Letter: Surplus grain

Sir: In the article by Robin Stainer on the question of surplus grain (10 August), only the economic side is stressed. There is no physical surplus. There are well over 1,000 million people starving in the world, more than four times the population of America or Russia. Every year somewhere between 600 million and 800 million of these poor people die, a large proportion of them young children.

Is not the feeding of these people the way to deal with surpluses, instead of the immorality of setting aside millions of acres of productive land? Many developed countries promised to give .07 per cent of their gross national product to help these countries. This money should be spent on sending the help in kind - this should be mostly food - as there is no guarantee that their governments will spend it this way.

I know there are many difficulties, but I have spoken to some of the people from charities who are actively engaged in helping these people. They admit these difficulties, but make the point: if there was the will and proper co-ordination, they could be overcome.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN-MACKIE

Waltham Abbey, Essex