SIR, – Does it come as a surprise that Scottish farm incomes are only £12,400 per annum?

That is not much considering most are working on a 40-hour week, or roughly 2000 hours in one year.

That income is below the minimum wage – but who cares what the prime producers get, as long as the masses get cheap food so they can have lots of money to spend on holidays!

All producers, be they grain or livestock, knows not the price the market will offer once it reaches its term, yet all the stuff we buy have a label telling us the retail price.

Why is it like that? And it is going to get worse, as our agri-minister, Andrea Leadstrom, has said that if we can get it cheaper elsewhere in the world that’s where we will source it. This is how those who have a dominant position work.

Yes, I know many in Scotland want to copy this trait, but it will only work in the short-term until they realise the folly of their ways.

Should a responsible government set a bottom on all agriculture produce, at least that would set a future.

When we see people that have ‘star’ status just by singing overnight they become millionaires, yet I doubt that the star scribe of Fife that grows 700 acres of grain slots into this category?

Why does society value entertainment more than food? What has gone wrong? Why is our industry viewed as paupers –surely we need a living as well?

We are getting tired of the same old song ‘Always look on the bright side of life’.

Angus A Macdonald

Balivanich,

Benbecula.