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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

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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.
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
选项 A、US Farmland Is a Hot Commodity. That’s Not Great for Farms.
B、Big Agriculture and Consolidation: The Good, and the Bad
C、As Farmland Values Soar, Farmer Sentiment Is on the Decline
D、Corporate Consolidation: Taking Power Away from Farmers
答案A
解析 主旨题。解答主旨题应着眼于全文。文章前面两段讲到了美国农业土地价格上涨对新晋农民带来的负面影响，第三至五段介绍了新晋农民的特点，第六至八段讲到了新晋农民相对于大型生产商所处的弱势地位，以及他们对减小疫情对农业整合下的食品链条带来的冲击所起的作用，第九和十段提到政府鼓励新晋农民提高土地所有权的措施。综上可知，A项最符合全文大意，故正确。B项和C项属于无中生有，文章并未探讨农业整合带来的正反面作用以及农民情绪问题，故排除这两项。D项属于张冠李戴，文中的行业整合指的是农业，而非公司，故排除。故本题答案为A项。
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