Hurrah. An African leader hits a corpulent target, calling for the FAO to be abolished.

Meanwhile rich countries scatter yet more subsidised food aid here and there, to Do Something.

When the Soviet Union collapsed there were fears that Russians would starve to death in ther millions. I sat in on Whitehall crisis meetings where senior officials agonised over how best to help.

It was pointed out that in Russia there was plenty of food produced but unbelievable quantities rotted in the fields and en route to consumers. Maybe we could provide storage silos to stop at least some of this waste.

I defiantly said that whatever Russia might lack, it did not lack the capacity to build grain storage facilities. Cutting rocket fuselages in half would do nicely. The less food assistance we sent, the faster Russia would move to supplying its needs via market mechanisms.

The EU did unwisely send some heavy quantities of subsidised butter to Russia. A proportion of this reached a tiny proportion of Russians in Moscow and a few more big centres, who were fleetingly cheered up to have products of this quality. The rest was last heard of in military storage depots.

If we in Europe really want to make a difference, let’s scrap the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). If not, let’s at least not pile on the misery through more food aid except in situations of ruinous real famine. 

Historical Note: those who opposed scrapping the Corn Laws in the UK called themselves the Central Agricultural Protection Society (CAPS).

Are the CAP and CAPS by some chance related?