BRUSSELS, Belgium – The WTO chief says European and American farm subsidies are partly responsible for high food prices because they undermine farming in developing countries.

World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said Thursday the food supply is not growing fast enough – especially in poorer nations that still have large areas of land that could be farmed.

But he said the countries' capacity to grow food has been damaged by a lack of investment, as well as farm subsidies in rich nations that allow the EU and U.S. to export food cheaply to developing countries.

Lamy says this helped restrict and shrink the production capacity of developing countries.

He was speaking at a food crisis conference at the European Parliament in Brussels.