Wilfully blind

The article “A pound of flesh to feed the poor” (Oct. 22) and the editorial “Trading on hunger” (Oct. 10), offer a good overview of the issues involved. It is time to acknowledge that WTO is nothing but an old colonial devil in a new bottle. The restrictive panoply of trade agreements which it oversees like the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), are a Gordian knot that binds our farmers. While an advanced nation like the U.S. protests against the measures in our food security law which help our farmers to some extent, it is wilfully blind to the subsidy provided by its own farm bill to not just rich farmers but also major agribusiness corporations. This gives an unfair advantage to the corporations to dump their products and wipe out many small-scale farmers.

G. Parameswaran,

Coimbatore