I’m an Oregon rancher. Here’s what you don’t understand about the Bundy standoff.
俄勒冈农场主来信：谈谈“邦迪对峙”中你所不知道的一些事情
The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink.
奥巴马政府把我们的生计推到了崩溃边缘。
This week, the Ammon Bundy-led seizure of a federal wildlife refuge thrust Oregon’s ranchers into the spotlight. While I don’t agree with the occupiers’ tactics, I sympathize with their position. Being a rancher was always challenging. And it has become increasingly difficult under the Obama administration.
本周，由阿蒙·邦迪领导的一场占领某联邦野生动物保护站的行动将俄勒冈的牧场主们推到了聚光灯下。尽管我并不赞同占领者的策略，但我同情他们的立场。牧场主历来难当，在奥巴马政府治下更是日益艰辛。
I grew up in a ranching community in northeast Oregon. Even as a kid, I knew I wanted to be a rancher. After eight years as a firefighter, I’d saved enough to start my own business. I wanted to work on the land, raising delicious, wholesome beef for our growing population.
我自幼在俄勒冈东北部的一个放牧社区长大。还在孩提时代，我就知道自己想要做个牧场主。当了八年消防员之后，我攒够了钱，启动了自己的生意。我渴望在土地上劳作，为我们日益增长的人口生产出美味可口的健康牛肉。
For almost a decade, I’ve done just that. Most days, I’m up before the sun rises. I spend my mornings tending to my horses, dogs and livestock. In the winter, when it’s bitter cold, I’m outside with my cattle, making sure their water isn’t frozen and that they’re properly fed. In the summer, I often work 15-hour days, cultivating my crops and tending to the animals. In the afternoons, I’m in my office, reaching out to customers and handling the ranch’s business side. Over the course of a given day, I act as a vet, a mechanic, an agronomist and accountant.
有大约整整十年，我就在做这个事情。大多数日子，我会在天亮之前起床。整个早上都要去照料我的马匹、狗和牲畜。冬天的严寒时节，我也需要和牛群呆在外边，确保它们的饮水不会结冰，进食不会出错。夏天，我通常每天工作15小时，种植庄稼、照料动物。下午则呆在办公室里联络顾客、处理农场的经营事务。每天的不同时候，我需要扮演兽医、技工、农艺师和会计等不同角色。
I love the work, but it’s grueling. As a rancher, I’m always one bad year away from financial disaster. Every purchase I make — from new cows ($2,000 each) to a new piece of equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — is a major investment. And my ranch operates on very slim margins, so I have to be savvy to make ends meet.
我热爱这份工作，但确实很累。作为一个牧场主，我离出现财务悲剧永远只有一个糟糕年份的距离。每购进一样东西——不管是新的奶牛（每头2000元）还是价值数十万的新设备——都是一次重要投资。我的农场盈利微薄，所以我必须精打细算、量入为出。
Money isn’t the only challenge. Raising cattle requires a lot of land, much more than most ranchers can afford to own outright. I lease about a third of the space I use from private owners. But most ranchers aren’t so lucky. The federal government controls a huge amount of land in the west (more than 50 percent in some states, like Oregon), and many ranchers must lease that space to create a sustainable operation.
钱并不是唯一的麻烦。养牛需要大片土地，多数牧场主做不到全部使用自有土地。我所用的土地中，约有三分之一是从其他私人业主手中租用的。但多数牧场主没有我这种好运。在西部，联邦政府控制着巨量土地（在一些州，如俄勒冈，联邦政府土地占有量超过50%），许多牧场主必须从其手中租用，以支撑牧场持续运转。
Utilizing federal land requires ranchers to follow an unfair, complicated and constantly evolving set of rules. For example, a federal government agency might decide that it wants to limit the number of days a rancher can graze their cattle to protect a certain endangered plant or animal species, or they might unilaterally decide that ranchers can’t use as much water as they need because of a fight over water rights. Or they might take over land that once belonged to the state or private individuals, imposing an entirely new set of restrictions.
使用联邦土地要求牧场主遵从一系列不甚公平、复杂且持续多变的规则。比如，某联邦机构可能会决定限制牧场主放牧牛群的时间，以保护某种濒危植物或动物；或者，他们也可能单方面要求牧场主不能足量地使用淡水，因为在水权问题上有争执。或者，他们也可能接管原属于州政府或私人的土地，强加一套全新的规制。
I saw this play out firsthand when the federal government considered listing the sage grouse, a chicken-like bird, as endangered. That regulation would have shrunk the amount of land where ranchers could graze cattle, putting many out of business and decimating the industry.
我曾亲眼目睹上述现象上演，起因是联邦政府考虑将艾草榛鸡——一种外形像鸡的鸟——列为濒危物种。一旦政府作出这一规定，牧场主用于放牧牛群的土地面积就将大为缩减，许多牧场会因此倒闭，整个行业也会大受伤害。
To avoid this, ranchers like myself and local officials spent months meeting with federal officials looking for compromise. We ultimately found middle ground. But we already have an enormous workload in our daily lives. The pressure of having to drop everything to lobby against a rule (which happens more often than you’d think) is a tremendous burden.
为避免发生这种事情，像我这样的牧场主及地方官员费时数月之久去和联邦官员会谈，寻找折中方案。最后，我们找到了中间立场。但我们的日常经营本来就有庞大的工作量，要我们放下手头一切事情去游说政府放弃某条规则（此类事情的发生频率比你想象的要高），这种压力对我们而言是极大的负担。
Most of the time, those regulations are written by people with no agriculture experience, and little understanding of what it takes to produce our nation’s food. The agencies that control these lands can add burdensome regulations at any time. Often, they will begin aggressively enforcing them before ranchers have a chance to adjust.
大多数时候，制定此类规定的人没有任何农业经验，也对生产全国食物需要付出什么缺乏任何了解。控制土地的各类机构任何时候都可以添加各种累赘麻烦的规定。通常，在牧场主们有机会为此做任何调整之前，他们就已经咄咄逼人地强制执行开了。
This forces us to either find new grazing land, reduce the size of our herd or sell out completely. In rural communities, this can have a catastrophic effect on the local economy and environment. Ranching is a billion-dollar industry in Oregon.
这就迫使我们要么找到新的放牧用地，要么削减牧群规模，要么彻底卖光牲畜。对于农村社群而言，这就有可能对地方经济和环境造成灾难性影响。在俄勒冈，放牧是一门价值十多亿的生意。
Overall, agriculture accounts for 15 percent of the state’s economic activity and 12 percent of the state’s employment. The income of a local farm generates double the money for the local economy as a supermarket’s income in the same area, according to the London-based New Economics Foundation.
总体而言，农业在全州经济活动中占到15%，在全州就业中占到12%。根据位于伦敦的“新经济学基金会”估计，就对俄勒冈地方经济的货币贡献而言，一个地方农场的收入是同一地区一个超市收入的两倍。
The siege on our industry has only increased under the Obama administration. Officials are effectively regulating us out of business by enforcing a string of unprecedented environmental restrictions. In Malhuer county (next to Harney county, where the current standoff is taking place), the Obama administration is considering a measure that will turn 2.5 million acres of federal land into a “national monument,” a move that would severely restrict grazing. These restrictions would cause a huge economic downturn for those communities.
对我们这一行业的围攻在奥巴马当政期间有增无减。官员们通过实施一系列前所未见的环境管制，事实上正把我们规制得走向歇业。在马卢尔郡（临近此次对峙所在地哈尼郡），奥巴马政府正考虑采取一项举措，将250万英亩联邦土地变成“国家保护区”。此举将会极大地限制放牧。这类管制将会使此类社群面临巨大的经济衰退。
These decisions are being made by people who are four to five generations removed from food production. The rule-makers don’t quite understand our industry, and are being spurred on by extreme environmentalist groups asking for unreasonable policy changes.
这类决策的制定者祖上四代或五代人之前就已经远离食物生产。规定制定者并不很了解我们这一行业，并且受到了要求进行不合理的政策变革的极端环保主义团体的鼓动唆使。
It’s not that I don’t care what the environmental community wants. In every part of my business, I try to find a balance between economics, mother nature and our culture. I know that if we don’t treat our land properly, we will go out of business by our own hands. It is of utmost importance for us to be true conservationists if we want to continue producing the most nutritious and safest protein in the world.
并不是说我不关心环保团体的要求。在我的生意的方方面面，我都努力寻求在经济、大自然母亲和我们的文化之间达成平衡。我知道，如果我们不善待自己的土地，我们就会在自己手上歇业完蛋。如果我们期望持续地生产出世界上最营养、最安全的蛋白质，那么最重要的一点就是要做一个真正的自然资源保护主义者。
But all too often, I’m not given the autonomy to do so. I’m given rules, not a conversation about how ranchers and government officials and environmentalists might be able to work together. That’s an approach that fails everyone.
但反复发生的事情是，我并没有得到自决权去这么做。他们给我定规则，而不是和我就农场主、政府官员和环保主义者如何可能共同合作进行对话。这种办法令所有人都失望透顶。
翻译：沈沉（@你在何地-sxy）
校对：Tankman
编辑：辉格@whigzhou