Madam, - John Dillon's view (October 14th) of the recent reform of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy - i.e., that it "marks a decisive shift by the EU away from subsidised production" - seriously overstates the true situation.
It is too early to tell definitively if "decoupling" will increase or decrease EU production. But what is certain is that this change in the manner, but not the scale, of Cap expenditure will not end subsidised production. European agriculture will, therefore, continue to compete unfairly with unsubsidised producers overseas.
It is also highly disingenuous for the president of the Irish Farmers' Association to speak of food security when the very surpluses exported by the rich countries are undermining food security in the developing world by destroying farmers' livelihoods and production in those countries.
A further irony is that, as Oxfam research has recently demonstrated, most Cap payments go to big agribusiness and large landowners. The smaller family farmer comes off much worse. Thus the Cap, in its present corrupted form, fails to meet the needs of most farmers in Ireland whilst continuing to damage severely many other poor farmers overseas.
It is time for a new Cap which ends these injustices. - Yours, etc,
Dr BRIAN SCOTT, Chief Executive, Oxfam Ireland, Dublin 2.