VOA标准英语2012--Urban Farm Takes Root Amid Strip Malls

Urban Farm Takes Root Amid Strip Malls

EcoCity Farms grows vegetables in winter. The Edmonston, Maryland, farm near Washington is an unlikely place to harvest produce in any season. Its four climate-controlled greenhouses stand out in an otherwise bleak¹ landscape dotted with small homes, strip malls and car repair shops.

Over the past two years, the farm has become a magnet for the community, attracting volunteers like Marcy Clark, who homeschools her four children. On this day, Clark uses EcoCity Farms as a lesson in sustainable agriculture. 

“It’s important that the children understand the connection between the food that they eat, the soil, the air, the pollution, how all this is connected to their well-being,” she says. 

The Clark children - Hannah, Caleb, John and Alston - weed and harvest fresh rows of spinach², mustard greens, lettuce³, Swiss chard and carrots.

Hannah Clark, 17, says she likes to garden.

Her 11-year-old brother, Caleb, agrees. “It may not be like fun, fun, but it is fun because you’re learning and not like writing something out on a piece of paper.” 

The other Clark boys, John, 13, and Alston, 15, say the farm has changed their perspective on food. 

“Instead of feeling down when I have to eat vegetables, I feel happy," John says. "They do good things from the top of your head to your feet.”

Alston agrees, “You connect with the earth where the food comes from.” 

EcoCity Farms cultivates that connection in a working class community with limited access to fresh food. Rates of obesity⁴ are high here, and residents are at greater risk for diet-related disease. 

Founder⁵ Margaret Morgan-Hubbard sees the farm as an oasis⁶ where a healthier lifestyle can take root. 

“Our view is that what happens in a community influences the culture of that community," Morgan-Hubbard says. "So our idea was growing food in a community, and showing that you can have farms, even in urban areas, redefines what’s possible in that area, in that community and brings people together.”

When they leave, she wants neighbors to take away more than vegetables. “Every piece of what we do here is a demonstration⁷ to show people everything about how to have a sustainable community.”

That means not only farming food and raising chickens and bees, but also improving the soil with home-grown compost. Sixteen chest-high wooden bins⁸ are filled with worms deployed⁹ to turn food waste into compost.

Benny Erez manages this labor¹⁰ force and sees it as another teaching moment. “When people come and look at this obviously we show them a technique, and close the circle and bring the food back from being food to composted and then use it on the farm, back to growing vegetables.”

EcoCity Farms is an ‘off the grid’ experimental operation that gets its electricity from solar panels. Its hooplike greenhouses are heated using a geothermal system of buried tubes that pumps ground temperature air into the structures, allowing vegetables to be grown year round. 

So, once a week, all winter long, neighbors like Chris Moss¹¹ and her three children bicycle to the farm to pick up a share of the harvest. 

Five-year-old Owen Moss says he “likes eating vegetables.”

And, if you can get a five-year-old to like vegetables, there’s hope for the future. 

1 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

2 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

3 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

4 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 oasis   

n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方

参考例句：

• They stopped for the night at an oasis.他们在沙漠中的绿洲停下来过夜。
• The town was an oasis of prosperity in a desert of poverty.该镇是贫穷荒漠中的一块繁荣的“绿洲”。

7 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

8 bins   

n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Garbage from all sources was deposited in bins on trolleys. 来自各方的垃圾是装在手推车上的垃圾箱里的。 来自辞典例句
• Would you be pleased at the prospect of its being on sale in dump bins? 对于它将被陈列在倾销箱中抛售这件事，你能欣然接受吗？ 来自辞典例句

9 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

10 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。

11 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。