If you want to disturb the car industry, you'd better have a few billion dollars: Mom-and-pop carmakers are unlikely to beat the biggest car companies. But in agriculture, small farmers can get the best of the major players. By connecting directly with customers, and by responding quickly to changes in the markets as well as in the ecosystems, small farmers can keep one step ahead of the big guys. As the co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC）and a family farmer myself, I have a front-row seat to the innovations among small farmers that are transforming the industry.
如果你想扰乱汽车行业，你最好有几十亿美元：汽车制造小作坊不太可能击败最大的汽车公司。但在农业领域，小农户可以从主要参与者中获得最大利益。通过与客户直接联系，并对市场和生态系统的变化做出快速反应，小农户可以领先大农户。作为美国青年农会（National Young Farmers Coalition，NYFC）联合创始人和一位家庭农场主，我处于前沿，观察正在改变行业的小农户的创新。
For example, take the Quick Cut Greens Harvester, a tool developed just a couple of years ago by a young farmer, Jonathan Dysinger, in Tennessee, with a small loan from a local Slow Money group. It enables small-scale farmers to harvest 175 pounds of green vegetables per hour—a huge improvement over harvesting just a few dozen pounds by hand—suddenly making it possible for the little guys to compete with large farms of California. Before the tool came out, small farmers couldn't touch the price per pound offered by California farms. But now, with the combination of a better price point and a generally fresher product, they can stay in business.
例如，以快速收割机（Quick Cut Greens Harvester）为例，这是一种几年前由田纳西州的一位年轻农民Jonathan Dysinger利用当地Slow Money集团的小额贷款开发的工具。它使小规模农民每小时可以收获175磅的绿色蔬菜，这比手工收获几十磅的蔬菜有了巨大的进步——突然使得小农户有可能与加州的大型农场竞争。在该工具问世之前，小农户无法达到加州农场提供的每磅价格。但现在，有了更好的价格和更新鲜的产品，他们可以继续经营下去。
The sustainable success of small farmers, though, won't happen without fundamental changes to the industry. One crucial factor is secure access to land. Competition from investors, developers, and established large farmers makes owning one's own land unattainable for many new farmers.
然而，如果不从根本上改变产业，小农户的可持续成功就不会发生。关键因素是获得土地的安全。来自投资者、开发商和老牌大农场主的竞争使得许多新农民无法拥有自己的土地。
From 2004 to 2013, agricultural land values doubled, and they continue to rise in many regions. Another challenge for more than a million of the most qualified farm workers and managers is a non-existent path to citizenship — the greatest barrier to building a farm of their own. With farmers over the age of 65 outnumbering farmers younger than 35 by six to one, and with two-thirds of the nation's farmland in need of a new farmer, we must clear the path for talented people willing to grow the nation's food.
从2004年到2013年，农业用地价值翻了一番，并且在许多地区继续上涨。对100多万最合格的农场工人和管理者来说，另一个挑战是没有获得公民身份的途径——这是建设自己农场的最大障碍。65岁以上的农民比35岁以下的农民多出六比一，全国三分之二的农田需要新农民，我们必须为愿意种植国家粮食的人才扫清道路。
There are solutions that could light a path toward a more sustainable and fair farm economy, but farmers can't clumsily put them together before us. We at the NYFC need broad support as we urge Congress to increase farmland conservation, as we push for immigration reform, and as we seek policies that will ensure the success of a diverse and ambitious next generation of farms from all backgrounds. With a new farm bill to be debated in Congress, consumers must take a stand with young farmers.
有一些解决方案可以为实现更可持续、更公平的农业经济开辟道路，但在我们推进之前农民们不可能笨拙地把它们组合在一起。我们美国青年农会需要广泛的支持，因为我们敦促国会加强农田保护，推动移民改革，我们正在寻求政策，以确保来自各种背景的多样化和雄心勃勃的下一代农场取得成功。随着一项新的农业法案将在国会进行辩论，消费者必须与年轻农民站在一起。
网友评论