Have you paused to consider your power?

By Rori Picker, Associate for Interfaith Relations, RFP-USA

In a previous post, entitled Make Poverty History, Bishop Mark Hanson asked the question, “Have you paused to consider your power?” When I first read the question, I didn’t pay it much regard. After all, he certainly wasn’t asking me. He was speaking to all of the people who were out of college, with regular jobs, and could afford to donate money to a cause. He was speaking to all of the people who are on television or the radio, who play sports or write books, who have the ear of people and should use it for good. He certainly wasn’t asking me. After all, what power do I have?

It turns out, I have plenty of power. And so do all of you.

Seven months ago Rick Reilly wrote an article in Sports Illustrated called “Nothing But Nets” asking just for that: nets, and plenty of them. Except this time, he wasn’t talking sports. He was talking malaria.

What do nets have to do with malaria? Turns out, one net can save a child from dying of the disease. What’s even more impressive is that the net costs only $10, and that’s with shipping included.

So what power do you have? The same power I have. You have the power to post it on a blog, e-mail it to all your friends, and tell everyone in your family. You have the power to go to www.nothingbutnets.net and donate the $10 you were going to use to buy yourself lunch today. You have the power to save a life.

Cotton: America Makes It, Africa Pays For It

By Rori Picker, Associate for Interfaith Relations, RFP-USA

The United States has dominated the global cotton market for nearly two centuries. Few things in the global market stay constant for so long, but America has worked hard to maintain its position. Every year, U.S. taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars on research to improve the nation's cotton industry. The federal government also gives cotton farmers more than $1 billion a year in subsidies, which provide even more competitive advantage. There are university and government cotton research centers all over Texas and the South, all of which help U.S. cotton farmers compete in the global market. And it's working: U.S. cotton makes up 40 percent of world exports. No other country comes close.
And they are paying for it.

African governments have long complained that U.S. and European agricultural subsidies drive prices lower, making it difficult for African farmers to make a profit and nearly impossible to end Africa’s cycle of poverty.

A typical African cotton farmer will earn between $300 and $400 a year from his crop. Usually he will grow other food crops to feed his family, but cotton is often the only avenue to cash. Some estimates show that between 2001 and 2003, U.S. subsidies cost African cotton farmers about $400 million. Cutting cotton subsidies would raise prices 10-12 percent, costing an extra $30-$40 per year, an insignificant price for a Western farmer, but a momentous gain for his African counterpart.

Despite falling cotton prices, U.S. cotton production rose 40 percent between 1998 and 2001. This extra cotton is being dumped on the global market at below the cost of production.

Last year, the World Trade Organization upheld a ruling against the United States stating that American cotton subsidies are illegal. The United States has moved to eliminate export subsidies, but under the farm bill which expires in 2007, the vast majority of payments to U.S. growers continue.

America thrives in this new age of globalization, but we must remember that with a global economy comes a global partnership and a global responsibility. Elected officials may have decided that dominance in the cotton industry is worth the billions of dollars it costs taxpayers, but it it worth the hundreds of dollars it costs African farmers?

Source: NPR