I DISAGREE with the anonymous correspon­dent in this week's Review regarding a Tesco in Coleford.

It seems to be a mantra with some that the Co-operative Stores have a monopoly. Would that was true considering, unlike Tesco, where priority is profit for the shareholders, the Co-op ethos of fair trade, no slave or child labour and profit for its members, the ordinary consumer, is to be applauded, not condemned.

In the last eight years, we personally have witnessed four farmers go under due to demands of Tesco in three cases,?Asda in one.

I think every intelligent person would agree the agenda is to get rid of the British farmer and open the way for the total imports of cheap foreign food so more profit for the shareholders. Except cheap food is not so easy to obtain now we have a world food shortage, and for example, Russia has now stopped food exports.

We let the supermarkets abuse our farmers at our peril. We should, and need, to become more self sufficient not less and support 100 per cent British agriculture.

There are other factors in this issue. Sir Bob Geldof complained one town now looked like another.

We should celebrate Coleford's uniqueness in not looking like "just another rural town," with the same old shops and stores.

Then there is health. The anonymous correspondent volunteers in a charity shop for a hospice so one assumes she has seen the fall-out of an unhealthy lifestyle close to. As a friend commented, you would think she would be campaigning for a "fresh and wild" supermarket to open in Coleford, not a Tesco with its predominantly de-natured fare and chilled, artificially extended shelf life fruit and vegetables. That is not exactly garden to table!

– Mrs J Price, Parkend Road, Coleford.