And he's right. Why bother going through all of the discussions and negotiations when there is nothing concrete that is leading towards the rich countries addressing the subsidies to their farmers? Oil is the primary export from Africa (87%) thanks to Big Oil working out deals that will create problems for years in the mostly poor African countries who have been failing to re-invest the oil money to raise the level of living for the general population.
At Gleneagles the G8 leaders all talked the talk but hey, talk is cheap. Who really sees the Republican party cutting the massive government handouts to wealthy American farmers? I don't see the EU or France cutting back subsidies either because this requires political spine and western leaders are terrified of standing up to farmers.
"These farmers are averaging something like $140,000 per farmer of subsidies per year. They are growing subsidies, they are not growing cotton," [Jeffrey] Sachs told journalists.
"One of the things that needs to be done is for Africa to say 'we're not signing on to another trade round if you don't get this right,'" he said. "That's why the (WTO) meetings in Mexico stopped, because cotton subsidies played such a large part, and I think everyone's heard this now, that there needs to be a trading system that is decent and fair to agricultural production here (in Africa)."
