The long years of food shortage in this country have suddenly given way to apparent abundance. Stores and shops are choked with food. Rationing is virtually suspended, and overseas suppliers have been asked to hold back deliveries. Yet, instead of joy, there is widespread uneasiness and confusion. Why do food prices keep on rising, when there seems to be so much more food about? Is the abundance only temporary, or has it come to stay? Does it mean that we need to think less now about producing more food at home? No one knows what to expect.
多年粮食短缺的这个国家突然明显富足了起来。商店里堆满了食物，定量供应实际上已经暂停，海外供应商也被要求推迟交货。然而，取而代之的不是喜悦，而是普遍存在的不安和困惑。为什么周围看起来有很多食品，食品价格却一直在上涨？这种富足只是暂时的，还是会持续下去？这是否意味着我们现在需要考虑在国内减少生产更多的食物？没有人知道会发生什么。
The recent growth of export surpluses on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great, partly because a strange sequence of two successful grain harvests in North America is now being followed by a third. Most of Britain’s overseas suppliers of meat, too, are offering more this year and home production has also risen.
近些年世界食品市场的出口盈余的增长出奇的好，部分原因是继北美连续两年的粮食大丰收后，我们又迎来了第三年的好收成。英国的大多数海外肉类供应商今年也提供了更多，国内产量也有所上升。
But the effect of all this on the food situation in this country has been made worse by a simultaneous rise in food prices, due chiefly to the gradual cutting down of government support for food. The shops are overstocked with food not only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it.
但是，主要由于政府逐步减少对粮食的支持，粮食价格同时上涨，这一切对该国粮食状况的影响更加严重。商店里食物积压，不仅是因为有更多的食物可供选择，还因为人们被高昂的价格吓坏了，购买的食物越来越少。
Moreover, the rise in domestic prices has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall, with the result that imported food, with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home-produced variety. And now grain prices, too, are falling. Consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be enabled to benefit from this trend.
此外，国内价格上涨正值世界价格开始下跌之际，其结果是，除粮食外，进口食品往往比国产食品便宜。现在粮食价格也在下跌。消费者开始问，为什么不应该让他们从这一趋势中受益。
The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers. The older generation have seen it all happen before. Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food imports and a shrinking home market. Present production is running at 51 per cent above pre-war levels, and the government has called for an expansion to 60 per cent by 1956; but repeated Ministerial advice is carrying little weight and the expansion programme is not working very well.
农民们并没有忘记这些发展的重要性。老一辈的人以前也见过这种情况。尽管目前有价格和市场保障，但农民们担心他们将被廉价的食品进口和不断萎缩的国内市场所挤压。目前的产量比战前水平高出51%，政府呼吁到1956年将产量扩大到60%；但部长们一再提出的建议没有什么分量，而且扩大计划的效果也不太好。
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