四级拓展：VOA慢速
Spiiker VOA Special English, 纯正的美音，带你学习最前端的英语。 From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report. The Slow Food Movement is growing in most of the western world. The movement supports small local farms. It works against huge farms led by international food and agriculture companies. But the Slow Food Movement is not growing very fast in Africa. So a group called Slow Food International has named a Ugandan man to help grow it. Edie Mukiibi will work to help people in Africa create gardens and grow healthy food. But he does not have the support of government officials. Many of them believe large agricultural companies are the answer to Africa's food security problems. 10-year-old Solomon Walusimbi is working in his garden. It is next to a small wooden house in Mukono near Kampala. He is proud of his work. "This is my garden. I plant so many things, like peas, carrots and maize," Solomon said. Solomon also grows cabbage, eggplants and a rare kind of leek. His garden is more colorful than others, because Solomon understands the importance of growing many different kinds of crops. "If you dig, this one will die and this one will continue growing, and you will continue eating and getting so many things," Solomon said. Edie Mukiibi is working hard to teach that lesson to others in Uganda. Slow Food International wants him to help people create 10,000 gardens like Solomon's throughout Africa. Many of these gardens will be in schools. Mr. Mukiibi says he hopes the garden will teach young people about the importance of slow food. "You find little children of 3 to 15 years having a lot of knowledge about the traditional crops, the local crops, the planting seasons and such kind of things. This is what we are achieving with the gardens. The gardens project is very important to reconnect young people like Solomon back to the land," Mukiibi said. Mr. Mukiibi was an agronomy student seven years ago. He learned how to help farmers plant crops. But he discovered the crops being planted were sometimes not right for the farming environment in Uganda. He began to understand how important local foods were to food security. But he says local foods were quickly disappearing. "These are products which are used to the African conditions, apart from being traditional. When we had a bad season and farmers predicted a bad season, they had a crop for that season. When they predicted an attack of butterflies and insects, they had a potato variety which was resistant to this pest, and everyone was encouraged to plant that. Today, we have no choice," Mukiibi said. But Mr. Mukiibi is having a hard time persuading political leaders and scientists to support the Slow Food Movement -- they support big farms that can grow large crops and a lot of them. And that's the VOA Learning English Agriculture Report. I'm Caty Weaver. See more information, you can visit us
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
慢食运动在西方世界大部分地区正不断发展。该运动支持当地小农场，反对国际食品和农业企业主导的大型农场。但慢食运动在非洲发展不快。所以一家被称为慢食国际的组织已经任命一名乌干达人帮助它发展。
伊迪•穆基比（Edie Mukiibi）将努力帮助非洲人民建造菜园并种植健康食物。但他并没有得到政府官员的支持。多数政府官员认为，大型农业企业是非洲粮食安全问题的解决之道。
10岁的所罗门（Solomon Walusimbi）正在他的菜园里干活。这个菜园挨着坎帕拉市附近的穆科诺的一座小木头房子。他对自己的成果感到自豪。
所罗门说，“这是我的菜园。我种了很多东西，像豌豆、胡萝卜和玉米。”
所罗门还种了白菜、茄子和一种罕见的韭菜。他的菜园比其它菜园更丰富多彩，因为所罗门懂得种植多种不同类作物的重要性。
所罗门说，“如果你锄地，这种蔬菜会死，而这种蔬菜会继续生长。你就能继续吃到这么多蔬菜。”
穆基比正努力向其他乌干达人传授这一经验。慢食国际组织希望他在非洲全境帮助人们建造1万座像所罗门这样的菜园。其中多数菜园将在学校里。穆基比先生表示，他希望菜园能够教会年轻人慢食的重要性。
穆基比说，“3到15岁的孩子很少有人懂得很多关于传统作物、当地作物、种植季节等知识。这就是我们通过菜园想要实现的目标。菜园项目对重新将所罗门这样的年轻人和土地联系起来非常重要。”
7年前穆基比先生还是一位农学学生。他学会了如何帮助农民种地。但他发现种植的作物有时不适合乌干达的种植环境。他开始明白当地食物对粮食安全的重要性。但他表示，当地食物正在快速消失。
穆基比说，“有些产品适合非洲环境，除了不是传统的。当季节不好，农民们预计季节不好，他们就种适合该季节的作物。当他们预计有蝴蝶和昆虫的虫害袭击，他们就种植可以抵抗这些害虫的马铃薯，大家都被鼓励种这些。而如今我们别无选择。”
但穆基比先生很难说服政治领导人和科学家支持慢食运动--他们都支持可以种植大量农作物的大农场。
以上就是本期美国之音慢速英语农业报道的全部内容。我是卡蒂•韦弗（Caty Weaver）。
