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Can Billions in New Subsidies Keep Family Farms in Business?
数十亿美元的新补贴能让家庭农场继续经营吗？
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has a line about the state of small-scale agriculture in America these days. It's drawn from the National Agricultural Statistic Service, which shows that as the average size of farms has risen, the nation had lost 544,000 of them since 1981.
美国农业部长汤姆·维尔萨克谈到美国小规模农业的现状时说了一句话。这句话的依据来自国家农业统计机构，该机构表明，随着农场的平均面积不断增加，自1981年以来，全国已经失去了54.4万个农场。
"That's every farm today that exists in North Dakota and South Dakota, added to those in Wisconsin and Minnesota, added to those in Nebraska and Colorado, added to those in Oklahoma and Missouri," Mister Vilsack told a conference in Washington this spring. "Are we as a country okay with it?"
"这相当于今天存在于北达科他州和南达科他州的所有农场，加上威斯康星州和明尼苏达州的农场，加上内布拉斯加州和科罗拉多州的农场，再加上俄克拉荷马州和密苏里州的农场数量。"维尔萨克今年春天在华盛顿的一次会议上说，"我们作为一个国家，能接受这种情况吗？"
Even though the United States continues to produce more food on fewer acres, Mr Vilsack worries that the loss of small farmers has weakened rural economies, and he wants to stop the bleeding.
虽然美国继续在更少的土地上生产更多的粮食，但维尔萨克担心小农户的流失削弱了农村经济，他希望阻止这种流失。
Unlike his last turn in the same job, under former President Barack Obama, this time his department is able to spend billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives passed under three major laws since 2021 -- including the biggest investment in conservation programs in US history.
与他在前总统奥巴马政府中担任同一职务时不同，这一次他的部门能够投入数十亿美元用于补贴和激励措施，自2021年以来通过的三项主要法律许可了这些措施，其中包括美国历史上对环境保护项目的最大投入。
The plan in a nutshell: multiply and improve revenue streams to bolster farm balance sheets.
该计划的要点是：增加并改善收入来源，以增强农场的资产负债表。
Rather than just selling crops and livestock, farms of the future could also sell carbon credits, waste products, and renewable energy. "Instead of the farm getting one check, they potentially could get four checks," Mr Vilsack said in an interview.
未来的农场不仅可以销售农作物和牲畜，还可以销售碳信用额度、废品和可再生能源。"农场不是只收到一张支票，他们有可能会收到四张支票。"维尔萨克在接受采访时说。
He is also helping schools, hospitals, and other institutions to buy food grown locally, and investors to build meatpacking plants and other processing facilities to free farmers from powerful middlemen.
他还在帮助学校、医院和其他机构购买当地种植的食物，并帮助投资者建造肉类加工厂和其他加工厂，使农民摆脱强势的中间商。
But it's far from clear whether new policies and a cash infusion will be enough to counteract the forces that have pushed farmers off the land for decades, especially since much of the money is aimed at reducing carbon emissions and so will also go toward large farming operations because they are the biggest polluters.
但是，目前还远不清楚新政策和现金注入是否足以抵消几十年来将农民赶出土地的力量，尤其是因为大部分资金旨在减少碳排放，因此也将流向大型农业企业，因为它们是最大的污染者。
The number of farms has been declining since the 1930s in large part because of migration from rural areas to cities and greater mechanization of agriculture, which allowed operators to cultivate larger tracks with fewer people.
自20世纪30年代以来，农场数量一直在下降，很大程度上是因为人口从农村地区迁移到城市，以及农业机械化程度提高，这使得经营者可以用更少的人耕种更大的土地。
Over time the federal government abandoned a policy of managing production to support prices, prompting growers to become more export-oriented, while local distribution networks atrophied.
渐渐地，联邦政府放弃了管理生产以支撑价格的政策，从而促使种植者越来越多地出口农作物，而当地的分销网络就萎缩了。
The last half decade has been more disruptive than most. First came a trade war against China under former President Donald J. Trump, which drew retaliatory tariffs that cut into US exports of farm products like soybeans and pork.
过去五年的破坏性比大多数时期都要大。首先是前总统唐纳德·特朗普对中国发动的贸易战，这引发了报复性关税，使美国大豆和猪肉等农产品的出口受挫。
Then came the pandemic, which scrambled supply chains and sapped farm labor, leaving crops to rot in the fields.
接着是疫情打乱了供应链，削弱了农业劳动力，导致庄稼在地里腐烂。
