Farm subsidies used as weapon against developing countries

YOUR correspondent Edmund Phelan (Irish Examiner letters, December 16) thinks that the World Trade Organisation somehow poses a threat to our food supply.

This is outlandish - as is his attack on the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs for calling for the abolition of all subsidies to farmers. These subsidies are a transfer from the relatively unpropertied taxpaying citizen to a propertied class. As Mr Phelan well knows, those who receive the greatest amounts are also the largest and wealthiest producers.

This, too, is outrageous. He wonders how we can expect poorer countries to export to us when they “cannot feed themselves”.