What do shrimp fishermen in Louisiana have in common with cotton farmers in Burkina Faso? Both have suffered serious financial setbacks because of American farm subsidies. And with the breakdown of the Doha Round earlier this week, both will continue to suffer well into the foreseeable future.

Currently America’s federal farm policy “rewards farmers for the amount of corn they grow, not how they grow it.” What this means is that farmers use extra fertilizer on their crops in order to ensure that they have an abundant harvest. During the spring, when heavy rains pass over the Midwest, this extra fertilizer runs off into the Mississippi River and flows into the Gulf of Mexico. “The fertilizer has the same effect in the Gulf as it does on the Midwest fields it came from,” National Public Radio reports. “But instead of giving corn a growth spurt, the nitrogen fuels massive algae blooms that then die and suck all of the oxygen out of the water as they decompose.” This lack of oxygen has created a dead zone thousands of square miles in size, which cannot sustain aquatic life. For shrimp fishermen who depend on sea life for their livelihood, farm subsidies are actually sinking their businesses. As Doug Daigle of the Environmental Protection Agency told NPR, “if the dead zone continues to grow, it could eventually cause a complete collapse of the Gulf Coast ecosystem. At stake, among other things, is Louisiana's $2.3-billion fishery.”

In my relentless search to find reasons to move to the fair city of Cape Town (as if biodiversity-friendly winelands, Lion's Head & the 12 Apostles, and the World Cup semi-finals in 2010 weren't enough), I regularly read South Africa's Mail & Guardian.   I am rarely disappointed and today's article on specialized "retail development bonds" that provide a mechanism to support small business growth is no exception.  The piece entitled, "A Friendlier Bang for Your Buck", discusses the finance gap that we have talked so much about on NextBillion (Shell Interview, Al Hammond on Mesofinance).  The M & G notes that while SRIs remain strong, there is a need to develop funding for projects under $3 million.  To this end, a law professor at American University is developing a government bond, which, "provides a semi-annual return equal to the government’s retail bond, the underlying funds being used to develop small and micro- enterprise business and low-income housing in South Africa."  While the product is not available yet, its potential to attract money from a range of investors, including corporations and the South African diaspora makes it an intriguing investment mechanism aimed at developing local entrepreneurial talent and drawing funding to low-income communities, while providing near commercial returns.

China has a huge impending energy problem.  While the US is by far the leader in GHG emissions worldwide, China - with its high growth and booming population - is quickly becoming the elephant in the room during discussions on global energy policy.  Issues of rising demand and environmentally-damaging energy sources are not merely confined to urban areas as the country's rural communities often find their production capabilities outstripping available infrastructure.  This phenomenon forces many families outside of cities to burn inefficient materials such as wood and straw for energy in the absence of alternatives.  Luckily the country's insatiable energy needs are often matched by its pool of entrepreneurial talent.