美国国家公共电台 NPR--Inflation ruffles feathers ahead of Biden's turkey pardoning ceremony

Inflation ruffles¹ feathers ahead of Biden's turkey pardoning ceremony

Transcript²

While President Biden observed the tradition of pardoning turkeys, there was a side helping³ of snipe between the administration and a big farm lobby group over the price of Thanksgiving dinner.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

There's a weird⁴ but, I guess, wonderful tradition this time of year at the White House. Yesterday, President Biden upheld that custom and pardoned two turkeys.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: That's what the Thanksgiving tradition is all about, being grateful for what we have and grateful for fellow Americans, who we may never meet but who will be...

(SOUNDBITE OF TURKEY GOBBLING)

BIDEN: There you go. They're grateful.

MART?NEZ: Yeah, they would be grateful. While the crowd was all smiles, there was a bit of a dust-up ahead of the event over just how much Thanksgiving dinner is going to cost this year. NPR politics reporter Ximena Bustillo was at the turkey pardon. All right. So inflation was a big political issue during the recent midterms. I understand it ruffled⁵ feathers ahead of this event. Sorry. I had to go there.

XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE⁶: (Laughter) Yeah, it did. So it started about a week ago. The American Farm Bureau Federation⁷, which is the largest agricultural lobby group, put out a result of an annual survey that it does. They sent volunteer shoppers to grocery stores to look at how much the ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner cost. And they found that the price of turkeys was up by 21% over last year.

MART?NEZ: Twenty-one percent sounds like a lot. What did the Biden administration say about that?

BUSTILLO: Well, President Biden's chief of staff even got into it on Twitter. And by the end of the same day, the USDA released their own data. And they said that turkey prices were only up by less than 9 cents on the pound, far less than what the Farm Bureau was saying. So I asked the Farm Bureau about the conflicting data. And they explained that their survey was done in October. The USDA's price check was done more recently, at a time when most grocery store chains have put whole frozen turkeys on sale at way lower prices. But the main point is - that they made is this, that Americans pay way less for food than anywhere else in the world. And here is Farm Bureau's chief economist⁸, Roger Cryan.

ROGER CRYAN: If you adjust for inflation, the 12-item basket for the Thanksgiving dinner for 10 folks this year, even with the big increases in the last few years, we're still cheaper after inflation than it was in 1987.

MART?NEZ: All right. So prices are higher to some degree. But does that mean farmers are making more money?

BUSTILLO: No. So there is another farm lobby group that they call the National Farmers Union. And they say that small farmers are really getting squeezed. They say that if a turkey sells for a $1.99 a pound, the farmer only gets 6 cents of that. And all of these inflationary factors affect farmers, too, like the price of gas. And there was a big hiccup⁹ this year in the supply chain, particularly for turkeys. The bird flu hit many farms this year. And that pushed up prices on all kinds of poultry¹⁰ products like chicken, eggs and turkeys. And this is because birds that were sick had to be killed. And about 8 million turkeys suffered this fate, according to the Agriculture Department.

MART?NEZ: So is the Biden administration, then, working to do anything about these price hikes for farmers, particularly - I mean, or can they, actually?

BUSTILLO: Well, even the Farm Bureau, which tends to be known for being a little bit more right-wing leaning says that there is little the president can do about prices. Here's Roger Cryan again.

CRYAN: There's a limit to how much the government can do about the economy. What's really important, I think, is that we get a good farm bill in 2023 because food security in the U.S. often is a matter of shuffling¹¹ money around to make sure that folks in need here have access to good food.

BUSTILLO: The farm bill expires at the end of 2023. And it has programs to help farmers. And Republicans want to keep many of those things steady. The farm bill also has money for food stamps and school lunch programs. And advocates for these things are going to be pushing to expand those programs. So negotiations¹² are going to be one of the big things to watch in this new Congress.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Ximena Bustillo, thanks a lot.

BUSTILLO: Thank you.

1 ruffles   

褶裥花边( ruffle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You will need 12 yards of ribbon facing for the ruffles. 你将需要12码丝带为衣服镶边之用。
• It is impossible to live without some daily ruffles to our composure. 我们日常的平静生活免不了会遇到一些波折。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 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。

4 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

5 ruffled   

adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She ruffled his hair affectionately. 她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
• All this talk of a strike has clearly ruffled the management's feathers. 所有这些关于罢工的闲言碎语显然让管理层很不高兴。

6 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。

7 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 hiccup   

n.打嗝

参考例句：

• When you have to hiccup,drink a glass of cold water.当你不得不打嗝时，喝一杯冷水就好了。
• How long did he hiccup?他打嗝打了多久？

10 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

11 shuffling   

adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Don't go shuffling along as if you were dead. 别像个死人似地拖着脚走。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some one was shuffling by on the sidewalk. 外面的人行道上有人拖着脚走过。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

12 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。