"This is a cow -- a European cow. It's a happy cow -- because everyday we Europeans pay $2 in subsidies for it. Half of the world's population lives on that amount. So we've created the most expensive farming subsidies in the world....which lead to misery -- hunger and anger." Thus begins this award-winning film about the trade and agricultural policies which protect European farmers against competitition in the underdeveloped world. These policies unintentionally doom the world's poorest people to endless poverty. How do tactics like dumping and tariff walls work and why were they developed?

On the outskirts of a village in the Dominican Republic are the ruins of Emanuel's dairy farm. Because tons of heavily subsidized powdered milk is flooding the market from Europe, local farmers like Emanuel cannot compete. If they cannot get a fair price, they have to slaughter their cows and are then left with nothing. Prof. Per Pindstrup says that the EU Commissioner for Development has sent 20 million Euros to the Dominican Republic to teach the dairy farmers to make more and better milk but he questions this policy if the farmers cannot compete with the EU's subsidized milk in the end. What's the point of giving development assistance to build something up, which is then torn down a few years later?

Prix Italia Winner, 2004.