The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with Updates on Economic Issues and Main Characters, 2nd Edition

4All God’s Dangers Ain’t the SubsidiesAlone on the Farm but Together in Town

The remarkable improvements in cotton production that Nelson Reinsch has witnessed—the machines, the chemicals, the GM technology—have occurred alongside equally remarkable advances in business practices. Just as Nelson gradually overcame his powerlessness against the Texas elements, he has overcome his powerlessness against the world markets as well. And, ironically, while advances in production methods have left Nelson out in the field by himself, advances in business organization, marketing, risk sharing, and political influence have led west Texas cotton farmers to band together as a united front against the markets that once dominated them. Little by little, as the farmers became more alone on the farm, they banded together in town.¹

The journey of the Reinsches' cotton to China begins with a trip just a few miles down the road, to the Citizen's Shallowater Cooperative Cotton Gin. Though the number of cotton gins in the United States has been falling steadily since observers began to count, they are still located next to the cotton fields. It was not so long ago that growers were at the mercy of the local gin, which stood like a roadblock between farmers and their cash. Only a few gins served hundreds of farmers, so the economic power was with the gins rather than the farmers, and farmers desperate for cash lined up at the gin and waited and waited for a turn to pay whatever the ginner wanted. ...