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  3. Across the Midwest, values are up 23％ from a year ago. Rents on Iowa farmland have surged 10.22％ so far this year. And more oppo

Across the Midwest, values are up 23％ from a year ago. Rents on Iowa farmland have surged 10.22％ so far this year. And more oppo

admin2022-12-09  159
问题     Across the Midwest, values are up 23％ from a year ago. Rents on Iowa farmland have surged 10.22％ so far this year. And more opportunity is on the way. More than 40％ of farmland is owned by people older than 65, so hundreds of millions of their acres will transfer to new owners in the coming years.
    That’s good news for real estate brokers, but a challenge to would-be farmers, who consistently cite the high cost of land as their greatest barrier to entry. That’s not just a rural problem. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, supermarket shelves went empty due in part due to farm-industry consolidation. Smaller, innovative and more productive farmers are a means of counteracting the trends that led to those shortages. But to do it, they need land.
    New and beginning farmers (a formal category defined by the US Department of Agriculture as operating a farm for 10 years or less) naturally trend younger than established ones. And like younger, entrepreneurial people in any profession they tend to be more open to new ideas and products.
    For example, new and beginning farmers are less likely to grow grains and oilseeds—the most common US crops—than older farmers. Interest in climate-friendly farming appears high among younger farmers and organizations representing them.
    New and beginning farmers tend to operate on a smaller scale, using one-third less acreage to generate a similar proportion of revenue.
    But smaller, in modern agriculture, isn’t always better. Over the last three decades, agricultural production has become heavily consolidated, providing big producers with cost efficiencies and marketing advantages. Those advantages manifest themselves in several ways, including increasingly centralized food procurement channels not available to small farmers. That works out well for consumers—until a crisis hits and knocks out a major producer or two. The pandemic was one such shock.
    The Agriculture Department released a report examining the US food chain. The first listed priority is addressing concentration and consolidation in food production, manufacturing and distribution. A key means for doing so is boosting local and regional food networks, such as farmers’ markets that provided a safety net to consumers and producers during the pandemic.
    Around 23％ of beginning farmers sell through regional and local markets. Working in parallel with other less established farmers, they are the vanguard for a food sector that’s adapting to climate change and changing consumer tastes. However, they rent more and own less land than their veteran counterparts. Today’s surging land prices make the challenge more difficult.
    To encourage them, the federal government is proposing to begin scoring banks on how well they extend credit to new and beginning farmers. Its rule would encourage lending. Meanwhile, Congress should consider measures that will encourage retiring farmers to sell their land to new ones.
    None of these measures could produce an immediate uptick in land ownership by younger and beginning farmers facing record land prices. But over time, they could help grow the next generation of resilient and productive farmers.
New and beginning farmers are characterized as________.
选项 A、being generally first-generation farmers
B、being more resilient and innovative
C、showing more interest in common crops
D、owning more and renting less land
答案B
解析 细节题。根据题干中的。New and beginning farmers可定位至第三段。第二句提到，新晋农民往往对新的想法和产品持更加开放的态度，故B项正确。A项属于无中生有，原文并未提到新晋农民是第一代农民，故排除。C项属于是非混淆，第四段第一句提到，new and beginning farmers are less likely to grow…the most common us crops(与年长的农民相比，新晋农民不太可能种植……美国最常见的作物)，故排除该项。D项属于是非混淆，第八段第三句提到，they rent more and own less land than their veteran counterparts(他们支付的租金更高，拥有的土地更少)，这里的“他们”指的是beginning farmers，故排除该选项。故本题答案为B项。
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