Letter: Animal testing

Sir: L W Phillips laments the loss of the wildlife that used to live on his patch (letter, 9 March) and lays the blame on food production. But has he stopped to consider the impact of his own patch? We are told he lives on the outskirts of Bromley, where Kent meets the suburbs of London. How do the outskirts of Bromley compare habitat-wise with what was there before?

The real problem is not chemicals or genes but the loss and the fragmentation of habitat. What wildlife in general, and birdlife in particular, need is for us to grow more of our food on less land. It is an interesting exercise to follow through the implications of that thought for agriculture and land use.

MAX BERAN

Didcot, Oxfordshire