LETTER: Fertiliser facts

From Mrs Joyce Unwins

Sir: While agreeing with David Bellamy's views on world population, I was concerned to noteerrors in his article on China today ("Is China really so bad?", 12 January). The fall in world grain output is mostly attributable to the disastrous agricultural situation in most of the countries in the former Soviet Union and central Europe rather than "ever-rising levels of fertiliser application". In fact, world fertiliser consumption has dropped dramatically since 1990.

Furthermore, although China is a large user of organic fertilisers, it is also the world's largest consumer of mineral (or chemical) fertilisers. That China can feed itself is mainly due to the low per capita consumption of meat: increasing prosperity among the Chinese population means that demand for meat will rise, necessitating substantial increases in grain output for feedstock.

Yours faithfully,

Joyce Unwins

London, N8

12 January