SIR, – Although we share the same surname and probably live less than an hour’s journey apart, Brian Henderson and I are not related, and I don’t think we have ever even had a conversation.

Even if we did, we would probably agree on many things, including what the CAP and other forms of agricultural policies were and are about.

Duncan Pickard should be under no illusion that agricultural subsidies were not and are not, some form of rural social security. The subsidies in many countries were, and are, to encourage certain activities that were not, and are not, reliably delivered by market forces alone.

If those farming large farms were getting more, it was because they were also expected to do more. Of course, we all love a bargain, but bargains are usually bought at somebody else’s expense, and what people get cheap and abundant they generally use wastefully, because being frugal takes effort and attention.

Food at retail level is now less than half what it cost in real terms before we joined the EEC in the 1970s. People have to work far fewer hours to put the same amount of food on the table than they did back in the 1960s, and food banks were unheard of at that time.

At the present rate of subsidy, agriculture costs about £90 per head per year. This means, for a family of five, less than £10 per week and if one of the adults uses the train to get to work the rail companies will get more than that, just for him or her.

I don’t see Duncan Pickard and his ilk raising a storm of protest that Sir Richard Branson’s company should not get any because he is a rich man.

Just as too much salt or sugar in your diet is unhealthy, paying too little or too much for the basics of life (food, clothing, shelter, health and education) is unhealthy for society.

Sandy Henderson

Fauls Farm,

Braco.