Oh for pity's sake not another overtly emotionally public hand wringer, venting her spleen in an emotive rant. (From London!)

Ms Knight's article is precisely why people turn away from reading about the problems in the countryside.

During this outbreak of FMD I have been extremely heartened by the sense talked by the NFU et al, the views were factual and put over in a non confrontational manner and I listened. I simply refuse to take on board the type of nonsense talked by India Knight, the countryside is not depressed and it is not broken, up to this point farmers were diversifying and there were so many positive things happening in the countryside.

Farmers take courage, you will get over this and you will get back on track. I for one refuse to buy any meat that is not British and I also try to ensure that most of our fresh produce is British too, if we all did this farmers problems would be few and when troubles did arise they would be better placed to deal with them.

Elaine Dower, Dunstable, UK

This is an astonishing article , I am supprised that THE TIMES is so one sided. Why should farmers be subsidised by everyone else if they can't hack it in their business - get out. The idea that the Victorian small farms were better , lets go back there was also the time of children down mines , NO education for most , slavery , etc. When times are good farmers get HUGE subsidies from Brussels when bad they want More huge subsidies from you & me to be useless. This journalist is being very selective in her standpoint- does she also go bear baiting and cock fighting ?

John Brandler, BRENTWOOD, Essex

Clearly Ms Knight is not a vet or an agricultural correspondent as I would hope both groups have a better grasp of how farming and the coutryside really are. Having visited hundreds of farms very few house animals in industrial pens,in my area most use outdoor grazing at some stage so cattle in fields is not a rare sight. As has been pointed out vaccination was not used in the 2001 FMD outbreak because it affects our export status, and at the time it was not possible to differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals so even if vaccination had been used it would have had to have been in a vaccinate to slaughter context, even now vaccination is not the magic answer to solve the problem. While I agree with some sentiments, such as we need to be prepared to pay more for quality British produce from farmers markets, other 'facts' are plain wrong or Ms Knight knows some very dodgy farmers!

Emily , Warwickshire,

To Graham H in Shrewsbury and anyone else who considers farming in Britain to be an out-dated industry: how do you intend to eat? Would you have us import all our food from abroad, perhaps flown in at massive cost to the environment from Argentina and New Zealand? Are you prepared to consume meat that hasn't been subject to the rigorous UK legislation? Are you willing to rely on continued good relations with foreign powers to ensure we have a food source? Look how reliant upon others we are for our energy and see where that has lead us?
Farming in Britain is among the best in the world. Ms Knight is clueless if she thinks that cows no longer graze in meadows and that all farms are nothing more than factories. This article is dangerous and factually incorrect and is, sadly, typical of townie ignorance that undermines our fine farming industry.
And to Graham H: coal is back in South Wales.

Petre, London, UK

that's it!
don't buy cheap supermarket meat and buy local produce.
.................trouble is, how do we feed al the people in the cities on limited budgets, and want a bit or protein?

middleclassfoodie, aylesbury, bucks

India Knight is right, I'm afraid: farming in this country IS in a dire state and making glib statements about moaning farmers and subsidies only serves to expose the lazy, ignorant attitudes of consumers in the UK who are happy to buy cheap food without a second thought for the massive consequences that are now upon us and steadily growing worse. The SUPERMARKETS are the real problem but no-one - including the media, it seems - wants to get to grips with. In my opinion, their unfettered growth has had a massive, negative impact on this country. Without the vital controls on issues such as price, competition, profit and planning that are in place in many other countries, (and used to be here, to a certain extent) supermarkets in the UK have been allowed to run amock, making massive profits at the expense of consumers and farmers alike. The phrase "be careful what you wish for, it might come true" could have been invented for this cheap lifestyle we all seem to be trapped in.

Kate, St Albans, UK

What a shame these sorts of ideas of "let's support the poor old inefficient farmers" who make up a tiny proportion of the population didn't extend to the poor mugs who subsidise these farmers years ago when they worked down the mines or in shipyards or wherever. On second thoughts thank goodness they weren't subsidised or where would the country be? The idea that we should subsidise farming for its own sake is ridiculous until ALL land is accessible in Englandshire by the plebs who pay for it (£5 billion each and every year in subsidies). No other "nationalised industry" has been as feted as farming has been, but then again rich people don't want to play down mines or in shipyards but they are quite happy to play on farms, .... provided of course some badly paid pleb actually works the land for them. Good old blighty only "looked after herself" when the population was a fraction of what it is today, the empire grew our food remember. End ALL farm subsidies until land is open for ALL.

John, Dundee, UK

In whose twisted imagination is the British countryside starting to resemble Kansas?

I travel round the country a lot, cycling mostly - Sussex, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Devon, Cumbria - and I must say that (a) I regularly see cows grazing in meadows (b) I see no evidence of massive hedgerow destruction over the past decade and (c) i see lots of wildlife everywhere, no sign of destruction through chemicals. It looks very much like it always has done.

Phil Chamberlain, London,

What on earth are you trying to say in this please?

The countryside is made up of many diverse groups in diverse economic circumstances - very wealthy landowners to small holders and new rich arrivists.

We see cows & other livestock grazing literally every day. We see also some battery situations & agree they are awful & should be legislated against.

The fact that we ban foxhunting does not preclude other legislation which has sufficient support. It aint just foxes that kill other creatures.

Sunday we watched riders of all shapes, sizes, & ages riding a similar mix of mounts in an event through the local woods. Everyone on both sides behaved impecably needing no red outfits to arff around in following a bunch of dangerous hounds.

Unhappy farmers are always with us that is what they do. Unlike manufacturing they think they have a God given right to subsidies that are never enough. Thank you is as rare as tidy, clean farms without old tyres and large rusting silos

michael taylor, Delhi, India

I totally agree with Liz's comments. I do live in Devon and, whilst we do see a some farmers and food producers in the region suffer, local, organic food and produce is promoted throughout the region. Some farmers, will indeed suffer - and this is partly down to the supermarkets - but as the article so rightly points out - it is also due to our consumer culture.

I hope that some of Devon's ethos does become more prevalent throughout the UK - it might just lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of how special - oh yes - and how happy we are. I find this article's comments on how we are, quite astonishing - as this is not something that we experience, indeed we are used to seeing incredibly stressed and rather ashen city dwellers visiting us during their summer hols and feel rather lucky that we aren't part of "their world".

Sam, Devon,

I read the article with interest and it produced that same familiar chill that runs down my back whenever I read articles or ponder the state of our poor farming (and farmers) these days.

Also, I will not start waxing lyrical and looking back through rose-tinted glasses to days past, but why, oh why (EEC membership or not) can we not go back to the days when good old Blighty looked after herself?

Mel Clarke, Chesterfield, United Kingdom

Taxing airfuel would reverse this trend overnight,giving super markets the bloody nose they deserve.

WAYNE, HUNTINGDON, CAMBS

1. 'I can't understand why we can't vacinnate our livestock'. Since another report claimed this incident to be on an organic farm, someone would have to give in on that one.Would you force organic producers to vacinnate? What would their Luddite customers say? 2. PJ wanted to know why Argentinian beef couldn't be bought in Britain, claiming it wasn't raised in conditions that cause disease. Hoof 'n mouth is widespread in the southerly regions of America. My vet from down there was surprised that in the last British outbreak, travellers from Britain were banned from going to our ranches but he could go home and come back to Albertan ranches without restriction. Grass raised may have lower incidence of some diseases but not H 'n M. 3. Slaughterhouses should have glass walls only after abortuaries do.

warren, near Calgary, Alberta

While I agree with parts of this article, I'm afraid that some of it is just plain wrong.

Plenty of animals do still graze in the fields, and don't live in these industrial pens to which India refers - keeping stock outside is cheaper, housing them costs money.

It's time that we face the uncomfortable reality - if we as consumers are determined to go along with the wickedness of the supermarkets in promoting the cheap food myth, then we cannot moan at farmers trying to maintain margins by increasing intensity.

There is no such thing as cheap food - the cost is just hidden. Poor animal welfare, environmental damage, the destruction of rural communities as farms go bust - that is the true cost of the cheap food myth peddled by supermarkets.

Take for example milk - do you know what you pay for it? Probably not. Farmers are paid around 18ppl on average for it - you will pay around 52ppl. Guess who is taking all that lovely margin.

Liz, Preston,

"fed herbivores old bits of rank, random meat, thereby turning them into cannibals"


Not true in UK anymore, meat and bone meal and even fishmeal banned for a number of years from diets of ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats). This also applies to using hormones and antibiotics in the diets of these animals. But don't buy imported beef or lamb - not always the case in other countries.

Generally, I agree with many of the points made but, as always with technical issues, a little more research needed.

Nick Offer, Ayr, Scotland

I've been a vegetarian for 15 years (as has my son) and I cannot think of anything more disgusting than eating an animals flesh. Personally, i think that evolution is changing us so that meat is becoming posionous to our bodies. It causes certain cancers, raises cholestrol, contributes to obestiy and diabetes. In effect, it is killing us.

I have compassion for all things weaker than me and which I have 'power' over, therefore I could no more keep an animal in tortuorus and inhumane conditions only to kill it than I could a child so I think it would be hypocritical of me to eat one.

kim, london,

If by chance eveyone goes vegetarian, then there will be no sheep grazing the hills at all. There will be no cattle for beef, and remember this, even a dairy herd has to either kill the [50 %] born as male calves at birth! Or let them grow up for beef, unless some townies want to keep them as pets!

DAVID VINTER, Louth, Lincs,, UK.

"The rest of Europe is, once again, shaking its head at Britain. "

What delicious irony coming fro a Brit who has relocated to France. This is the same France that caused enormous problems to our farming industry (and that of other efficient farming countries) by their selfish and cavalier attitude to the CAP.

The writer may care to reflect also on the fact that France is a far larger country than us, with a very similar population. Thus we have a population density of 243 people per sq km against France's 113 per sq km. It was easy for their farmers to plod along on bigger farms, producing not very much and still getting huge subsidies from everyone else.

John Annis, London,

There are a few inacuracies in the article.

CAP - Subsidies are no longer paid on production. They are paid parly on acreage and partly on historical payments. Some years ago they were paid on production, DEFRA will provide you with details.

Your last paragraph needs expanding. Farmers in the UK would rather stop farming than produce ''trash''. However if the UK farmers did cease production, imported food would be inferior so you could well end up with foreign ''trash'' on your plate.

Corrine says that farmers sold their soul to the supermarket. I'm afraid that consumers dictated the situation. If the UK housewife decides to buy all her groceries from the supermarket, farmers have no option but to supply them as that is the market . There are plenty of independant butchers around. If the UK housewife swithches her shopping habit then farmers will be glad to supply the local butchers.

To answer one of your questions we haven't vaccinated because we couldn't export

Tim from Sherborne, Sherborne, Dorset

I had been fighting my concience for ten years before giving up meat 2 months ago. Now I don't miss it a bit. If more people did the same, maybe the conditions that animal have to endure would improve.

Chris King, Munich, Germany

Im an englishman who works in France Each night I gather chickens , turkeys , ducks etc for the market..It has to be said that it is not just the animals who suffer. The conditions of employment are horrific. Most of us suffer from respitory problems . The work is intense - a lorry full of chickens in an hour. Back problems and injuries are rife. The work is well known as the most difficult of all agricultural jobs. We have none of the protection often shown on the television during a crisis. Often we have no place to change and no running water.
To have healthy animals and healthy workers the price of poultry must increase.

Terry taylor, Hennebont, France

(Continuing the previous post).
Those who are saying grow crops instead obviously don't know that a vast proportion of our countryside can only grow grass (either because of quality of the land, as on the moors and mountains, or because of the terrain - try growing crops in fields that you can't get a tractor on ). Grass and Fish are the only natural sources of Omega 3 fats and eating grass-fed meat is the only way we can access that in grass (and drinking milk from grass-fed dairy cows - pay more for milk and farmers won't have to feed their cows on concentrates to produce more milk. Down here in Devon and Cornwall there are more organic farmers than anywhere else in UK and they haven't had to do much to change their systems as most conventional farmers are small family farms with extensive low-input systems. go to cornish-farms or devon farms and try a farm holiday!

J Rider, Launceston,

In many ways an excellent article. People should be more aware of where their food comes from and should ask questions about how it is raised. Eat less meat and ensure that the meat you eat has been produced humanely.
But I'm left wondering when India was last in the countryside. It's been many years since it was possible to bury any farm animals on farm (and all cattle have passports and are easily traced). Subsidies on food production have also gone. Expect prices to rise, not because supermarkets will be paying farmers more, but without subsidies farmers will not carry on producing at a loss.
And the countryside I know and love is full of wildflowers, insect and bird life, thick hedgerows, and fields of grazing animals. - and I've run out of space and will continue in next posting.

J Rider, Launceston,

Farming is just a much an outdated industry in a modern economy the UK as Coal Mining - time to move on ...

GrahamH, sHREWSBURY, uk

For someone who spends a lot of time berating 'urbanites' for their ignorance of the country you're not very well informed about why many in the farming community, to pick one, aren't crying out for their livestock to be vaccinated.

Wise up, and get your facts straight.

Andy M, liverpool,

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't it against the law to kill and bury livestock on your own land? But, hey, since when did farmers bother to comply with pesky laws or worry about what the rest of the world thinks? These 'guardians of the countryside' spent the best part of a century ruining the landscape to make money, and now only conserve things the taxpayer pays them not to rip out.

Ditches and streams are full of fertiliser bags, and most farmyards have an interesting 'feature' of a mound of broken and rusting machinery thrown round the back where supposedly no-one will see it. Farmers ALWAYS blame others for their misfortunes, despite spending their entire lives being supported by taxpayers, and their continual whining and whingeing fools right-wing townies into thinking they're the only people with problems. They're not, they just whinge more.

Graeme Bell, Dinan, France

I haven't eaten red meat in many years. Years ago, I had the misfortune of watching a documentary on slaughter houses on television. What I saw sickened me, and I still have a strong visceral reaction when I think of it. Call me a soft, Bambi loving tree hugger if you wish, but I believe that animals deserve much more care and respect than what we give them. Animals perceive and feel pain and fear. I certainly hope that India is correct; that in 100 years we will look back on this period of time with disgust and revulsion. I, for one, will never eat dead animal flesh again.

Dr. Jean Oertel, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

It is good to hear this from an omnivore. As a vegetarian i think we have a bad image and get tarred with the same brush as PETA / ALF etc, so it is refreshing to hear someone else raising the issue of the appauling standards in the meat industry.

A very well written article.

Ed, Berkhamsted, Herts

will someone put together a chart showing foot and mouth out breaks in all the beef producing countrys in the world. (im sure it can be done). you will find britain down at the bottom end of the list. this foot and mouth out break gets blown up out of all proportions. as one of your letter writers said he would prefer argentinian meat (the country was rife with foot and mouth)he/she should try some good old aberdeen angus or maybe some irish beef. you cant beat it ! the uk/irland has some of the best beef livestock in the world. uk beef is produced to the highest standard and is monitored from walking in to going out in a vacuum pack and is traceable from the shelf back to the farm it came from.

m j, preston,

The reason that people aren't interested in hearing about the state of the farms is that it's usually talked about by evangelical vegetarians with an agenda. The result is that the public see a false dicotomy of being asked to pick between vegetarianism (which they don't want) or supporting the status quo.

And that's assuming the tales aren't dismissed as merely the ficticious propaganda of the lentil eaters.

The idea that it's OK to eat animals but there's no reason why they shouldn't have a decent life first is such an anathema that the protestors would rather fail to convert the population to vegetarianism than actually save animals from a life of suffering.

Katie Lucas, Cambridgeshire,

I used to make an effort to visit my farmers' market every Saturday until I read an article in The Times that the produce comes mainly from wholesalers who also supply supermarkets. So why bother?
Now I buy organic meat from M&S only.
Battery reared meat is a major cause of obesity. Cheap means people eat more than they need. This country looks like America now, full of obese people. Ugly.
Good quality and ethically reared meat may be more expensive but you eat less because you are savouring every morsel. Ultimately cheaper.

kt, London,

This article is "spot on." I don't know whether it's worse or better over here on this side of the pond but my granddaughter, who often picked and ate wild blackberries with my wife, was confonted the other day with a fruit salad and immediately stuffed a handful of huge, picture perfect blackberries in her mouth. Then spat them out, "these aren't blackberries" she complained. "Yes they are honey" her mother patted her back. "No they're not" she insisted and when I tasted one myself I saw she was right, they tasted so bland and insipid I might have been eating flavorless dough. Butter is the same way, when I tasted butter made the old-fashioned was some years ago I realized I'd never tasted butter before, not real butter. Butter apparently, used to be flavorful enough people spread it on crackers as a treat. And you can run right down the list of common supermarket items the same way.

Something is wrong with the way we produce our foods.

Richard Miniter, Stone Ridge, New York, U.S.A.

Who is this person you know that culls his cattle and buries them on the farm? Farm burrial is band and bo farmer is subsidised for keeping cattle. I wish a newspaper of your quality could get its facts straight - this does nothing to help.

jane gould, fordingbridge, hants

Gandhi said,"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
I think that in the next ten or twenty years, there will have to be a basic decision made: do we grow crops to feed animals who are then eaten, or do we grow crops to feed the world?
Simple as that.

Paula Tempest, Deal, Kent

The comment about a farmer rearing subsidised stock and then culling them at home and burying because there he can't afford to market them can only be called a malicious lie.This is the kind of throwaway comment that does so much damage to the industry and makes farmers like myself blood boil.No farmer is subsidised to keep stock and on farm burial is banned and with cattle passports the whereabouts of every cattle beast is known even if they are dead.

Scott Baird, Newburgh, Fife

Every now and again I read an article like this or see something on the TV, and I mend my ways and stop buying supermarket meat and processed meat products .... but then like most things I eventually fall back into my bad old ways, mostly I guess caused by the fact that supermarkets are so successful for a reason, they are convenient and cheap! I wish I had the enduring self discipline to boycott 'wrong' meat, maybe this time I'll try a bit harder?

Steve D, Loughborough, LEICS

I must congratulate the writer on a brilliant piece. I am also not a vegetarian. The standards of the UK meat industry are generally a disgrace, and it is too easy for supermarket shoppers to adopt a 'head in the sand' attitude to the disgraceful practices especially in the 'cheap meat' sector.
Whilst the British continue to consider a 'flash' car or plasma TV far more important than a quality everyday diet for them selves and their children, then price will drive the meat industry down to the current depths of mass cruelty and immorality. Blame, once again, must be aimed largely at the supermarkets, for driving everything down to a 'price point'. and for treating the British Farmer with utter disrespect.
Let's support the Farmers Markets.

Fraser, Saffron Walden, UK

Abattoirs should be small and have glass walls. If you eat meat you should see and recognise the whole process.
It should be law that no animal to be slaughtered should travel more than 20miles. It is rank stupidity and cruelty to transport animals the length of the country or even internationally for slaughter.
The chicken is the most cursed creature on this planet, they suffer a miserable death after an even more miserable life. If you eat cheap chicken you contribute to this systematic cruelty.
The old adage is.....you are what you eat?? So is it a wonder that modern people are incubating various diseases, maladies and so many depressed and dispirited?
I am not a vegetarian by the way but I do demand that animals have a good life, in optimum conditions and have a humane quick death with as little stress as possible.

Jane Prior, Whiteway, Canada

Dear India Knight:

I agree with your vegetarian friend. The inhumane beef, pork, lamb and poultry industries mistreat animals and they also cause massive air, land, and water pollution. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all become vegetarians." I did it decades ago for animal welfare reasons.

Brien Comerford, Glenview, United States

This is yet another fine mess that the farming community has to endure. How can DEFRA even think about bringing the infected dead stock through three/four counties to be incinerated. What about leakage from the lorries, what about the contamination on the lorry wheels as they motor through to Somerset. And the return trip? What then? Are the public being regarded as total idiots. How glibly this government rides its rollercoaster ride. Flood ,plague ,famine, oh yes and boom and bust. We havn't seen anything yet .

Mrs Maggie Snook, wool wareham, Dorset UK

The Blair government allowed large corporations to ride roughshod over the rest of us in return for ''political contributions''.

Blair may have gone seemingly but the corrupt dogma will persist amongst the over-fed 'New' Labour politicians who are now used to the good life in return for rubber-stamping policies of government and fat corporations alike.

K Urban, London, UK

I agree,India.I gave up eating red meat during the beef scare and have never gone back to it.(I couldn't physically put a piece in my mouth-tho' I do own to eating chicken breast and salmon/wish I didn't-but felt ill when I went vegan.I do worry about drinking milk(soya doesn't suit )as calves are taken away from their mums.)I felt sick yesterday when I saw those lovely cows being corralled ready for slaughter.I know I'm a true "townie" but I do worry about these things.H.D.

H.Ducker, W.s.Mare, UK

I guess I'm lucky. I'm not so poor that I have to survive on supermarket meat and veg.

Three years ago I started to buy meat from a farmer who raises 'rare breeds' and sells from his farm. OK, the stuff is about 25% more expensive that the supermarket, but apart from the slaughter fee, it all goes to the farmer. As a result, we eat meat from animals that have been treated well, fed well, and haven't been shipped half-way across the country to be killed.

Chickens are a difficult issue because a 3 1/2 pound chicken from a decent organic supplier cost in the region of £7.50. The upside, however, is that the meat actually tastes like chicken used to do.

We try to buy most veg from local suppliers, but fruit is becoming more difficult. Where have all our apple and pear orchards gone? Why can't you get a Worcester Pearmain anymore?

All told, I think it's better to eat a little less of things that have flavour than loads of stuff that is cheap but tasteless

Chris Palmer, Southampton, UK

My father in law is a farmer and he explained some of the gigantism at play. When you buy 1 of a product and get the second half price, it is not the supermarket that takes the hit in profit but the farmer. If they don't like it - the supermarket moves to another supplier. Win win for the supermarket.

Elizabeth, Sydney,

Tesco made profits of over £2.2bn in 2006. You don't need to look much further, PJ of London, to see why farming is financially unviable. This isn't comparable to the decline of manufacturing industries.

R Tighe, Brighton,

What an excellently written article, which hits the nail squarely on the head when it comes to the reasons for the sad state of the British Farming industry.

If this outbreak spreads then there will be more bankruptcies and more suicides and very soon Britain - which manufactures hardly anything any more - will almost cease to produce even its own food.

The rest of Europe is, once again, shaking its head at Britain. Brown, Blair, and - most of all - the urbanites who now make up almost all of the UK: you're all to blame.

When the prime demands on food are low price and high quantity then this is exactly what you get.

Jon Leigh, Southern, France

Robert, I am with you and your farmer's daughter entirely.Knowing some farmers and their woes intimately, I reel in horror at what New Labour has wrought on the countryside and its keepers. The foot and mouth reaction last time around made of England a grotesque spectacle.
Gigantism notwithstanding, people need to avoid the 'cheap' meats in the superstores, and look to locally generated produce. If our children could just grow up wiht that in the forefront of their minds, and be encouraged to avoid Macdonalds and Wendy's of Wimpy or whatever, some raising of consciousness might emerge,and some sense in government too.

richardinzhuhai, Bideford, UK

if we take the time and understand the food we eat today,eating beef infected wth foot and mouth is the least of our worries.britain treats its animals better than it it children, poor and elders,the outbreak, is just a simtem of a society base on greed not humanity.

michael joseph heavey, cahersiveen/adams town, madness

Why can't I buy beef from Argentina? That's the real scandal. It's delicious and not raised in the conditions that promote disease. My great grandfather could and this is one of the areas where globalisation has gone backwards in the last century. Farmers who cannot make a living from farming should change careers like everybody else in that situation: it's been obvious for decades that this industry has no future in Britain, and, like coal mining, was only kept alive by subsidies.

PJ, London,

I have sympathy for the farmers but also feel that they are not blameless in all of this - did they sell their souls to the great god 'the supermarket'? Now that the supermarkets are in control they are squeezing the farmers left right and centre. (is Voldemort behind it all?) I refuse to buy any meat now especially chicken from anywhere but my local butcher who only sells meat that is produced in our local area.

Corinne Boyd, Leicester, England

The contrast between rural Britain and rural France is alarming and this article (which, incidentally, is pretty much spot on) basically reminds me of why I left the UK - a place that is rapidly becoming a concrete Urban lunatic asylum speckled with the occasional (shrinking) empty field and with a staple diet not far removed from pigswill.

Jon Leigh, Southern, France

On farm burial of stock is illegal so Ms Knights friend is either a liar or a criminal. The whole article shows no understanding of Farming at all UK producers only supply 60% of UK needs the rest is imported, Ms Knight needs to speak to real farmers in the real countryside to get some real facts.

Michael Johnston, Keith, Scotland

Why,Why, Why in the face of Foot and Mouth, 22hrs after the livestock movement ban is there a lorry load of sheep in transit from Bicester to an Anglesey farm parked up on the A55 in North Wales??? Why are DEFRA letting these sheep move to a farm??? Why are they not going staight to slaughter??? 21,000 breeding sheep were given a special licence to be moved from the market all over the country without first being tested for disease!!! WHY?

Viv Roberts, anglesey,

When I lived in a small village in Northumberland my neighbour was a country boy through and through. But he had gone to work on a local farm and that experience turned him into a vegetarian.

In the previous ouitbreak of foot and mouth, the farmer concerned was shipping livestock the entire length of the country. That doesn't make sense, either from an animal welfare or disease point of view.

Everything points to the fact that we should head back to a situation where local communities grow and raise their own produce.

Robert, Manchester, UK