In praise of our farmers
From Mr C. W. Aschan Sir: Your contributor Michael Hanlon's article (Throw them to the wolves', 21 September) is utterly irresponsible, shortsighted, offensive and unpleasant in its attack on our agriculture and farming community, to the point that I question its being given space in The Spectator. Without an assured permanently pacified world, economic arithmetic is not applicable in disregard of political and security considerations.
We would in both world wars have been starved into defeat without substantial contributions from our agriculture in feeding our overpopulated country. It does not occur to your contributor what our still beautiful landscape owes to the farming community for preserving what remains of our ancient culture, tradition and way of life. These values for him evidently do not exist, nor does our history.
We could import all our food, as long as we have money to pay for it and can afford to forget about our balance of payments. None of this occurs to your contributor. Neither do some millions of dislocated and dispossessed farmers and rural workers condemned into unemployment.
C. W Aschan
Appin, Argyll
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