Letter: Green farming systems can revive the countryside

Sir: Your feature on the potential for "British farming to go green" was excellent (9 April).

The crunch comes when every consumer faces up to the impact that their purchasing decisions have on how the purchase is produced. They can also make sure it causes minimal pollution, both through transport and packaging, to name but two issues.

Some consumers may only consider the extra cost of an organic item versus its "conventional" rival. Others, and I suggest that they are the wise ones, see through the "cheapness" of the latter and appreciate the costs it imposes on all of society in cleaning up water, soil and air, not to mention human health.

Like many others, I prefer the imperfect shape or skin texture of food, knowing that the alternative probably carries a chemical residue, which although minute in actual terms, could be sufficient to trigger a reaction with another residual chemical and cause the health breakdowns that now afflict so many in our society. Eating organic food is a wise investment.

Oliver Dowding

Shepton Montague, Somerset