This example transcript is NOT SET IN STONE! That means feel free to play around with the materials, edit, insert, delete. The following is just a rough sketch of what I normally say when I am doing these workshops.-Stella, Apr 2005
(Before you start, the teacher will usually draw the attention of the class and introduce you)
TIMBIT GAME
First of all, can I have four volunteers (or whatever 20% of the class is – we’ll assume the class has about 20 students) come to the front of the class! Don’t worry; your job will be easy. (Ask them for their names, for now assume the names are A B C and D)
Now imagine for a moment that the population of the world were shrunk down to the size of this classroom. There are a few things you might notice. About 10 people in the class would be Chinese or Indian (1/2 the class). 4 do not have enough food to eat, while another 4 are eating too much (1 in 6 people in the class). 4 live on less than $1 a day. Another 8 live on less than $2 a day.
Let’s assume that A is a Canadian. B is an American. C is a European. And D is Japanese. In the world we live in today, A,B,C,D, although they make up about 20% of the world’s population, they consume 86% of the world’s goods. In Timbits, that means these guys are getting 17 Timbits, while the rest of you only get 3 to share. (Divide Timbits appropriately)
My point is that the world we live in today is not very fair. That ties into the focus of our talk, which is going to be on poverty and trade.
AGENDA
(Go through agenda)
OXFAM
We are volunteers from Oxfam. First of all, has anyone heard of Oxfam? (try to involve the class, get some ideas flowing)
If no: OK, has anyone heard of Amnesty International, or UNICEF? Maybe you even have an Amnesty club here in the school?
Well, Oxfam is like Amnesty and UNICEF in that it is an international humanitarian organization. The difference is that Amnesty focuses on something called human rights. UNICEF focuses on children. Oxfam focuses on hunger, on attacking the long-term causes of hunger and global poverty in general.
So now you’ve heard a little about poverty; you’ve heard a little about Oxfam; let’s hear a little about the third focus of this talk: trade.
(Explain rules of label game and let students play the label game)
Wow, let’s think about this. We have clothing in this room from: (point out various different places on the map). In fact, a large part of the whole world had to work together to make the clothes on your backs right now.
STRAWBERRY STORY (from
The strawberries I had as part of my lunch yesterday is likely to have come from Mexico, where it might have been grown with the help of pesticides made in the Rhine Valley of Germany and a tractor made in Japan.
The tractor, perhaps constructed with Korean steel cast from iron ingots dug from the territory of tribal peoples in Papua New Guinea, was likely fueled with diesel pumped from the earth in southern Mexico. At harvest time, the strawberry may have been packed in a box made of cardboard from Canadian softwood pulp, wrapped in plastic manufactured in New Jersey, and loaded on a truck made in Italy with German, Japanese, and American parts. The ecological wake of the strawberry—like the production lines themselves—span the globe `
And trade is affects more than just the strawberries I had for lunch yesterday. Trade is all around us, and it’s woven into the shirts on your backs right now. To illustrate that, we’re going to play something called The Label Game.
Now this idea ties in with something called globalization.
GLOBALIZATION
What is globalization? Can anyone take a guess?
Draw out answers from several participants, getting ideas like
•a global village
•increased inter-dependency among countries
•increased trade among countries
•increased control by multi-national (transnational) corporations and/or the WTO, IMF, & World Bank
WORLD HUNGER(from )
Let’s start with a puzzle. (8) Enough food grown to feed six billion people divided among six billion people equals -- a) six billion well fed and happy people or -- b) global hunger and starvation? The answer should be A. Enough food is being produced to feed the world’s population. But the answer is B) There is global hunger and starvation. (9) Nearly 850 million people go to bed hungry every night. (click)) Another 1.2 billion people get sick easily.1 They can’t get enough vitamins, minerals and proteins in their diet3. Add these numbers up. (10) They show that almost one person in three is affected by malnutrition, -- not because of what they choose to eat, but because of what they can’t choose..
(11) Very few of these hungry people live in what’s referred to as the North - those wealthy countries, situated mostly in the northern hemisphere. (click) Most hungry people live in the South, also called the Third World or Developing Countries. Malnutrition and hunger are common in Developing Countries because (click) the three billion people who try to survive on $2 a day or less live there.2 (12) The biggest reason for hunger is not overpopulation, (13) or climate or (14) or even war. (15) The biggest reason for hunger is poverty. In 2002, almost half the world’s population was living on $2 a day or less.
HUNGER AND TRADE
Ok, so you get the point. Poverty and hunger are serious issues in the world, but what does this all have to do with trade?
The problem is that international trade rules are rigged to favor rich countries and big corporations in big countries. There are a lot of problems with international trade rules, for example tariffs. (Talk about slide on tariffs), but in the interests of time, we are going to focus on one injustice, and that injustice is subsidies.
SUBSIDY STORY(from )
(3) Let’s start with a brief story written by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. (4) “ Picture yourself as a poor African farmer, scraping a living on a hectare or two of land. While you many not have heard of globalization, you are affected by it. (5) You sell cotton, which will be woven into a shirt by a worker in Mauritius in a style designed by an Italian, to be worn by some well-off Parisian. (6) The price that you get for the cotton that you sell is so low because America spends up to $4 billion a year subsidizing its 25,000 cotton farmers, (click) encouraging them to produce more and more cotton. – (The subsidies even exceed the value of what they produce – (click) And as they produce more the price of cotton falls lower and lower.”
Stiglitz continues: (7) “You had thought about supplementing your income by buying a cow and selling its milk. (click) But the price is so low that it does not pay: Your fresh milk has to compete with powdered milk from America and Europe, (click) who subsidize their cows at $2 a day, - more than you and any of your neighbours actually make. You wonder what life would be like if you were treated as well as Europe treats its cows?”
SUBSIDIES
(Slight pause)Stiglitz’s comments indicate that subsidies make life very difficult for African farmers? What are these subsidies? (8) Subsidies are taxpayers’ money given to farmers and distributors to cover some of their costs. (click) These subsidies bring down the selling price of crops.
These subsidies can be huge. (9) In 2003 the Japanese government contributed $7.40 a day towards each cow raised. 2 (10) To put that in perspective, consider that most of the 2 billion people who depend on farming for their income survive on $2 a day or less3.
(11) Wealthy governments of countries in the Northern hemisphere, or what we call the North, spend a total of more than $1 billion a day of taxpayers’ money on agricultural subsidies.4 (12) Governments in developing countries are unable to match these subsidies. This places their farmers at a big disadvantage in the competitive world of globalization. (click) They claim it’s unfair trade.
Let’s take a look at their impact in Northern Countries. (13) Something doesn’t make sense here. (14) On the one hand, Northern governments are giving huge amounts of money, -- massive subsidies,-- to their farms.
(15) On the other hand approximately 500 farms in the United States close down every week5, - because their owners are unable to make a living from farming. (16) Someone calculated that if the present rate of farm closure continues, in 40 years there will be only seven huge farms left in the United States. (17) In Canada farm debt increased by 50% between 1996 and 2001. (click) Farmers are now using all the money they make from farming just to pay the interest on their debts.6 They’re paying their bills by taking extra jobs off the farm. (18) Farm subsidies are not working for most farmers. (click) The big question is why?
(19) In the United States, it’s because just 10% of the farmers get 73% of the subsidies. Another 10% of farmers get 15% of the subsidies. That means that 80% of farmers are left with only 12% of the subsidies.7 (20) In other words, government subsidies to farming may be huge. But most of the money is going to very few farmers.
As for Canada, although government subsides are much smaller here, the trend is similar. (21) In 2002, the Manitoba government announced plans to use $8.5 million of taxpayers’ money to help the American corporation Sinplot build a potato processing plant. (click) The federal and provincial governments would contribute an additional $60 million over a ten year period to provide irrigation for the project. (click) That amounts to a subsidy of around $600,000 for each of the 130 or so potato growers involved.8 Meanwhile, other farmers are struggling.
(22) Farmers given subsidies have a huge advantage over other farmers. Why? (click) Because only farmers with subsidies can continue to make money when the price they receive for their crops falls below the real cost of producing them.
So who are these farmers that receive most of the subsidies? (23) What distinguishes highly subsidized farms from other farms? (click) They are very large. (click) They are often owned by corporations. (click) and they grow crops for export.
(24) Out of every American dollar given in subsidies 90 cents goes to farms producing just five export crops - cotton, wheat, rice, soy beans and corn. 9 (25) A large part of these crops will be shipped to other countries . (click) There they will be sold for well below the real cost of producing them in the United States.. --
(26) For example while the full production cost of U.S. wheat in 2001 was $6.24 a bushel its export price was only $3.50. Wheat was actually sold at a loss of $2.74. The same is true of soybeans and cotton.10
(click) These losses are paid for by American taxpayers. (27) Why would American and European governments use taxpayers’ money to subsidize food for other countries?
(again from )
(69)The problem is that corporations, by their nature, do not consider ethical questions. (70) Corporations are not people. Individual managers may have great personal integrity. (click) But corporations themselves do not have a built in conscience that guides their behaviour. (71) Instead, two things drive corporations, - profits, or more money for their owners, -- and growth. (72) In their pursuit of growth and profits, corporations don’t intend to mistreat farmers. (73) But, (Pause to read) hardship, homelessness and even death are a consequence of the way that corporations operate in the world economy.
SOLUTION
Ok, so what needs to be done? The following strategies are outlines by Oxfam (state the points on the overhead, but try and translate them into simpler English)
WHAT YOU CAN DO
And what can YOU do to join the fight against global poverty? The answer is LOTS. (read out the slide, illustrating any points as you see fit). At the point in the slide where it mentions “fair trade” skip ahead to the next slide, explain what fair trade is, and then skip back.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information, here is the e-mail for the Edmonton local chapter of Oxfam:
To learn more about Oxfam’s global campaign against international trade injustices, visit:
To learn more about fair trade, you can visit: or
Thanks!