VOA标准英语2011--New Farmers Confront Realities of Local Food Movement

New Farmers Confront Realities of Local Food Movement

For the first time in memory, farming in America is "cool."

A nationwide movement, fueled by disdain¹ for industrial-scale agriculture, is inspiring many young people with no farming experience to get into agriculture - especially the small-scale, local, organic kind.

But the question for this budding movement is whether it can survive the harsh realities of the business world.

Duke University’s new campus farm in Durham, North Carolina celebrated² its first-ever harvest festival recently. The farm's manager, Emily Sloss, graduated from Duke last year with a degree in public policy - not agriculture. She expected to go to graduate school to study urban planning.

“Now I’m a farmer," she said. "Yeah. Believe it or not.”

This accidental farmer turned a senior-year class project exploring the idea of a campus farm into a reality. In just its first year, the farm has provided the campus dining halls with more than two tonnes of fresh produce.

“It’s phenomenal," said Duke dining halls mangaer Nate Peterson with food service company Cafe Bon Appetit. "The produce that is coming out of the Duke Farm and coming into our cafes is excellent quality.”

We had to do something

Sloss credits that senior-year class in food and energy policy for inspiring her to make a career change from budding urban planner to full-time³ farmer.

“It just became really apparent that we had to do something - or I had to do something - about the way I ate," said Sloss. "And then this project came into my life and kind of demanded my attention.”

“A lot of people that are becoming farmers now are not the people you would traditionally think of as farmers," said Maureen Moody⁴, farm director at the not-for-profit Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture outside Washington, DC. "Me and a lot of the people I know, we didn’t grow up on farms. We didn’t go to ag school, even.”

Accurate data are hard to come by, but a recent survey by organic farm networks found 78 percent of new farmers were not raised on farms.

Moody knows the story well. She left her doctoral program in cultural anthropology⁵ studying what motivates young farmers to become a farmer herself.

Popular movies and widely read books criticizing large-scale American food production for its damaging health and environmental impacts are helping⁶ spur young people into agriculture.

Business growing, but tough going

Demand for locally raised food is growing as well, into a business that is now worth at least $5 billion, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

It's still a drop in the bucket in the U.S. food supply. And many who venture into farming find the business realities are tougher than they thought. Maureen Moody says many burn out after a couple years and look for jobs with health benefits and retirement⁷ plans.

“It’s really hard to stick with," she said. "Some do, and they figure out a way to make it work. But it’s really hard to make any money and to make a living.”

The Arcadia Center is a non-profit, so it doesn’t face quite the same pressures. And the Duke Campus Farm has advantages that most small enterprises do not: Students who will work for free, and a university that supports it.

The first wave

But Emily Sloss says the farmers here wants to prove they can make it as a business. “Because we really believe if Duke University, a farm that has land that’s rent-free, that has a huge pool of free labor⁸, if we can’t be financially sustainable, then the local food movement isn’t a reality," she said.

Making that movement a reality will not be easy. But Maureen Moody says they have just begun.

“I think it takes people who are willing to be the first wave, if you will," she said. "Like any social movement, it takes people who are willing to go through the growing pains of figuring out how to make it work.”

The Duke Campus Farm is celebrating its first season in business. Many of its growing pains lie ahead. The same can be said for the movement it represents. These are exciting but difficult times for young farmers getting their first taste of farming life.

1 disdain   

n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑

参考例句：

• Some people disdain labour.有些人轻视劳动。
• A great man should disdain flatterers.伟大的人物应鄙视献媚者。

2 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

3 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

4 moody   

adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的

参考例句：

• He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。
• I'd never marry that girl.She's so moody.我决不会和那女孩结婚的。她太易怒了。

5 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。