Would it be rash to put a tax on bacon?

BRITAIN’S problem is processed food, so it’s the producers and supermarkets who should be taxed, not the shoppers. This also applies to the farmers who mix animal feed for livestock with antibiotics and steroids. During wartime rationing, my grandad raised a few pigs on his smallholding which helped put food on the table for our extended family. Whole sides of bacon would hang from the kitchen beams. On this diet, my grandparents lived into their 90s. Following their example, I enjoy two or three bacon and tomato sandwiches a week. Politicians taxing red meat and bacon do so at their peril. There is nothing wrong with good, wholesome food in moderation.

IAN WRESSELL, Scunthorpe, Lincs. IF BACON is killing us, how come the generation that tucked into fry-ups are living far longer than those before or since? I have eaten large quantities of all the things the so-called experts reckon are so bad for us yet I’m still here!

JOHN EVANS, Wokingham, Berks.

INSTEAD of a meat tax, why not have a meatless Monday? This would reduce red meat consumption by a seventh while keeping it affordable for families. A price hike will inflate better cuts that are out of reach for most people while a better husbandry target will, ironically, fail our animals. People will end up buying cheaper cuts from animals that have been poorly raised.

S. WILKIE, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

WHAT is the point of taxing food? Let’s just eat what we enjoy. Natural selection will bump off us piggies early. At least we won’t be a drain on a society in which care for the elderly has a low priority.

JUNE HOWE, Henwood, Herts.