Sir,

Regarding your front page story, where we hear from farmer Jim Barrie that he is willing to corrupt our food source to 'survive'!

Tut-tut, Mr Barrie, you are no prophet for agriculture's future if you or your kind has this type of attitude towards the health of the country. What kind of reaction can we get from the public if they are concerned that our farmers are will to act like a profit prophets?

Look at the USA – the food that they produce and eat is turning the people into monsters of fat, and paranoia, seeing Russians everwhere!

Surely that example cannot be our vision to feed the population?

We already work with questionable chemicals, that have a degree of control, but to open the floodgates of shortcuts to produce meat and cereals, that should be a no-no to any sane person.

But there is another side of 'survival' – we all want fancy toys, and they do not come cheap, like the big Fendt combine on the front page that would be more at home on the Steppes or the Prairie working 24/7 throughout the season, rather than the corners of Scotland?

Then the super-rich farmers bleat that they need more subsidy, again 'to survive'.

Will I send you a picture of my stony croft? Yet many of my generation and before survived and we were very happy and content and satisfied with what little we produced for the food chain.

Angus A Macdonald,

Balivanich,

Benbecula