Lords should look at why we need subsidies

I was rather alarmed to read that the House of Lords was calling for farm subsidies to go.

Before making any rash statements, the House of Lords should research why farming needs subsidies.

They should also note what has happened to the farming community and rural areas because of low or nil profit margins. The village school, Post Office, shop, filling station, churches and chapels are going. The village homes and farms are sold to wealthy city people looking for a second home.

There is no doubt that the price paid by the housewife is sufficient to maintain a healthy farming industry, the rural community, and allow a fair margin for the processor and retailer.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of the end price of food is demanded by the supermarkets. I would suggest that, before coming to these rash conclusions, the House of Lords should look at the way the supermarkets are operating and the effect it is having on our prime producers and others.

In 1995, I was paid 27p per litre for my milk, but in 2007 I was paid 17p. What was the price of milk on the supermarkets’ shelves on those dates?

Potato farmers claim that they are only having 20 per cent of the price charged by the supermarkets and pig farmers are leaving the industry in droves because of rising costs. Yet the supermarkets are charging three times the price received by the farmer.

The problem today is that we are governed by so-called intellectuals and not by successful entrepreneurs with business experience.

The future of the UK depends on having adequate food, fuel and water and the ability to pay for what we have to import to make up the deficiency.

Sir Eric Howells, Meadow View, Llanddewi Velfrey, Narberth, Pembrokeshire.

Overlooked effect of pesticides?

IN the light of numerous scientific reports linking pesticides and illness, it must surely be in the interests of the farming community to expose the truth.

Pesticides are linked to diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzhiemer’s, but effects on the mitochondria which control the vital energy of every cell are largely overlooked.

Some years ago UK authorities admitted that the OP pesticide used in GM crops had been confirmed as damaging mitochondria.

There is evidence that a host of pesticides, including organo-phosphates, organochlorines, paraquat, permethrin and newer chemical groups, also disrupt this vital process. Mitochondria are key players in food breakdown and in the production of proteins, hormones and enzymes.

They are also essential for neurotransmitter metabolism, but it is known that all cancers involve damage to the mitochondria. That damage is not reversible, except by the formation of new mitochondria that does not transfer any of the induced changes in mitochondrial DNA.

Muscle weakness, mental problems, strokes, diabetes, heart disease, mood disorders, seizures, and schizophrenia have all been linked to this damage, which is long-term and incurable.

Now must be the time to bring to book those officials who so far have denied the dangers.

Richard A.R. Bruce, Hill Place Cottage, Thorley, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight.

• SUZANNE Greenhill (FG, March 28) rightly pointed out that GM products benefit the manufacturers, though she may be right in that consumers may not want them.

Yet we have all been eating them indirectly for some considerable time through the animal products we eat. GM materials have been used in animal feeds for several years.

My attention was drawn to a label which said ‘hipro soya’ and, on checking with the manufacturer, they said it was a GM product. More recent labels actually say ‘Hipro Soya (GM*2)’ and at the bottom ‘(GM*2) produced from genetically modified material’.

We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water, as most of our human insulin is produced from genetically modified organisms. It is also likely that vaccines and cures for diseases like cystic fibrosis will benefit from GM technology.

We must carry on the research and use the developments that science brings. I am sure that Suzanne has benefited from antibiotics in her life and when Fleming made his breakthrough it was just as revolutionary.

When all is said and done, the modifications are only additional bits of protein and our digestive system copes very well with protein.

Brian Wright, Moss Barn, Sedbergh, Cumbria.

• I read Mike Keeble’s very interesting article (FG, March 14) about the future options of a 10,000-acre moorland farm in the central Pennines.

I just wonder whether he and his fellow advisers were too quick to dismiss the grouse option ‘beyond low level shooting over pointers and possibly falconry’? 

A productive grouse moor could help contribute to the costs of management of a sheep and beef enterprise.

While a correct balance of cows and sheep could help get on top of the white grasses, which are bound to be present as a result of previous overgrazing, there are many well-tested techniques for heather regeneration and some very experienced contractors to help implement them.

Ten thousand acres would provide three full-time grouse moor-keeper jobs in addition to the existing farming jobs. They would not be dependant on subsidy, but the proprietor will need to support the early years to get grouse numbers developed and take a five-year view of income and expenditure rather than a single year. 

Establishing a reasonable shootable surplus of grouse will also have a very positive impact on the capital value of his asset. 

Grouse moor management is possibly the most successful conservation project in the world. Britain is home to 100 per cent of the world’s red grouse population, and 75 per cent of the world’s heather moorland resource, so our international responsibilities should not be underestimated.

Creating more of this cherished habitat and bringing it into good management would make a major conservation contribution to vegetation, small mammal and bird populations.

It is also a land use which produces ideal conditions for preservation of archaeology and excellent recreational facilities for walkers, mountain bikes and wheelchairs using the tracks that the three keepers would maintain.

In addition, properly managed heather, which is carefully burnt under rotation, produces the most nutritious vegetation for all grazing animals – sheep, deer and grouse – and also locks up more carbon than old heather when left largely unburned 

George Winn-Darley, Committee member, Moorland Association, Castle Park, Lancaster.

• Question: When does a cold wind feel far more bitter than it should?

Answer: When it happens to be a markedly magnetised cold wind.

Writing as a research worker of 20 years standing, it is my perception that this country was subjected to this particularly rare phenomenon in the week straddling the Vernal Equinox (Thursday, March 20) and especially so on that day itself.

Are there any Farmers Guardian readers across the country who found the weather during this period similarly unnatural?

I am particularly looking for individuals who were afflicted by perplexing ill health/fatigue during the time span and especially so livestock farmers who noticed accentuated incidences of ill health in their stock.

If my theories are correct, I would expect increased prevalence of conditions related to calcium deficiency, such as calcium responsive pregnancy toxaemia (twin lamb) in sheep and milk fever in cattle, as well as numerous conditions such as mastitis brought on by suppression of the immune system.

Rob Taylor, Home Farm, Littleton-on-Severn, near Bristol.