Sir,
In reply to the letter from Mr. Thomas, of St. Florence, regarding organic farming (Observer June 29). Is it not the case that farmers like industrialists, shopkeepers, and anyone else offering goods for general consumption, will do that which will afford them the best reward? Is it not also the case that the consumer is governed by the same motive? At the risk of being accused of a cynicism that I freely admit to, I very much doubt that the earth's wellbeing figures greatly in the purchasing considerations of the general public. What did interest me was the annual 25 per cent national shortfall in temperate foodstuffs, as claimed by Mr. Thomas. In the not so distant past, the UK was under siege from an enemy determined in its intention to starve us into submission, and thousands died denying that intent. We have learned nothing, electing as we have a succession of governments who have either from political correctness, cowardice, or the eternal search for cheap labour, allowed an ever-rising tide of immigrants. After the second world war, the native population would have declined to a point where we could have fed ourselves by our own agriculture. As it is, we are doomed to reap the rewards of our own complicity, intentional or otherwise.
J. Doy, Birmingham.