Martina Watts, in a December issue of her excellent column (The Argus Weekend), quoted shocking nutrient data from government researchers McCance and Widowson exposing the extent to which the nutritional quality of fruit and vegetables had plummeted between 1939 and 1991.

Carrots have lost 75 per cent of magnesium, 48 per cent of calcium and 46 per cent of their iron values. Broccoli has lost 75 per cent of its calcium and spinach has 60 per cent less iron.

She and the medical authorities recommend we swallow pills. Is that really the future? These people should be promoting organic produce grown on organically replenished soil full of nutrients.

You get what you pay for when buying cheap food - junk that produces feeble, tired, stressed-out humans.

Where are the tax concession humbly and gratefully offered to our heroic, self-sacrificing organic producers? Without them the future is a nutrient-free zone.

-Valerie Paynter, Clarendon Road, Hove