Waste not . . .

SECRETARY of State for Environment, Food and rural affairs Michael Gove is to be congratulated for trying to prevent food wastage.

While we should be encouraged to be more thoughtful in our shopping, meal plans and using leftovers, we are not the only guilty ones.

Farmers are forced to discard massive amounts of quality food by the supermarkets because it does not measure up to the required dimensions of an arbitrary body that demands a shape or size that has nothing to do with taste or flavour.

a bent cucumber tastes just as good as a straight one. Food is about nutrition and flavour, so why judge it on irrelevant criteria?

TONY CLARK, Leicester. I AGREE it is unacceptable to waste food, but have you tried to buy the amount you actually want in a supermarket? With most produce sold as three for the price of two, you need a big freezer just to keep pace.

T. J. WILKINSON, Dibden, Hants. NO MATTER what advice we are given about not wasting food, it’s easier said than done.

retailers are in it to sell more, not less. If less food is wasted, they will sell less, which won’t please their shareholders. Farmers will have to produce less, which won’t help keep them in business.

as in all such initiatives, it comes down to money. and, as usual, you will find plenty of support for changes — but only when it’s at someone else’s expense. P. LACY, Nottingham.