I don't read The Guardian as a rule and I would suggest that this industry makes a point of never turning its pages again after its Food ñ The way we eat now supplement last Saturday.

Rarely can there have been such a one-sided account of a subject. The supplement focused only on the pre-determined agenda of various scribes, paying no attention to reality or truth or to the opinions of people who could have provided that reality and truth.

Fruit and vegetables came in for the traditional spurious criticism based loosely on the food miles and pesticide-residue arguments. At no time were either put into any context other than an entirely unrealistic pro-British, pro-organic, pro-Fairtrade tirade.

Unfortunately, there are two more weekends of this drivel to come. It won't get any better. I have heard this week that one retailer was told its views were not considered worthy of inclusion and it would not like what it was going to read.

There is nothing like a fine example of balanced journalism ñ and this is nothing like a fine example of balanced journalism. What does the paper expect the public to eat after it rips not just the fruit and veg industry but all food sectors to shreds with unsubstantiated and largely irrelevant “facts”.

Who is going to put the true nature of this industry into the minds of the nation? We all want to see consumers eating more home-grown produce, more growers treated fairly and less pesticides used. We do not want to see our hard work going to waste because of a growing band of scurrilous scaremongers.

Distributing fruit to schools is one thing, but if increasing numbers of parents tell their kids not to eat it because it “contains pesticide residues” it is not going to achieve the desired long-term effect. l