"History tells us the exact opposite. We live in one of the most fertile and well-watered countries on earth but we import food by the millions of tons. Why, I found one day last summer that a certain supermarket was selling courgettes from Holland when they were growing so bloody fast in my garden that I couldn't even give them away."

Does history tell us the opposite Shaw? Don't think that it does but perhaps you could provide some examples from history - but I doubt that you will.

You still haven't told us where all these "makee-learnee" farmers and smallholders are going to come from.

We import food through choice, we are a complex multicultural, cosmopolitan country, we are part of the EU and we trade with them. What efforts did you make to get rid of your crop of courgettes Steve?

"This country was self-sufficient in food in your bad old days and people didn't die of diabetes, heart attacks or fat rot, and the countryside was replete with a diversity of habitat and wildlife that has all but disappeared thanks to your modern "efficiencies"."

Poor education, know all, baby-boomer generation who craved for junk food and fizzy drinks, who did everything in excess and thought that they could get away with it. That Mr Shaw is what caused the increase in diabetes, heart attacks and fat rot - it had S.F.A. to do with modern farming.

"Why, I wonder how those country bumpkins of old managed to get almost the same tonnage of grain per acre as modern farmers without all that damaging nitrogenous fertiliser?"

Between 1885 and 1945 wheat yields remained almost static at around 2.5 tonnes per hectare.

From 1945 onwards there was a marked increase year on year in yield from 2.5 tonnes /hectare to 8.6 tonnes/hectare in 2014. Our acreage is dropping but productivity is still increasing.