Unfair Trade and Global Economic Policy

"How on earth could anybody stand in a field with these people and say that it's the right thing to do to dump their excess produce cheaply on a third world country? It's beyond me."
-- Chris Martin, lead singer, Coldplay

"Do what's in your best interest." That's not Christ Jesus' way, but it is the way of our messed up world. Wealthy countries offer their farmers subsidies to produce cheaper and more food so it can be sold at low costs both at home and overseas; large corporations pay rock bottom prices to poor farmers for crops like coffee and sugar then sell it to first world coffee chains and grocery stores at a much higher cost. The average African farmer pays two to six times for fertilizer than the world market price. All this unfair trade and policy drives farmers and their communities in developing countries deeper into poverty, despair and hopelessness. HIV is just waiting to infect their exhausted bodies, hearts and minds. In North America, insisting on and buying cheaper coffee, sugar, clothing and electronics often fuels the continuation of unfair trade policies.