Setting an example by buying home grown food

The abiding impression I have is that British farming is not getting much support, either from the Government or the public.

All shoppers seem to want is cheap food, no matter what the cost to the farmer. The price paid for milk is just one example.

It is far too cheap for all the work that goes into producing it. The supermarkets drive the price so low that the farmers can barely make a living, and quantity over quality appears to be the norm. The same seems to be the case with meat and poultry production.

Where is Government support for the farmers and why are they constantly facing an uphill struggle to keep their farms afloat?

Is it a British thing that we don't consider our own industries worth the effort? In these new days of food insecurity and depleting oil reserves, our own food supplies would seem to be of the utmost importance. I'm only one person but I do try to do my bit by buying British produce.

I hope other readers will join me and set the Government an example.

From: Cathy MacKay, Bailey Hills Road, Bingley, West Yorkshire.

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From: Annie Graham, Sainsbury's head of brand sustainability, agriculture and health.

As your story in Country Week on December 12 made clear, developing a British loaf is not an easy thing.

Two years ago, we announced our multi-million pound deal to use British flour guaranteed from UK traceable farms, in our 400 in-store scratch bakeries.

Since the beginning of this year, we have now moved to using 100 per cent of flour sourced in this way.

More than 60,000 tonnes of wheat is grown annually by Camgrain, a farmer co-operative based in East Anglia. In September, Sainsbury's became the first retailer to use 100 per cent British flour in the biggest section of our own label sliced bread.

The source of the ingredients is a key issue for us and very important to our customers, and by sourcing British flour we're able to establish an efficient and traceable UK food chain which underpins our commitment to British farmers.

From: Pamela Frankland, Hull Road, Dunnington, York.

PERHAPS Bill Tetlow of Exelby (Country Week, December 5) missed the episode where Adam on Countryfile said his father started the many rare breeds kept by them for film and TV work.

A lucrative diversification? We in farming are continually encouraged to diversify, so many farmers have "foreign" animals and birds on their farms. In any case, what is an "average" farmer?

We are all in farming to make a living – whatever enterprise or path we must take to do so. I think a touch of envy has crept in with Sarah Todd and Mr Tetlow and other critics, we all can make one's own luck, so I suggest we do so.

It is possible some people think Sarah is in an enviable position with her writing, or Mr Tetlow his way of life.

AG Street was no doubt right regarding his writing – we farmers have always known there is little money in the job, but we love it and once a farmer, always a farmer.

From: TG Pickles, The Homestead, Thornton in Craven, Near Skipton.

I WOULD like to comment about feeding birds. A most distressing occurrence happened in my garden. I had fat balls in their nets out for the birds. A woodpecker got its tongue caught in the netting and in escaping pulled its tongue out.

I urge readers to take the fat balls out of the netting and put them in a specific feeder. The RSPB is giving similar advice.