Fighting a Food Crisis (2/2)

What is needed, says another expert, Gerald Nelson at the University of Illinois, is another Green Revolution to increase productivity. This past weekend, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held their spring meetings in Washington. The bank president said hunger, malnutrition and food policy were a central issue.

The United Nations World Food Program has appealed for five hundred million dollars by May first. Bob Zoellick said donor countries had promised almost half of the money, but that was not enough.

He said a doubling of food prices over the last three years could push one hundred million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty. And that could hurt future generations.

I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the real problem is a food deficit" class="hjdict" word="deficit" target=_blank>deficit which will probably last for years. He says it can be argued that there are good reasons, connected to climate change, to try to push countries to substitute some kind of biofuel for oil.

But he says nations have to balance the production of biofuel from food crops with biofuel from nonfood resources. Some of the finance ministers in Washington said using food for fuel is a crime against humanity.

参考译文：

粮价飞涨使发展中国家不断出现抗议活动。一场导致数人死亡的暴乱后，周六，海地总理下台。

一些粮食生产国已经减少了出口粮食的数量以保证自己的供应。世界银行主席罗伯特·佐利克上周谈到，仅两个月的时间，粮价就飙升了75%左右，这接近历史水平。小麦价格在去年上涨了120%。

农民们正在种植更多的小麦和大米。但是，人口增长使需求增加。利用粮食作物生产生物燃料也是如此。同时，空前上涨的油价也意味着石油基础的肥料、能源和运输业的成本更高。

粮价成本增高也因为在像印度和中国这样经济正在增长的国家中，更多的人食用肉类和乳制品。更多的谷物被用于饲养家畜。天气也加速了价格的增长。例如，主要的小麦出口国澳大利亚正面临干旱。

高粮价对穷人的打击最为严重。康奈尔大学的农业经济学家克里斯托弗·巴瑞特说,许多贫困的农民自己消耗的比他们卖掉的粮食更多。他说在农业研究中需要投入更多。

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