The sacred American cotton “farmer”

ARTICLE: “Out of Africa: Cotton and Cash,” by G. Pascal Zachary, New York Times, 14 January 2007, p. BU1.

ARTICLE: “Myth of the Small Farmer: Federal subsidies have turned agricultural operations into big businesses,” by Gilbert M. Gaul, Sarah Cohen and Dan Morgan, Washington Post, 22-28 January 2007, p. 11.

First story is a neat one about how some American cotton traders are hedging their bets on ag subsidies by establishing market ties with African growers, who, as I noted in a previous post, actually grow their crops cheaper than we do in the U.S., it’s just that our government takes enough off our farmers’ output to effectively undercut Africa’s growers, keeping them poor.

The American traders in this story naturally take advantage of that fact, paying undermarket prices for the African cotton they scoop up.

This is protectionism of the worst sort: America and Africa in a neck-and-neck race to be the world’s largest cotton producer. Why we’re pursuing this title in this day and age, screwing over Africa in the process, is beyond me, especially when the mythical small American farmer (dream on, Willie Nelson) has long since passed from the scene.

Most disappeared in the 1970s, when the big agribusinesses started moving onto the scene. Most of the farm kids who rode the bus to school in 1st grade when I attended grade school (1968) were city kids by the time we entered high school in 1976.

My Mom will tell you today that only two types of people buy local farms: Amish and outsiders looking for second homes (especially for hunting).

Today, large and very large farms make up less about 10% of the number of farms. Small and medium represent only about 25%. So-called “hobby farms” account for over two-thirds. The government rather cynically defines any farm as one with $1k in production. By doing so, it maintains the myth of the small farmer in sheer percentage numbers. Overall, the hobby farms account for a tiny fraction of U.S. production.

The big farms and agribiz joints, while just 10% of the total number, generate 60% of the production. They also get over half of the subsidies.

We spent $15 billion on ag subsidies in income support or price guarantees. Even with Bush’s “huge” plus up of aid to Africa, that number remains significantly smaller.

Cotton still enslaves, it would seem, and the U.S. Government still plays a rather creepy role in perpetuating that economic disenfranchisement.

And yet we’re so fast to condemn the mercantilist strategies of Chinese trade in Africa, amazingly enough. They’re just stingy, while we seem closer to rip-off artists on this one--and anti-market at that.

If Africans can grow cheaper than Americans, then they should reap the benefits of that status. Denying that outcome is just cheating, plain and simple.

Comments

[Hans Suter]

this cotton has then to be exported to Middle America and Asia to produce shirts for the American Market.

[Allen]

Sonof... the $15B figure is for the TOTAL ag subsidy. And Dr B is spot on--it's grossly hypocritical of the US to continue any AG subsidies. It's time we stopped making ADM and ConAgra's shareholders rich and moved on. We spend such a small fraction of our income on food (compared to the rest of the world), and the resultant fractional price rise from ending AG subsidies would be quickly offset by the lower cost imports.

[Mystery Meat]

There is no question that the Ag subsidies are out of line, and that they doom African (an other) producers to poverty, but is there a national interest in America producing its own food and raw materials? We are now a net importer of food. Is that a good thing?

[Mark_in_Texas]

Right now farmers are deciding what to plant this spring. Considering the fact that corn is fetching something like $4.00 a bushel thanks to the ethanol plants that are coming on line, a whole lot of those farmers are going to be planting more corn this year. A lot of that corn is going to be planted where soybeans were planted last year. Some of that corn is going to be planted where cotton was planted last year.

So things might be looking up for the African cotton farmers next year. Of course, things would really look up for African farmers in Bono were to talk some of his celebrity friends into bankrolling an ethanol plant in Africa and perhaps persuade some EU bureaucrats to permit the ethanol to be imported and added to gasoline in the EU. Who knows, if Europe imported enough energy from Africa, it might persuade the Russians to stop turning off the pipelines every time they get the itch.