4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 18, 2003 OP/ED Rlje A 4dWn&iI 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LOUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE So moderates of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our pessimism." - New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in his Sunday column on conflict in the Middle East, as reported by The New York Times. N */ *1~ \. ~4Ki T COLIN DALY ' HE MICIGAN DALY Ol. MM CA. Singin' bye, bye, American pie JESS PISKOR JOIN THE PISKOR SUTTONS BAY - Jim Nugent is an easy man to like. His broad smile and loud, contagious laugh are only overshadowed by his lively blue eyes and his insightful mind. Seated in his warm rural farmhouse he sits and sips tea, talking about agriculture. Some- where in his 50s, Nugent and his wife, Toddy Rieger, own 76 acres of prime cher- ry orchards. Farming is in their blood and their passion for and knowledge of the sub- ject is immediately apparent. Discussing the economic pressures small farmers face the conversation quick- ly turns to free trade agreements like the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas and what it means for small farmers. "Northwest Lower Michigan is the best place in the world to grow tart cherries, there is no place better suited," explains Nugent, whose second job (most farmers these days need two jobs to stay farming) is working with the regional agricultural research extension office. He tells me that acre for acre, no place on Earth can pro- duce more high-quality cherries than the area's rolling hills and sandy soils. Nugent doesn't fear any other U.S. region out competing the local cherry industry. And currently he shouldn't: The Grand Traverse region produces about 50 percent of the world's supply of tart cher- ries. However, what really worries Nugent is competition from countries that exploit labor and the environment for short-term profit and U.S. trade policies that encour- age this behavior. "In the short run it might be more effi- cient to grow cherries elsewhere, but only if you define efficiency very narrowly," Rieger says. It might be cheaper at first blush, but that ignores the real costs of pollution, soil degradation and worker exploitation in foreign countries, not to mention the irreplaceable potential loss of small farms and the associated open space in the United States. Nugent says, "Right now maybe some (foreign nations) can maybe grow fruit cheaper, but look at what it does to their land and to their people." Hardly an isolationist, Nugent seems upset not that other countries might out- compete U.S. farms, but that it is such an exploitative process. Rieger sums it up this way, "They are destroying their land to feed us." For example, farmers in China "com- pete" with U.S. small farmers by not accounting for the negative externality of pollution, by unfairly paying their workers an exploitative wage, by permanently depleting fertile land, by benefiting from the artificially cheap price of fuel for cargo ships and semi-trucks, by profiting from the free good of the U.S. interstate highway system and by selling to monopo- listic chain supermarkets that refuse to deal with local farmers. U.S. farmers pay at least minimum wage and use environmentally sound poli- cies to limit chemical use and maintain soil health and cannot compete with coun- tries that pay workers less than 25 cents a day and farm property until it is dead and then move on to the next field. It is no wonder why fruit from China and other nations is cheaper. Free trade agreements with these nations make it hard, if not illegal, to regulate these abuses. Attempts to even out the playing field with tariffs or subsidies are consistent- ly denied and as a result, nations with deplorable labor and environmental records can undercut farmers that behave ethically. In Michigan, free trade agreements cut the bottom out of both the apple and asparagus markets in the last decade. Once two of Michigan's most important export crops, now suburban development is springing up where golden delicious apples once grew as farmers sell land to pay off increasing debt. This suburban growth - unlike small farms - uses up more tax dollars than it provides, depleting township coffers and clogging roads. Damaging farming practices, tacitly encouraged by free trade agreements, have led to irrevocable loss of fertile land. Del- egates are meeting in Miami this weekend to work to ratify the FTAA. As it stands today, the FTAA would unite 34 nations in a free trade agreement, eliminating tariffs, but with no significant labor and environ- mental protections. Protesters will go as well, to demand - among other things - that agriculture is preserved forever. Nugent explains that, "We need poli- cies that will produce food not just today, but in the next generation. We are going to need farms 500 years from now, and to get that, we need sound policies today." Otherwise, all that will remain will be barren, dead polluted fields where third world farms used to grow, and sprawling suburban development where U.S. orchards once fed the world. Piskor can be reached atpiskor@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR MSA out of touch with students, needs leadership To THE DAILY: Juniors and seniors: When are you going to tell the Michigan Student Assembly that it needs to focus on your interests? Do you remember reading about MSA working on student issues and getting things done around campus? This week's elections are an opportunity for you to remind MSA that you do want things better. If I were you, I would look at this year so far and ask, "What has MSA done for students?" and wouldn't be able to answer the question. I would ask why the only times MSA has been in the Daily have involved debates that they have absolutely no affect on. Every term MSA candi- dates campaign on doing things for students and nothing seems to have even been worked on this year. Now they finally make the front page, but it's for forgetting to check to see if a branch of the student government existed? Shameful. I would submit myself to the reality that stu- dent government can't actually accomplish things, except for the nagging fact that "it has" lingers. MSA got the fall break two years ago. MSA got wolverineaccess open until 2 a.m. instead of midnight. MSA got the Central Cam- pus Recreation Building open longer, got an extra $73,000 from the University Board of Regents for student groups ... and all in a one- year span, two years ago. Freshmen and sophomores: Ask a junior or senior about MSA two years ago. They probably will vaguely remember reading about MSA and some guy named "Matt Nolan" all the time, and while getting e-mails from him may have been annoying, they also remember being thankful to see MSA actually working on things they want- ed to see done! Haven't you guys noticed that MSA is hardly ever in the Daily for working to make campus better anymore? The political fights remain, always have and always will because student government is, well, government. That doesn't preclude you from doing your jobs, MSA. The MSA president is supposed to have a strong working relationship with the Central Student Judicia- ry, let alone even checking to see if they are in existence (MSA rushes to appoint judicial board, 11/17/03) ... this kind of neglect is inexcus- able for someone who fought for and is privi- leged to be the primary representative of being the few who are chosen from the student body to represent your interests. They fight hard to get there; why can't the current repre- sentatives realize that their political battles don't mean jack in the end and that making campus better for students does matter? Spend half as much time representing as you did campaigning and the improvements on this, campus would once again be visible. If I were voting in the MSA elections this week, I'd for damned sure use those votes to send a message to MSA that this kind of con- tempt for the role of representing student inter- ests is unacceptable. Students did that once, and the results speak for themselves. MATT NOLAN Law School Former president, Michigan Student Assembly Appointing judges against assembly's constitution To THE DAILY: I was surprised by the Daily's article on the Michigan Student Assembly appointing new justices at the most recent Steering Committee meeting (MSA rushes to appoint judicial board, 11/17/03). The reason for my surprise is that, under the constitution, the compiled code, which govern MSA, and Procedures Manual for Central Student Judiciary, the assembly cannot under any circumstances appoint justices. The new justices must be appointed by a committee consisting of two current justices, two members of MSA and one person who is not a member of student government, as discussed in the CSJ manual of procedures. Based on the recommendations of this com- mittee, the MSA general assembly confirms the appointments. Therefore, the Steering Committee's actions are not constitutional under the current rules for the assembly, and thus the fall elections cannot be con- firmed. Any student who does not like the outcome of the election would be wise to challenge the certification for this reason. Furthermore, there are seven justices from last term who have not finished their terms. The assembly does not have the right to dis- miss these individuals from the court, at least not without a formal trial. Perhaps if they were to look in last year's minutes, instead of rushing to action, they would executives several times during the next week, but I was never contacted back. Obviously, we were never able to appoint and confirm a new set of justices, and thus three vacancies went unfilled. Now it appears that MSA has lost track of those remaining justices and it superceding its authority to make a quick fix that is undoubtedly beneficial to the current execu- tive board. It is unfortunate the downward spiral that started with Boot and Glassel has continued with the current executive board. Perhaps in the future, the Students First Party and MSA in general will listen to the other branches of government and attempt to address their concerns, instead of needing a crisis to get their attention. JAY SCHAFER Alum Former chiefjustice, Central Student Judiciary Student workers responsible for low Borders wages TO THE DAILY: The local Borders Books and Music strikers are striking for higher wages because they don't want to have to compete against those willing to work for lower wages, namely students. If they succeed, the result will be discrimination against students. Why and how? Students are willing to work for $6.50 an hour but if the union is able to achieve $9 an hour, employers will only hire those that they can get the most productivity from with the least hassle. Every employer knows that hiring students entails concerns such as class schedules, study time changing from week to week and wanting off when school is not in session. But this is a uni- versity town so at higher rates of pay employers will attempt to eliminate these concerns; thus, they will systematically discriminate against students. The problems are not between work- ers and management, but between student workers and non-student workers. This is a classic example of one class of workers seeking job security over another class of workers. It is naive for career workers to expect high paying work in low-skilled jobs in a university town. The solution is not to picket at Borders, but to protest local government polices that keep higher skilled jobs from coming to Ann Arbor 4 4 0::aD raneanuincsi. nmmete w