Letter: Unnatural farming

Sir: Brian Moore claims that food today is cleaner, healthier and cheaper than it has ever been (letter, 1 September). Surely what people really want is food that is safe, and factory farming and other unnatural practices cannot give us this.

More than 40 people have died from eating BSE-infected beef. Salmonella is endemic in poultry. Food animals are routinely given antibiotics as prophylactics and growth promoters.

It is clear that unnatural feed and the drugs that enable animals to survive the misery of factory farming are always likely to endanger our health. At the individual level, the solution is vegetarianism or veganism. At the European level, factory farming should be banned for our sake as well as for the sake of the animals.

JUSTINE LINDLEY

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

London SW18