Sending out a little hope

I wrote a while ago about receiving a letter from Kodjo, the son of my best Togolese friend while I was in the Peace Corps. We've been e-mailing Kodjo regularly, and it's been great to re-form that connection after years of quiet. It has been heartbreaking as well, so much so that I hope you will forgive me as I step onto my soapbox.

Some of you may know, but most probably do not, that Togo has had a rough year. The economy is poor here, but it is devastatingly weak there. Prices for staples like rice and flour have soared as the US has redirected corn toward ethanol instead of food for people or animals. As if that weren't enough, Togo was hit with devastating floods in July, washing out bridges on the main highway, destroying homes and villages, and killing many people. This natural disaster has compounded the economic one because it has made travel and trade between the cities and outlying areas much more difficult.

The floods have brought a lot of misery to the region, but we've played our part as well. Just in case you are not clear on why we, US citizens, share at least some of the responsibility for the dire circumstances in places like Togo, here is a brief and basic synopsis.

The US has enormous power to force "Free Trade Agreements" on developing nations like Togo (the US / World Bank forgives and/or reconfigures national debt in return for signing on the dotted line). These trade agreements push developing nations away from growing enough of their staple food crops to be self-sustaining. Instead, Free Trade has meant that farmers in developing countries are encouraged to grow cash crops like coffee, cocoa and cotton, and to do so in such a way that many of the villagers are able to move to cities where they can make shoes, clothing and many of the things that allow Walmart to maintain its famously low prices. In return, developing countries import food crops such as corn and wheat that we grow in surplus. In the lovely land of theory, the benefit to this is that the local farmers will make money from the cash crops, more than enough to purchase the food they need, our corporate agri-business will have foreign markets for the food crops they grow across the midwest. Oh, and we'll be able to drive to the local mega-mart and buy "cheap plastic crap."

And we ~ you, me, our families and neighbors ~ are culpable because we elect people and then pay little attention to what they agree to in international trade agreements or the farm bill. And too many of us never wonder whether there are consequences beyond our own bank accounts and immediate self-interest.

Now, throw corn-based ethanol into the mix, and the fields that were full of food-grade corn or wheat or barley are being used for ethanol-grade corn. Corn that was going to feed cattle is also redirected, the prices pushed up prohibitively high, and so the feed lots and ranchers purchase barley and other grains. The domino effect ensues, and the prices for these other grains skyrockets right along with corn.

However, the income for the farmers growing cotton in Togo has not risen, and they are using all their means to cultivate cotton so that they don't have enough food crops to feed their families. Look further east, and it's the same, as the rice paddies in Vietnam have been turned into coffee plantations to bring us our cheap cup of Folgers, and so the developing nations find themselves in the horrific place of having too few people on too few acres of arable land growing food crops. Food prices soar and people go hungry.

I saw this happening first-hand when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was sent to Togo to educate and encourage farmers ~ who had been hand-tilling small family plots of yams, corn, tomatoes, other food crops ~ to begin using oxen to till larger parcels of land. And to grow cotton. What I discovered was a situation that often resulted in the farmers becoming something like indentured servants. The Togolese government provided the loans for the cattle and accompanying training, as well as the loans for the cotton seed. Then, the government also set the price for cotton. The end result was that the absolute only way that a farmer could dig himself out of the debt incurred from purchasing oxen was to grow virtually no food, use all available land for cotton, and to dump loads of chemicals into the soil to produce the largest yields possible.

Oh, and I must point out that, while DDT and similar pesticides are banned in the US, there is still a thriving market for them in places like Togo. And, contrary to their manufacturer's evident hypothesis, the side-effects aren't lessened just because it's a developing nation.

So, back to our friends, Kodjo and Adjo, and their mother Afoua...

Kodjo is a student at Lome University, Adjo is in high school (and high school in Togo costs almost as much as the university). The rising prices have left them without funds for school, and Afoua is without enough for food. She is also chronically ill. So we are helping them.

I don't know if it makes it better or only more sad that for a little over $400 we can send Kodjo and Adjo to school for a year and provide Afoua with enough money for food and medicine. The money is not insignificant to us, but it's brutally significant to them. We will have to make adjustments, but they get education and some health care.

I am glad that our current presidential candidates are talking a lot about the economy. However, while they argue about tax cuts and job cuts and the banking and mortgage crisis for us, it is my very dear wish that they'd also think and talk a little about our influence in far-off, tiny countries like Togo.