IT IS not a case of town verses country (Helen Mead, September 30).

My pig farm depended on 'townies' to buy my produce but the in-betweens have so forced down ex-farm prices for the past five years I have to stop production before I am forced to.

A few more pence a kilo would have made all the difference to me and hardly have been noticed by the shopper.

Has anyone noticed the pork price fall of 20p a kilo recently? That is the price reduction I have recently taken ?

My farm has been strangled by costly red tape and my price has been based on the lowest anywhere in the world.

Forget about food safety, animal welfare and the effect of transport on the climate, price is king. By killing off our pig farms, animal cruelty world wide will vastly exceed any reduction if hunting is banned. In future, more pork and bacon sold will come from caged and mutilated pigs.

Our Government neither understands nor cares about the countryside and that was the main reason for the London march

Fred Henley,

Green Farm,

Seaton Ross, York.

Updated: 11:29 Wednesday, October 02, 2002