美国国家公共电台 NPR America's Real Mountain Of Cheese Is On Our Plates

America's Real Mountain Of Cheese Is On Our Plates

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Apparently¹, there's too much cheese in this country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week that it would buy $20 million worth of the stuff, cheddar mostly, and give it away to food banks. The USDA is doing this, it says, to help, quote, "reduce a cheese surplus that is at a 30-year high."

Dairy farmers are happy at this news. That enormous glut² of cheese has been driving down the price they get for their milk. Dan Charles is here to talk about all of this with us. He's NPR's food and agriculture correspondent. Good morning.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE³: Hi, Renee.

MONTAGNE: Why do we have so much cheese?

CHARLES: So here is what happened - two years ago, there was actually a shortage of milk and cheese. China was buying up enormous quantities of milk powder, driving up the price, so dairy farmers were doing great. They were making lots of money. They said OK, let's make more money. Let's buy more cows, produce more milk, more cheese.

And then everything went wrong. China all of a sudden decided⁴ we don't need so much milk powder. They stopped buying. Russia put a ban on cheese from Western Europe, so there was all this cheese in Europe looking for a buyer. And meanwhile, there was a policy change in Europe. They had had quotas⁵ on milk production, which limited it. They took those quotas off. Dairy farmers started making more milk.

The result was last year, all of a sudden, there was way too much milk, too few buyers, a mountain of cheese building up, milk prices are in the tank and dairy farmers are money.

MONTAGNE: You know, it's somewhat amazing that a dairy farmer in New York or California depends so much on global events.

CHARLES: Yeah. We think of milk as this local product that the cows produce and we go to the store and pick up. But really only a quarter of the milk that's produced in this country gets sold as fluid milk that people drink. Milk is like crude oil. It goes into processing plants - you know, refineries⁶, you would say - and it gets turned into products that you can trade around the world, like cheese, milk powder, also the byproducts of cheese production - these powdered protein products from the whey. This is a global market. And just like, you know, oil, the prices boom and bust⁷ depending on global events.

MONTAGNE: You say, though, that there are mountains of cheese in storage. And I'm - I'm just envisioning that. Truly, Dan, mountains of cheese?

CHARLES: 1.3 billion pounds, Renee.

MONTAGNE: Well, that's a mountain. And what kinds of cheese?

CHARLES: Mostly cheddar and mozzarella. Those are, by far, the most popular kinds of cheese in America.

MONTAGNE: OK, so the USDA is stepping in, says it will buy $20 million worth of cheese. Will that make much of a difference?

CHARLES: No (laughter) $20 million doesn't buy what it used to, Renee. No, it's not so much money compared to the amount of cheese on the market. It will not make much of a difference. This is really just a symbolic⁸ effort to help milk farmers. But it's more than symbolic for the food banks. Twenty million dollars' worth of cheese is significant for them, and they are happy to be getting it.

MONTAGNE: Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent. Thanks for joining us.

CHARLES: Thank you, Renee.

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 glut   

n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽

参考例句：

• The glut of coffee led to a sharp drop in prices.咖啡供过于求道致价格急剧下跌。
• There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.西欧的农产品供过于求。

3 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。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 quotas   

（正式限定的）定量( quota的名词复数 )； 定额； 指标； 摊派

参考例句：

• In fulfilling the production quotas, John made rings round all his fellow workers. 约翰完成生产定额大大超过他的同事们。
• Quotas of the means of production are allocated by the higher administrative bodies to the lower ones. 物资指标按隶属关系分配。

6 refineries   

精炼厂( refinery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The efforts on closedown and suspension of small sugar refineries, small saccharin refineries and small paper mills are also being carried out in steps. 关停小糖厂、小糖精厂、小造纸厂的工作也已逐步展开。
• Hence the sitting of refineries is at a distance from population centres. 所以，炼油厂的厂址总在远离人口集中的地方。

7 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

8 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。