Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
A cash crop is a crop grown for money. Four hundred
years ago the first cash crop for European colonists
in North America was tobacco. American Indians were
already growing it. Then in sixteen twelve, says
tobacco.org, an Englishman named John Rolfe found
that it would "grow well in Virginia and sell
profitably in England." But tobacco kills millions
every year. Farmers face increasing government
restrictions on tobacco use. They also face less
demand from developed countries and more competition
from developing ones. Some farmers now grow niche
crops instead of or in addition to tobacco. Niche
crops are aimed at a particular market, but choosing
what to plant can be difficult. Professor Tony
Johnston at Middle Tennessee State University says
most tobacco farms are relatively small. "The big
issue for all the tobacco growing states is to find
those small crops, those niche crops that would
provide enough cash flow with fairly similar amounts
of area on which you plant your crops." Some tobacco
farmers raise prawns, or freshwater shrimp. This
kind of shellfish is used in different foods and
often served cold in what Americans call shrimp
cocktails. The British call them prawn cocktails.
Tennessee farmer Jane Corbin says she got into this
aquaculture business because it "sounded
interesting." On a recent weekend, she and her sons
harvested tobacco and prawns from the same field.
The prawns grew for five months in a pond. The
Corbins also raise cattle along with flowers,
vegetables and other crops. Jane Corbin got into
aquaculture in the late nineteen nineties. Other
tobacco farmers in the American South gave it a try
because state and federal agencies were encouraging
a change. "It was advertised as an alternative to
your tobacco crop as far as your income was
concerned. That did not ring true. That wasn't why I
got into it ... but a lot of people did and they saw
that that was not a fact."Still, Professor Johnston
says tobacco farmers are realizing they cannot
depend on a single crop. The niche crops that seem
to enjoy the most success, he says, are those that
get consumers to visit the farm. Jee Jayme has
bought prawns from the Corbins for years and enjoys
helping with the harvest. "It's their kindness and
their genuine spirit that I keep on coming back
here." What she especially likes, she says, is that
the prawns are from right there in Tennessee. For
VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
