Name: Energy crisis slams US farmers | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-31T13:11:43.000Z
Duration: 5 min 53 s

Across the American Corn Belt, farmers are getting ready for the spring planting season.

美國玉米帶的農民們正準備迎接春季的播種季節。

It's a familiar rhythm this time of year to plant soybeans and corn.

這時候播種大豆和玉米，是每年熟悉的節奏。

分詞構句

Farmers have to finish preparing the soil, spreading fertilizer on fields, and making sure their equipment is ready.

農民們得完成土壤準備、在田裡撒肥料，並確保他們的設備都已就緒。

But what they weren't quite ready for was a war in the Middle East driving up their costs.

但他們沒料到的是，中東的一場戰爭卻推高了他們的成本。

Scott Gaffner, a farmer in Greensville, Illinois, has been keeping track,

在伊利諾州葛林斯威爾的農民 Scott Gaffner 一直在關注，

and a call to a supply cooperative to ask for fertilizer pricing left him stunned at how quickly the prices were moving.

他打電話給供應合作社詢問肥料價格時，對於價格變動的速度感到非常震驚。

And so we called, and he's and he's here.

所以我們打了電話，他也在這裡。

He goes, "You know, 20 minutes ago on anhydrous ammonia, it would have been $970," he said, "but now it's going to be $1,020 for that same commodity.

他說：「你知道嗎？20 分鐘前無水氨的價格是 970 美元，但現在同樣的商品就要 1020 美元。」

It changed within a 20-minute period of me calling him this morning before you got here." The American Midwest may be 10, 000 kilometers from the Middle East,

but farmers here are taking an economic hit from the war there.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and spiraling attacks on energy infrastructure have driven up diesel and fertilizer costs.

The waterway carries a fifth of the world's oil and a third of its fertilizer.

Most farmers were actually able to lock in their fertilizer orders before the war started,

but they're already looking ahead to what could be a longer period of higher input prices that could squeeze their margins for years to come.

他說：「今天早上你來之前，我打電話給他，結果在短短 20 分鐘內就變了。」美國中西部離中東可能有一萬公里遠，

It's extremely difficult to have a lot of uncertainties because you always want to kind of know what you need to do as far as what crops you need to produce, what the prices are going to be, what your input prices are going to be.

但這裡的農民正因為那裡的戰爭而遭受經濟打擊。

荷姆茲海峽的關閉以及對能源基礎設施的攻擊不斷升級，推高了機油和肥料的成本。

as we're talking about with the conflict with Iran and the shutting down of the Straits of Hormuz, it affects everybody.

這條水道運載了全球五分之一的石油和三分之一的肥料。

The longer this goes on, it will start to affect us more.

大多數農民其實在戰爭開始前就已經鎖定了他們的肥料訂單，

A seven-hour drive away in Hampton, Iowa, April Hems is preparing her farm for the planting season too.

距離七小時車程外的愛荷華州漢普頓，April Hems 也正準備她的農場迎接播種季。

To her, this current energy and supply shock is just the latest in a string of crises for farmers.

對她來說，這次的能源和供應衝擊，只是農民們面臨一連串危機的最新一樁。

We used to say, "What's the black swan event?" And I go, "There's no more black.

我們以前會說：「什麼是黑天鵝事件？」然後我會說：「沒有什麼是黑的了。

They're all black swans now." So I'm just looking for a white swan, somebody somewhere to raise the flag.

現在全部都是黑天鵝了。」所以我只在尋找一隻白天鵝，有人能在某處揮舞旗幟。

U.S. soybean exports to China until last year's trade war, the number one buyer of U.S.

美國對中國的黃豆出口，直到去年的貿易戰，中國是美國黃豆的第一大買家，

Record harvests worldwide meant commodity prices were pushed down,

全球創紀錄的收成意味著商品價格被壓低，

and tariffs on imports farmers need, whether on chemicals or on equipment, hit budgets too.

而農民所需的進口關稅，無論是化學品或設備，也衝擊了預算。

The effects of the war in the Middle East are further compounding an already difficult cost situation.

中東戰爭的影響，讓本已艱難的成本狀況雪上加霜。

Our commodity prices really haven't kept up with inflation, with the price of our inputs.

我們的商品價格其實跟不上通膨，跟不上我們投入品的價格。

所以我們的利潤非常非常微薄。

So what we're doing now is just, you know, you watch the markets and plan as much as we can.

所以我們現在做的就是，你知道，觀察市場，盡可能地規劃。

And if we have to sell, you know, we have to sell even at a loss because, you know, we'll have another crop coming on and need room in the bins.

如果我們非得賣，你知道，即使賠錢也得賣，因為，你知道，下一批作物就要來了，儲藏空間需要留出來。

You just hopefully your bankers understands and sticks with you.

你只能希望你的銀行家能理解並支持你。

In these parts, farmers make up a close-knit community.

在這些地方，農民們組成了一個緊密的社群。

A five-minute drive takes April to fellow farmer Mark Guy.

開車五分鐘，April 就到了農友 Mark Guy 的地方。

Their families have been friends for generations.

他們的家族幾代人都是朋友了。

Mark Guy has some complicated accounting ahead of him as well.

Mark Guy 也有一些複雜的帳務要處理。

Well, the week before the war started, I did a fuel inventory and figured out how much I would need to buy and was on the verge of calling my fuel broker,

嗯，戰爭開始前一週，我做了燃料盤點，估算需要買多少，正準備打電話給我的燃料經紀人，

So that little mistake was going to end up costing me substantially.

所以這個小疏忽，最後會讓我付出很大的代價。

I believe the fuel I will need to buy this spring will be in the 30% higher than before the war started.

我相信今年春天我需要買的燃料，會比戰爭開打前高出 30%。

And anytime farmers plant, it requires a lot of fuel, and how soon prices will drop remains uncertain.

農民們播種的時候，都需要大量的燃料，而價格什麼時候會下跌，仍然是個未知數。

We have two planters like this and tillage tractors, fertilizer application tractors.

我們有兩臺這樣的播種機，還有耕耘機、施肥機。

We will burn, you know, 300 gallons a day, maybe maybe up to 500 when we're when we have all those machines in operation.

我們一天會燒掉，你知道，300 加侖，也許，也許高達 500 加侖，當我們，當我們所有這些機器都在運作的時候。

And that spring work season will go on for, you know, a month.

而春耕的季節會持續，你知道，一個月。

Not obviously, not every day is is fit to to run that that amount of equipment, that all the tractors.

當然，不是每天都適合操作這麼多設備，所有這些拖拉機。

But gosh, I'd have to do some math to think how many thousand gallons of fuel we'll use this spring.

但天啊，我得算算這個春天我們會用掉多少加侖的燃料。

Across the Midwest, farmers are calculating how much longer they can absorb the cost of decisions made in Washington.

在美國中西部，農民們正在計算他們還能承受華盛頓決策帶來的成本多久。

Like many here in this largely conservative farming area, Scott Gaffner is a supporter of President Trump but says patience is wearing thin among the farmers around him.

就像這個保守農業區的許多人一樣，Scott Gaffner 是川普總統的支持者，但他表示他周圍的農民的耐心已經快用完了。

We may look at this in a year and say, "You know what?

我們一年後回頭看，可能會說：「你知道嗎？

That was the best thing we did because we now took a regime that was very volatile, that we now have the Straits open and we can bring more products through it,

那是我們做過最棒的事，因為我們推翻了一個非常不穩定的政權，現在海峽暢通無阻，我們可以運送更多商品進來，

and now we can just have more free trade everywhere." And it may be a thing where like, "This is the greatest thing that's ever happened." But right now, we're very anxious because it's hitting us in the pocketbook and it's very it's very hard.

然後我們就可以在各地實現更多自由貿易。」這可能會變成「這是史上最棒的事」。但現在，我們非常焦慮，因為這直接影響到我們的荷包，而且非常、非常困難。

but the $12 billion package announced in December was meant to aid farmers in the fallout of the trade war with China.

但十二月宣佈的十二億美元援助計畫，是為了幫助農民應對與中國貿易戰的後果。

A further $15 billion in relief to help cushion the impact of the war in the Middle East is reportedly in discussion.

據報導，還有十五億美元的援助計畫正在討論中，以緩衝中東戰爭帶來的衝擊。

But what these farmers say they want most of all is not a bailout, but

但這些農民說，他們最想要的不是紓困金，而是

In the absence of both at the moment, they're doing what they've always done: planning, then planting to the best of their ability.

在目前兩者都不可得的情況下，他們只能做他們一直以來在做的事：計畫，然後盡力去種植。