美国国家公共电台 NPR--The United Nations declares 2023 the International Year of Millets

The United Nations declares 2023 the International Year of Millets

Transcript²

Millets, an alternative crop to corn and soybeans, is getting new attention in the U.S. The resilient grain could help U.S. farmers survive climate change.

ASMA KHALID, HOST:

2023 is the international year of millets - at least the United Nation has declared that so. Millets are a type of ancient grain mostly grown in parts of Asia and Africa, and millets are nutritious³ and drought resistant⁴. That last quality could make them useful to farmers in the United States, especially in places facing deepening drought. Harvest Public Media's Eva Tesfaye reports.

EVA TESFAYE, BYLINE⁵: In central Missouri, Linus Rothermich grows corn and soybeans, the typical crops that are seen in fields across the Midwest. But he also grows something called Japanese millet¹.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAG OPENING)

TESFAYE: He pours a bag of the seed on his kitchen table.

Oh, they're tiny.

LINUS ROTHERMICH: Yeah, actually, this is seed to be planting with.

TESFAYE: Rothermich started growing Japanese millet in 1993.

ROTHERMICH: I was a young man, and I was looking for alternatives - crops to grow to make more money. That - we just weren't making a lot of money in agriculture then.

TESFAYE: Millets are gluten-free. They look like couscous or grits⁶ when cooked, and there are different types. There's the Japanese millet Rothermich grows, pearl millet, proso millet, foxtail and the cereal grain, sorghum⁷, is also considered a millet. And Rothermich likes that they are less expensive to grow than his corn and soybean crops. Plus, many millets are known to be incredibly drought resistant. Matt Little, an Oklahoma farmer, started growing proso millet last year.

MATT LITTLE: I'm really impressed with it. I've never seen a crop that stood the heat and stood the droughts and still made me money, OK?

TESFAYE: The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization wants to see the millets market grow in part because of their climate resiliency, but also because they're nutritious and could help diversify⁸ the global food system. But millets haven't gotten the same policy investment and research attention that corn, wheat and rice have received, says Makiko Taguchi, an agricultural officer with the organization.

MAKIKO TAGUCHI: Millets being a neglected crop, if I may put it that way. There's a lot of opportunities for millets to contribute to the sustainable development goals.

TESFAYE: Which is why the U.N. named 2023 the year of millets to bring the grains more attention. Taguchi points to the success of the U.N.'s year of quinoa. Now, millets are getting attention at the University of Missouri's Center for Regenerative Agriculture. Director Rob Myers says although the center is providing information to farmers on the grain, more research is needed to really advance the crop.

ROB MYERS: If you spend an extra million dollars on corn research, you don't necessarily advance the state of corn science very much. But if you spent a million dollars on millet research, you might suddenly create a whole lot of new information that we didn't have before.

TESFAYE: Although millets are a staple⁹ elsewhere, they don't have much of a market in the U.S. yet. Typically, the grains are used for birdseed, but they could find markets in gluten-free alternatives, livestock¹⁰ feed or cover crops used to prevent soil erosion.

MYERS: I expect the market opportunities to continue to expand, but, you know, it'll be incremental¹¹.

TESFAYE: In Ames, Iowa, farmer Jeff Taylor says he started growing proso millet about six years ago with the help of a privately-funded startup that's researching and breeding the grain. He says if the federal government also offered programs to help reduce the risk of growing millets, that would be a great incentive¹².

JEFF TAYLOR: For farmers to consider planting alternative crops outside of just corn and soybeans.

TESFAYE: That could eventually mean rows and rows of millets in the United States, or at least an increase of a crop that advocates hope will help fight food insecurity and climate change. For NPR News, I'm Eva Tesfaye in Kansas City.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "MASOLLAN")

1 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 nutritious   

adj.有营养的，营养价值高的

参考例句：

• Fresh vegetables are very nutritious.新鲜蔬菜富于营养。
• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。

4 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 grits   

n.粗磨粉；粗面粉；粗燕麦粉；粗玉米粉；细石子，砂粒等( grit的名词复数 )；勇气和毅力v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的第三人称单数 )；咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The sands [grits] in the cooked rice made my tooth ache. 米饭里的砂粒硌痛了牙。 来自辞典例句
• This process also produces homing and corn grits. 此法也产生玉米麸(homing)和玉米粗粉。 来自辞典例句

7 sorghum   

n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西

参考例句：

• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
• They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。

8 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

9 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

10 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

11 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

12 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。