VOA慢速英语2012 Agriculture Report - Growing a Farm With Crowd-Sourced Money（在线收听）

 Agriculture Report - Growing a Farm With Crowd-Sourced Money

农业报道 - 使用来自公众的融资进行农场种植

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

Kickstarter is a website where people give money to support creative projects. It started in two thousand nine, mostly to help artists and musicians. Now, inventors, people starting businesses and a growing number of farmers are raising money on this site for crowd-sourced funding.

Kickstarter是一家网站，公众可以通过该网站为创意项目提供资金支持。该网站开设于2009年，主要是为了帮助艺术家和音乐家（实现其创意）。现在，发明家、创业者和越来越多的农民通过该网站筹措来自公众的融资。 

Josh Brill and Meadow Squire grow vegetables and rice in Tinmouth, a town in the northeastern state of Vermont. Last year they used Kickstarter to raise more than six thousand dollars to increase their rice production.

乔希·布里尔（Josh Brill）和梅多·斯盖尔（Meadow Squire）在Tinmouth种植蔬菜和水稻，这是位于美国东北部的佛蒙特州的一个小镇。去年，他们通过Kickstarter网站筹集了6千多美元用来增加水稻产量。

JOSH AND MEADOW BRILL: "Hi, I'm Josh, and I'm Meadow -- and we want to grow you rice! [Dog bark]"

乔希和梅多在视频中说：“大家好，我是乔希，我是梅多。我们想要为你种点水稻！[狗叫声]”

Seventy-six people watched the couple's six-minute video and believed enough in their dream to send them money.

67人观看了这对夫妇为时6分钟的视频，并足够相信他们的梦想，给他们寄去了资金。

Another farmer in Vermont, Scott Nelson, raised almost nine thousand dollars. He wanted to document the growth and development of his farm to teach others who are interested in organic farming, as a video explained.

另一位居住在佛蒙特州的农民斯科特·纳尔逊（Scott Nelson）筹集了近9千美元。他想要记录自己农场里的作物的生长发育，作为讲解视频来教授对有机农业感兴趣的那些人。

VIDEO: "At the end of the season, we will compile it all into a film documentary."

他在视频中说：“在季末，我们将把所有视频汇编成一段电影纪录片。”

Kickstarter users Walter and Holly Jeffries with some of the 300 pigs they're raising in West Topsham, Vermont 

Bigger ideas have raised much more for some farmers among the projects on Kickstarter. In all, on a recent day, there were forty-five hundred creative projects seeking money on the site. Site officials reported three million dollars in weekly pledges.

在Kickstarter网站的项目中，一些更大的创意已经为一些农民筹集了更多资金。最近一天总计有4500个创意项目通过该网站寻求资金。网站有关人员表示，每周认捐资金达300万美元。

To raise money on Kickstarter, people need to think of a project with a clear goal. Then they need to get the project approved by the site. Many project creators make a video to explain what their project is and why people should support it.

在Kickstarter网站上筹集资金，人们必须想出项目的明确目标，然后使该项目通过Kickstarter网站的认证。许多项目创始人会制作一个视频来解释他们的项目是什么，以及人们为什么应该支持这个项目。

Projects have a time limit, generally about thirty days, to meet their funding goal. Kickstarter uses an all-or-nothing funding method. Projects do not get any money unless they meet their goal. Kickstarter gets five percent of the money raised, but only if the goal is met. Amazon.com takes another three to five percent for credit card processing fees.

这些项目都有时间限制，一般是用30天左右来实现其融资目标。Kickstarter采用“全有或全无”的融资方法。除非实现其融资目标，否则项目拿不到一分钱。Kickstarter在融资目标实现时会收取筹集资金的5%。亚马逊网站另收取3%-5%作为信用卡手续费。 

To get people to pledge money, projects also include a list of thank-you gifts for different levels of support. Josh Brill and Meadow Squire gave supporters rice, seeds and, for fun, "good karma" points. They say they are happy with their experience using the site to raise money for their new rice paddies.

为了让人们捐出资金，这些项目还为不同程度的支持提供一份感谢礼物。乔希和梅多为支持者提供了大米、种子，以及纯属好玩的“好人缘”分数。他们表示很满意这次使用该网站为自己的新稻田筹措资金的经历。

JOSH BRILL: "One of the key things that Kickstarter allowed us to do was reach out -- having the video online and being able to link with Facebook."

乔希：“Kickstarter能够为我们做的关键事情之一就是将视频放上网并能够链接到Facebook。”

MEADOW SQUIRE: "It really was free advertising for us -- you know, so many people now know we're growing rice and they know more about our farming practices because we do a lot of alternative agricultural practices. And there's already so much anticipation about the rice coming that we would not have had if we just had gotten a loan from a bank."

梅多：“这对我们来说确实是免费的广告。现在很多人知道我们在种植水稻，并对我们的耕作方式有了更多了解，因为我们采取了很多非传统的耕作方式。而且我们现在对水稻产出有了更多期待，如果我们当时只是从银行贷款，是不会有这些期待的。”

Josh Brill says one promise of money came all the way from New Zealand.

乔希说，其中一份资金承诺来自大老远的新西兰。

JOSH BRILL: "When someone is willing to put up their money for your farm, that means something. It's like you would feel bad if you couldn't succeed for them."

乔希：“当有人愿意为你的农场投入资金，这有着另一番含义。如果你不能为他们取得成功就会感觉很不好。”

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.