When I first arrived in Washington, an official of the Foreign Correspondents Center told reporters, "Washington does not represent the United States. If you haven't been to the countryside, you won't really understand the United States for journalists in the United States. " A few days ago, with the help of the American Farmers' Association, the reporter came to a farm in Valley City, North Dakota to eat, live and work with his owner Greg and his wife, and really experienced a modern American rural life.
American farmers live as well as urban residents.
As soon as the American Farmers' Association informed me that the contact was successful, ROCHE MAZET, the hostess, called to ask about the reporter's itinerary. She told reporters through MSN that her home address is 3546, Kloc-0/09 Avenue, Valley City, North Dakota. The reporter noticed that her screen name was "the owner of a smart dog". Before leaving, the short and long-distance contact with American farmers opened the eyes of reporters.
North Dakota is located in the northern part of the United States and borders Canada. Agriculture is the most important industry. The output of flax seed, wheat, barley and sunflower seed 1 1 crops ranks first in the United States. Agricultural output accounts for 25% of the state's economy (about four times the American average), and farmers account for 24% of the state's employment (the American average is less than 2%). Gucheng is a typical agricultural area, and all you can see along the way are endless farms and high grain storage tanks. Because it is spring, there are no crops growing in the field, revealing dark land. According to the guidance of the road map, the reporter followed the sign of 109 Avenue and finally came to Greg's home under the guidance of local farmers. Unlike imagination, Greg's "home" is not a farmhouse, but an ordinary two-story residential building, which looks no different from most private houses in American towns.
American families attach great importance to the decoration of kitchens and restaurants, and Greg's family is no exception. The kitchen utensils in the cupboard are neatly arranged, the operating table is neat and bright, and the refrigerator, dishwasher, induction cooker, oven and microwave oven are all available. The most interesting thing is the electric garbage processor, which can compress a lot of domestic garbage. Greg's restaurant is spacious and bright, and you can see the Woods and fields outside. Suddenly, dozens of deer broke into the reporter's sight, and they danced in groups. Greg said, "This is a group of wild deer. We are used to it." Every room in Greg's house is hung with decorative paintings with strong pastoral colors. Greg's office is connected to the living room, which is equipped with a set of modern office equipment. Besides the printer and fax machine, there is also a computer connected to the Internet via satellite.
Greg, who is of Danish descent, is 47 years old and grew up in the Valley. ROCHE MAZET, who is three years younger than Greg, is of Norwegian origin. Their daughter Sarah is 23 years old and works as a teacher on an Indian reservation in the state. My son, Adam, 2 1 year-old, works as a carpenter in a construction company in Valley City. ROCHE MAZET worked as an accountant in a company in Valley City for 23 years, and the company bought medical insurance for her family. In the United States, to buy general medical insurance, you need to pay $800 to 1000 a month, which is not a small sum for farmers' families, and it is difficult to support it by farm income alone. This is the advantage of "one family, two systems". Greg usually does the farm work at home, while Roach Mazette helps her husband do some farm work during the holidays. ROCHE MAZET's parents live nearby and run their own farm. Neither of them retired. Unlike American urban family members who rarely move, the Greggs have lived separately, but they still move frequently and take care of each other.
1 person cultivates 3000 mu of land.
Mr. and Mrs. Greg's farm and ranch add up to about 3000 acres (1 acre is about 6 acres). The main crops on the farm are soybean, wheat, corn and buckwheat. Greg and his wife have 185 cows and 8 bulls, all of whom are beef cattle. On the pasture, many cows are "walking" leisurely. Each cow wears an orange plastic card on both ears. Greg said: "This is the ID card of the cow, which has information such as the date of birth, kinship and serial number of the cow. All the information can be seen at a glance through the computer. "
Greg said that all his possessions, including farms, pastures, houses, livestock and agricultural machinery, are worth about $65,438+200,000. In order to take care of the family property of $65,438+$2,000, he is usually very busy and needs to play many roles at the same time: farmer, manager, accountant, mechanic, welder, carpenter, veterinarian, chemist, agronomist, teacher (showing helpers how to be a farmer), marketer, investor and restaurant owner (Greg's family cooperated with others to open an upscale restaurant in Washington, D.C.).
The farm is full of high technology.
American farmers, who only account for 1.8% of the national population, not only feed nearly 300 million Americans, but also make the United States the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world. In 200 1 year, the export of American agricultural products reached 53.5 billion US dollars. Without high technology, such an agricultural miracle is impossible!
The agricultural machinery piled up in Greg's warehouse is dazzling. I heard that the popularization of agricultural mechanization in the United States is high, and it seems that it really deserves its reputation. Combine harvester, four-wheel drive tractor, pneumatic drill, agricultural crawler trailer, straw baler, seeder ... The total value of these agricultural machinery is about $220,000. Many large agricultural machinery is "second-hand" that Greg bought from other farmers, while most small agricultural machinery and tools are original, and many of them are imported from China. Greg treasures his "secret weapon"-a large tractor equipped with GPS. He spent $7,500 this spring to buy this automatic driving and satellite positioning system, which allows tractors to be operated by computers without manual operation, and the cultivated land is of high quality. Greg is a latecomer to the use of GPS. In fact, 20% of American farms have begun to use helicopters for aquaculture management, and many medium-sized farms and almost all large farms in the United States have installed GPS positioning systems. These dazzling agricultural machines each have a specific purpose, and it is they that liberate Greg from heavy manual labor.
Greg told me that American agriculture is market-oriented, and farmers make their own production and sales decisions based on market information. The informatization level of American agriculture has been higher than that of industry, and surfing the Internet and reading newspapers have become a part of American farmers' lives. Without accurate, timely and authoritative market information, American agriculture will be at a loss.
Subsidies and insurance protect the interests of farmers.
In the United States, agriculture is a traditional industry that is highly valued and protected. Compared with other industries, such as industry and service industry, the taxes paid by farmers are obviously less, the amount is relatively low, and there is no tax specifically for farmers. In addition to tax incentives, the federal government also directly subsidizes agriculture. The new agricultural law promulgated by the Bush administration in 2002 stipulates that in the next 10 year, various government subsidies and financial support for agriculture will reach19 billion US dollars, with an average annual investment of19 billion US dollars, which is just lower than the19 billion US dollars stipulated by the World Trade Organization. The concentration of agricultural subsidies in the United States is very high. More than 90% of agricultural subsidies are concentrated in five of about 20 crops, such as wheat, soybean, corn, barley and cotton, which is conducive to improving the market competitiveness of bulk agricultural products.
Greg looks rich on the surface, but the profit of the farm is actually very small, because oil prices soar, fertilizers and pesticides become more and more expensive, and high technology needs a lot of capital investment. Greg invests $390,000 in agriculture every year and earns about $400,000. Greg said that he was able to earn $654.38 million +0 million because the federal government subsidized agriculture. If the federal government cancels agricultural subsidies, his farm can only maintain a break-even situation. Greg is not as grateful for government subsidies as the reporter expected, but has a lot of dissatisfaction. He believes that the government has given the biggest benefits to large farmers, and the income of small and medium-sized farmers is limited.
Agriculture is a high-risk industry, and weather, pests and diseases, fertilizer and pesticide prices, oil prices, market demand and other factors will affect the harvest. Most American farmers owe a lot of loans to banks, so there is a popular saying among American farmers: "Farming in America is like gambling. Maybe you have a better chance of winning money in Las Vegas than farming! " Greg's family bought various insurances, such as agricultural income insurance (only accounting for 75% of the total income), family insurance, life insurance, health insurance, accident insurance and livestock insurance. Rochemazer joked that if a reporter accidentally fell down on the farm, the insurance company would also bear the cost of treatment. This reflects from one aspect that the rural insurance system in the United States has a wide coverage and a high level of protection. According to statistics, the insurable varieties of crops in the United States exceed 100. Of the 2 million farmers in the United States, nearly 6.5438+0.5 million have applied for agricultural insurance.
Two major concerns of American farmers
Are American farmers particularly worried? Mr. and Mrs. Gregg answered "Yes" in unison. They are most worried about two things: first, most young people in the United States are unwilling to be farmers, and the countryside faces the dilemma of no successor; Secondly, factory farming is increasingly threatening the traditional family agriculture.
The proportion of rural population in the United States is already very low, but more and more rural youth go to cities to make a living, and the agricultural population has been declining. The North Dakota Farmers Association even regards "increasing the agricultural population" as a top priority. Greg said: "The older generation of farmers have deep feelings for agriculture. If I win a huge lottery, I will donate all my money to charity, and then go back to the farm to continue to be my farmer. When farmers' income is not high and the countryside lacks entertainment, young people like to pursue excitement, so they don't want to stay in the countryside. "Greg registered the ownership of 65,438+00 cows in his son's name. Every busy farming season, Greg would call his son, "Come back, there are 65,438+00 cows here! "Greg hopes to keep his son in the city in touch with the farm in this way.
The decrease in the number of farmers is only the current development trend, and it has not yet posed a fatal threat to agriculture, but the threat of factory farming to traditional agriculture can be said to be imminent. Many media believe that factory farming is "a revolution in the development history of modern agriculture, animal husbandry and aquaculture, and an important way to realize agricultural modernization". However, with the enhancement of food safety awareness, people pay more and more attention to the impact of agricultural production on human health, and the benefits of family agriculture are once again mentioned by experts. John Ikle, a world-renowned agricultural economist, believes that factory farming violates the principle of agricultural sustainable development, and publicly puts forward ten reasons against factory farming, especially factory pig farming. The preface to the 2006 policy and action guide of the North Dakota Farmers' Association pointed out: "China's agricultural policy must be far away from the current industrialization, protect family agriculture, and strive to reverse the trend of decreasing the number of family farms." When Greg and his wife mentioned raising pigs in the factory, they both looked contemptuous. "What about raising pigs?" That's obviously pig abuse! How about thousands of pigs crowded together? "
Today, with the globalization of the world economy, industrialization is almost an irresistible trend. Will there be American farmers like Greg and Roach Mazer in decades or even a hundred years? Will there be another dirty but kind American farm like theirs? Although the interview has ended, the reporter has been thinking about this problem on his way back to Washington.