RE Tony Kelly's letter about farming (HAS, June 2). To depict British farming as largely a ruthless wave of intensive farms producing food laced with all manner of chemical poisons is ridiculous.

The North-East in particular has retained an abundance of small family-run farms compared with the rest of the country. But as reports consistently show, more British farmland is being put into environmental management, the length of hedgerows is increasing, more trees are being planted, and wildlife populations are increasing.

Farmers and growers are doing this while meeting increasing demand for commodity foods and for local and niche products, as well as supplying the developing markets for sustainable bio-energy that are so important in the battle against climate change.

Intensive livestock systems are a necessary element if we are to meet demand for affordable meat products without bringing millions more hectares of forest and natural areas into cultivation across the world.

The great thing about modern farming is that, by enabling us to produce more food from fewer acres, more space can be left for wildlife. In that context, the "intensive farming" so often criticised can be seen as a thoroughly good thing.

Martin Haworth, Director of Policy, National Farmers' Union, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.

IN his response to Tony Kelly's letter about farming (HAS, June 2), MT Walton claims that "we in our small country could not feed ourselves" (HAS, June 7). Is this true?

From what I've heard, Great Britain was pretty much selfsufficient during the Second World War, and no doubt we could be again, given the will and the invention of the polytunnel.

In fact, if we did that, we could cheerfully return to Mr Kelly's idyllic rural landscape with intensive small-scale farming producing all our foodstuffs and providing plenty of employment.

That, in turn, would mean a drop in demand for imported food, and the huge amounts of fuel needed to bring it around the world. Then, fewer Third World nations would risk being turned into enormous biofuel plantations to keep the Western world in the style to which we've become accustomed - the sinister scenario that Mr Walton so rightly highlights.

That, I hope, should reconcile the two correspondents.

Paddy Burton, Sunniside, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.