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.
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