Action Alert:

US Senators are Getting Ready to Vote on the Farm Bill. Tell Them to Stand Up for Poor Farmers Here and Abroad!

1. LEARN
Time is running out for Congress to do the right thing on the Farm Bill. If a few key US Senators don’t take a stand, Congress could sell out poor farmers with policies that have devastating effects on rural communities here and abroad. Since the House has already acted, the Senate is next in line for a vote. Oxfam is encouraging all our supporters and allies to ask their US Senators to vote in support of Farm Bill reform that reduces trade-distorting subsidies for commodities such as cotton. These subsidies lead to excess production, reducing world market prices and undercutting those in developing nations who depend on agriculture to survive.

By reforming trade-distorting subsidies, Congress could help 10 million people in West Africa alone, who depend on cotton for their livelihoods. Cotton is often the only source of cash income for these families who live on less than $1 a day per person. With the added income from increased cotton prices, the typical West African cotton farming family could cover the costs of:
• one year’s worth of health care for four to 10 people,
• or one year of schooling for two to 10 children,
• or one year’s food supply for one or two children.


2. ACT
Since every vote matters, can you take a moment to call your US Senators today?
For your convenience, we have set up a toll-free 800 number with simple instructions on what to say.
1. Please call 1-800-977-1912
2. An automated message will give you a brief introduction.
3. When prompted, press 630367 for Senator Dianne Feinstein
OR 630368 for Senator Barbara Boxer.
4. After reaching your first US Senator, please hang up and repeat the instructions to reach your second US Senator.

Be sure to tell the staff member who answers the phone that you are a constituent and that you want your US Senator to vote in support of Farm Bill reform that reduces trade-distorting subsidies for commodities such as cotton. Tell them that these subsidies lead to excess production, reducing world market prices and undercutting the poor in developing nations who depend on agriculture to survive.


3. CHANGE
It will only take a minute. A few well-placed calls from people like you can help the world’s poorest farmers. Please call today!

Working Together for Change: The Oxfam Hunger Banquet, September 23rd

You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. That is not the case. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child on earth. Hunger is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to education and resources. The results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or buy food. Today, you join Oxfam's fight against hunger and poverty.

There are solutions. Altering the current system of trade so that it benefits all countries, rich and poor, will help reverse many inequalities that currently keep people poor. **For example, if the poorest regions of the world increased their share of world exports by just 1%, they could lift 128 million people out of poverty!

Instead, poor countries are forced to open up their markets to floods of cheap imports; if they don't, vital aid dollars will be cut off. Yet for every dollar given to poor countries in aid, $2 is lost because of unfair trade barriers against their exports. More than 40% of the world's population lives in low income countries—yet these countries account for only 3% of world trade. Today's rules of trade make so-called "free trade" very profitable for rich countries but hinder poor country's access to a better life for its citizens.

US and European countries also spend billions on agricultural subsides, mostly to large and wealthy agribusiness, putting farmers in poor countries AND in the US out of business, or driving down their incomes, and furthering the demise of small farmers globally. Oxfam believes that human rights are not contingent on our country of origin, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or the money we have or need. Rather, human rights are fundamental and nonnegotiable.

Here's a new version of an old story:
-Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day
-Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a life time
-But, we must also ask ourselves, who controls the river?

Who controls the river is an important question because there may well be a company whose factory is polluting upstream. A government or international institution could be planning to build a dam, displacing thousands of villagers. One large fishing company may be over fishing, placing the entire livelihood of ordinary fishers at risk. Oxfam's mission is one that is quite ambitious: we want to end hunger, poverty and injustice. And Oxfam believes the question of injustice-- whether it be social, economic, or political injustice-- goes to the heart of the question, who controls the river?

Please join us at this unique, powerful and memerable event to learn more and experience firsthand how our decisions affect others in the world.


What: Oxfam Hunger Banquet
When: Sunday, September 23, 2007; 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Haight Ashbury Food Program
Address: 1525 Waller Street at Belvedere
San Francisco, CA 94117
RSVP: Megimegs1@yahoo.com