听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:没有农夫，我们将会饥饿且赤裸，希望你会喜欢！

【演讲者及介绍】Eric Sannerud

Eric Sannerud致力于跨学科的农业问题，并寻求促进新农民和年轻农民获得农田。

【演讲主题】没有农夫，我们将会饥饿且赤裸

Without farmers, you'd be hungry, naked and sober

【中英文字幕】

翻译者 Yan Gao 校对者 Yolanda Zhang

So what do people usually say when you're about to give a public talk? It's to imagine that your audience is naked.

要上台演讲前，人们通常怎么说来着？想象你的观众都是没穿衣服的。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Well, I'm doing a different trick tonight, and I'm going to imagine all of us without farmers, and well, it's not so much different.

我今天换个别的技巧，我要想象的是，如何没有农民，大家的生活会是什么样，其实，也没太大区别。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And our farmers do so much more for us than simply feed and clothe and provide us excellent things to drink. Our farmers are an important part of all of our communities, particularly our rural communities. And more than that, they're a strong driver of resilient economics. Think about it this way: When a brewer buys hops from me, grown here in Minnesota, 90 percent of that dollar stays in our state, compared to just 10 percent when they buy it from somewhere else. What that means is a lot. That 90 percent means local jobs. It means tax revenue for better schools and roads. It means support for the co-ops, the mechanics, all the support staff that are needed for a farm to thrive. And they're our best stewards of the land.

农民为我们做了太多事，不仅是食物、衣服和美酒。农民是我们所有社区里非常重要的部分，特别是在农村。不仅如此，农民还是弹性经济强劲的推动力。举个例子：如果酿酒厂从我这里购买明尼苏达州本地种植的酒花，90%的钱会留在我们州，相反，如果从其他地方买酒花，留在明州的只有10%。这件事意味着很多东西。这90%意味着本地工作岗位；意味着这些税收可以用来修建更好的学校和道路；意味着能支持合作社、机械工，支持农场所需要的一切从业人员。他们是土地的最佳管理者。

This quote, I think, exemplifies what our family farmers do for us in stewarding our shared natural resources. "That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected as an extension of ethics."

我认为，这句话道出了在管理自然资源方面家庭农场的贡献。“土地是一个社区，这是生态学基本概念，但对土地的爱和尊重是伦理道德的延伸。”

Now, they sure do a lot of good stuff for us. And our family farmers are great, we'd all agree. However, the trends in agriculture today are dire. The average age of a farmer in America, according to the latest agricultural census -- 58.3. Of all the farmers, 33 percent are 65 plus.

当然，土地肯定会带给我们很多好处。家庭农场也很棒，大家都同意。但是，如今农业的发展趋势很可怕。最新的农业人口普查结果显示：美国农民的平均年龄是58.3岁。所有农民中，33%在65岁以上。

But to put that in perspective, another important public service job, teaching, average age of teachers is 42. Our farmers are pretty old in this country. And unfortunately, when they retire, if they retire, we're not really replacing them. Of all the farmers that we added in this country between 2008 and 2012, across the entire United States -- see if you can catch this difference -- we added 2,000 under the age of 30. I'm one of those. I'll be around to autograph some photos later, if you'd like.

与之相比，另一个重要的公共服务岗位：教师，从业者的平均年龄是42岁。这个国家的农民真的很老了。不幸的是，他们退休时——如果他们退休了——没有新人来补充。在2008到2012年间，整个美国范围内新增的农民——试下能不能看出区别——增加了2000名30岁以下的农民。我就是其中一个。待会儿我会留下跟大家合影的。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But, you know, our farmers are getting older and we're not replacing them -- what's going on here? What are we going to do? And I think there's a reason folks aren't coming into it, and that's prices.

但是，农民越来越老，却没有新人补充，到底怎么回事？我们该怎么办？我认为没人来做农民的原因，就是低收入。

Milk: This is the average retail price of a gallon of milk in the United States. Four dollars forty-nine cents. How much do you think the farmer gets? Dollar thirty-two. We'll try again with bread. Average retail price of bread in America, three forty-nine. Farmer gets ... Twelve cents.

牛奶：美国一加仑牛奶的平均零售价，4.49美元。你觉得农民能拿到多少？1.32美元。再看看面包。美国的面包平均零售价，3.49美元。农民能拿到0.12美元。

Audience: Oh!

观众：啊？！

And so how are we supposed to have strong local farms in this scenario? What are we supposed to do if there aren't any local farmers left? And this isn't just a farmer problem, it's not just something for the few of us farmers to sort out. This is an all-of-us problem. This is rural and it's urban and it's statewide and it's nationwide. So what do we do about it? I'll tell you that.

那在这种情况下，怎么可能发展本地农场？如果本地没有农场了，我们怎么办？这不只是农民的问题，不仅仅是我们几个农民要解决的事。这是关乎每一个人的问题。是农村、城市、全州、全国的问题。那么我们要做些什么？我会告诉你们答案。

But first, a story. The green movement, we're all kind of familiar, started in the '60s, planting trees. And now we've come such a long way. Green is part of our day-to-day lives. It's part of the day-to-day lives of Fortune 500 businesses. It's the subject of international treaties, the subject of presidential debates. You and I, we switch our light bulbs, we use reusable bags. We participate in the green movement each and every day. Yet ... and this is how we get to the idea -- the food movement, relatively younger, but also somewhat familiar, I imagine.

但首先，我要讲个故事。绿色运动，我们都比较熟悉，60年代开始的全民种树运动。现在已经发展得非常好。绿色变成日常生活的一部分。也是世界五百强的日常。它是国际条约的主题，总统辩论的主题。至于你我，我们换节能灯泡，不用塑料袋。我们每一天都在参与绿色运动。那么，我们借此想到——食品运动，时间比较短，但我猜大家多少也是了解的。

You go to the grocery store, you see a sign that says "Buy local," you go to the farmers market, you go to the co-op, you read books by prominent authors. The food movement to date could be summarized as voting with your fork. The idea is: you pull a dollar out of your wallet -- how you spend that dollar affects the food system. It supports farmers close to home. And that's all well and good, but where are we going? How do we get to our renewable-energy moment like the green movement did? And this, I think, is what we need to do.

你到杂货店买东西时，能看到“买本地产品”的牌子，大家到农贸市场、合作社买东西，优秀作家也为此出书。食品运动发展到今天可以总结为“用饭勺投票”。它的理念是：掏出一美元时，把它花在哪里，影响着食品系统。它能支持你家附近的农民。这个想法很好，但我们的目标是什么呢？怎样把我们的再生能源运动发展得像绿色运动一样成功？而这些就是我认为我们需要做的。

Just voting with our fork is not solving the issues that our farmers are facing. And so we need to do more than that. I believe we must move on from just voting with our fork to voting with our vote. We need to take our dollars and continue to spend them locally. We also need to show up at the ballot box for our farmers. This is bigger than just buying local strawberries once a year at a pick-your-own. This is a year-round effort that we must make together to make the change we need. Changes like fair pricing for farmers. That's quotas, supply management, guaranteed prices. Changes like fair and open trade. That means ending trade wars. And yeah, of course it means voting. Now we all knew that one already, though. For example, it's working.

仅仅用饭勺投票，并不能解决农民所面对的问题。我们要做的不止这些。我相信必须要从“用饭勺投票”再进一步，做到“用投票权投票”。我们需要把自己的钱继续花在本地产品上。我们也需要为了农民去投票站投票。与每年在附近采摘草莓相比，投票更重要。这是大家要全年一起努力才能做出改变的事。像公平定价这种改变需要配额、供应链管理、价格担保。要实现公平贸易、开放贸易这些变化,意味着要结束贸易战。当然，这也意味着投票。现在大家都已经知道了。比如，投票是有用的。

Just this year in Minnesota, we've passed a historic, first-in-the-country tax credit. The Beginning Farmer Tax Credit. It incentivizes our transition of land from the existing generation to the next generation. That was done by a handful of us young farmers -- we certainly don't have money, you saw that earlier. We don't have political experience. But we showed up, and we made our voices heard. And thanks to the support of farmers and non-farmers alike, we got something incredible done here in this state. If we can do it, anybody can do it.

今年，在明尼苏达州，我们通过了历史性的全国首创的税收减免政策。新农民税收减免。它鼓励我们把土地从现在的一代传递到下一代。那是我们几个年轻农民促成的——我们当然没钱，前面已经看到了。我们也没有政治经验。但我们站出来了，人们听到了我们的声音。感谢大家的支持，包括农民和非农民，我们在这个州取得了重大进展。如果我们能做到，任何人都能。

Now, that was all light and fuzzy and feels pretty happy. Skeptics in the audience, you're here. That would be me, if I were here. Skeptics are thinking, "Wow, what do we need to change about our food system?" Farmers are great. We have unlimited food, and it's real cheap, too, isn't that great? Well, unfortunately, in the '80s and the '90s in this country, we went down a path of policy that could be described as "get big or get out." And what "get big or get out" means is you maximize production while minimizing costs. On its face value, that sounds pretty simple. However, that shift turned our farmers from a venerated class and a valued class in our society into a cost to be minimized. That shift made it so that my great-grandfather, who supported the family with six cows, that same dairy, trying to support their family, has to be 600 cows today. Six-thousand-cow dairies are not unheard of. What happens when there's this one dairy farm in an entire county, where there used to be hundreds?

这些都是轻描淡写，看起来让人挺开心。但观众中也有怀疑论者，如果我在观众席，我也会心存疑虑。怀疑论者会想，“哇，食品系统有什么要改的吗？”农民很棒啊。我们的食物不限量，还很便宜，不是很棒吗？遗憾的是，美国在80和90年代，推出了一系列政策，简单说就是“要么扩大规模，要么退出市场”。它的意思是，要把产量最大化，同时把成本降到最低。表面上看，好像挺简单。然而，这个变化是把我们所尊敬的农民阶级，有社会价值的农民阶级，变成了需要削减的成本。这种转变的后果是，以前，我曾祖父用6头牛就能养活一家人，而现在，同样的奶牛场，需要600头牛才能养活一家人。需要6000头牛的，也不是没听过。一个县区原本有数百家奶牛场，如果现在只剩一家，会怎样呢？

The same could be said with corn or beans or field crops. What happens when it takes 10,000 acres for one person to support themselves? When it used to only take 40. We know what happens, we read about it in the news. Broadly determined, rural decline, but schools close, schools consolidate, post offices close, grocery stores close. People leave, the community suffers and goes away.

玉米、大豆等大田作物也是一样的状况。如果一个人以前种40英亩地就能养活自己，而现在要种一万英亩，又会发生什么？我们知道发生了什么，新闻上能看到，可以概括成农村衰落，学校关闭或合并，邮局关闭，杂货店关门。人们离开家乡，社区苦不堪言，最终消失。

I believe all of us in this audience with ties to rural Minnesota know this story well. This is not a problem that we can solve with farmers markets and good intentions. We have to do more for our farmers. Policy got us into this mess, and policy can get us out. American farmers are only getting older, fewer and poorer, yet they are crucial to our state. They're the vibrancy in our rural communities. They're the drivers of economic growth and stability, and they are our best protectors of our shared resources of land, water and air. So we have to do better for them.

我相信在座各位，只要与本州农村有点关系的，都很清楚这个状况。本地农贸市场和良好的意愿是解决不了这个问题的。我们必须做更多事。政策让我们陷入今天的困难，政策也可以让我们脱身。美国的农民只会更老、更少、更穷，然而他们对国家至关重要。他们是农村的活力，是经济增长和稳定的驱动力，是我们共享的自然资源——土地、水和空气的最佳保护伞。所以我们必须更多的帮助农民。

So join me, would you? Let's fight for our farmers. You can see it, we're already doing it in Minnesota, having great success. And together, we can do even more. And we must. So we were voting with our fork before, and we want to keep doing that. But if I could have one idea for you to go home with today, it's vote with your vote. And so to that end, on the count of three, I'd like all of us to say it together. Are you ready? OK, one, two, three.

跟我一起，好吗？让我们为农民抗争。你们已经看到了，我们在明尼苏达州取得了巨大成功。众人拾柴火焰高，而且我们必须这么做。我们一直在支持本地农产品，我们还要继续这样做。但如果要我提供一个新的想法，希望你们记住，那就是用你的投票权去投票。最后，我数到三，请所有人一起说出来。准备好了吗？来，一、二、三。

Audience: Vote with your vote.

观众：用投票权投票。

Very nice, thank you. I think you got it.

真好，谢谢你们。我想大家都明白了。

(Applause)

（掌声）