式，恰恰是西班牙火腿制造商和美国之间关系紧张的主要原因。

Ibérico ham was banned in the United States until about a decade ago over concerns about swine fever and traditional curing methods, and even today just a handful of Spanish slaughterhouses have been authorized to export to the United States.

直到大约十年前，伊比利亚火腿在美国还一直被禁，因为他们担心存在猪瘟隐患，也对那种传统腌制方法存有疑虑。而且即使到今天，也只有为数不多的西班牙屠宰场被允许向美国出口猪肉产品。