The dumping of 3 million litres of milk by Belgian milk producers to protest the steep fall in milk prices (Sept. 18) reminds us of the events of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Wheat was burnt as fuel in steam locos while coal was piled up in the mines. Milk and dead fish were dumped in the rivers as traders did not get remunerative prices owing to excess production. Nearer home, in recent times, we have seen farmers dumping tomatoes on the highways to be crushed by lorries. While such protests highlight the plight of producers and farmers, they also demonstrate the cruelty of the profit system in which the producer would rather destroy his products than sell them at a lower price, only to artificially recreate demand.
J. Prabhakar, Hyderabad
