IT is a great shame that Anita Knittel has chosen to attack farmers when they and their livestock are facing the threat of foot-and-mouth (You Say, March 9).

Anita Knittel knows nothing about this epidemic, it seems like just another opportunity to have a go at a group of people she doesn't like because they rear livestock to eat.

Foot and mouth is a virus. It is not affected by the cleanliness of a farm. Blaming intensive agriculture is a non-starter for the USA has the most intensive stock farms in the world and they have been free of foot-and-mouth since the late 1920s. Yet the Third World, with low-level non-intensive farming, continually suffer from the disease.

We have the best farmers with the highest standards of animal welfare in the world. Our abattoirs are checked continually for welfare and food safety and are the best.

So don't knock British farmers or their produce, go out and buy it. If we are stupid enough to let farming collapse in this country we will be at the mercy of multi-national food manufacturers and importers who will charge high prices and serve us poor quality.

ALAN COOK,

Worcester.