Madam, - Tom Joyce (October 23rd) touched on a very important subject - growing your own food.
He can recall, as a retired 88-year-old farmer, how farms in the past produced a surplus of all kinds of food and with that came a great store of knowledge about food production. I grew up on such a farm, which was later transformed with Irish membership of the then Common Market into a more specialised farm.
My late father, John, was a man who could grow many fruits and vegetables and enjoyed doing so. However, there were many times when the market just did not want the produce. Indeed, as we became a more sophisticated society, the fruits from our orchard were impossible to give away, let alone sell!
The world has changed a great deal. People lead busy lives and want to buy ready washed and prepared vegetables and it is good that we have that choice. But it is also worth heeding Mr Joyce's call for people to think about planting some food crops in their back gardens. He is right to say it is not a difficult task. And it is very rewarding to see seeds germinate into crops which can be picked and eaten. It is important for children to see how food actually grows (and weeds too).
Everyone can and should take up this challenge: plant an apple tree, buy a packet of seeds and just see what happens. There is a great satisfaction in watching nature at work. And the garden is a great escape from the many problems we all face in our fast-moving world. - Yours, etc,
MAIREAD McGUINNESS MEP, European Parliament Offices, Dublin 2.