VOA慢速英语--Agriculture Report - Surviving a Drought: A Farmer's Old-Fashioned Lessons

 

Agriculture Report - Surviving a Drought: A Farmer's Old-Fashioned Lessons

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

In recent days the remains¹ of what had been Hurricane Isaac moved into the American Midwest. The storm brought rain to some of the areas suffering from the country's worst drought in half a century. But the rain might have come too late to save many farmers' corn and soybean crops.

Crop insurance will help reduce financial losses for most of the farmers. Crop insurance is a tool that is not available to most growers in the developing world. The federal government helps pay the cost of the coverage² against natural disasters.

But not every farmer in the United States chooses to buy crop insurance. Dick Thompson of Boone, Iowa, says he operates his farm the way farmers did in the past. 

DICK THOMPSON: "I'm old-fashioned, and I'm proud of it."

He uses very little chemical fertilizer, weed killers⁴ or insecticides, and does not grow genetically⁵ modified crops. He says these practices will help him survive the drought. And he says they are already earning him more money per hectare than his neighbors who farm the modern way.

Scientists are trying to understand why his practices are working. Matt Liebman has copied many of them at his research fields at Iowa State University.

MATT LIEBMAN: "The reason we're doing this is because of what he's doing. So he was doing it before we did this. He was a good teacher. And what we're doing here is trying to understand some of the scientific mechanisms⁶ that explain the patterns that he's observed on his own farm."

Many Iowa farms today grow only corn and soybeans. Payments from crop insurance keep farmers in business when their crops do poorly, like in this year's drought.

DICK THOMPSON: "Well, I have never bought crop insurance since we started to farm."

Instead of crop insurance, he protects himself by growing other kinds of crops in addition to corn and soybeans. He raises hay and oats, along with cattle and pigs. He harvested his oat crop before the drought hit.

DICK THOMPSON: "I think it's common sense. You've got diversity. And you've got some protection there. If one crop doesn't do well, maybe the other one will make up for the difference."

That common sense used to be common practice on farms in Iowa, the heart of America's corn, or maize⁷, production. But farmers are growing hay on only half as much land as they did twenty years ago. And oat production has fallen by almost ninety-five percent.

Livestock⁸ production has also shrunk. Dick Thompson says he will sell some of his cows and hogs⁹, but not all of them. They provide more than money. They also provide the manure¹⁰ that he uses to fertilize³ the soil, instead of chemical fertilizers. And the manure helps the soil hold water. Iowa State University researcher Rick Cruse says that is another kind of insurance.

RICK CRUSE: "It really adds to the condition of that soil that does favor crop growth, particularly under stress conditions. And that's the kind of conditions we're experiencing this year."

These are conditions that farmers everywhere might face more often with climate change. Matt Liebman says his research shows that all farmers can learn from Dick Thompson.

MATT LIEBMAN: "Looking towards diversity, crop-livestock integration¹¹, the careful stewardship¹² of the soil, making the best use of every drop of rain that falls. I mean, those things are all lessons that we should know here. And they're even more important elsewhere."

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can read and listen to our story and watch a video about Dick Thompson's farm at www.voanews.cn. I'm Jim Tedder¹³.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 fertilize   

v.使受精，施肥于，使肥沃

参考例句：

• Fertilizer is a substance put on land to fertilize it.肥料是施在地里使之肥沃的物质。
• Reading will fertilize his vocabulary.阅读会丰富他的词汇。

4 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

5 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

6 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 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。

8 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

9 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

10 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

11 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

12 stewardship   

n. n. 管理工作；管事人的职位及职责

参考例句：

• The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认，这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
• Last, but certainly not least, are the issues of stewardship and ethics. 最后，但当然不是微不足道的，是工作和道德规范的问题。

13 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网