The Americas
美洲版塊
Saskatchewan
薩斯喀徹溫省
Pots of pink gold
一盆盆的粉色金子
A remote Canadian province luxuriates in the global supply crunch
加拿大的一個偏遠省份在全球供應短缺的情況下奢侈度日
Gerrid gust’s great-grandfather was from near Dubno, a town that is now in western Ukraine.
格瑞德·蓋斯的曾祖父來自現在烏克蘭西部的小鎮杜布諾附近。
He settled between the two biggest towns in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Regina, on a plot of 160 acres which he bought for C$10.
他在加拿大薩斯喀徹溫省最大的兩個城鎮薩斯卡通和里賈納之間定居下來了,他以10加元的價格買下了這塊占地160英畝的地。
The farm is now a patchwork of properties 100 times the size which Mr Gust runs with his father and brother.
現在這個農場的總體財產是古斯特先生與他父親和兄弟經營時的100倍之多。
Each year they harvest wheat, lentils and rapeseed.
他們每年會收獲小麥、小扁豆和油菜籽。
Every planting season 23-metre-wide “drillers” shoot seed and fertiliser directly into the soil for 16 hours a day.
每個播種季節,23米寬的“播種機”將種子和化肥直接播撒到土壤中,每天持續16個小時。
Then it is all down to the heavens.
然后一切都看天吃飯。
Nearly all of Saskatchewan’s crops depend on rain rather than irrigation.
薩斯喀徹溫省幾乎所有的農作物都依靠雨水而不是灌溉。
Last year “was desperately dry”, says Mr Gust. “We can’t afford another bad year.”
古斯特表示,去年“非常干旱”。我們承受不起又一個糟糕的年景。
Nor, it seems, can the world.
看來,全世界也承受不起。
The 15m tonnes of wheat and 20m tonnes of other crops that the province produces in a typical year will be vital to markets roiled by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
該省典型的年產量為1500萬噸小麥和2000萬噸其他農作物,這對俄烏戰爭下動蕩的市場至關重要。
So, too, will almost everything else Saskatchewan produces.
薩斯喀徹溫省生產的幾乎所有其他產品也將如此。
When Ukrainian immigrants first streamed into Canada at the end of the 19th century, the government of the day had a role in mind for them: to settle the vast prairies between the forests of Ontario and the Rocky Mountains.
19世紀末,當烏克蘭移民第一次涌入加拿大時,當時的政府考慮到了他們的角色:在安大略省森林和落基山脈之間的廣闊草原上定居。
The minister of immigration knew what he wanted: “a stalwart peasant in a sheepskin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half-dozen children.”
移民部部長知道他想要什么:“一個穿著羊皮大衣的壯實的農民,出生在這片土地上,他的祖先已經當了十代農民,有一個結實的妻子和六個孩子?!?/p>
Those with uncalloused hands could look elsewhere.
那些雙手沒有老繭的人可以把目光投向別處。
It was a good match.
這是一場精彩的比賽。
The landscape reminded many of Bukovina and Galicia in western Ukraine.
這里的景色讓許多人想起了烏克蘭西部的布科維納和加利西亞。
Its aspen forests needed clearing but the soil was lush and the land dirt cheap.
這里的白楊林需要清理,但土壤很肥沃,土地非常便宜。
By the first world war tens of thousands had come, settling around onion-domed churches, often living next to the same neighbours they had back home.
到第一次世界大戰時,成千上萬的人來到這里,在洋蔥形圓頂教堂周圍安頓下來,通常在他們家鄉的鄰居旁邊。
That migration established what would become the world’s second-largest Ukrainian diaspora, behind Russia’s.
那次移民成為世界上第二大烏克蘭移民潮,僅次于俄羅斯。
In Saskatchewan, where a tenth of the population has Ukrainian roots, events in eastern Europe are again shifting local fortunes.
在薩斯喀徹溫省,十分之一的人口有烏克蘭血統,東歐的事件再次改變了當地的命運。
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not quite prompted a stampede towards the prairie -- the refugees arriving in Canada mostly prefer the comfort and energy of cities in the east.
俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭并沒有引發大批難民涌向大草原--抵達加拿大的難民大多更喜歡東部城市的舒適和活力。
But it has caused the price of many of the commodities which drive Saskatchewan’s see-sawing economy to rocket like never before.
但它導致了那些推動薩斯喀徹溫省經濟波動的大宗商品的價格前所未有地飆升。
Just about everything the province produces in abundance has seen its price shoot up as a result of the war.
由于戰爭,該省豐產的幾乎所有東西的價格都飆升了。
This includes the wheat and oats first grown by early settlers, Ukrainian or otherwise, as well as newer crops like rapeseed, pulses (lentils, chickpeas and the like) and mustard.
這包括最早由早期定居者(烏克蘭人或其他人)種植的小麥和燕麥,以及油菜籽、豆類(扁豆、鷹嘴豆等)和芥末等較新的作物。
It is a bonanza that will reach far and wide.
這是一場將影響深遠的幸運。
Saskatchewan is set to grow by 6% this year, more than any other Canadian province.
薩斯喀徹溫省今年的經濟增長率將達到6%,高于加拿大其他任何省份。
Most important of all is what lies beneath the earth: oil, gas, uranium and above all potash, a jagged, crystalline mix of soluble salts of potassium that is a crucial ingredient in fertilisers.
最重要的是埋藏在地下的東西:石油、天然氣、鈾,最重要的是鉀肥,這是一種鋸齒狀的可溶鉀鹽的結晶混合物,是化肥的關鍵成分。
It is sometimes called “pink gold” for the hue it takes before it is refined into a white powder.
它有時被稱為“粉色金子”,因為它在被提煉成白色粉末之前呈粉色。
Saskatchewan produces a third of the world’s output, and exports almost all of it.
薩斯喀徹溫省鉀鹽的產量占世界總產量的三分之一,幾乎全部用于出口。