GEORGE BEABLE, of Wrangaton, South Brent. writes: Having survived more than half a century of farming and most of them as a dairy farmer I felt that I should reply to the  'farmer bashing' letter from Derek Weaving. One thing is certain and that is that he is writing  with a full stomach.There are a number of points that I feel need a response. Believe me, farmers do not need telling prices will  fluctuate with supply and demand. Even in Biblical times there were seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He uses statistics very selectively to develop his argument. Maybe it is more significant to note that 20 years ago I received 25p per litre for milk while today the farm gate price is very similar. It is also worrying to realise that in the last 10 years the number of dairy herds in the UK has halved to 10,000 ,with 60 more giving up the struggle last December alone. It is all to easy to suggest that we simply import milk and dairy products without any thought to the long term consequences. With an ever increasing world population, and with our country being far from self sufficient, do we not need to think about a secure supply of food for the future rather than allowing our dairy industry to disappear? It was only a couple of years ago that the consumers in this country were up in arms about the imported horse meat fiasco. Should this not have been a lesson learnt about cheap imported food?