VOA慢速英语20060425a

AGRICULTURE REPORT - Going Biotech: A Spanish Farmer Discusses His ExperienceBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Tuesday, April 25, 2006

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO, held its two thousand six international convention¹ earlier this month in Chicago. It says attendance² set a record with more than nineteen thousand people from sixty-two countries.




BIO represents more than one thousand companies and other organizations. Its members genetically⁴ engineer products in health care, agriculture and other areas.

The convention included former President Bill Clinton and what the organizers called the world's largest indoor cornfield.

Jose Manuel Pomar is a farmer from the Aragon area of Spain who attended the convention. Mister Pomar grows Bt maize⁵. Bt maize contains a gene³ from a bacterium⁶ that produces a poison. This poison helps the plants resist insects, especially the maize borer.

Some things do not change with biotech crops. Mister Pomar says he uses the same amount of fertilizer with Bt maize as he does with conventional corn.

The main difference, he says, is in the use of insecticide. Mister Pomar says he sprays his conventional maize with insect poisons three to four times a season. With Bt maize, he says, he might spray once if maize borers are present in large numbers.

Chemicals are costly⁷. The savings⁸ help pay for the higher cost of the biotech seeds.

Mister Pomar says his profit on Bt corn is fifteen to twenty percent higher than his conventional maize. He also says he harvests more.

He grows about two hundred hectares of Bt maize for animal food. This is only a part of his cropland. He also grows three hundred fifty hectares of non-Bt maize. And he grows alfalfa, soybean and other crops.

In all, Mister Pomar has one thousand two hundred hectares of farmland. Most of his crops are not biotech. But some people do not like that he uses genetically engineered crops at all. He says people have complained to him. And he worries about possible legal issues in the future.

Still, he says many other farmers in his area grow some biotech crops. The Spanish farmer says he is pleased with his results. He says the added profits could be important if the European Union cuts farm aid in the coming years.

Next week, we talk to two American farmers who grow biotech maize and cotton.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

2 attendance   

n.出席，出席人数，护理，照料

参考例句：

• The attendance of this class never dropped off.这个班的出席人数从未下降。
• The young man danced attendance on his rich aunt.这个年轻人小心侍候他有钱的姑妈。

3 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

4 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

5 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

6 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

7 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

8 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。