In India, one of the most-talked-about TV programs is the reality show Let’s Design.
Aspiring designers create fashionable outfits using cotton, and this year India’s leading fashion house will showcase the winner’s clothing in its store; the winner will also be profiled in the fashion magazine Verve and win a trip to Paris to meet international designers.
And the US taxpayer helps foot the bill.
The show, now in its third season, is the creation of the Cotton Council International, a trade association representing the US cotton industry. The council received US$20.3 million in matching funds last year under a US Agriculture Department program to promote and advertise products abroad.
The money given out under the Market Access Program is used by agricultural trade associations like the cotton council to pay for advertising, consumer promotions, market research, technical assistance and travel.
“This program plays a role in keeping the demand for cotton strong,” said Allen Terhaar, executive director of the council.
Over the past decade, the program has provided nearly US$2 billion in taxpayer money to agriculture trade associations and farmer cooperatives. The promotions are as varied as a manual for pet owners in Japan and a class at a Mexican culinary school to teach aspiring chefs how to cook rice for Mexican consumers. Money also went to large farmer-owned cooperatives like Sunkist, Welch’s and Blue Diamond, which grows and sells almonds. Combined, the three companies had more than US$2 billion in sales in 2009.
However, as the country wrestles with a still-shaky economy and a rising deficit, the program faces new calls for its demise. It has long been a target of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, including liberal groups like the US Public Interest Research Group and the conservative National Taxpayers Union.
The Republican Study Committee, a conservative bloc of House of Representatives lawmakers, also identified the program as one of 100 that should be eliminated to help reduce the deficit.
Even US President Barack Obama’s administration, which generally supports the program, wants to reduce it by 20 percent, saying it “overlaps with other Department of Agriculture trade -promotion programs, and its economic impact is unclear.”
Supporters say the program has helped US farmers and growers expand or create markets for their products around the world.
“We think it’s well justified,” said Jay Howell, a lobbyist who coordinates the Coalition to Promote US Agricultural Exports, the industry’s effort to keep the program financed. “It has helped lots of people around the country in small towns and rural communities.”
Howell and other supporters point to a study last year by the Agriculture Department showing that for every dollar that government and industry spend on promotion, agricultural exports increase by US$35.
Supporters say the program has been changed from earlier incarnations that allowed billion-dollar companies like McDonald’s, Tyson Foods and Seagram to get money to advertise abroad. Now the money can go only to a trade association or a nonprofit cooperative, rather than directly to big companies.
“The issues that most critics have with the program relates to what happened in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, and those issues have largely been resolved,” said Michael Wootton, senior vice president for corporate relations at Sunkist.
That argument has not convinced people like Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington budget watchdog group.
“If you want to compete overseas, you should produce excellent products, not ads,” Alexander said. “Besides, companies like Sunkist have enough to do their own advertising.”
However, promotions like the Let’s Design show have drawn the most ire.
India is the second-largest cotton producer in the world, behind China; last year it produced nearly twice as much cotton as the US. India is also the No. 2 exporter of cotton, behind the US. The Cotton Council International says the Let’s Design show was created to promote the use of cotton in general, not necessarily cotton from the US.
So why spend money promoting cotton in a country where production of the crop consistently outpaces domestic demand?
One reason, according to Terhaar, is to help keep the price of cotton high and to promote cotton over synthetic materials. The second reason is to create a future market for US exports.
“Right now, India produces enough cotton for its domestic consumption,” Terhaar said. “But as the textile industry there grows and as the middle class expands, there’s going to be a demand for more cotton, and it will be more than they are able to produce. We want to keep cotton in front of the India consumers, and the Market Access Program helps us do that.”
Repeatedly, the Market Access Program has defied presidential and congressional budget-cutting efforts as the industry has rallied lawmakers from agricultural states.
Still, budget hawks like Citizens Against Government Waste are cautiously optimistic that the new crop of anti-spending Republicans in Congress will be less supportive of projects like the Market Access Program.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was