Pietra Rivolis

Main Ideas
Pietra Rivoli, author of The Travelers of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, refers to Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree, how he describes, “The gazelles win by running faster and smarter than the competition, but the lions win by catching and eating their prey”(52). Rivoli uses this theory to American cotton farmers, who are both the gazelles and the lions. She talks of them as gazelles because they squeeze income out of every step in their production chain, while feeding cattle and people with the leftovers. The growers are also gazelles because of their advance scientific research and how they run their businesses. They globally dominated most of the world by creating a symbiotic relationship with the farmers, universities
The Reinschs can be compared as the gazelles and their success was from being able to shift market risks away from them and like lions they did not have as much competition so instead of competing with international markets. They achieved this by applying public policy. They also used political influence to get the federal government to take up the business risks of price and nonpayment. An important thing about their success is that they benefited “highly symbiotic and virtuous circle relationship between farmers, private companies, universities, and the U.S. government” (26). Government programs like Barcero Program and Agricultural Adjustment Act provided inexpensive labor, financial support for agricultural products, and substantial subsides. also, advancements in technologies and mechanization allowed farming to become a one man show, even the removal of government subsidies would not be enough for African markets to compete because the technology, literacy, political power and government assistance still gives the U.S. farmers a competitive advantage. Rivoli then moves to a global level and talks about how recycled clothing has become a successful U.S. export industry. Rivoli explains the simple business of shipping used T-shirts to African
Rivoli writes, “The income from the world’s largest oil mill, then, is paid to the region’s gins which in turn pass it through in dividends to growers”. The farmers don’t have to deal with the bad parts that come along with being a huge corporation, like having to fight up a ladder. What she talks about allows for easier control and best profit from what the farmers’ waste product. People working towards a common goal is a perfect example of how a country has become the world power it is today. The Mitumba markets she talks about in Tanzania are the perfect examples of what a free market should be even though the country is one of the poorest in the world. Rivoli talks about the mini-auctions that are for the opening of large bales of clothes straight from the United States, these bale breaking parties are near perfect markets according to her . Rivoli also writes how much of the blame for the lack of profit from textile companies in Africa must be credited to the subsidies and trade barriers established by rich countries. She writes, “textile factories are in trouble in Africa for the same reasons that factories of any kind are in trouble in Africa: corruption, political risk, low education levels…in a phrase,