Rev. John L. McCullough
Photo: T.Abraham/CWS |
From the Executive Director's Desk...
"Of Mustard Seeds and Grains of Rice": A week of action
on debt and trade
October 2007
By Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director and CEO, Church World
Service
October presents several key opportunities to speak and act on behalf of alleviating hunger and poverty. I invite you to join Christians around the world in acting against hunger and demonstrating your support for a more fair economic system.
“The field of the poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.” Proverbs 13:23
“…The kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32
October is the busiest time for thousands of U.S. communities now organizing their annual CROP Hunger Walks, expending effort and raising money to help stop hunger and poverty here and around the world. October is when the world seems to pause to think about these issues: the 16th is World Food Day and the 17th is the International Day for Eradication of Poverty. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank hold their annual meetings October 19-21. Appropriately, October 14-21 has been designated in tandem a Week of Action Against Debt and a Trade Week of Action.
When thinking of the connections between hunger, poverty, debt, and trade, my mind settles on two images – the mustard seed and a grain of rice.
Like mustard seeds, justice work starts small. It begins with an individual action that you and I take. It builds and becomes more powerful as we join our individual actions to be part of a larger organized effort. Change can happen when we reach a certain “tipping point” – when we've grown sufficiently to be that sheltering tree that Jesus talks about.
The mustard seed
Like a mustard seed, CWS CROP Hunger Walks started small. One Walk in Bismarck, ND in October of 1969 led to hundreds and eventually some two thousand CROP Hunger Walks each year in communities nationwide. In addition to the vital relief, development and refugee assistance efforts supported by CROP Walks, CWS advocates for more just models of economic development, since government policies can either help or hinder people in their struggles to overcome hunger and poverty.
CWS was part of the movement of Christians in the U.S. and around the world that roughly 20 years ago began to study "the debt crisis" ravaging much of Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and some Asian nations. Study led to action. Small groups of concerned people meeting became national coalitions; national coalitions linked with international networks eventually giving birth to the global Jubilee movement.
As the result of the efforts of a multitude of individuals in communities around the globe, debt relief and debt cancellation became part of government officials' standard discussion on development and aid. Substantial debt has been cancelled and the terrain has shifted dramatically – in large part due to the determination and courage of people of faith and conscience to speak and act on their values, in defense of the dignity and needs of all human beings.
Much has been accomplished, yet much remains to be done. Between 60-70 countries require full debt cancellation just to meet Millennium Development Goals. And seven years after debt cancellation commitments were made in 2000, harmful conditions that lead to cut backs in government sponsored health, education and agricultural extension and development services are still being recommended and enforced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The grain of rice
When was the last time you enjoyed rice? For 3 billion people, nearly half of the Earth's population, rice is a staple of their diet. The incomes of 2 billion people depend on rice production – with 90 percent of these being smallholder farmers. A single grain of rice tells a profound story.
In the early 1990s, Honduras produced 50,000 tons of rice per year – well enough to feed its people. But in the 90's the Honduran government put in place IMF and World Bank conditions for debt restructuring and dismantled its rice marketing board. It eliminated import taxes on rice, opening up its market to imported rice from the U.S. Consequently, Honduran rice production fell 86 percent. The number of rice producers plummeted from 25,000 to 2,000. Total employment in this sector dropped from 150,000 to less than 11,200. Despite the massive imports, the price Hondurans had to pay for rice rose 12 percent.
Similar fates have fallen on Kenya's cotton farmers, Senegal's onion farmers, and Ghana's rice farmers after putting in place debt restructuring conditions that open trading markets; and the same can be said for corn, coffee, milk, vegetables and countless other products in village after village, community after community, across the poorest regions of the world.
The Honduran experience helps to debunk some common trade myths. Increased trade does not necessarily improve the general welfare. Free trade and cheap agricultural imports are not good for everyone. In this case, unemployment grew and the local price rose, making this critical staple harder to afford for thousands of Hondurans. In Ghana when the price of rice rose making it hard for local farmers to feed their families and afford other necessities, the Ghanaian legislature increased tariffs on rice by 5 percent to try and protect local farmers, but the International Monetary Fund pressured the government to revoke the tax hike one month after it was passed.
This year CWS, as a member of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) joins with other EAA partners in calling for a Week of Action focusing advocacy efforts on the links between hunger and unjust trade policies. We are asking you to contact your legislators about revamping U.S. trade laws so that they no longer push so-called “free trade” agreements that harm developing nations' abilities to feed themselves and protect farmers' livelihoods.
In this same week we also ask you to contact legislators asking them to support the Jubilee Act which calls on the Bush Administration, the IMF, and the World Bank to keep their existing promises on debt cancellation, and seeks expanded debt cancellation necessary for impoverished countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Food sovereignty
Whether it is through loan conditions and the threat of not receiving another loan installment, or the result of unbalanced power in trade negotiations, many developing countries have lost their ability to determine their own food and agricultural policies.
This means that Southern governments are crippled in their ability to limit unfair competition, to require companies to use local inputs, to provide preferential credit or tax incentives to small-scale local producers, to ensure the viability of local food supplies. As in the case of Peru, the results are foreseeable. If the 30 percent of the Peruvian population who farm are forced to compete with cheaper imports, Peru – like Mexico under NAFTA – will not have jobs in nonagricultural sectors waiting to absorb those who lose their livelihoods. Not only will many Peruvians be deprived of the dignity of work, but their ability to feed their families will suffer.
This October, I hope you can participate in a CROP Hunger Walk. You can learn more about Walks by contacting your CWS Regional Office at 888-297-2767. In addition, please take the opportunity during this Week of Action on Debt and Trade to contact your members of Congress on behalf of U.S. policies that help rather than hinder the aspirations of our sisters and brothers around the world.
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