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2008.05.19－VOA: DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Special English 又叫“慢速英语”，是VOA 专为全世界非英语国家初学英语的听众安排的一种简易、规范的英语广播节目。该节目创始于50年代末期，是VOA 的专家们研究如何与世界各地的英语学习者进行交际的产物。它正式开播于1959年10月。当时只面向欧洲和中东，但由于这个节目适合许多国家英语学习者的需要，所以它的广播对象不久就扩大到世界其他地区，并很快在全世界范围内产生了广泛的影响。现在这个节目对欧洲、非洲和拉丁美洲每晚广播一次，对加勒比地区每晚广播一次（星期天除外），对东南亚广播次数最多，每天上午两次，晚上三次。
30多年来，VOA 为了办好Special English节目，进行了大量的调查研究工作，对播音速度、内容及用词范围都作了具体规定，基本上达到了既能为英语学习者提供信息，又不损害英语本身风格的目的，使之成为VOA 独具特色，拥有最大量听众的节目。
=============================================================== 2008.05.19 Feeding the Hungry, but Not With Pigeons
By Jill Moss / Broadcast date: Monday, May 19, 2008
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The Venice government has banned
feeding pigeons in the city famous
St. Mark's Square Saint Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, is known for its historic buildings and its pigeons. Tourists have long enjoyed feeding the birds. As a result, the pigeon population has grown and grown. But local officials say all those droppings are not good for the buildings or the people in the square. As of this month, police will fine people who feed the pigeons.
But a listener named Phillip Ghee has another thought about how to control pigeon populations. He asks, why not catch the birds and export them to crisis areas to supply protein to people in danger of starvation?
He says good farming and science could probably breed out any diseases that may be harmful to humans. "No offense against pigeons but they seem, in their current numbers, such an unnecessary bird," he says.
Others may disagree with his opinion. In any case, we put the question to two squab producers. After all, young pigeons, called squab, have been raised for centuries for food.
Tony Barwick is president of the Palmetto Pigeon Plant in South Carolina. He says that aside from any questions about health risks, including from pollution, adult pigeons are not that easy to catch.
And, he says, exporting them would not be as cost-effective as exporting other forms of protein, such as chicken. Suppose you have a dollar, he says. Half that dollar would be spent catching the pigeon and the other half processing it. With that same dollar, he says, you could buy a processed chicken that offers more meat.
Bob Shipley is president of the Squab Producers of California. These producers are a group of seventy-seven independent squab farms in northern California. They process about one million birds a year.
Bob Shipley says exporting smoked squab would not be a solution either. In the smoking process, squab meat becomes very soft, almost like paste. The meat also breaks down if it is overcooked.
Squab from the United States is generally exported frozen, so there would be a need for refrigeration. And there is something else to consider about raising pigeons as a food source. Both men said it takes a lot of food to raise squab. Generally it takes more than three and a half kilograms of grain to get half a kilogram of meat.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.
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