Letter: Why we cannot know for sure that BSE-infected beef is harmful t o humans - and why that is no comfort

Sir: I have listened to the debate on health risks attached to eating beef with increasing frustration and amazement. In the frenzy to cast blame on either the Government or the farming fraternity, two issues are being overlooked.

There is a farming system which has been producing BSE-free beef for many years. Beef produced on registered organic farms has never been subjected to the insult of feeding animal remains to a ruminant species. Nor has the use of organo-phosphate compounds (which may well be heavily implicated) ever been allowed. Beef cattle come from closed herds where the parents are alive and well. Every organic beef carcass sold can be traced directly back to the farm where it was born and thus its parentage established.

However, far more important is the issue of why BSE happened in the first place. Has it never occurred to the mass of British shoppers that their relentless quest for cheaper and cheaper food has led to the debasement of our food production methods? The only way British farmers can respond to this is to find cheaper and cheaper food sources - dead sheep in the case of beef cattle - and resort to using more and more potent chemicals, whose long-term effects are unknown, on both their land and livestock. There is no point in complaining about BSE, broiler chickens, battery farming or live exports, unless one is prepared to put one's money where one's mouth is and only buy from farming systems that farm with respect for both the animals and the environment.

Charlotte Reynolds

Buckland St Mary, Somerse