29. The Farm Fight
Simon Robinson (TIME November 28 2005 )

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It's no easy farming cotton in Africa. Just ask Bafing Diarra, 47, who owns slightly less than 25 acres near the village of Korokoro in Mali in West Africa. His headaches are endless: low-yielding seeds from Mali's government-controlled cotton company, boll weevils that this season resisted five applications of pesticides; capricious weather; a lack of equipment, which forces him to pick his cotton by hand in the scorching heat; even monkeys, which occasionally get into the fields and pry open the bolls to get at the sweet water trapped inside.
By far, the biggest problem Diarra faces, though, isn't environmental or even in Africa. It is 5,000 miles away: the $3 billion or more the U.S. pays its 25,000 cotton farmers in subsidies every year. Washington uses taxpayer money to guarantee American farmers a price--currently about 72￠ per lb.--whether it rains or bakes and no matter what happens on the world market. By contrast, in 2003, when Mali's cotton farmers earned 42￠ per lb., Diarra says he made a profit of $480, which he used to buy four cows and send his children to school. In a bad year such as this one, when Diarra expects to make just 32￠ per lb., he will lose money and fall further into debt with the government cotton company.
That sinking price makes a huge difference in West Africa, where more than 10 million people depend directly on cotton to pay for food, school fees and housing. The crop provides Burkina Faso and Mali with half of all their export earnings; in Benin it accounts for 75%. 'If there is no cotton growing in Mali, Mali doesn't work,' says Demba Kebe, an adviser to that county's Minister of Agriculture.

A. 어휘
slightly 약간, 적은. low-yielding seeds 생산성이 낮은 種子(종자).
boll [목화.亞麻(아마) 따위의] 동그란 꼬투리.
boll weevil 바구미의 일종[유충이 목화의 깎지를 갉아먹는 해충].
resist 에 견디다, 항쟁하다. application 약물 살포, 적용.
pesticide 살충제. capricious 변덕스러운. equipment 裝備(장비).
scorching 태우는 듯한. occasionally 때때로. pry 파고들다. get at ...에 도달하다.
trap 덫에 걸리게 하다. by far 분명히, 훨씬. ,though, 그러나(접속부사).
subsidies 보조금. guarantee 보장하다. currently 현재. lb 파운드(약 375grams).
bake 햇빛이 태우다(가뭄이 혹심하다). by contrast 대조적으로.
sink-sank-sunk 가라앉다. make a difference 영향을 주다, 중요하다.
export earnings 수출로 인한 소득. account for 원인이 되다, 책임을 지다, 설명하다.
minister 장관. agriculture 농업.

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U.S. cotton farmers aren't the only ones feeding at the government welfare trough. According to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington lobby outfit, last year the U.S. doled out more than $12 billion in subsidies to its farmers on everything from corn to sugar to tobacco. The Europeans spew out subsidies, shelling out $53 billion. With cotton, as with other crops, all those subsidies distort global trade by encouraging U.S. farmers to produce more, which drags down world cotton prices and hurts farmers such as Diarra. 'I don't blame the Americans, but I want them to allow me to make a profit,' he says, sitting on a broken metal chair with his 3-year old son Diakaridia, 'to be able to feed them, to clothe them and to be independent of anybody.'
The latest round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) was supposed to make Diarra's modest wishes come true. Launched in 2001, the Doha 'development' round is intended to thrash out trade arrangements for agriculture, with a specific focus on reducing the rich world's subsidies and opening Western markets to the developing world's producers. In return, the vision goes, the developing world will allow more access to its service industries, such as insurance and banking.
Thus far, the talks have gone nowhere. Two years ago in Cancun, Mexico, they collapsed after developing countries refused to open the door to their service industries until they got a favorable deal on agriculture. Trade ministers will try again in Hong Kong in December. But the prospects aren't promising. The WTO boss, Pascal Lamy, said that he would have to delay a draft deal because 'there is not a sufficient level of convergence.'

A. 어휘
feed-fed-fed 먹다, 먹이다. trough 여물통, 물통. outfit 단체.
dole 나누어주다, 베풀다. spew 토해내다, 분출시키다. shell out 마구 돈을 주다.
distort 왜곡시키다. drag down 끌어내리다.
independent of ...로부터 독립하다. come true 실현시키다.
Doha 세계무역회담이 열린 장소의 이름(중동에 있음).
launch [배를] 진수시키다. 시작하다, 진출시키다.
thrash out 철저하게 토의하다. cf. thrash 세게 때리다.
arrangement 협정, 준비, 정리, 배열. reduce 縮小(축소)시키다. access 접근.
insurance 보험. banking 은행업. collapse 붕괴하다, 실패하다.
favorable deal 유익한(우호적인) 타결. trade minister 通商長官(통상장관).
prospect 전망. delay 연기하다. draft 草案(초안). convergence 收斂(수렴). 집합점.