Sir – A letter calling for the support of our farmers (August 30) unfortunately fails to raise some key issues about modern farming.
Firstly, farmers have for many years used their animals as the means to maximise profit by industrialising the process of farming. This results in suffering on an enormous scale, as animals are used as nothing more than producing units to be killed when they are no longer of financial worth. Farmers, far from being the guardians of our countryside, pollute the air, soil and water bodies on a huge scale.
The cost to bio-diversity from modern farming is huge, whether to birds, mammals or insects. To add to this, farming is among the most heavily subsidised industries in the UK through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Farming needs a radical overhaul for the good of animal welfare, the environment and consumers.
Paul Hughes, Carterton