Letter: Foot-and-mouth lesson

Sir: Successive governments and Maff have been incapable of putting the farming industry in order throughout successive crises over almost 20 years. The farming industry has no incentive to reform when each crisis simply results in an outstretched palm and the doling out of hundreds of millions of pounds of public money.

There is no good reason why farming and associated industries should not be subject to the same commercial requirements as are other industries with regard to risk, damage and loss. The answer is comprehensive, compulsory insurance against such loss.

The insurance industry would refuse to insure those whose practices were inadequate or unsafe, thus forcing them out of business and those whose practices and management were less than satisfactory would bear higher premiums than those who were satisfactory. Since the National Farmers' Union insists that the vast majority of members farm in satisfactory and safe conditions, then the additional insurance premium would have little impact upon them and, indeed, would place them at a significant competitive advantage over their less safety and welfare conscious competitors. They would thrive at the expense of those less conscientious.

Every other industry has to bear the cost of insurance as an operating overhead and, if the cry from the farming community is that they cannot afford it, then they are lame ducks and do not deserve to be in business.

L JONES

Port Sunlight, Merseyside

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