Letter : 'Organic' cows might have eaten dangerous cattle feed too

Your articles highlight the problem of "bad food" - food produced under conditions likely to cause food allergies and intolerance. For years I suffered from multiple physical and mental symptoms. When psychiatry failed, my GP tried diet, eliminating certain foods, and my health improved immediately.

Confined herds develop sickness and injections of drugs are consumed by humans in meat and milk. Wheat, which is treated with chemicals before sowing and sprayed with pesticides when growing, is a problem for many people. Other crops, vegetables and fruit, poultry and eggs, may be similarly tainted.In addition, food additives - chemicals used as food cosmetics, preservatives and processing aids - have been linked to food intolerance and disorders, especially in children.

There must be an optimum size for a dairy farm where cattle can graze on essential herbs as well as grass, and, as an additional benefit, if farms were more labour-intensive fewer lives would be wasted on the dole. It would take effort to reform methods of food production but it would be worthwhile.

E M Knowles

Oxford