Letters

smoking should be a private pleasure

I THINK Martin Ball, campaigns director for Forest, has just about made my point for me and shot himself in the foot in so doing (Caterer, 17 December, page 14).

To accuse Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) of "shifting the goalposts" is somewhat hypocritical. Mr Ball's much-published point in his last round of propaganda was precisely and only to the effect that: passive smoking apparently does not cause cancer, so stop whingeing. Now he has been defeated on that point it is he who has moved the goalposts.

His attack on the points I raised in my letter (Caterer, 12 November, page 20) must have raised a few eyebrows among smokers and non-smokers alike. According to Mr Ball, non-smokers have to purchase a range of restaurant guidebooks and thoroughly research their proposed evening out before booking their table for the evening. There can be no impromptu night out for the non-smoker - no entering an unfamiliar restaurant on a whim, just because it looks good or the menu appears tempting - oh, no, not for the non-smoker.

But for the smoker there can be unrestricted and unfettered access, choice of venue and table siting - total freedom to do as he will, behave as he will; his smoke becoming your smoke, despite the fact that it makes you unwell and ruins your evening. And you, the non-smoker, must quite simply tolerate it or move on. The smoker, it seems, just cannot conceive that, although he takes pleasure in cigarettes, other people not only do not but cannot.

I suppose I just cannot conceive that someone can be so addicted to a substance that he cannot forgo a fix for approximately an hour-and-a-half. Even heroin addicts are known to go longer between doses.

Mr Ball writes with the fervour of a rabid zealot. I am writing of little more than common courtesy, good manners and consideration for other people - such as people in close proximity to a table on which other customers are still eating - perhaps enquiring, "Do you mind if we smoke?" .

I wonder, if Mr Ball were to visit my home - a non-smoking establishment, you might be surprised to learn - would he ask if I minded his smoking or would he simply "light up"? I was recently subjected to some of the latter when a business agent's representative lit a small cigar in my house and virtually demanded an ashtray. When I advised him that we did not possess one, he stated: "Not to worry, I can put it out in the garden." This particular representative has now been banned both from my home and from my office.

David Mitchem

Wilbarston,

Market Harborough,

Leicestershire.

Not organic, but naturally tasty

I HAVE read with interest the arguments for and against the use of organically produced food.

Before I moved to the Isle of Islay four years ago I ran the Organic Food Club from a base in Warwickshire. At that time, and probably still now, the main difficulty was obtaining a consistent supply of top quality produce. It's no good just buying organic for the sake of it. The product has to be good.

I feel that if all the restaurateurs of Britain tried to source sufficient quantities of organic produce the results would be very patchy and supplying the demand would be almost impossible. Would it not be better to learn to walk before we run by sourcing top-quality produce from responsible producers who may not have accredited organic status but have excellent animal welfare standards or farm in a non-intensive method, as they do here in Islay and other parts of Scotland?

Islay lamb and beef is the finest I have seen and tasted. It may not be organically reared but the animals wander freely on open, untreated grasslands where there is a mass of different grasses and herbs. Often the beasts can roam to the shore to nibble seaweed or even drink the water. Because of the temperate climate, a lot of the animals here are wintered outdoors with access to grass, and their diet is supplemented with silage and draff (distillery by-products, which are 100% natural) when necessary.

This is natural produce, well looked after, with no suffering or unnecessary use of drugs. It is non-intensive farming at its best.

Maybe this is why the Harbour Inn received the 1998 Scottish Thistle Award for Natural Cooking.

Scott Chance

The Harbour Inn,

Isle of Islay.

self-improvement or waste of time?

At long last I have found someone with the same problem as myself ("A chicken-and-egg problem", Caterer, 7 January, page 15).

I was in the Army for seven years as a serving member, and gained qualifications in food and beverages. I left and went back to work for the Army as a civilian manageress in the officers' mess for a further 10 years. I have been getting myself qualified to diploma level in management skills to further myself.

New hotels are being introduced into Northern Ireland and I have sold myself to them with no avail. I have experience and education along with all the skills required to do a professional job for our up-and-coming industry, and they don't even want to know.

Maybe the hospitality industry should tell us experienced managers what it wants and where we should go, as it seems we have been wasting the past years of our lives getting it wrong.

Deborah Willighan

Ballymena,

County Antrim.

Paying for a food standards agency

FURTHER to your report regarding the new Food Standards Agency (Caterer, 7 January, page 6), the recent Comprehensive Spending Review will limit the amount that can be raised towards the cost of the new agency's work to £50m. This sum is not half, but a small proportion, of the overall costs of the new agency.

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) asserts that this should come out of general taxation, yet it supports reduced direct taxation.

For the BHA's position to be sustainable it needs to identify what areas of public expenditure it proposes to reduce that would otherwise directly benefit the industry.

The question is, why should a low-income pensioner paying marginal rates of tax subsidise those who freely use their disposable income to eat in restaurants?

No doubt when the draft bill is published shortly other aspects relevant to consumer needs can be improved.

David Smith

Hon Facilitator,

The Welsh Food Alliance,

Newport.