The world is Britain’s fruit basket and we grow plenty of veg at home
SIR – Potatoes, onions, cabbages carrots and leeks are grown in Britain. We do not depend on the EU for these (Jane Shilling, Comment, July 30). After harvest they are kept in cool dark storage and released as required.
I remember an edition of Countryfile in which the presenter asked a farmer: “How many leeks do you grow?” Leaning on his £750,000 Gps-guided plough-drill-weed-harvest machine in a field stretching to the horizon, the farmer answered “Two hundred and eighty million.”
We do not need the EU for basics. We import produce from countries outside the EU, such as Morocco, and could get much more, nicer, fresher fruit from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in season, not released from six months’ cold storage. Gay Murton
Aberdeen
SIR – Yesterday we had on the BBC a spokesman for the British Sandwich Association warning us that the BLT sandwich would be at risk should there be a no-deal Brexit. Enough is enough. In place of Project Fear Mark II, we need Project Hope to highlight the potential benefits to us of Brexit. Anthony Lee
Wells, Somerset
SIR – Richard Phillips (Letters, August 1) suggests that, with the volume of Britain’s wheat harvest reduced by drought, wheat destined for use as biofuel should be diverted to make more bread. This is not possible.
As a wheat farmer for over 35 years, I know that wheat used to make bread must come from those known as Group 1 varieties, with a high protein and carbohydrate content (allowing bread to rise in an oven). Wheat used for fermentation will almost certainly come from Group 3 and 4 varieties, used for inclusion in animal feed rations. Simon Collins
Harlow, Essex
SIR – Livestock farmers are suffering throughout the country from valuable straw being used as fuel in power plants. Premium prices being paid for straw for energy can be in the region of £200 a ton when the feed or bedding value is £60. Livestock farmers cannot compete with the big energy companies.
Surely economic milk and meat production is more important than government-subsidised energy policies.
The same principle applies to the thousands of acres sown to forage maize, rye grass and other exotic crops being used to fuel anaerobic digestion biofuel plants up and down the country to produce “cheap” energy when that highly productive land could be producing high quality crops and vegetables to feed the nation.
If the Government is so intent on subsidised energy, a more costeffective method would be to encourage commercial property developers to add solar panels to the roofs of all new industrial buildings. Nicholas Turner
Oasby, Lincolnshire