Food Prices

最近幾個月來，世界各地抗議食品價格飛漲的聲音此起彼伏。專家說，造成這種狀況的因素包括：世界人口增加，農業技術投資不足，住房和商業開發導致農田減少，氣候變化導致乾旱和洪澇災害更加嚴重，人類對於有限淡水資源的需求不斷增長。

Voices have been raised around the world in recent months in protest at soaring food prices. Experts indicate that a number of factors are at play in this situation, including population increases, inadequate investment in agricultural technologies, a decrease in available agricultural land due to residential and commercial development, climate change resulting in droughts and flooding of increased severity and steadily-increasing human demand pressures on limited freshwater resources.

此外，原本完全用於人類食品和牲畜飼料的玉米等穀物現在大量被用來製造乙醇和其他所謂的生物燃料以代替石油和汽油。這些因素導致食品短缺和價格上漲，這對貧困人口而言，無異雪上加霜。

Another factor is that grain crops such as maize which originally were used wholly for human food production or as livestock feeds are now massively diverted to the production of ethanol and other biofuel substitutes for petroleum and gasoline. These various factors together have led to foodstuff shortage and rising prices which for the poor in particular amount to yet another hardship to endure.

許多專家建議各國政府停止對乙醇和其他生物燃料的生產提供補貼，增加對農作物研究提供經費，加強努力防止氣候變化，改善發展中國家的公路交通，幫助農民把他們的產品運送到市場。國際食品政策研究所總部則提出，農業必須在減少用水的情況下增加糧食產量。因此建議必須加強努力使水源的管理更加有效，並且要大力發展耐旱品種。

It is the advice of many experts that governments should cease the provision of subsidies for the production of ethanol and other biofuels and increase funding support for crop research, increase efforts to combat global warming, and improve highway infrastructure in developing countries so as to help farmers get their produce to market. The International Food Policy Research Institute observes that agriculture needs to increase grain yields while cutting down on water consumption, and indicates that greater efforts are required to achieve more efficient water resource management and to develop drought-resistant crops.

雪上加霜 making a bad situation worse, adding insult to injury,

 rubbing/adding salt to the wound

Soon, it began to snow. We continued to work under these adverse conditions.

We worked like slaves, under the condition that if we failed, all would die.

We have to increase crop yields, under drought conditions.

thus aggravating the already-difficult situation of the poor

              the hardships the poor have to endure

technology àscience

technique àmethod