Yes, as Alan Cook states (Letters, 25.08.06), we are far too dependent on imported food, and there's a housing shortage in Cornwall, but the cause is neither over-population nor immigration. The population of Cornwall is only half that of Devon and less than a twelfth of that of little Hong Kong. The people of the United Kingdom are, like those of Western Europe generally, not having enough children to maintain population numbers. Migrants, including those who stay and are therefore immigrants, are essential to our economy. Certainly, drug-pushers, thieves, traffickers, crooks and gangsters should be kept out and the Government has failed to do this. But there have been too many stupid and cruel deportations of peaceful pro-British asylum-seekers, such as an intelligent, Anglophilic, scholarly, popular young Afghan orphan who, after several years at school in England, was about to go to university here when he was deported to the turbulent country in which his parents had been killed. The housing shortage is not due to immigration but to clumsy and misguided planning policies which, for example, favour accommodation for holidaymakers over housing for people who want to live here and even prevent some ruined or disused buildings from being renovated as housing. A major reason why we import too much food is that imports are allowed of food produced to lower standards than would be accepted from producers in Britain. Much Brazilian beef, for example, is produced at low cost by destroying precious rainforest to ranch on the land, often stolen, paying low wages, and stuffing the cattle with hormones and chemicals. Fish? The politicians gave away most of our fishing grounds and none of the three main political parties is making any attempt to get them back. But we can all make a difference and not only by speaking up to the politicians and taking care which ones we vote for. Many of us grow much of our food. This self- sufficiency helps us to keep fit by gardening as well as reducing imports. Also, many of us always look very carefully at the labels when shopping and try to buy local, British and organic when possible. This not only encourages local producers, helps our economy and reduces our dependency on imports, it reduces air-miles and sea-miles, so reduces global warming and dependency on carbon fuels and it's better for our health.

KEITH BRIAN St Martin-by-Looe