VOA慢速英语:President Obama Signs a New Farm Bill into Law

President Barack Obama signed a new Farm Bill into law this month. Under the legislation, the federal government will no longer guarantee automatic payments to farmers. Critics say the law replaces the old payment system with new assistance that may violate international trade rules. The law also includes changes in how the United States helps hungry people around the world.
本月，美国总统奥巴马将一项新的农业法案签署成为法律。根据该法律规定，联邦政府将不再确保向农民自动发放补贴。批评人士称，这项新法律取代了旧补贴系统，但它附带的新援助可能会违反国际贸易规则。该法律还包括了美国如何帮助世界各地饥饿人口的一些改动。

The new Farm Bill ended $5 billion a year in automatic payments to farmers. The president said the law sends a message to people who have abused the system.
新的农业法案结束了自动向农民发放的50亿美元补贴。奥巴马总统称，该法律向滥用该系统的人们发出了一个信号。

"This bill helps to clamp down on loopholes that allowed people to receive benefits year after year whether they were planting crops or not. And it saves taxpayers hard-earned dollars by making sure that we only support farmers when disaster strikes or prices drop," the president said.
奥巴马总统说，“这项法案有助于打击允许人们每年获得补贴而不管他们是否种植粮食的漏洞。它通过确保只在灾难发生或价格下降时补贴农民，节省了纳税人辛苦挣来的钱。”

The new legislation expands programs that protect farmers from bad weather or low crop prices. It raises the lowest price growers will be paid for some crops. And it offers a taxpayer-supported insurance program to farmers, the program guarantees that their wages do not drop much from year to year.
新的法律还扩大了保护农民不受恶劣天气和粮食价格低影响的方案，它提高了农民出售一些作物的最低价格，还向农民提供了一个纳税人支持的保险计划，该计划保证农民一年的收入不会下降太多。

Dan Sumner is an economist with the University of California, Davis. He told VOA on Skype that the new Farm Bill could cause problems.
Dan Sumner是加州大学戴维斯分校的经济学家。他在Skype告诉美国之音，新农业法案可能会引发的问题。

"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.
他说，“世界上大多数农民都享受不到美国政府愿意提供的这类保险。”

He adds that with the help of the government, American farmers can produce and export more crops, but he warns that could hurt crop prices.
他补充说，在政府的帮助下，美国农民可以生产和出口更多作物，但他警告说，这可能会伤害粮食价格。

"That drives down world prices and it's a little tougher for farmers in developing countries to compete with that," Sumner said.
Sumner说，“这会压低世界粮食价格，发展中国家农民与之竞争会十分艰难。”

U.S. government subsidies pushed down world cotton prices in the early 2000s, the United States lost an international trade dispute over those payments. Dan Sumner says the new Farm Bill could re-open that dispute.
美国政府在21世纪初的补贴压低了世界棉花价格。美国在就这些补贴的一项国际贸易争端上败北。Dan Sumner称，新的农业法案可能会重新开始这些纠纷。

But groups representing growers say trade rules do let governments pay a limited amount of subsidies to farmers. Dale Moore is the chief of policy at one of those groups - the American Farm Bureau Federation.
但代表种植户的团体称，贸易规则允许政府向农民支付有限的补贴。Dale Moore是这些组织之一的美国农业事务联合会的政策负责人。

"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.
Dale Moore称，“我们很清楚，这会给我们带来非常糟糕的局面，使我们非常接近违反这些特定限制，美国已经很多年没有接近违反这些特定限制了。”

Other changes in the Bill should help food aid get to more needy people around the world.
法案的其它变动可能有助于粮食援助抵达世界各地更多需要帮助的人们。

Aid groups will be able to spend more of the assistance they receive to buy food from markets near where it will be used, earlier rules forced aid groups to buy food from American farmers.
援助团体将能够花更多他们收到的资金在受援地周边的市场购买食品。之前的规则强迫援助组织向美国农民购买食物。

Eric Munoz works for the aid group Oxfam America.
Eric Munoz就职于援助组织美国乐施会。

"Not only will that save money, but it will help reach people faster. The actual program of buying locally is a much quicker response than buying food from the United States and shipping it," said Eric Munoz.
Eric Munoz称，“不仅能省钱，还将有助于更快抵达需要帮助的人们。与从美国购买再运过去相比，当地购买方案能更快响应。”

He told VOA on Skype that with the same amount of money, help can now reach more hungry people.
他通过Skype告诉美国之音，相同的金额能够帮助到更多饥饿人口。