ABSTRACT
The collapse of the talks at the WTO meeting in Cancún in September 2003 underlined how urgent the issue of agriculture and food production is for Third World countries. Third World activists like Vandana Shiva commented on the impact of the trade policies. They are said to be driven and practically dictated by multinational corporations (Shiva 2003d) and to be profoundly unfair and unjust. People like her and the International Farmers’ and Indigenous Forum-an alliance of small farmers, peasants and landless people, with a global membership of 100 million-are trying to change priorities away from benefiting the rich farmers and rich countries. In their opinion the WTO should play no role in food and agricultural issues at all. Local production and local trade should be encouraged and supported. Instead the expansion policies of largely US-or European Union (EU)-based agribusinesses and farmers are subsidized.
