Eat everything

What an excellent piece by Jim Duffy (Perspective, 9 February). The ethics of rearing animals for human consumption is, of course, not a new subject of discussion. Take, for example: “There is much talk of the misery which we cause to the brute creation; but they are recompensed by existence. If they were not useful to man, and therefore protected by him, they would not be nearly so numerous. But the question is, whether the animals who endure such sufferings of various kinds, for the service and entertainment of man, would accept of existence upon the terms on which they have it.” (Dr Samuel Johnson 1776 ).

We have to realise that if we only had organic farming and the bulk of the population was restricted to an essentially vegetarian diet, Scotland could not support its existing population, as was the case in the last decade of the 17th century when ten per cent of a population of only about one million perished, essentially from starvation.

Use your teeth as the best guide to diet. You have incisors, canines and molars; in other words you are an omnivore and require such a diet for a healthy existence.

(DR) A MCCORMICK

Kirkland Road Terregles, Dumfries