Letter: Save our soil, go organic

From Dr Helen C. Grant

Sir: During the war, the health of this nation as a whole was better than it had been before 1939 and better than it has been since. This is largely due to the fact that we then had a separate Ministry of Food which had nothing whatever to do with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

All our foods were "organic", produced by hard work on the land, much of it carried out by women. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries must once more be separated from the Ministry of Food: until this is achieved we can expect to go on suffering poisoned food.

Organo-phosphates were known in the early 1970s to be toxic and the fact that they are still used as pesticides and as sheep-dip - thus poisoning foods and farmers alike - is nothing short of scandalous.

Yours faithfully,

H. C. GRANT,

London, NW3

17 May