Sir, - Judith Hoad (July 8th) suggests that pesticide, fungicide and herbicide be considered heinous crimes against the relationship between humans and nature in the same way that matricide, patricide and infanticide are considered heinous crimes against familial relationships.
Would not such crimes be better considered together as acts of biocide so as to include crimes against life other than insects, fungi and non-marketable plants? I am thinking in particular of the 11 per cent of all bird species, 25 per cent of all known mammal species, and 12.5 per cent of all known vascular plants that are currently threatened with extinction (all figures courtesy of the IUCN-World Conservation Union).
Also, would the self-replicating pollution that would be caused by an error of judgement by companies such as Monsanto also be considered biocide or would a new word have to be coined to better reflect the scale of such a disaster? - Yours, etc., Graham Caswell,
Booterstown, Co Dublin.