[ti:Farmers, Suppliers Keep World Fed During Health Crisis] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]From Asia to America, the spread of coronavirus has caused huge problems [00:07.92]for the systems that usually bring food to people's tables. [00:13.64]For example, the health crisis has closed factories and threatened the meat supply in the United States. [00:22.68]People cannot not go to restaurants and markets under stay-at-home orders. [00:29.12]Foreign laborers cannot cross borders to help gather fruits and vegetables at harvest time. [00:37.96]And crops are left to die in the fields as workers cannot reach them. [00:45.68]It is forcing suppliers to change their normal processes [00:50.40]to deal with harvesting, transporting and distributing food. [00:56.16]But many farms and companies are making needed changes quickly. [01:04.12]Didier Lenoble operates a family farm near Paris. [01:09.64]He is now using the internet to sell vegetables. [01:14.24]The usual street shops he supplies are temporarily closed because of the coronavirus crisis. [01:22.96]"It is a whole new business," he said. [01:27.12]Rungis International Market, Europe's biggest food market, sits just south of Paris. [01:36.04]Its online service has increased home deliveries from 250 a month [01:42.24]to 6,500 a week in and around the French capital. [01:49.92]In India, Sahyadri Farms now makes daily deliveries to 3,000 city customers. [01:58.92]Sahyadri is a cooperative in the western state of Maharashtra [02:05.32]that processes fruit and vegetables for export. [02:10.32]Customers order online, after India's stay-at-home orders hurt the supply system [02:17.24]and left some farmers feeding their crops to animals. [02:23.08]A head of the cooperative said Sahyadri is cutting out people in the middle of the supply system [02:30.72]and farmers and customers are happy. [02:35.64]In the U.S., restaurant owners and suppliers are trying new ways to reach people. [02:43.68]Chicago-based Park and Field sells grocery and meal boxes to families at home. [02:51.16]Gunthorp Farms in Lagrange, Indiana is selling chicken directly to customers. [02:58.40]That chicken used to only be sold to restaurants. [03:03.24]For some suppliers, the issue has been keeping up [03:08.00]with demand for fast-selling basic foods such as eggs, flour and pasta. [03:16.56]Pasta and flour makers in North America and Europe [03:21.04]are running some production lines 24 hours a day. [03:26.60]Other suppliers are turning to new groups of workers. [03:32.68]U.S. fruit company Driscoll's has given jobs to restaurant and hotel workers [03:39.52]that lost their jobs during the crisis. [03:44.12]Omar Cortes Arteaga lost his job at an automobile factory. [03:51.00]He now works at Green Gold Farms, a supplier to Driscoll's. [03:56.88]Arteaga, and other workers wear masks and have temperature checks before going into the fields. [04:06.28]"The job is helping me with my bills," he said. [04:11.52]Finding seasonal workers is critical in Europe, where spring harvests are at risk [04:17.92]because the usually huge number of migrant laborers cannot leave home. [04:25.76]Spain is the European Union's biggest fruit and vegetable exporter. [04:31.64]The country has responded by letting unemployed people take farm jobs [04:37.96]while keeping government aid payments. [04:42.56]And it has extended work permits for the foreign laborers already in the country. [04:50.84]In France, 15,000 workers who lost other jobs [04:56.32]will help avoid the possible shortage of foreign laborers this spring. [05:03.80]Germany, Britain and Ireland are permitting companies to bring in trained workers [05:10.52]from other European Union states on special flights with quarantine measures. [05:17.76]And Russia might use prisoners to help out with farming. [05:24.60]The U.S. has exempted foreign laborers from a temporary ban on immigration [05:31.24]during the crisis to help farms and businesses. [05:36.96]And an Iraq official said farm workers were exempted from curfew measures [05:43.48]and farmers were permitted to move harvesting machinery around the country. [05:49.44]I'm Alice Bryant. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM