Letter: The hungry poor

Sir: you are rightly concerned about the effect of high food prices on the poor, but the single most important barrier to cheaper food is the Common Agricultural Policy. The European Union fixes prices, manipulates markets and pays farmers to keep fields fallow and we consumers count the cost to the extent of an extra pounds 1,000 on the average family's annual food bill.

Europhiles are fond of extolling the alleged benefits of our EU membership but less forthcoming about financial problems created for those who can least afford to pay.

JOHN BARNETT

East Grinstead, Sussex