VOA标准英语2014--New US Farm Bill Reaps Controversy 美国新农业法案产生争议

 

New US Farm Bill Reaps Controversy¹ 美国新农业法案产生争议

WASHINGTON — U.S. farmers will no longer get automatic checks from the government under new agriculture legislation President Obama signed into law Friday.  But critics say the new Farm Bill simply replaces the old subsidies² with new ones that may violate international trade rules.  The bill also includes reforms in how the U.S. helps the hungry around the world.

The Farm Bill Obama signed ended $5 billion per year in automatic payments to farmers.

"This bill helps to clamp down on loopholes that allowed people to receive benefits whether they were planting crops or not. And it saves taxpayers³ hard-earned dollars by making sure that we only support farmers when disaster strikes or prices drop. It's not just automatic," the president said.

The new Farm Bill expands programs that buffer⁴ growers from bad weather or bad markets.

It raises the minimum price growers are guaranteed for certain crops. And it offers subsidized insurance that guarantees farmers’ incomes do not drop much from year to year.

Those programs could create problems says University of California at Davis economist⁵ Dan Sumner.

“That’s the kind of assurances that the U.S. government is willing to provide that most farmers in the world, in fact, don’t have access to,” he said.

With the backing of the government, Sumner says U.S. farmers can produce more and export more.

“Ultimately, that drives down world prices and it’s a little tougher for farmers in developing countries to compete with that,” Sumner said.

Subsidies pushed down world cotton prices in the early 2000s, and the U.S. lost a trade dispute over them.

Sumner says the new Farm Bill could re-open that dispute.

But growers’ groups note that trade rules do allow governments to pay a limited amount of subsidies.

“We’re pretty confident that it would take an extremely bad situation for us to even come close to violating those particular limits, something the United States hasn’t come close to in years,” said Dale Moore, policy chief at the American Farm Bureau Federation⁶.

Elsewhere in the Farm Bill, changes should help food aid get to more needy⁷ people around the world.

Aid groups can spend more of the funding they receive buying food from markets near where it will be used, rather than from the United States.

“Not only will that save money, but it will reach people faster," said Oxfam America's Eric Munoz.  "The actual program of buying locally is a much quicker response than buying food from the United States and shipping⁸ it.”

Munoz says with the same funding, help can now reach hundreds of thousands more hungry people.

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

4 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。

5 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。

6 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。

7 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

8 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。