Travels of a T-Shirt Part 1

 

The Travels of a T-Shirt book really goes into depth on the cotton, especially this first part. It seems like American cotton had a TON of advantages, straight from the beginning. While originally the cotton species they used wasn't as advantageous, the amount they could produce was. In chapter one they bring up all the ways cotton growers are successful, while acknowledging slavery. I am not as sold on this part of the book, particularly their reasoning that, " In the United States, the farms work, the market works, the government works, the science works, and the universities work; and all of these elements work together in a type of virtuous circle that is decades away for the poorest countries in the world." I think it would perhaps be better phrased that the systems in the U.S. have been built up to support cotton as an industry since the countries conception. These systems create a cycle that allows the cotton industry to flourish. At least, that's my understanding of the text so far. Plus, it feels like the implication is that the author's excuse is these poor countries just aren't as good as the U.S. Now, I very well could be reading too much into this, and I welcome any counterpoints. But that wording rubs me the wrong way, although I can't yet articulate why. I feel like it should be phrased more like the U.S. has had every advantage, however I also don't know what other countries have or have not tried to do with their cotton industries, which makes it impossible to judge fairly. Either way, what really sparked this was when the text mentions the 2002 Farm Bill, which "Even by the normally generous standards of U.S. farm policy, the 2002 Farm Bill went over the top for cotton." I just find it ironic that only a few years before trade negotiations were suspended, here's prime reason #1 that the poorer countries were fed up with the U.S. and other hypocritical trade policies.