美国国家公共电台 NPR--A farmer adapts to climate change and spreads harvest throughout the year

A farmer adapts to climate change and spreads harvest throughout the year

Transcript¹

Climate change forces farmers to alter their work and sometimes even what they grow. An apple grower in Pennsylvania has replaced trees with varieties that do better in a warming world.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Higher temperatures and extreme weather caused by climate change are bringing more risks to the traditional farming schedule. WITF's Rachel McDevitt visited one Pennsylvania farmer who's learning to adapt his crop and spread his harvest throughout the year.

RACHEL MCDEVITT, BYLINE²: Hugh McPherson reaches up to the branch of a Smoothee gold apple tree and grabs one of the baseball-sized green fruits.

HUGH MCPHERSON: You want to just lift and give a little twist, and it'll pop off of there. And then these are so good, you can just shine them up on your shirt and take a bite.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEWING)

MCDEVITT: The fifth-generation farmer grew up around these trees in south-central Pennsylvania. His dad planted the first apple orchards³ about 30 years ago, with varieties like Rome, Stayman and McIntosh. But now McPherson is looking for different varieties.

MCPHERSON: Really, in the last 10 years is when we've strategically been looking at those kind of warmer-season apples.

MCDEVITT: Three decades ago, when winters would get cold and stay cold for months, McIntosh apples did really well here.

MCPHERSON: The McIntosh needs that cold night to put color on it. And in the end, for us, they just started turning soft on the tree. They wouldn't end up getting red and crisp.

MCDEVITT: So McPherson is uprooting⁴ the old McIntosh trees and replacing them with newer varieties, like Cosmic Crisp, that don't need such cold weather. The Environmental Protection Agency says the growing season lengthened⁵ at three-quarters of weather stations across the country over the last seven decades. The biggest increase has happened in the Northeast and Western United States.

Penn State plant science professor Armen Kemanian says those changes will create some winners and losers in agriculture. For example, farmers who grow feed crops for animals could see a longer season as a positive.

ARMEN KEMANIAN: Some people that produces forage⁶ may said, well, maybe I get a longer season to - right? But what will be the distribution of other stresses? How about the precipitation?

MCDEVITT: A warmer world on average doesn't mean warmer all the time. There could be earlier warming in the spring, followed by a cold snap that hurts fruit development, or flooding could delay planting. And Kemanian says the increased chance of extreme weather could bring new risks.

KEMANIAN: So one thing is a hot day. A totally different thing is three hot days in a row, right? That has a lot more impact than a drift in the average temperature.

MCDEVITT: McPherson is trying to guard against severe wet weather. The fall harvest season is huge for his farm's pick-your-own business model and for agritourism activities, like a cornfield maze⁷. A couple of rainy weekends could make a sizable dent⁸ in ticket sales. So he's trying to spread risk throughout the year. McPherson says that's led to some surprising crops.

MCPHERSON: So right now we're in the middle of an acre of lavender, which is nearly 2,000 plants with five different varieties to kind of spread out the bloom time.

MCDEVITT: McPherson hosted his first lavender festival this June, when guests could come pick the flowers, arrange their own bouquets⁹ and take lots of pictures for Instagram. Besides being photogenic, lavender is drought-tolerant. With climate change, Pennsylvania is expected to see longer periods of drought followed by heavy downpours. McPherson has diversified¹⁰ his offerings to also include sunflowers, blueberries, cherries and even wine. These options give him a safety net to weather the effects of climate change, like a warmer, longer season, droughts, floods and severe storms. If one crop fails, he'll still have a way to survive.

For NPR News, I'm Rachel McDevitt in York County, Penn.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALI FARKA TOURE AND TOUMANI DIABATE'S "MONSIEUR LE MAIRE DE NIAFUNKE")

1 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。

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 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

4 uprooting   

n.倒根，挖除伐根v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的现在分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• He is hard at work uprooting wild grass in the field. 他正在田里辛苦地芟夷呢。 来自互联网
• A storm raged through the village, uprooting trees and flattening crops. 暴风雨袭击了村庄，拔起了树木，吹倒了庄稼。 来自互联网

5 lengthened   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
• He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。

6 forage   

n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻

参考例句：

• They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.他们不得不去寻找衣服和燃料。
• Now the nutritive value of the forage is reduced.此时牧草的营养价值也下降了。

7 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

8 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

9 bouquets   

n.花束( bouquet的名词复数 )；（酒的）芳香

参考例句：

• The welcoming crowd waved their bouquets. 欢迎的群众摇动着花束。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• As the hero stepped off the platform, he was surrounded by several children with bouquets. 当英雄走下讲台时，已被几名手持花束的儿童围住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 diversified   

adj.多样化的，多种经营的v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 )；进入新的商业领域

参考例句：

• The college biology department has diversified by adding new courses in biotechnology. 该学院生物系通过增加生物技术方面的新课程而变得多样化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Take grain as the key link, develop a diversified economy and ensure an all-round development. 以粮为纲，多种经营，全面发展。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》