The primary crop-the only exportable crop-of Mali is cotton, and it directly determines the income and welfare of 3.8 million of Mali's 10 million people. Cotton farmers earn about $1 a day, on average, and farm about 6 to 10 acres, often inter-planted with "cereal"-their term for maize and millet. That exported cotton also supports Mali's democratic government. Since Mali is landlocked, high transportation costs to ports across the Ivory Coast and other coastal countries cut into profits-especially when civil wars, like the one raging in Ivory Coast, jeopardize transport reliability and safety.

The American wing of Oxfam, the international non-profit whose mission is to improve the standard of living and to provide basic necessities to inhabitants of poor countries, and to call attention to social injustice, launched a campaign in 2004 to call attention to dumping. That practice of putting cotton or any other commodity on the market for sale below the cost of production can only be supported by government subsidies. In the case of American cotton, the U.S. government now spends $3.2 billion to subsidize America's 25,000 cotton growers. The top 10 percent get about 80 percent of the money-or $512,000 per individual per year.

How does all that affect countries in West Africa like Mali, and its cotton-growing neighbors, Benin and Burkina Faso? It further bankrupts their desperate economies, because the subsidized American cotton competes directly against West African cotton on the international market.

"Trade distortion" is the formal name. Near-starvation for millions of families comes closer to the truth. The cotton that is hand-picked, as in these images, and cultivated using oxen and hand-plows, now costs more for these farmers to grow and process than they can get for it, largely due to the dumped American cotton that has helped depress world prices to record lows . In a bumper year like 2004, with supply exceeding demand, Malians and others find themselves a life-and-death crisis. Most Malian women can no longer afford the $2 a month required to pay for their children's schooling. The weakened dollar works against them as well, since they buy their "inputs" in West African francs pegged to the Euro and sell into Asian markets pegged to the declining dollar.

Oxfam America has taken the lead among non-governmental agencies in calling this sorry situation to the attention of the American public . The delegation it sponsored met with the president of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, and high-level members of his administration. All expressed their immediate need for assistance. "We're crying for help and nobody's listening," Mali's prime minister said. " All of us can feel your raw pain," Mary Robinson, Oxfam's spokesperson, responded. For anyone in the delegation, it was impossible not feel and absorb it in the dusty, barren streets and fields. Still, the current administration and Congress do not appear to be inclined to make any near-term changes in our country's cotton-farm policy , despite a World Trade Organization protest by Brazil and West African countries.

In an impoverished, democratic Islamic country, our cotton dumping foments the rage that we are trying to quell, hoping to reduce the conditions that breed terrorism. Malians generally maintain a sense of buoyancy and are known for their pleasant dispositions. The Burkina Faso people are known for their sense of humor. But prolonged unjust treatment can foul the mood of anyone-especially when their children go hungry.