25 Moseley Woad Lane, Cookridge, Leeds Sir: In his admirable
reply to Douglas Jay's article concerning food prices Ernest Wistrich rebutted its most obvious inanities.
There is a further major point that Douglas Jay never seems to have considered. Over the last five years the farmers' costs have virtually doubled of everything he uses which are necessary to produce food; machinery, labour, building costs, fertilisers, sprays, fuels, so even if feeding stuffs fall in price, this would only be one of the factors involved.
If farmers were asked again to produce wheat at £25 a ton, they could not do so; a farmer would simply lay his farm down to grass and go back to the dog and stick farming of the depressed 'thirties, that is if he thought it worthwhile to continue farming at all. J. M. Rampton Easton Lodge, Easton, Nr Norwich
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