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【Growing a Farm With Crowd-Sourced Money】
TEXT：Kickstarter is a website where people give money to support creative projects. It started in two thousand nine, mostly to help artists and musicians. Now, inventors, people starting businesses and a growing number of farmers are raising money on this site for crowd-sourced funding.
Kickstarter是一家公眾可以為創意項目提供資金支持的網站。該網站創辦于2009年，主要是為了幫助藝術家和音樂家。現在，發明家、創業者和越來越多的農民通過該網站籌措來自公眾的資金。
Josh Brill and Meadow Squire grow vegetables and rice in Tinmouth, a town in the northeastern state of Vermont. Last year they used Kickstarter to raise more than six thousand dollars to increase their rice production.
Josh Brill和Meadow Squire在Tinmouth種植蔬菜和水稻，這是位于美國東北部的佛蒙特州的一個小鎮。去年，他們通過Kickstarter網站籌集了超過6千美元來增加水稻產量。
JOSH AND MEADOW BRILL: "Hi, I'm Josh, and I'm Meadow -- and we want to grow you rice! [Dog bark]"
JOSH AND MEADOW BRILL：“大家好，我是Josh，我是Meadow。我們想要為你種點水稻！[狗叫聲]”
Seventy-six people watched the couple's six-minute video and believed enough in their dream to send them money.
67人觀看了這對夫婦6分鐘的視頻，并足夠相信他們的夢想，給他們送去了資金。
Another farmer in Vermont, Scott Nelson, raised almost nine thousand dollars. He wanted to document the growth and development of his farm to teach others who are interested in organic farming, as a video explained.
另一個在佛蒙特州的農民Scott Nelson籌集了近9千美元。他想要記錄自己農場里的作物的生長和發展情況，作為講解視頻來教授那些對有機農業感興趣的人。
VIDEO: "At the end of the season, we will compile it all into a film documentary."
視頻：“在本季度末，我們將把所有視頻匯編成一段電影紀錄片。”
Bigger ideas have raised much more for some farmers among the projects on Kickstarter. In all, on a recent day, there were forty-five hundred creative projects seeking money on the site. Site officials reported three million dollars in weekly pledges.
在Kickstarter的項目中，一些更大的創意已經為一些農民籌集了更多資金。因此，在最近一天總共有4500個創意項目在網站上尋求資金。網站負責人員稱，每周認捐金額達300萬美元。
To raise money on Kickstarter, people need to think of a project with a clear goal. Then they need to get the project approved by the site. Many project creators make a video to explain what their project is and why people should support it.
在Kickstarter網站上籌集資金，人們需要想出項目的明確目標，然后他們需要讓項目得到Kickstarter網站的許可。許多項目創始人會制作一個視頻來解釋他們的項目是什么，以及人們為什么應該支持它。
Projects have a time limit, generally about thirty days, to meet their funding goal. Kickstarter uses an all-or-nothing funding method. Projects do not get any money unless they meet their goal. Kickstarter gets five percent of the money raised, but only if the goal is met. Amazon.com takes another three to five percent for credit card processing fees.
這些項目都有時間限制，一般約30天來實現他們的籌資目標。Kickstarter采用“全有或全無”的融資方法。除非實現其融資目標，否則項目得不到一分錢。如果融資目標實現，Kickstarter會收取籌集資金的5%。Amazon網站會另收取3%-5%作為信用卡手續費。
To get people to pledge money, projects also include a list of thank-you gifts for different levels of support. Josh Brill and Meadow Squire gave supporters rice, seeds and, for fun, "good karma" points. They say they are happy with their experience using the site to raise money for their new rice paddies.
為了讓人們捐出資金，這些項目還為不同程度的支持提供一份感謝禮物。Josh Brill和Meadow Squire為支持者提供了大米、種子，以及純屬好玩的“好人緣”分數。他們稱，他們對使用該網站為自己的新稻田籌措資金的感到高興。
JOSH BRILL: "One of the key things that Kickstarter allowed us to do was reach out -- having the video online and being able to link with Facebook."
JOSH BRILL：“Kickstarter能夠為我們做的關鍵事情之一就是將視頻放上網并能夠鏈接到Facebook。”
MEADOW SQUIRE: "It really was free advertising for us -- you know, so many people now know we're growing rice and they know more about our farming practices because we do a lot of alternative agricultural practices. And there's already so much anticipation about the rice coming that we would not have had if we just had gotten a loan from a bank."
MEADOW SQUIRE：“你知道，這的確是我們的免費廣告。因此，現在很多人知道我們在種植水稻，并對我們的耕作方式有了更多了解，因為我們采取了很多非傳統的耕作方式。而且我們現在對水稻產出有了更多期待，如果我們當時只是從銀行貸款，是不會有這些期待的。”
Josh Brill says one promise of money came all the way from New Zealand.
Josh Brill說，其中一份認捐來自遙遠的新西蘭。
JOSH BRILL: "When someone is willing to put up their money for your farm, that means something. It's like you would feel bad if you couldn't succeed for them."
JOSH BRILL：“當有人愿意為你的農場投入資金，那帶有某種意義。如果你不能為他們取得成功，你就會感覺很糟糕。
