Those price changes exceeded by an order of magnitude the price changes that models such as Aglink suggested would flow from OECD country reforms. There was swift recognition that while strong prices offer long term benefits for farmers, the short to medium term impacts on poor consumers are predominantly negative. Distortionary policies are inefficient as well as being inequitable in terms of their domestic effects (OECD, 2001, OECD, 2003), and globally they prevent resources from being allocated in an efficient way-even if concerns about the pattern of winners and losers have shifted compared to the period when prices were low.