Letter: Going organic

Sir: Whatever possessed your leader writer to advocate "fewer and bigger farms, with a globally competitive cost base" (22 September)?

This from a paper which so regularly highlights the dramatic decline in farmland birds over recent decades and the need to reverse this with more environmentally sound agricultural practices. Your recent supplement on organic foods highlighted the spiralling demand for such produce, most of which is imported.

Organic farming not only encourages wildlife but creates jobs in rural areas and the sort of landscape which appeals to visitors to the countryside.

JANE E HARDY

Wymondham, Norfolk