DEAR SIR: It has long been established that the family farm system is the only sure way to guarantee a constant supply of quality food for our people in the long term.

When we joined the European Union in the early 70s, our greatest reason for joining was that our family farmers would get a much better price for our quality products and we could get away from the cheap food policy of the British.

We now have a cheap food policy in the EU and livestock and crops are being produced in many cases at less than the cost of production and farmers are depending on area aid payments for their income. Multinational companies are allowed to take most of the profits and our land is in danger of being bought up by foreigners and the social structure of rural areas is in danger of being destroyed.

A study by the European Parliament showed that in 2013, 3.1% of farmers controlled 52.2% of all farmland in the EU, with 76% of farmers having the use of only 11.2% of the land. We would not have voted to join the EEC if we thought that would happen.

Our MEPs and local politicians should do a lot more to give the primary producers a fair price for their produce and the supermarkets and multinationals should not be allowed to use their strength to put family farmers out of business.

Chief executives of multinational companies who get bonuses only for making extra profits should only get rewarded if they improve the social structure in the country by providing a local market for their produce and jobs for the local people.