John Greenway MP, asserts (Evening Press, January 25) that the introduction of a "green" tax on pesticides would be "deeply damaging to our agriculture industry". This may or may not be true, but some answer to our present addiction to, and abuse of, pesticides must be found urgently.

Since the 1960s there have been catastrophic population slumps for many of the UK's wildlife species.

Mammals such as the dormouse and water vole may be faced with extinction, many bird species including skylarks and hedge sparrows are down by 80 - 90 per cent and a large number of our native flowering plants, previously seen in abundance in habitats such as hay meadows are now a rarity.

The basic problem lies in the way that farmers are paid through financial incentives by the EU. Common Agricultural Policy. This encourages production over any other consideration including the environment and has led to huge food surpluses and the present sorry state of our countryside.

The system needs to be completely changed so that farmers are encouraged to honour their traditional dual roles as food producers and custodians of the countryside.

I am sure Mr Greenway is no great supporter of the present subsidy system: perhaps he should take a wider view and start to advocate in which agriculture could become more sustainable, thereby improving the health of our environment, our farmers and ourselves, the consumer.

Bob Summers,

Stillington Road,

Sutton-on-Forest.

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.