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It is not just the weather with which farmers contend; there are higher costs for growing food and lower prices when selling it.
农民们要面临的不仅仅是天气问题，此外，种粮成本不断上升，而售粮价格走低。
And these combined to make farming an increasingly difficult life, especially for small family farms.
这些因素综合起来，促使农业经营越发困难，对于小型家庭农场更是如此。
In New York, a new organization called "Farm Hands" is trying to help struggling farms in the region by linking city dwellers with farmers.
在纽约，一个名为Farm Hands的新组织正努力通过把城市居民与农民联系起来的方式，帮助该地区陷入困境的农场改善状况。
As John Kailish reports, the scheme seems to benefit both.
据约翰·凯里什报道，该方案似乎可让双方受益。
Last week, two actors, a housewife, a tour guider, a dog walker and an unemployed social worker, all from the New York metropolitan area,
上周，来自纽约大都市区的两个演员，一个家庭主妇，一个导游，一个遛狗者和一个失业的社会工作者，
spent a day working on Hall Gibson's fruit and vegetable farm located in the Upstate New York town of Brewster.
在位于纽约北部布鲁斯特镇的霍尔·吉普森水果蔬菜农场工作了一天。
The contingent also included two four-years-olds.
这一行人中还包括两名4岁儿童。
The group listened attentively as Gibson gave the lengthy orientation talk complete with aerial photographs of his 125-acre farm.
吉普森进行了冗长的定向演讲，还配上了他125英亩农场的照片，大家聚精会神地听着。
"This area was called part of the New York milk shed.
“这个地区被称为纽约牛奶棚。
One of the big incentives to producing milk in this area was the founding of the Borden plant."
在这里生产牛奶的一大原因是博登厂的成立。”
After the orientation talk the group walked to a five-acre field that was lined with rows of tomatoes and turnips, egg plants and cabbage.
定向演讲结束后，这一行人走到一块五英亩的土地上，那里西红柿、萝卜、茄子和白菜整齐地排成行。
Gibson gave some brief picking instructions to two women who were going to harvest cherry tomatoes.
吉普森给两个准备采摘樱桃番茄的妇女做了简短的采摘说明。
"If they are split like this, throw them away or eat them." "OK."
“如果它们像这样裂开，就把它们扔掉或者吃掉。”“好的。”
The transplanted urbanites picked six bushels of tomatoes and sixty pints of raspberries over the course of several hours.
短短几个小时，这些来到这里的都市人摘了六蒲式耳西红柿和六十品脱覆盆子。
The farmhands were perfect strangers when they left Manhattan, but out in the field in Putnam County,
这些农场工人，当他们离开曼哈顿时还完全是陌生人，但在帕特南县，
they had no trouble striking up conversations that included such heady topics as romance in television.
他们彼此畅谈，甚至还谈到了浪漫偶像剧这样令人兴奋的话题。
Laura Moore, a housewife and part-time teacher from Brooklyn, has made four trips to area farms with her daughter Jessie.
劳拉·穆尔是一名来自布鲁克林的家庭主妇，也是一名兼职教师，这样的活动，她已经和女儿参加了四次。
She was picking yellow low acid tomatoes as she explained why she enjoys the Farm Hands program.
她一边采摘黄色低酸西红柿，一边解释为什么她喜欢Farm Hands这个项目。
"It's therapeutic, mentally, physically, and it's exhilarating.
“它是一个有疗愈作用的，精神的，身体的，令人振奋的项目。
This is my way of getting out, escaping the city life for a while.
这是我走出去，逃离城市生活的一段闲暇。
I love the city.
我爱城市。
But in the fresh air, you get a feeling that you are really living."
但在新鲜空气中，你会感觉到你真的活着。”
In addition to the one-day farm outings, Farm Hands also places individuals on farms for periods ranging from a week to several months.
除了为期一天的农场郊游外，Farm Hands还可让城市人住在农场，居住时间从一个星期到几个月不等。
In exchange for their labor, participants get a minimum wage, room and board, or produce to take back with them to the city.
作为劳动回报，参与者可得到等于政府规定最低工资的收入、获得住宿，或将农作物带回到城里。
In its first year of operation, Farm Hands has placed twenty people on farms for a period of two months or longer.
在第一年的运作中，Farm Hands项目共将20人带到农场，劳动时间至少为期两个月。
More than two hundred people have gone on the one-day work intensives or the field trips that are often more play than work.
二百多人进行了为期一天的集约劳作或田间考察，而这经常是种玩耍而非工作。
Hall Gibson has had four long term farm-hands this summer.
霍尔·吉普森今年夏天雇了四个农场长工。
At the moment, he's benefiting from the hard work of a twenty--eight--year--old New york City painter named Debby Fisher.
目前，一个28岁来自纽约，名叫黛比·费雪的画家正帮他打理农场。
Because Gibson's farm is organic, weeds are a major problem.
由于吉普森的农场是有机农场，清除杂草是个大问题。
Farmer Gibson says that when Debby Fisher clears weeds from the fields, she works like a demon.
吉普森说，黛比·费雪在田里清除杂草时，简直就像个恶魔。
"She's been just driven to rescue crops and she's rescued a number of crops.
“她只是为了拯救庄稼，而她的确已经做到了。
My bok choy crop -- the best I've ever had---was rescued by her. Debby is a gem."
我最好的白菜作物，就是她帮我拯救的。黛比简直就是块宝。”
The Farm Hands progarm was founded by twenty-seven-year-ole Wendy Dubid, and enthusiastic advocate of linking farms and cities.
Farm Hands项目由27岁的温迪·杜比成立，这个项目极富激情，提倡将农场与城市的联系。
In an interview at a farmers' market in New York city,
在纽约市农贸市场的一次采访中，
Dubid said Farm Hands may mean cheap labors for farmers, but she maintains the program his a broader impact.
杜比说，对于农民而言，Farm Hands可能意味着廉价劳动力，但她认为这项计划有着更广泛的影响。
"It's not just the labor that helps those farmers; It's the appreciative consumers.
对农民有所帮助的不仅仅是劳动力，还有心存感激的消费者。
They suddenly realize after an hour of picking raspberries and scratching their own arms on the bramble,
他们花了一个小时采摘树莓，然后用手抓着它们，突然意识到了这一点，
they understand the farm reality and the value of food,
他们了解农场的现实情况以及食物的价值，
and may become valuable consumers and customers for those farmers."
可能成为极富价值的消费者以及那些农民的顾客。”
Dubid says there was only one Farm Hand placement that did not work out this year,
杜比说，今年只有一处Farm Hand的部署工作没有落实，
a fifteen-year-old football player who antagonized his host family in Upstate New York.
一名纽约州北部的15岁足球运动员，它对寄宿家庭心存敌意。
Farmhands are currently working in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
目前在康涅狄格州和新泽西州，Farm Hands项目都在有序开展。
Plans are already under way to expand the Farm Hands program to Maryland, Pennsylvania, massachusetts and Vermont.
目前，已经计划将农业计划推广到马里兰州、宾夕法尼亚州、麻萨诸塞州和佛蒙特州。
