美国国家公共电台 NPR In Garlic Capital, Tariffs And Immigration Crackdown Have Mixed Impacts

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Gilroy, Calif., calls itself the garlic capital of the world. And two policies of the Trump¹ administration, one on trade, the other on immigration, are having mixed effects on this agricultural community. NPR's Jasmine Garsd visited the town caught in the middle.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE²: It's about 50 degrees outside, but for a moment, it looks like it's snowing. The morning air is pungent³ and savory⁴, and those flakes⁵ falling from the sky are garlic skin pieces drifting away from the peeling facility I'm standing⁶ outside of. I'm in Gilroy, south of San Francisco, at the Christopher Ranch⁷, the largest garlic producer in the country. Ken⁸ Christopher, executive vice⁹ president, tells me it didn't always look this busy. In the 1990s, he says, the industry was hit hard by cheap Chinese garlic imports.

KEN CHRISTOPHER: U.S. garlic was trading around $40 dollars a box in the 1990s. Chinese garlic flooded the market, and at $10 dollars a box. And it severely¹⁰ undercut a lot of U.S. growers.

GARSD: Only a few garlic farms survived. Christopher Ranch was the biggest. Christopher says about 6 percent of its garlic is bought from China. The rest is home-grown.

CHRISTOPHER: It was really hard. You know, we're talking reduction in workforce¹¹. We're talking reduction in work hours. We had furlough days, just simply, just to get through the year.

GARSD: The struggle went on for years. Then in 2016, Donald Trump was elected president, and his stance on Chinese imports was pretty clear - tax them.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are now making it clear to China that after years of targeting our industries and stealing our intellectual property that theft of American jobs and wealth has come to an end.

GARSD: Christopher flew out to Washington last year to testify in favor of tariffs¹³ on Chinese garlic. That would mean Chinese garlic at your supermarket would be way more expensive than American-grown. When he talks about tariffs, Christopher's face lights up. He says his dream tax on Chinese garlic is over 400 percent. In the end, the Trump administration went for a 10 percent tariff¹². He remembers when it was announced.

CHRISTOPHER: My co-workers and I, sort of texting each other, email sort of flying back and forth¹⁴. A co-worker of mine actually got me the flag that was flying above the U.S. Capitol the day they got enacted¹⁵.

GARSD: The ranch says their garlic sales are up by about 20 percent since last year. They've even had to pull garlic from storage to meet increased demand. But like most American agriculture, a lot of this town's labor¹⁶ force is immigrant. And the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented labor has hit many California farmers hard. Christopher says he thinks about this all the time.

CHRISTOPHER: If the Republican Party is pro-business, if they want to support industries across the country, they need to realize that immigration is a critical function of that.

GARSD: Driving through downtown Gilroy, it's clear this town has close ties to Mexico. The streets are lined with taquerias, discotecas, and there are sites in the outskirts¹⁷ that house migrant workers.

GERARDO BARBA: Just in general, there has been a lot more fear, just fear to be out in public.

GARSD: I'm with Gerardo Barba, an outreach coordinator¹⁸ for Catholic Charities. He says the mood here has changed.

BARBA: We started noticing changes recently with the higher amounts of actual arrest that ICE conducts. Generally, going to people's homes, knocking on the door.

GARSD: At the Gilroy Catholic Charities office, I meet a man who packages garlic at the Christopher Ranch. He says they're great bosses. He gets paid $15 an hour, a solid wage for a farm worker. He recently got his green card. And yet...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: He asked that his name not be used because he has family members who are undocumented and worried about getting deported¹⁹. If that happens, they've asked him to take care of their children. He says even though business is booming, there's a lot of fear, and he wonders...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: ..."If enough people get deported, who's going to harvest all that garlic?" Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, Gilroy, Calif.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 pungent   

adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a pungent style.文章写得泼辣。
• Its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hideouts.它的刺激性气味会令恐怖分子窒息，迫使他们从藏身地点逃脱出来。

4 savory   

adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的

参考例句：

• She placed a huge dish before him of savory steaming meat.她将一大盘热气腾腾、美味可口的肉放在他面前。
• He doesn't have a very savory reputation.他的名誉不太好。

5 flakes   

小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人

参考例句：

• It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
• It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

8 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

11 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

12 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

13 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

14 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

15 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

16 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。

17 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

18 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

19 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》