Overall, the proposal would spend an estimated US$10 billion less over the next 10 years than projected spending for the 2002 Farm Bill, which is set to expire in September 2007. Much of the anticipated savings are from expected high prices for many commodities in future years. However, the Johanns proposal actually would spend US$5 billion more from 2008 – 2012 than simply extending the existing provisions in the 2002 Farm Bill.

Download the attached file to read the full text of this report by Oxfam America employee Emily Alpert. (From Bridges No. 1, February-March 2007, published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.)

While the Farm Bill does little to help poor farmers in the US, it actually harms rural communities around the world. After receiving massive subsidies, US cotton farms produce more than they otherwise would, and sell their surplus at less than the cost of production. These subsidies hurt African cotton farmers by reducing the world price of cotton and shrinking their share of the market. This situation is not only unfair; it violates international rules set by the World Trade Organization.

This examination of three communities emblematic of longstanding poverty and exclusion— the urban neighborhoods of East Biloxi, Mississippi, and the rural communities of Vermilion and Plaquemines parishes in Louisiana—reveals that government neglect at all levels extends beyond the well-publicized failures in New Orleans to encompass an entire region in distress.

Access to opportunity remains unequal—and unfair. In Biloxi, government officials acted first to save the city’s battered casinos by convincing state lawmakers to allow gaming on land. Not ensuring that the low-income residents of East Biloxi shared in the economic benefits, however, has made them victims of an enormous land squeeze, forcing them out of their neighborhoods and homes.

False assurances undermine future visions—and current optimism. The self-reliant residents of Erath, a mostly Cajun community in rural Vermilion Parish, began rehabilitating their houses the moment they returned after Hurricane Rita’s flood waters receded. After confusing signals about new flood elevations, plans for the town’s future, and possible homeowner grants, their progress has slowed and in some cases has been reversed by the agencies meant to facilitate it. Institutional neglect leaves communities at risk of losing everything—even their way of life.

Few state or federal funds have assisted the recovery of independent commercial fishers, who for generations have made Plaquemines Parish the center of their trade. Their inability to continue is draining Louisiana’s usually robust commercial fisheries, normally second in the nation only to Alaska.

These communities, and many like them, teeter on the brink. They are being rendered invisible.

Left behind. Forgotten.

The pattern of inequity in receiving recovery assistance from the government has been well established by past disasters. Federal disaster assistance tends to favor people who have economic assets at risk—that is, the affluent. Though the pattern may be familiar, it need not be inevitable.

Making sure the billions designated for recovery benefit the region’s most vulnerable communities remains a matter of political will. Action can and must be taken immediately.

• Make eligibility requirements for homeowner assistance inclusive. Both Louisiana and Mississippi can make improvements in their plans to use CDBG funds by dropping the penalties they currently impose on those homeowners that did not have insurance. Denying assistance to uninsured homeowners unjustly punishes the poorest and most vulnerable, many of whom simply lacked the money to buy insurance.
• Assign proportional attention and funds to affordable rental housing, a particularly critical resource for a community’s low-wage workers and poorest residents. Neither state provides anywhere near the assistance needed to replace the affordable rental units lost in the storms, let alone meet increasing demand. Funds should be used to supplement Low Income Housing Tax Credits, increase small landlord rental repair, and expand work force housing.
• Humanize and rationalize transitional housing. FEMA’s transitional housing program has been characterized by one expensive snafu after another, some of them almost inhumane— circumstances that do not bode well as the program’s 18-month term winds down. FEMA should develop and communicate a plan now that is especially attentive to the needs of low-income families before this situation grows into a major catastrophe.
• Improve accountability to ensure funds benefit the poor. Government at all levels must hold itself accountable to both hurricane survivors and the taxpayers underwriting this recovery. Ensuring that both Mississippi and Louisiana provide regular, clear demographic data on the disbursements of grants would provide important evidence of the extent to which equity is being achieved—while there is still time to change course if improvement is necessary.
• Partner with community agencies to minimize uncertainty and improve outreach. Confusing and conflicting information has been a hallmark of this recovery. Federal and state agencies should create stronger relationships with trusted nonprofit and grass-roots organizations, and rely upon their community expertise to ensure that vulnerable populations understand and access the benefits for which they qualify.
• Reform post-disaster housing assistance. Congress must pass and the president must sign the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, sponsored by Senators Collins (R-ME) and Lieberman (D-CT). This bill would improve the nation’s emergency management capability by reconstituting FEMA and improving housing service delivery, to prevent the same bureaucratic bungling from accompanying the nation’s next disaster.
• The incremental injustices occurring during this recovery are less apparent to the eye—yet just as devastating—as the futility witnessed so widely on the nation’s TV screens one year ago.
• Decisive, firm action can reverse this course and provide low-income survivors the opportunities they deserve.

It is, after all, what the nation promised them. That they would be rendered whole. Get ahead. Thrive.

But now Hanshaw, and a growing number of other women in the Gulf Coast community, have a new foundation from which to begin rebuilding part of their lives: Coastal Women for Change, or CWC, a fledgling group of newborn activists determined have a say in the recovery of their neighborhoods.

Whatever the 2006 hurricane season brings, CWC may serve as a buffer to additional hardship. It has taught many of the women that each of them has a voice, and those voices count—individually and collectively.

"Our mission is to empower these women with knowledge of what they can do," said Hanshaw, the group's new director. "It's unlimited. You can build. You can go back to school. You can call your local officials. You can talk to them. They're there for us."

Now numbering about 25 regular members, with a core group of 10, CWC was launched with the help of Safiya Daniels, a community development specialist for Oxfam America, who has been working chiefly in Biloxi and Gulfport.

"One big difference that I saw between these two cities was the existence of organized community groups," said Daniels. "I realized that outside of the churches, Biloxi had none. I also noticed there was very little institutionalized female leadership in Biloxi."

Daniels also worried that there seemed to be few community gatherings in Biloxi to discuss what direction the city was taking as it began recovering from Katrina. Long-range community planning was not on anyone's neighborhood radar screen.

"This was a dangerous situation," said Daniels. "Everyone else was making a plan: casino developers, condo developers, and the city, but there was very little evidence of broad community participation."

She knew the concern was there—"in every community there are lots of concerned women who want a vibrant, healthy, and safe community for their families to live in"—but how to turn that interest into action was the missing piece. So, Daniels called a meeting.

One meeting followed by many more

"I brought a group of women together to talk about what was happening in their community, what issues and problems they faced, and how these could be addressed," said Daniels.

That first meeting grew into a series of sessions which blossomed into action, spawned weekly gatherings, attracted new members, and finally gave birth to an official group with a name and stated mission. Its goal is this: "to make a difference in our communities through securing and revitalizing our neighborhoods." Information sharing is the critical tool in achieving that end.

"I don't want people to be left out," said Hanshaw. "I want to give them knowledge. Knowledge is power."

Knowledge starts with asking questions, and one of the first events CWC sponsored was a Biloxi community forum to which it invited the mayor, city councilors, and members of the city planning department. Questions abounded—about flood elevations mapped out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), about affordable housing, about displaced people. Nearly 200 residents showed up for the forum.

Attendees not only got some answers, some of them learned a deeper lesson as well.

"Democracy works only if people make it work," said Daniels. "And we do that by holding people accountable. There possibly has never been a time during the mayor's 13-year tenure that he found himself in such a position, being watched and held accountable by this particular community, and in such a public way."

Signing up for city business

Asking questions is the first step. Having a say in the answers is the next step. Right away, CWC members sought seats on a planning commission formed by Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway. Called Reviving the Renaissance Committee, it was given 90 days to come up with a plan for the city's recovery.

Five CWC members have been weighing in on matters of finance, education, land use, and affordable housing—the subcommittees for which they signed up. And people are beginning to listen to CWC's opinions.

"We are in the paper every week," said Hanshaw, adding that she gets the sense she is even making some of the powerbrokers nervous.

"They try to turn their heads when I come up," she said. "Especially the developers. They don't want to talk to me. They know where I stand."

For Cass Woods, working with CWC has given her a direct link to her community, and that link is allowing her to make things better all around.

"It makes me feel good to help someone," said Woods, who has been living in a government issue trailer—the size of a matchbox, she said—parked in her back yard for months. "That's what has helped me get through my loss."

Looking ahead

With a $30,000 seed grant from the 21st Century Foundation, CWC will be able to pay Hanshaw a salary, purchase office supplies, and begin to look ahead at how to fund itself into the future.

Meanwhile, the organization is undertaking a new task: a survey of East Biloxi to find out the childcare needs of the community's residents. To renew its license, a local day care organization is being required to assess the need for its services in the area.

"This is our first project," said Hanshaw. "Another accomplishment under our belts."

And it's just the kind of project Daniels had a hunch a group like CWC could offer the community.

"The needs of the community will drive what CWC takes on," said Daniels. With those needs being constant—as they are in every community—Daniels expects the new organization to have a long and productive life.

"It's going to stand on its own. I am confident of that," she said. "I could see it truly growing into a coastwide organization."