New Year's Wishes, Revised

New Year�s Wishes, Revised: "Last January we also wished for an end to the global system of agricultural subsidies that allow the richest nations to shut poor farmers out of international markets. During the year, we traveled the world, talking to impoverished men and women who grow cotton in Burkina Faso, catfish in Vietnam and corn in the Philippines, and came back more convinced of the importance of this issue. The world cannot have one set of rules for trade in manufactured products and another for farm goods, the commodities that are easiest for poor nations to produce and sell. But a lack of American leadership at the World Trade Organization caused the collapse of talks that were aimed at making the system fairer."