Ranking the Rich

Detroit ONE volunteers
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson.

Check out this interesting article I came across in the midst of my 'should be working but instead I'm web-surfing' afternoon…

"Rich countries spend $84 billion a year subsidizing their farmers. That’s nearly as much as they spend on foreign aid, which is about $29 a year for each of the world’s 2.7 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. Poor people often get less assistance than the rich world’s farm animals. The European Union, for example, doles out almost $30 per year for each sheep living there. In Norway and Switzerland, each cow gets nearly $1,000 of the government’s money a year. These subsidies push down global agricultural prices and undermine farmers in poorer countries. Bellying up to the government’s trough has never been so costly."

You can read more of this piece by Foreign Policy on their site, a good way to look at what the world's wealthiest nations are doing to help out the poorest.

Just yet another reminder that we've got to keep up the good fight as we move into 2007....


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