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Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1,036 – Farming and Agribusiness.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,036. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Visit our website at ESLPod.com. Go there and become a member of ESL Podcast, and download the 10-page Learning Guide for this episode.

This episode is a dialogue between Brad and Irene about farming – growing food. Let’s get started.

Brad: Is this your first visit to this area?

Irene: It is, and I’m surprised to see so many farms. I thought farming was a dying industry.

Brad: Family farms and small-scale farming are disappearing, but agribusiness is alive and well, thanks to government subsidies.

Irene: Are they lucrative?

Brad: They can be, but the subsidies were originally given to protect the livelihood of farmers.

Irene: And that’s not what’s happening?

Brad: Well, agribusiness has edged out small-scale farms because output is