Subsidies are a must for farmers

I am not a farmer, so I have no vested interest in supporting the industry. I have always been a supporter of capitalism and the market economy.

However, serious considered thought has always brought me to the conclusion that subsidy to the farming industry is a must.

Farming is the only large commercial enterprise which involves the rearing and trading of animals, the growing of crops and is inextricably linked with the environment and all the creatures that live within and above it.

The free enterprise, capital system involves the maximum output from the least input. The profit resulting is the measure of how efficiently this was carried out.

If this was to happen to farming then I predict that this would have a debilitating effect on livestock and the ecosystem.

So I would ask anybody, especially the politicians who are of the opinion of ending subsidies to farmers, to treat this with extreme caution.

Roger Sharples, Clungunford