SIR, So apparently Labour have stirred up a right hoo-ha over family farms.

Its about time someone did!

Make no mistake, family farms have been under threat and have vanished in numbers over the past 50 years and all due to the ridiculous preference of the NFUS to insist on no capping of farm support thereby allowing the ever-increasing scale of established farmers and estates to expand their farming businesses as opportunity arises at the expense of rural opportunity for new generation farmers.

Rural communities need farmers but do not need massive tractors and farm machinery serving multiple farms rushing through their villages. Nor do those seeking a career in farming if we stand back and think about it.

It is the land which produces our food and the more families planting, growing and rearing to produce it, the healthier our rural communities shall be. Opportunity is key!

Ever-increasing scale will lead to downfall as it does and has done in many industries. Where are the steel and shipbuilding industries which drew families from the countryside leaving it to an ever-decreasing minority? Small family farms survive when families supplement income from work elsewhere when the love of rural living inspires such investment into the farm.

Lest we forget, countless families living in poverty and poor city housing have their roots in the countryside and their return denied as much today as back in the day their ancestors were banished or simply left in search of opportunity. Such folk need serious opportunity in no small way denied by the ever-decreasing minority monopolising farming opportunity.

Without a shadow of doubt, I believe the Labour Party have taken a significant long-overdue step in the right direction and our countryside, rural communities and the nation at large will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Tom Gray, Braco