【我的总结与翻译】

Food inflation has led to growing protests in developing countries. In Haiti, the government fell Saturday after riots in which several people died.

食品价格的暴涨已导致发展中国家人们的抗议不断出现。在海地，几场致数人死亡的暴乱后，国家政府于周六垮台。

Some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last week that rice prices have risen around 75% in just 2 months, to near historical levels. Wheat prices have risen 120% in the past year.

一些稻米生产国为了保证自己国内的供给，已削减了其出口。上周，世界银行行长Robert Zoellick指出，稻米价格仅在2个月内就上涨了约75%，接受历史水平。去年的小麦价格增长了120%。

Farmers are planting more wheat and rice. But population growth is raising demand. So is the use of food crops to produce biofuels. At the same time, record oil prices have meant higher costs for petroleum-based fertilizers and for energy and transportation.

农民们忙于种植更多的小麦和水稻。但人口的增长使得需求量也在不断增加，更多的粮食作物也被用来加工成生物燃料。同时，创新高的油价也意味着油基肥料、能源和运输成本的增加。

Food also costs more because more people are eating meat and dairy products in growing economies like India and China. More grain is going to feed cattle. Weather has also pushed up prices. For example, Australia, a major wheat exporter, faces a drought.

在像印度、中国这些的经济发展国，因为越来越多的人们食用肉类和奶制品，食品成本也在不断增加。很多的谷物也要用来饲喂养牲畜。气候原因也加快了价格的上涨。比如，小麦出口大国——澳大利亚就面临着干旱。

High food prices hit the poor the hardest. Agricultural economist (Christefer) Barrett at Cornell University says many poor farmers use more of their crops than they sell. He says more investment is needed in agricultural research.

暴涨的食品价格对穷人的冲击是最严重的。康奈尔大学的农业经济学家Christefer Barrett指出，许多贫困农民自已消耗的农作物远比他们出售的多。他认为有必要加大对农业研究的投资。

posted on 2008-04-23 00:14 echo 阅读(25) 评论(0)  编辑  收藏 网摘收藏