Cotton fleece

Africa | Federal subsidies for U.S. cotton farmers don't just cost taxpayers—cotton farmers trying to eke out a living in Africa feel an even greater pinch | Priya Abraham

MUCHENJE, Zambia — Each square foot of Lemmy Hamufuba’s 8.5-acre cotton farm can be measured in needs: school fees for five of his seven children. Vegetable oil. Soap. One more mosquito net to fend off malaria. In January, a month after planting, the Zambian farmer’s tender cotton seedlings were thriving, happy portents of a healthy harvest this year.

Even so, the best price Mr. Hamufuba can get for his crop will not be the fairest. For years world cotton prices have been artificially low, depressed by government-funded overproduction in the United States. Overall, the United States provides some of the heftiest farm subsidies in the West, part of the runaway spending that has become a hallmark of the Bush administration. But this case is more than a taxpayer headache: U.S. wastefulness is causing want beyond our borders.