Milk surplus and aid

Madam, - Deirdre Byers's logic is completely right regarding our milk surplus and the developing world (September 22nd) - except…

Madam, - Deirdre Byers's logic is completely right regarding our milk surplus and the developing world (September 22nd) - except for one thing.

Dropping Ireland's milk surplus into an African or Asian country would mean that the local farmers would have nowhere to sell their milk, or at best would mean a reduction in prices. This would drive them further into poverty, thereby continuing the vicious circle.

Most aid agencies learnt this lesson the hard way in the 1980s, and now realise that people should be given the means to act in their own economy for the benefit of their own economy.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for life. - Yours, etc,

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KEITH MARTIN, Thorncastle Street, Dublin 4.