AFJN member, Sarah Nash, read Rep. John Dingell's July 8th op-ed about the Farm Bill in the Monroe (Michigan) Evening News and couldn't help herself.  Dingell entitled his op-ed, "New Farm Bill Provides Safety Net."  Knowing better, Sarah, who works n their office of Justice, Peace and Sustainability for the IHM Sisters, wrote a letter to the editor exposing the problems with Dingell's arguments.  Find below this excellent example of what AFJN members can do in their local communities to carry the message of justicefor Africans to their friends and neighbors. AFJN invites other members inspried by Sarah's example to write letters to their editors and to their Senators.  What follows is the text of her letter: 

"I am writing in response to the August 8 op-ed piece by Rep. John Dingell concerning passage of the "Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007." Congressman Dingell was correct; this bill did have a few good provisions for nutrition programs and rural development. But, overall, the bill was disappointing because there was little reform of farm subsidies. What most people don't know is that the current subsidy structure favors large agribusiness, does little to help small family farmers and actually harms farmers in developing countries.

The worst of these programs, commodity loans, guarantees a certain price for U.S. farm goods which drive down the global market price. Farmers in the developing world can't compete with subsidized U.S. crops. Without substantial governmental support of their own, these farmers are driven out of their own local markets as below-cost crops are imported. This is known as "dumping" and it depresses international prices and limits market opportunities for other countries. Dumping is especially common with cotton. It is estimated that U.S. cotton subsidies depress world prices by at least 10 percent. Millions of farmers in Africa grow cotton, struggling as they survive on less than $1 each day. As the United States depresses the world price of cotton, poverty in Africa increases.

It is predicted that 1 million fewer African children would go to bed hungry if cotton subsidies alone were repealed. Greater benefits could be reaped if a larger effort were made to reform farm subsidies. Even needy family farmers in the United States gain little from the farm-subsidy structure because 84% of subsidy money goes to the richest one-fifth of farmers.

The Senate will be working its version of the Farm Bill in September. Urge them to correct the problems that the House bill did not. Go to www.afjn.org/agricultural_issues/   for more information and to take action."