Episode 224: The Cotton Wars

toggle caption Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR

On today's show, we meet a Brazilian who took on the world's largest superpower; a Texas cotton farmer who's tired of hearing the Brazilians complain; and a guy named Renato — a.k.a. Retaliation Master.

And we hear why U.S. taxpayers are paying Brazilian cotton growers nearly $150 million a year.

This show originally ran in 2011, near the beginning of our quest to make a Planet Money t-shirt. We're re-playing it now because we just re-launched the t-shirt project.

If you want a Planet Money t-shirt, visit our Kickstarter page. We had more about the project in our most recent podcast, The Planet Money T-Shirt Is Finally (Almost) Here.

Music: Johnny Cash's "Cotton Fields" Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/Spotify/ Tumblr. Download the Planet Money iPhone App.