VOA慢速英语:High Food Prices, Revolutions, and the Future

Food prices are down from their record highs in February. But prices are still higher than they were a year ago.
粮食价格从2月份的历史高点下降下来，但价格仍高于一年前的水平。

Many experts think the political fires that burned across North Africa and the Middle East started last year in the wheat fields of Russia. A combination of heat, drought and wildfires during the summer of twenty-ten destroyed one-third of Russia's winter wheat crop. World food prices rose after Russia halted wheat exports.
许多专家认为，横跨北非和中东的政治大火始于去年俄罗斯的麦田。2010年夏季，高温、干旱和野火组合到一起，摧毁了俄罗斯冬小麦作物的1/3。在俄罗斯暂停了小麦出口之后，全球粮食价格上涨。

Shenggen Fan is head of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. He links higher food prices to the uprisings in Egypt and other Arab countries.
Shenggen Fan是华盛顿国际粮食政策研究所的负责人。他将粮食价格上涨和埃及和其它阿拉伯国家的起义联系起来。

SHENGGEN FAN: "Definitely, it is one of the factors that really caused the Arab Sp**."
SHENGGEN FAN：“可以肯定地说，这是真正引发阿拉伯**的因素之一。”

The last time food prices jumped was in two thousand eight. At that time, Egypt was also was among the countries where food riots and demonstrations took place.
上一次粮食价格上涨是在2008年。当时，埃及也是发生粮食骚乱和示威的国家之一。

Ghiyath Nakshbendi is a professor in the Department of International Business at American University in Washington. He agrees that food prices played a part in the Arab revolutions.
Ghiyath Nakshbendi是华盛顿美国大学国际商务系的一名教授。他同意粮食价格在阿拉伯革命中发挥了一定作用的说法。

GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "At the end of the day, the most crucial reason for the Arab Spring is basically economic. And so consequently when a citizen cannot have enough money to purchase food and feed his family, definitely that will create a kind of upset with the system."
GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI：“最终，阿拉伯**的最关键原因是经济。因此当一个公民没有足够的钱购买食物来养活他的家人，肯定会引起对该体系的不满。”

Professor Nakshbendi says an event like climate change can affect food production in many countries. But in a globally connected economy, even an event in one country can be felt worldwide.
Nakshbendi教授称，气候变化这样的事件会影响到许多国家的粮食生产。但在全球紧密相连的经济中，即使是只是一个国家的事件，全世界都能感受到其影响。”

GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "Something happening in Thailand is going to have an impact on rice export to other countries."
GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI：“发生在泰国的一些事情就会影响到其出口大米到其它国家。”

Cornell University economist Chris Barrett says another problem is that gains in farm production have slowed.
美国康奈尔大学经济学家Chris Barrett称，另一个问题是农业生产增长的放缓。

CHRIS BARRETT: "What we are seeing right now is the bitter harvest of very poor investments in agriculture research over really the last twenty years."
CHRIS BARRETT：“我们现在看到的，就是过去20年来缺乏农业科研投资的苦果。”

Shenngun Fan says the return of high prices in twenty-eleven offers some important lessons. If investment in food production does not increase, he says, then the world will continue to see high prices.
Shenngun Fan称，2011年高粮价的再次袭来，提供了一些重要的教训。他说，如果粮食生产投资不增加，那么全世界将继续看到高粮价。

SHENGGEN FAN: "Food price hikes will come more often and more frequent. Second, food prices obviously will remain very high."
SHENGGEN FAN：“食品价格上涨会来得更频繁。其次，食品价格显然还将维持在高位。”

He says food supplies are not growing enough to meet the demand of seven billion people. The world is expected to add two billion more by the middle of the century. And people in emerging economies like China are eating more meat, which requires more animal feed. But in twenty-eleven, for the first time, the United States used more maize, or corn, for biofuels than for animal feed.
他说，粮食供应增长不足以满足70亿人口的需求。预计到本世纪中叶，世界人口会新增20亿以上。而像中国这样的新兴经济体，人们吃了更多肉类，这也需要更多的动物饲料。但2011年美国在制造生物燃料上耗费的玉米首次超过了动物饲料。

The good news is that high prices always encourage farmers to grow more. A record harvest in twenty-eleven is helping to ease food prices in many parts of the world, but not all.
好消息就是，高昂的价格会鼓励农民种植得更多。2011年一个创纪录的丰收帮助缓解了全球许多地区的粮食价格，但不是所有国家。