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15 May 2005 ~ Waiheke hoax. Stuff.co.nz "....Massey University epidemiologist, Roger Morris said it would not be easy to import the virus. "If you are using body tissues you've got to be quite knowledgable about moving them around without the virus dying. If someone has really technically got the knowledge and makes up their mind to do this, it's a bit like trying to stop al Qaeda." Morris said no one in New Zealand or Australia kept stores of the live virus, as it was "much, much too dangerous". .." (Experiments using live virus were taking place in the UK in 2001)

15 May 2005 ~ BSE/vCJD Sunday Times for an article about vCJD and disease scares. It quotes the new director of the National CJD Surveillance Unit, Dr Richard Knight. On the cluster of five cases linked to the small Leicestershire village of Queniborough we read:

Mark Purdey's research suggests a more plausable answer.

14 May 2005 ~ A farmer writes to tell us that the WMN has " a 7 page letter to the paper from a member of staff at Exeter dealing with the subsidy payments... the whole RPA system is in shambles and is being run appallingly. The staff have been told not to give any assistance to farmers in form filling. Letters and pleas for help are being totally ignored. Staff dealing with the forms had minimum training ...as the workload increases the RPA are laying off staff and the remaining staff are becoming utterly demoralised. " (read article)

13 May 2005 ~ Defra has announced the opening of a "multi-million pound laboratory that will contribute to Government research into bovine TB"

13 May 2005 ~ New Zealand agricultural officials said no evidence has been found of foot and mouth disease three days after the claim. (See front page)

13 May 2005 ~".... a survey among 530 international climate scientists found that nearly 30% were skeptical of the IPCC conclusions about anthropogenic global warming. About 10% of those surveyed disagreed strongly..."www.sepp.org

13 May 2005 ~ "..Matthew R. Simmons says the world is blindly and blithely racing toward an energy crisis rooted in false assumptions about plentiful Saudi Arabian oil reserves. .." Peak Oil

13 May 2005 ~ Morgan. There are some signs of improvement. Many thanks indeed for the kind inquiries.

May 2005 ~ A disgusting trade - subsidised by the EU.. Around 200 000 live cattle are exported each year from the EU to Lebanon and Egypt,. An EU declaration has been written by Neil Parish, Paulo Casaca, Marios Matsakis, Caroline Lucas, Miguel Portas, calling on the Commission and the Council to "bring an immediate and permanent end to the system of export refund payments on live cattle exports to third countries..... for public funds to instead be spent on schemes which promote and protect the welfare of animals"
Can we please write to our MEPs to ask for their support for the Declaration so that it becomes European Parliament policy.

8 May 2005 ~".....Teinaz, a big man with a big mouth, has a £100,000 bounty on his head thanks to his outspoken attacks on criminal gangs" The Observer has two disturbing articles today on the "bush meat" trade. See warmwell pages on Dirty Meat to read the articles.

8 May 2005 ~ One of Australia's best and most important scientists, David Banks, was among those killed in a light aircraft crash in far north Queensland at the weekend. The Age.com "Dr Banks, 55, was the principal scientist with quarantine authority Biosecurity Australia and, in many ways, had done a huge amount to protect Australians from unwanted diseases and pests."

7 May 2005 ~ ".....He is relieved to have cleared his name, which had been blackened by the Defra allegations against him, and he hopes that in some small way that this case will send a message to Defra, that they have to stop bullying Westcountry fishermen." WMN on the acquittal of the respected West Country fisherman and Lifeboatman, Dave Hurford.

7 May 2005 ~ Sir Bernard Ingham's response to George Monbiot's article about windfarms (see windfarm page) Many thanks to Angela Kelly for this. The Guardian has chosen not to print Sir Bernard's letter today - which seems odd.

7 May 2005 ~ Farmers Weekly poll: 97% the government should focus on cutting red tape.
97% government must find ways to make trading relationships between retailers, processors and producers more equitable.
Other key issues: more support for the biofuel industry, action to tackle the growing problem of bovine tuberculosis and moves to reduce the levels of food imports. See http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=27004&sec=21&hier=21 and thanks to Burkie in Kansas for the link.

7 May 2005 ~ Very, very gradually, we are beginning to become aware of the implications of what is euphemistically called "the energy crisis"and oil depletion - not mentioned during the election campaign. Here is a mainstream US article speculating that in the not so distant future "...On a world scale, with heavy constraints on fertilization and irrigation, there simply will not be enough food to support the 6.4 billion people currently on earth. .." Peak Oil

6 May 2005 ~"EU states should stop using fish as feed in tuna farms, which risks spreading exotic viruses to the Mediterranean, environmental group WWF said on Wednesday..." Reuters
Unnatural feeding practices have caused such problems in the past . Lessons are not learned when money is at stake.

6 May 2005 ~".. researchers are scathing about the poor quality of research into the impact of wind farms around the world. The findings of many studies are kept secret for commercial reasons, while supposedly public information produced for planning applications comes without raw information or is of poor quality.." New Scientist and see windfarm page for the research

5 May 2005 ~ Wind power represents " a tiny drop in the ocean can make no measurable difference to atmospheric CO2 concentration, and has no chance of altering climate..... Meanwhile, every consumer enormously "subsidises" wind power, paying for it to threaten landscape, property values, tourist income, birds and bats, all to no good effect. It is time to stop and consider why we are doing this.." See windfarms page for the letter by Dr John Etherington

4 May 2005 ~ Fallen Stock . "Meurig Raymond, NFU vice president, said while he recognised that there have been problems with regard to the collection service, they have not been the fault of the NFSco. ".... there needs to be an early government review of the scheme and aspects of its funding in order to ensure that the same problems do not reoccur in the next twelve months."
Farmers Weekly reports that farm leaders say the National Fallen Stock Company is not to blame for the burial ban

4 May 2005 ~ "...Having pledged to curb UK carbon emissions by 20 per cent of the 1990 rate in 2020, and 60 per cent within a generation — cuts far steeper than the Kyoto Protocol requires — emissions have been rising, not falling, for the past two years. There are few lamer passages in the manifesto than the statement that “our review of progress this summer will show us how to get back on track”. Times article today

4 May 2005 ~ Bob Hunter, who died on Monday, changed the face of enviromental protest. John Vidal in the Guardian remembers the "media-savy warrior - Greenpeace member 000 - who set out save the planet..."

4 May 2005 ~ Baroness Golding: "The hunting debate is supposed to be about improving animal welfare, yet we now know that the exact opposite will happen and welfare will be diminished. The next Government must look again at the Hunting Act and replace it with genuine animal welfare measures, such as the Bill to give all wild mammals basic protection, which was introduced into both Houses of Parliament by Lord Donoughue and Lembit Öpik." See press release

4 May 2005 ~ Chemicals in oral contraceptives and food containers harm unborn baby mice raising concerns about the effects in humans, say scientists. BBC

2 May 2005 ~ Yorkshire Post "...there is increasing concern that wind farms, rather than a boon, are actually an environmental blight, considering that the windiest places in Britain, by their very nature, are often some of the most starkly beautiful. And this concern is matched by a growing realisation that wind is far from being the panacea for Britain's energy problems that its most ardent advocates claim...."

2 May 2005 ~ The online petition "Peak Oil Production & Decline - Raising awareness and discussion of the consequences and solutions"target=new (opens in new window) calls on the UK Government to do such things as ".... recognise the importance of oil and gas in agriculture and therefore address how food will be grown and distributed in the future."

2 May 2005 ~ Howard Hayden, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Connecticut has summed it up perfectly: "In recent years, the little country Denmark has gained a certain amount of fame with its wind turbines. No, they don't get much electricity from them. They sell them to suckers."
Angela Kelly writes, "A Dane, who hates wind turbines and what they have done to his country told me cynically "That's global politics, Danish style".

1 May 2005 ~ "... the only media outlet where voters will get any detailed information about their candidates will still be their weekly paper." says the Sunday Times quoting WMN editor Barrie Williams' dismay at the lack of coverage of bovine TB in the election. Luckily, you can at least find out about your own MP's record to date from the excellent, volunteer-run theyworkforyou.com
Here, for example, is their information on Diana Organ - whose apparent ignorance of the FMD suffering in her own constituency of the Forest of Dean in 2001 still bewilders us. She left Parliament on 11 April 2005 and is not standing this time. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/diana_organ/forest_of_dean

1 May 2005 ~ "the helium-filled balloon reached the height of the tip of the blade of the tallest turbines proposed for the area." See windfarms latest

1 May 2005 ~ Poor Margaret Beckett's command of English does not please John Preston of the Sunday Telegraph. He writes, "....Who would actually choose to tune in to Margaret Beckett "Live in Erewash", covered in lingering detail on BBC Parliament - her speech was so dull that even the Labour faithful started slow hand-clapping. All one can say for sure is that these acres of guff are not having the slightest effect on the polls..."

30 April 2005 ~ Peak Oil. A UK petition "therefore addressing how food will be grown and distributed in the future as well as preparing a full, honest and major public awareness campaign on the future economic and lifestyle consequences of oil depletion.." (see Peak Oil news pages)

30 April 2005 ~ Two letters in the Telegraph Nuclear power, not wind farms, is the way forward "....Canon Rawnsley, a founder of the National Trust who fought so hard to prevent a railway from being driven through the middle of the Lake District, would turn in his grave if he knew of the proposals put forward by brainless green campaigners who have fallen prey to the blandishments of the energy companies ".....
" ... in Germany, with its huge windpower industry, the bird-life organisation NABU has recorded the killing of 41 red kites.."

30 April 2005 ~ The Telegraph reports on China "on the threshold of commercialising GM rice"

29 April 2005 ~"...Another important landscape change is the replacement of low-intensity farming systems—which support a high level of biodiversity (Bignal & McCracken, 1996)—with industrial agroecosystems. In Finland, the loss of habitats that are associated with traditional low-intensity agriculture is the second most important threat to species after forestry ....in our ultimately finite world, the longterm consequences may be surprising and unpleasant." Landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss and the societal response by Ilkka Hanski

29 April 2005 ~ Well worth reading, in spite of its bleakness, is this "letter from the future" http://www.museletter.com/archive/110.html : " the revamping of society's entire energy infrastructure would take decades, while the price signal from resource shortages might come only weeks or months before some hypothetical replacement would be needed. Moreover, they should have realized that there was no substitute for basic energy resources..... it appears that human survival in the twenty-first century hinged on many small and seemingly insignificant efforts by marginalized individuals and groups..."

29 April 2005 ~"...one jumbo jet journey to New York and back emits as much carbon dioxide as one Whinash turbine was alleged to save in a full year..." See latest windfarm pages for update on Whinash inquiry.

29 April 2005 ~ "...many opponents are indeed conservationists and defenders of wildlife. Even Greenpeace, adamantly pro-wind, has balked at the extent of the proposed facilities on Lewis, as has virtually every nature group. Many opponents recognise the problem exactly as Monbiot (see here) describes it and agree with his assessment of the futility of building ever more giant wind farms. How he concludes that industrial wind facilities are "necessary" is a mystery..." letter in the Guardian today

29 April 2005 ~ ".....Farming Today - who have been asking listeners their views on whether farmers in the UK are necessary....Am I the only person who sees a Nation where there is only a Tesco supplying food at astronomical cost to a population who have lost the ability to grow their own food? " email from one of the several Pats who correspond with warmwell.

27 April 2005 ~ WMN "The Government is facing a £40,000 compensation bill after a judge ruled it should have paid for a £7,000 foot-and-mouth clean-up operation at a Devon farm. ...the farm was later declared free of foot and mouth...Mr Justice Hart also ordered Defra to pay 80 per cent of the £37,000 legal costs .."

27 April 2005 ~ Fallen stock. That surreal diktat, the Animal By-Products Regulation, 1774/2002, saying that no animal may now be buried on its farm has provided a very lucrative opportunity for one enterprising company : "Internet-based vehicle scheduling helps farms overcome dead animal disposal problem" complete with "a specialised plastic pallet called a Dolav" in which to store the bodies. Waste Per Se specialises in the collection and treatment of agricultural wastes and animal by-products. Its subsidiaries, WRE Collection Services and WRE Disposal Services, are going through a period of unprecedented operational growth .... See www.responsesource.com

27 April 2005 ~ "... concerns are never subject to a competent investigation. Investigations are very often biased to protect those at the heart of the problem. .." Andrew Taylor is standing as a political candidate (Cardiff South) against Alun Michael and sends us this email.

27 April 2005 ~ The Sun takes up the case of the new-born lambs at the Boston Abattoir in Lincs and prints a photograph of the lambs. Of DEFRA, the abattoir workers say; “We will take this as far as we need to. The lambs are healthy and do not need to be killed. If they want the lambs killed they should come here and do their dirty work themselves. This should be a special case. It’s a one-off."
A DEFRA spokesman said: “These laws are in place to safeguard animals’ health.”


(Sun readers may not remember that literally thousands of healthy lambs were killed at Great Orton and elsewhere in 2001 because of similar attempts to protect their health.)

27 April 2005 ~ Ellen MacArthur has joined forces with the Prince of Wales to highlight the plight of the albatross BBC

27 April 2005 ~ "...the local council refused an RES development with a unanimous vote, only to have it overturned 12 months later by the Scottish Executive on appeal. Moray Council are now considering, whether they can afford to risk losing a judicial review, and also withdrawing their objection to two other applications by AMEC for 80 x 100 metre turbines because of the potential legal costs. The developers have the money and the support of the government and are virtually unstoppable - local democracy doesn't exist." (part of campaigner's email, quoted by Angela Kelly)

27 April 2005 ~ Of George Monbiot's article yesterday, Angela Kelly writes, "I find it incredible that Monbiot can state that "One daily connection between Britain and Florida costs three giant wind farms.." and be seemingly indifferent to the huge damage that giant wind farms do to our rural heritage. .....insignificant and unreliable contribution to our energy needs ....small and uncertain pollution savings. The significant damage to the countryside and huge financial burden cannot possibly be justified."

27 April 2005 ~ The Scotsman today "....The Soil Association says that about £100 million of public funds are spent annually on agricultural biotechnology research in the UK against only about £2m into organic farming.....GM companies of encouraging an atmosphere among researchers who oppose pro-GM messages. "Fear of the inevitable hostility to any unwelcome findings is coupled with fear of even approaching the boards of research councils with such proposals." ..." This reference to hostility to any unwelcome findings echoes Magnus Linklater today on the dismissal by Elliot Morley of Dr Keith Baverstock, the international radioactivity expert ."

26 April 2005 ~ ".. a single jumbo jet, flying from London to Miami and back every day, releases the climate-change equivalent of 520,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. One daily connection between Britain and Florida costs three giant wind farms.." George Monbiot today. See windfarms page and peak oil page

26 April 2005 ~ The Guardian Analyst fears global oil crisis in three years ".... Colin Campbell, former vice-president of Fina and chief geologist of the oil giant Amoco. "The information governments give is grossly unreliable.... ..we are in for an extended period of restricted economic activity. I do not think that we will adjust very smoothly."
See also warmwell's peak oil pages, updated daily since last April.

25 April 2005 ~"..Bidding for a third term in power, it is believed the Prime Minister wants to avoid discussing the issue (nuclear power) until after the election, and his review of Britain's energy needs is not mentioned in Labour's manifesto..." icwales

25 April 2005 ~ DEFRA is urged to pay its £40 million outstanding bills.....".Most of these firms have been subjected to nearly four years of forensic accounting at the hands of Defra officials, which has in itself cost millions to carry out." FPB chief executive Nick Goulding quoted in the WMN and icteesside.icnetwork.co.uk See also warmwell pages on the non-payment fiasco

25 April 2005 ~ Two new photos of High Yewdale are on the High Yewdale pages. Please keep up the pressure on the National Trust if you possibly can. It will be a national tragedy if this Cumbrian farm with its history, its pride and its age-old skills is allowed to dwindle into mere holiday cottages.

24 April 2005 ~ Angela Kelly writes to say that Professor Philip Stott’s new website (illustrated with a picture of a damaged wind turbine) is well worth a visit: http://parliamentofthings.info/
He still hosts his site on: http://www.greenspin.blogspot.com/ See also Professor Stott's article last week "The failure of our political parties to be realistic about future energy demand could be catastrophic"

24 April 2005 ~ Nuclear power Observer Leader "...Britain now has half-a-million cubic metres of highly radioactive waste - ... always meant to be interim measures for dealing with nuclear waste...The government, in particular Environment Minister Elliot Morley, has chosen to ignore these concerns....a serious political misjudgment." If only it were possible to get 100% behind nuclear power as do the highly respected James Lovelock and Phillip Stott. But the risks, unfortunately, do not seem negligible.

24 April 2005 ~ As we have seen, with BSE, genetic modification and the whole global warming issue, those who have the most to lose if the whole truth is told will silence anyone whose research suggests unpalatable possibilities. Last August,the Sunday Times reported that "Government lawyers have blocked a minority finding .. which follows a three-year investigation into the effects of low-level radiation. Dr Chris Busby and Richard Bramhall, members of the committee examining radiation risks from internal emitters, believe that the risk of cancer from low-level radiation dangers is greater than realised..."

24 April 2005 ~ GM industry puts human gene into rice Independent on Sunday Geoffrey Lean writes,".... The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to ...drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights...
.....caution that if the gene were to escape to wild relatives of the rice it could create particularly vicious superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of herbicides..."

23 April 2005 ~ "The Westcountry's biggest windfarm could fall foul of a string of environmental obstacles, the Western Morning News has learned. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is demanding a series of surveys into the threatened effects of 22 huge turbines at Fullabrook Down in North Devon on the landscape, wildlife and tourist economy of the area. It has raised concerns about the possible impact on the adjacent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) of the North Devon coastline..."

23 April 2005 ~ ".. the No 10 review of Britain's energy needs is not mentioned in the manifesto. But a team in the Strategy Unit, led by Lord Birt, the former BBC director general and one of the Prime Minister's closest advisers, is studying whether nuclear power should play a central role in combating global warming..." Independent Global warming? Or a global problem that no politician is prepared to discuss?. See peak oil pages

22 April 2005 ~ The Netherlands has announced that a 26-year-old woman has been diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease The Dutch health ministry said that it suspected tainted beef as the cause, although did not explain why.." The interior ministry says that Dutch beef is safe to eat because all cattle are tested at slaughter. See BBC

22 April 2005 ~ Wind Turbines - TELETEXT Page 348 - 21/4/05 “Do you support more wind farms?” 1,137 Votes were cast:
YES 29% - NO 71%
(See politics and the peak oil news pages for more on the energy question. It goes far beyond nimbyism and far beyond even the very important question of preserving the last wild places of Britain for the health of the nation.)

20 April 2005 ~ High Yewdale. The windfarms question echoes the issue of High Yewdale Farm. If you have written to Fiona Reynolds in support of High Yewdale, please do also send an email to warmwell (unless you have already done so - in which case, a huge thank you, Hilary, Janet and others). There is such despondency in Cumbria that a word from you may make all the difference. Please write. Only individuals can make a difference now. I have been a life member of the National Trust for years. I am now extremely concerned about the way my money is being spent.

20 April 2005 ~ An email from the magnificent campaigner and painter, Angela Kelly:".. It is interesting how many of the luminaries, who hitherto have remained silent, are now openly declaring their opposition. I wrote letters to many of them over the years, but they just encouraged (sometimes begged!) me to fight on and said they couldn’t go public themselves ‘because of their position’. .."
Ah yes. We know that one of old...

20 April 2005 ~ She also quotes David Bellamy, in fine form today, explaining why he cannot support the position of Greenpeace and FoE: "..Wind farms could eventually contribute something like 7-8 per cent, according to supporters, but only at the cost of ruining some of country's most beautiful upland landscapes and only on days when the wind blows constantly and at the ideal speed.."

20 April 2005 ~The ITV Teletext service is having a poll on the issue of windfarms. If you want to vote "No" in opposition to wind farms please vote TODAY on 0906 651 3156 - and ask as many people as possible to phone. The call only costs 12 pence.

20 April 2005 ~ Philip Stott speaks for so many of us on the subject of Whinash: ".. By supporting it, Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Greenpeace lose any credibility ... . In the name of an arrogant, ill-thought out, set of dogmas and theologies, these fanatics will sacrifice.. even landscape beauty, peace and wilderness. And we should never undervalue the importance of 'wilderness' for the long-term psychological health of an increasingly-urban world... " Read in full

20 April 2005 ~ No apologies for concentrating on energy and windfarms ; in the near future we may well look back on the present moment and curse our inaction.The Public Inquiry into Whinash starts today. Windfarms “Britain is heading for a crisis in power supplies to which no amount of preferential treatment for renewable energy sources can do more than make a peripheral contribution for decades to come”.

20 April 2005 ~ "the uplands of Britain are being industrialised. ... By subsidising the market rate for electricity to the extent of 300 per cent and offering £1 billion in other subsidies, Ms Hewitt has invited a Klondike goldrush from American, Japanese and European entrepreneurs. The Whinash scheme in Cumbria is subsidised desecration. Few Britons, especially those who holiday abroad, will have any idea just what is being done to the western uplands of Britain in their name. These turbine parks are truly massive, requiring to be serviced by networks of new roads, quarries, pylons and substations across virgin moorland. The saving in greenhouse gas is negligible — less in a year than is exhaled by one transatlantic jet...." Simon Jenkins today .

20 April 2005 ~ The Today programme discussed Whinash yesterday but not one speaker mentioned the crucial point which is that these heavily subsidised windfarms are inefficient The energy produced is minimal, needs constant back-up from conventional power stations and they do not reduce Co2 emissions. If this were not the case we might think twice about opposing these nature-dwarfing monstrosities. We hope that readers who are good at proven facts and figures might contact the Today Programme. (new window)

20 April 2005 ~ "..Weary and depressed at yet more infighting in the election on the minutiae of issues I log on and just have a quick look at Warmwell's inbox page - and find, to my relief, that I am not alone in thinking the election is silent on the really big issues.." email received today

20 April 2005 ~ A concerned Cumbrian writes, "Many thanks for the fantastic mention of the Sunday Times Leader article about the proposed wind farm in Cumbria. Blair's mob are desperate to have our lovely countryside swamped with these horrible things.
May I ask you to feature two polls currently going on in Cumbria?
Julian is featuring a poll on his www.visitcumbria site He will pass the poll results to the Whinash Public enquiry.
The other Whinash poll can be found at the local 'Evening News & Star Poll' www.newsandstar.co.uk (Results stood at 43% for 57% against when we visited.)

19 April 2005 ~ WMN "...The plan to breed beef cattle from dairy cows will create a whole new market for farmers across the South West, bringing hope to an uncertain future for dairy-beef producers, whose livelihoods are threatened by cheap foreign imports..."

19 April 2005 ~The World Health Organisation is recommending that governments prepare for a pandemic of bird flu by stockpiling Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that can lessen the worst effects of flu but not cure it. Britain has ordered enough to cover 25% of the population. See Reuters

18 April 2005 ~ Live BSE test: " The Chronix GLT is performed on live animals and requires only a blood sample. In its current format, the GLT, a living test, can be run on hundreds of samples a day..." See Chronix Biomedical Awarded Grant for Mad Cow Disease Living Test; New Blood Test Only Ante Mortem Diagnostic to Address BSE Eradication

18 April 2005 ~"..Unless you have ridden in the back of a cattle truck and understand the pressure of jostling around at highway speeds with lots of animals trying to remain standing, then you do not understand the difficulty these animals face....." ProMed moderator comment on the news that the US may lift the downer ban.

18 April 2005 ~ Mark Purdey, who has always defended the cattle licensing system, posted a batch of cattle passport applications in good time, but a five day hold up in the post ( which BCMS had admitted ) meant that the oldest calf missed the deadline by one day: "... Under the present situation where BCMS dictate that it is illegal to sell an unregistered animal into the foodchain, we are therefore cornered into having to pay for the knacker to kill a perfectly healthy bull calf as soon as possible; depriving the both the animal of its life and the foodchain of a nutritious meat product. " Mr Purdey's email

17/18 April 2005 ~ warmwell.com is preparing a series of new pages to publicise a new book to be published in the near future by Chris Chapman "Silence at Ramscliffe"
Some of Mr Chapman's work has been on warmwell since January 2002. He has been touched by the number of people and organisations who have already shown interest in the project. A letter he received from a respected farmer on Dartmoor has been given to warmwell as an example. It sums up what so many of us feel:

17 April 2005 ~ "......when a car is chugging along on bio-fuel.... not even a faint whiff of fried potatoes. Everybody does notice, on the other hand, when somebody builds a wind farm in an area of unspoilt and beautiful countryside. This week the planning inquiry into the Whinash wind farm on the edge of the Lake District National Park will begin. Opponents include Lord Bragg and Sir Chris Bonington who rightly say that the farm, encompassing 27 400ft high wind turbines, will be a blot on the landscape visible for miles around. It amounts to no less than an “industrialisation of the countryside”. Sunday Times Leader

17/18 April 2005 ~ The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) is a UK-registered educational charity working to raise international public awareness and promote better understanding of the world’s oil-depletion problem. They are organising a one day conference in Edinburgh with many of the most well known speakers on peak oil.

17 April 2005 ~ Apologies for the previous week's absence. The warmwell laptop is still out of commission but an aged PC is filling the gap. Windfarm and Peak Oil news pages are now updated.

10 April 2005 ~ David Bellamy OBE, botanist ".... I want free speech, fair play and a fair countryside bursting with natural history while providing local food and a place for healthful recreation and solace. My vote will go to the party that will stand up for these rights, and declare a moratorium on any further desecration of our countryside with wind turbines."Daily Express Thursday April 7 2005

10 April 2005 ~ " Led by pillars of the Lake District establishment, including Melvyn Bragg and the mountaineer Chris Bonington, an army of Cumbrians is gathering to fight off the plans for the largest wind farm ever on mainland Britain. " Independent We also hear that on April 6th South Cambridgeshire District Council voted by 28 - 0 to refuse planning permission for Your Energy’s application for the huge Cambridge Wind farm project. Angela Kelly remarks drily, "BWEA’s “Embrace the Revolution” campaign, in this case, seems to be about as effective as their wind machines."

10 April 2005 ~ "Mr Foster (Hastings's first-ever Labour MP and a solicitor) is so concerned by Defra's conduct towards the Hastings fishermen that he has offered, whether or not he is re-elected, to represent the two men until their case is concluded." Booker's Notebook

9 April 2005 ~ The importance of sharing expertise and information across national boundaries. On the subject of avian influenza, we were very pleased to see that ProMed said yesterday, "Veterinary and Public Health Services should better work together to improve national, regional and global health security. Public Health Services should support the agriculture sector and veterinary services in order to control and eliminate the disease at its origin."
ProMed adds that OIE and FAO have launched a New Worldwide Avian Influenza Network (OFFLU) which will improve international collaboration between OIE and FAO laboratories specialising in AI in animals and laboratory networks focusing on human influenza.

9 April 2005 ~ Bovine TB Today's Times "An exclusion zone and animal movement restrictions have been placed around a farm in Canonbie, Dumfries and Galloway, after an outbreak of bovine TB. A total of 95 cattle at Southwoodhead Farm will be slaughtered, with the source of the outbreak yet to be established."

8 April 2005 ~ EU Export refunds promote a trade that causes enormous suffering to the animals - forcing them to travel in poor conditions for up to 10 days, with inadequate veterinary checks; and then to be slaughtered under conditions which are illegal in the EU. Compassion in World Farming asks us "Please send our e-postcard to Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, Agriculture Commissioner at the European Commission.
Please contact your MEP and ask him/her to sign Neil Parish MEP's Written Declaration. If half of all MEPs sign the above Written Declaration, it will become the official opinion of the European Parliament. (If you are not sure how to get in touch with your MEP, please see http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm, or contact the UK Office of the European Parliament on 020 7227 4300 ) .

8 April 2005 ~ It appears that there exists an extensive record of correspondence between Beatrix Potter and the early National Trust officers, in which she frequently expresses her displeasure at their lack of understanding of local conditions. See High Yewdale pages (new window)

8 April 2005 ~ " We are greatly encouraged by the support that we have received for our action from local people in Pembrokeshire, as well as from the rest of Wales and elsewhere in the UK. This reflects the public interest in this case and in the protection of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park“
An emailer who shares our concern about High Yewdale in Cumbria, sends this piece of good news about the appeal against the High Court Judgement in fvour of the Bluestone "Holiday Village"

7 April 2005 ~ Warmwell is planning a series of pages on High Yewdale Farm for the website. This 17th century farm near Coniston in Cumbria was bequeathed to the National Trust by Beatrix Potter. She believed that the National Trust would preserve the style of hill farming she so loved. With its very high levels of animal welfare, excellent stockmanship and economic viability, it has been called the Jewel in the Crown of the National Trust. ...who now propose to break it up.
(See Telegraph of Jan 24th) Meanwhile, we should welcome emails on the subject. ( Picture of farmhouse in new window)

6 April 2005 ~ Norman Church 's article on the unsustainability of hydrocarbon-based agriculture together with Eating Fossil Fuels should be the bedtime reading of Sean Rickard, Margaret Beckett, Ben Bradshaw and Uncle Tom Cobbley. Not even organic produce is energy efficient unless it is locally grown. Those who say the UK is now in a "post-agricultural era" are throwing away our very survival if Norman Church is correct: "The priority must be the development of local and regional food systems, preferably organically based, in which a large percentage of demand is met within the locality or region." Read in full

6 April 2005 ~ The ineffable Sean Rickard is quoted in Farmers' Weekly saying, "These larger scale farms are less damaging to the environment than their smaller counterparts.."
It may be remembered that Mr Rickard, at the height of FMD, said, "The general reaction to this outbreak has bordered on the hysterical." Luckily, George Monbiot was the other part of that two-way correspondence in 2001. (Read)

6 April 2005 ~ More and more about peak oil is creeping into the US newspapers. Headlines such as "However difficult, the energy crisis must be dealt with" ("Although some of the "End of Oil" theorists may be overly pessimistic, we would be fools to ignore the concerns they have raised...") and "Mad Max future? CRASH COMING AS OIL PRICES PEAK" are two of today's offerings.

6 April 2005 ~ Greenpeace is opposing a giant wind farm of 234 turbines planned for across 30 miles of Lewis (Western Isles) See windfarms page

5 April 2005 ~"There are 9 different varieties of the H5 avian flu virus. One strain, called H5N1, jumped to humans in Asia during 2004, killing 48 people. The strain of bird flu that has struck poultry in North Korea is different from the one that has killed dozens of people in Southeast Asia, a UN expert said Tuesday [5 Apr 2005] after visiting the North..." ProMed

5 April 2005 ~ "When I was a town planning officer I had a duty to resist proposals likely to harm the environment. I am therefore appalled at the prospect of Wales becoming a gigantic windmill theme park..." This is southwales

5 April 2005 ~ Turbines at edge of Dartmoor. WMN "The fact that it is outside the boundary is of no significance because everything is up for grabs now. This is probably the most frightening scenario which has faced us since the foot and mouth crisis." The action group's next meeting will be held on April 20 at the Okehampton Charter Hall at 7pm.

5 April 2005 ~" Plantlife surveys are done by volunteers who report on species in one area over the years. The charity, which can be e-mailed on enquiries@plantlife.org.uk is very keen for more volunteers for the survey." Independent

5 April 2005 ~"The peak oil idea -- which says that world oil production will go into irreversible decline sometime in the next decade or two -- is quickly morphing into conventional wisdom.. ...a recent report prepared for the U.S. government..concluded that strong action must be taken...if we are to avoid “a long period of significant economic hardship worldwide.” http://www.gnn.tv/
With oil at $58 a barrel oil analyst Ken Miller yesterday at Purvin & Gertz in Houston. "I view this as a very unstable situation."

5 April 2005 ~"Diesel fuel moves every single item in the economy....Your clothes, your food -- everything you need to survive is going to be impacted." The US is beginning to notice why peak oil experts are seriously concerned. The warmwell Peak Oil news page began in April 2004.

4 April 2005 ~ Some much needed and cheering news today is that the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral have - because of massive and well informed local opposition in Essex - withdrawn their support for Npower Renewables' plan to build 26 massive wind turbines . See windfarms page Angela Kelly, the painter and founder of Country Guardian considers the change of heart at St Paul's is "thanks to the brilliant campaigning of the BATTLE group ."

4 April 2005 ~ Lets hope that at least some of those who continue to support our own disgusting intensive chicken trade by buying cheap chicken read the Daily Mail. Cheap the meat certainly is. But it is the birds who pay the price. What is more, (and easily explicable when you read the Mail's exposé), at least half the chicken on sale in UK supermarkets is contaminated.

4 April 2005 ~ The battle over the fate of Scotland's Western Isles hedgehogs restarts today. Rather than limit expanding numbers with anti-fertility drugs in bait, the authorities prefer to catch them at night and administer lethal injections. ..animal welfare campaigners (include) Joanna Lumley, Twiggy, Sting, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Tim Rice. See Independent for the story.

3/4 April 2005 ~ " the Scottish Executive have approved a plan to start filling the Solway Firth Estuary with giant wind turbines...The Solway Firth is a wildfowl sanctuary for many species of birds and waterfowl." See email from Cumbria .Allerdale and Cumbria County Council both objected to the scheme. It was approved anyway. See also windfarm pages.

2 April 2005 ~ the human body is a significant air polluter, according to a scientific study of "bio aerosols" : "Human skin particles, dandruff and cell fragments, and similar bits and proteins naturally shed by other animals and plants can add up to as much as a quarter of all particles in the air, said the study by Ruprech Jaenicke of University of Mainz in Germany." IOL.co.za

2 April 2005 ~Efforts are being made in the US to prevent the National Institutes of Health from destroying an irreplaceable collection of human brains. See Washington Times "French researchers currently are re-examining specimens .. to determine if the woman was indeed infected with vCJD. If she was, it would suggest the disease began infecting people more than 20 years earlier than previously thought. .... "There is information locked up in these freezers that will be lost forever if this collection is destroyed."
In Britain, the Corsellis collection, housed at Wickford Essex, has specimens some of which appear to show lesions compatible with the so called 'new' type of CJD, dating back to the early part of the 20th century. MP Teresa Gorman successfully campaigned to stop the Corsellis Collection from being dispersed

2 April 2005 ~ "Bradshaw has hidden behind NFU skirts, and asked for 'their' strategy on bovine TB. Meetings this week. Total waste of time - and predictable..." An email from a West country farmer who is frustrated not only by DEFRA's lack of understanding but also by a forum comment from someone whose admirable love for wildlife is, unfortunately, as nothing to her hatred of farmers - the assumption being that the misery of FMD was all mere hypocrisy. PB adds, "When I think of the suicides and tears, fear and horror ..... well you know how we feel."

1 April 2005 ~ WMN "Millions of pounds earmarked to help farmers are being lost to government bureaucracy..., the Commons public accounts committee said vast sums were being soaked up by administration costs. "The department should ...simplify the application processes and streamline its administration of schemes ..." the report concluded. It said that farm business support should be targeted at small and medium-sized family farms rather than large agri-businesses who often benefit at present."

31 March 2005 ~ WMN quotes Bill Harper, the National Beef Association’s South West regional chairman: “We are making the dire bovine TB situation an election issue and telling Gordon Brown loud and clear what 350 vets have already told the Government – that there is a way to prevent this disaster for the benefit of everyone concerned, including the healthy badger population.”

30 March 2005 ~ Reader poll from a German website: " Do you think countries should reconsider developing wind power facilities if they threaten birds and bats? Please provide your full name and country in your reply. "

30 March 2005 ~Mike Meredith writes with news of a new book:"Physiology and Behaviour of Animal Suffering" by Neville G Gregory

30 March 2005 ~ "...The Office of Fair Trading's audit of the big four supermarkets' buying habits has laid bare for the first time what sort of treatment smaller suppliers can expect to receive. In particular, it has highlighted the chaotic way in which J Sainsbury, the country's third largest supermarket, interacts with its suppliers, using more than 300 different payment terms and negotiating each contract with suppliers separately..." Telegraph

30 March 2005 ~ "the stark reality of the bush meat trade and LAGA is one of the few organisations trying to bring the traders to book. It's largely staffed by volunteers, local people with a fervent commitment to their cause. They scour the markets looking for endangered species, animals like gorilla and chimpanzee. These are the big prize. Their flesh is an expensive, much sought after delicacy. It’s used at banquets and in rituals..." a reminder of the File on Four programme aired last October. The transcript is available from the Dirty Meat pages.

29 March 2005 ~ Comments about the Watchdog programme:

Yes. It is unfortunate that this otherwise excellent programme raised again the spectre of the "theoretical possibility".... See BBC page for brief report on the programme and the BSE/scrapie page for heretical views about BSE.

29 March 2005 ~ The dangers of illegal imports of Bush meat (see pdf file). The ebola-like Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus, which has already killed over 120 people in Uganda, was first identified in Germany and Yugoslavia in 1967, where it had travelled with green monkeys imported from Uganda. Marburg is a viral disease with no cure or vaccine that doctors have said can be "rapidly fatal." See also ProMed mail.

29 March 2005 ~ Comment on Peak Oil from Seattle "...everything, including the dollar, is balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff. We have chosen force and belligerency to maintain our place in the world and our access to oil when cooperation and the rule of law are the only real options open to us. Peak oil means that we are entering into a reality far different and much more threatening than the one to which we are accustomed." Read in full

28 March 2005 ~ A major earthquake has struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island today, and officials have warned of the possibility of another tsunami. See Guardian ( A grim story of earthquake can be read in Tuesday's Independent- but only one ten foot wave reported by Tuesday morning)

28 March 2005 ~ The threat to public health nearer home than avian influenza is the billion pound illegal trade in dirty meat. Dr Yunez Teinaz writes:
" I have managed successfully to arrange the purchase of smokies from Southwark and Brixton in Lambeth for the Watchdog programme, going on air Tuesday 29 March @7 pm.
It is alarming when hundreds of carcases of illegal meat enter the human food chain without any action from the local authorities or the FSA.!
I am sure that the viewers of the programme will find the footage disturbing. This is an issue affecting the health of the entire nation.
The same criminals still in business; nothing happens to them !" (Dirty Meat pages)

28 March 2005 ~ Avian Influenza 'I have never seen the international community as agitated about anything as this. Although it sounds alarmist, the balanced view is that we are overdue a major pandemic " says Professor Roy Anderson in the Observer. However, Reuters reports that " the World Health Organization says it has seen no evidence so far to suggest the virus is changing into a form that could be transmitted easily from one human to another."

25 March 2005 ~"NFU North-West Dairy Board chairman Ray Brown has told NFU members that he wants the national NFU Dairy Board to liaise with equivalent organisations throughout Europe before more North-West dairy farmers are put out of business due to the ever decreasing amount they are paid for their milk. This especially applies to milk into cheese." .....two-thirds of dairy farmers are failing to cover their production costs...."The Journal

24 March 2005 ~ A farmer who, like many, has no quarrel with public access by genuine visitors, but who has been on the cruel receiving end of damage writes "Several times I've heard (particularly Lord Whitty) refer to 'The public's right to see where its money is spent', and words in this press release like 'enjoyment' of the countryside reinforce that. ..." Read in full this warning about the new "Conservation" body.

24 March 2005 ~ In connection with the story below, a West Country farmer writes with this surreal tale of officialdom "..... I said that as the operative was tramping the area going from wood to wood, even if he/she disinfected wellington boots, the spores of previous 'hits' would be in their hair, nose clothing and there was no way they were coming into our ancient woodlands.
'Oh no', the lady said, 'we just need the farm maps to see who owns the woodlands'. 'But you've just released a CD showing how much subsidy we received ..." Read in full

23 March 2005 ~ Lazy journalists choose sensational headlines without regard to accuracy - and this headline, as well as knocking both the monarchy and farmers, refers to a system that no longer exists - the Yorkshire Post cries, "The Queen and Prince Charles 'rake in farm subsidy windfall'" before mking clear that the disclosures related to the CAP payment system in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 – which has since been reformed.

23 March 2005 ~ DEFRA says that Margaret Beckett "... today outlined progress towards the establishment of a new organisation with the aim of conserving and enhancing England's landscape and wildlife and encouraging people to enjoy and gain benefit from it. Mrs Beckett announced that the name of the new agency will be Natural England, with the strapline "For People, Places and Nature".
Sorry? "strapline"? Defra's diction does rather make one wonder if "Natural England" might consider conservation of the English language as well.

23 March 2005 ~ "These plans provide clear structures and systems and help to achieve cooperation and effective delivery. They demonstrate the progress that the department has made and is continuing to make in improving its emergency preparedness and contingency planning..." So says Ben Bradshaw in the foreward to the new Contingency Plan Version 1 (pdf) (which replaces version 4.)

23 March 2005 ~ a justification running out of wind? "Alex Kapranos, the lead singer of the band Franz Ferdinand, said: "Our modern lives depend upon easy access to huge resources of energy. We’re going to run out of fossil fuels so we need to find an alternative resource - and it’s unlikely that we’ll run out of wind."
Leaving aside the questions about turbine efficiency and political correctness and expediency, this is one of the first statements we have seen that suggests the rush to build turbines is less about Kyoto and more about peak oil. See today's Scotsman.

22 March 2005 ~ A Welsh farmer will bury fallen stock because it has not been collected for five weeks. See FWi - and also our pages on the Fallen Stock scheme

22 March 2005 ~ "...This coming scarcity cannot be wished away, nor can it be erased through drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which contains far too little petroleum to make a significant difference even in U.S. oil supplies. Only an ambitious program of energy conservation..." See Peak Oil news

22 March 2005 ~ Kelly's "Aye" - The Independent reports that "The Government promised that it would provide new money to improve the quality of school dinners .... ministers changed course yesterday..." (Radio 4 yesterday told that part of the electorate who were listening that in France at least £2 is spent on every child's school dinner.)

22 March 2005 ~ The Independent reports "Yet another nail was hammered into the coffin of the GM food industry in Britain yesterday when the final trial of a four-year series of experiments found, once more, that genetically modified crops can be harmful to wildlife.." See GM page

22 March 2005 ~ "Farmers' leaders yesterday demanded stronger laws to help stamp out illegal food imports which threaten the farming industry. The Ulster Farmers' Union also wants 'on the spot' penalties introduced to deter personal imports of illegal foodstuffs." Belfast Telegraph

21 March 2005 ~ Spain is to "police" EU fishing grounds. Shadow Agriculture Minister, Owen Patterson, said: “Following the revelation that Spain recently used illegal drift nets and discarded 65% of fish caught, it seems completely perverse that the Government is allowing fishing to be directed from Vigo.” Press release text

21 March 2005 ~ Hilary Peters, our observant traveller, has found a permanent home See her last entry She writes " ...alternative voices are being heard. They are even being heard by the government, always the last to hear good news.
It seems but a few minutes since farmers were being threatened and bribed to poison weeds, invest in battery cages, grub up hedges, exterminate wildlife, kill stock that didn1t conform to market pressures,. Now the threats and bribes are all aimed in the opposite direction. Even if there is not (yet) a huge change on the ground, the climate of opinion has changed. .."

21 March 2005 ~"Blair backs Oliver on school meals - but not with cash - no extra funding would be allocated.." Independent

21 March 2005 ~ "...The recognition of the healing powers of rock dust comes after a 20-year campaign by two former schoolteachers, Cameron and Moira Thomson. They have been battling to prove that rock dust can replace the minerals that have been lost to the earth over the past 10,000 years and, as a result, rejuvenate the land and halt climate change. To prove their point, the couple have converted six acres of open, infertile land in the Grampian foothills near Pitlochry into a modern Eden..." Independent

20/21 March 2005 ~ Email received: "..Very interesting keynote speech at the International Food Exhibition last week from Joanne Denney-Finch, the chief exec of the IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution) - the trade organisation of the large retailers (tho' they claim to represent all retailers).
To my amazement I read that she said that 'now is the moment for local and regional food' , that new IGD research shows that 70% of British consumers want to buy local and regional foods, and that they are a way to bring much needed innovation into the industry. " See www.igd.org.uk

20 March 2005 ~ School dinners. Snowmail says, "I've just interviewed the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly who made a lot of positive sounding noise about empowering parents to support schools and giving them a 'toolkit' to do so - but will they have a veto over schools serving up rubbish? Where's the cash coming from to pay all the overtime necessary for dinner ladies serving food instead of rubbish? Well, that's not clear ..."

20 March 2005 ~ Virgil Kirkendall worked on windmill projects at the request of NASA - his conclusions:
“I’ve seen so much bull about wind turbines that I don’t feel is true. They try to sell people on wind power, and it’s not for free. The truth is, it’s very difficult to get,” Kirkendall said. “I just don’t want them to feed a bunch of misinformation to people who have no experience in it".... The cost of building and maintaining windmills are not worth the amount of energy produced, Kirkendall said. .." See windfarms

20 March 2005 ~ Professor David Bellamy, Sir Bernard Ingham and Dr Mike Hallwill be speaking on April 12 at Saddleworth Hotel, Huddersfield Road, Delph OL3 5LX. Click here if you would like to go.

20 March 2005 ~ The G-20 group of developing countries, at its meeting in Delhi, has called for an immediate standstill to farm subsidies by the rich nations.
The EU uses subsidies to dump farm produce on world markets while also erecting high tariff barriers to keep out the exports of developing countries. The G-20 accounts for 65 percent of the world's population, 72 percent of its farmers and 22 percent of agricultural output. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim said, "This was a very positive meeting that showed the G-20 is not only alive and kicking but it's kicking in a very forceful, pragmatic manner." See Reuters

19/20 March 2005 ~ "Last week The Telegraph published a letter from the environment minister, Elliot Morley, attacking fly-tipping as an "anti-social and potentially damaging crime". He was not prepared, he said, to tolerate the criminals responsible for it any longer. What made this outburst curious was that Mr Morley himself recently authorised one of the most glaring examples of fly-tipping in the country, by granting a licence for a further 200,000 tons of rubbish to be dumped this year in one of the most beautiful bays in Cornwall." Booker's Notebook

19/20 March 2005 ~ Straight Vegetable Oil "There are a number of SVO systems available worldwide, that have been in use for a number of years. The idea of using heated vegetable oil as an alternative fuel is not a new one and has been used successfully in Europe for a number of years. In Germany, there are actually small groups of farmers (2-4) who grow rapeseed, crush the oil themselves with their own oil expeller, feed the meal to their own livestock, and then use the oil in their farm machinery. " See website

18 March 2005 ~ FOOT AND MOUTH SCARE "Lorry loads of livestock were turned away from a Pendle abattoir and staff told they must stay on the premises on Wednesday, sparking fears of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease..." Read in full

18 March 2005 ~"..... shows a picture of a solar breeder. That, by the way, is about 5 miles from my home. It was built by Solarex, and it is a sign of the times. Mr. Speaker, this is now owned by BP. They know that oil is not forever. They are now the world's second largest producer of solar panels. .." part of the transcript of the hour long presentation on the end of cheap oil given to the US Congress on Monday. Read in full

18 March 2005 ~ FWi on the decline in the number of pigs in Britain " .. by almost 6% to 457,000, according to the latest DEFRA census. It undermines the findings of the mid term June 2004 census which indicated a recovery in numbers, especially with regard to replacement gilts....Unless there is a reversal in this 25 year downward trend, more abattoir closures and mergers can be expected, cutting competition in the market as a whole. In the absence of home-produced product, rising pigmeat consumption in the UK will be met by further imports, which already account for almost 70% of the market." Little news of the pig diseases rife in the UK ever get to the mainstream press. We should welcome further information.

18 March 2005 ~ A mobile information unit to highlight the risks from foods people bring back from abroad will be parked in the London Central Mosque and Islamic Centre, 146 Park Road, London, NW8 from 12pm to 2.30pm today. Dr Yunes Teinaz, Hackney Principal Environmental Health Officer and advisor to the London Central Mosque, said, "It is vital that we are all made aware of the regulations regarding personal food imports as a great number of travellers tend to bring back food products that have been given to them as gifts by family or friends. It is great that information is available to people of many different backgrounds and cultures". Press release

17 March 2005 ~Horse and Hound this week has a very worrying story: "I made a complaint after my kennel huntsman, Steven Lenton, was bashed and had to have 24 stitches in his head. Four or five weeks later, I'm having my collar felt by the Met.... ... it's being used to frighten field sports supporters. People are being charged with offences they clearly haven't committed...it's not about hunting any more..." Read in full

17 March 2005 ~ The outcry about the carcase "which could have been contaminated with BSE" (BBC) hits the headlines. It is always worrying when safety regulations get broken by inefficient or overworked officials but BSE, over which hang so many unanswered questions, seems a political disease as much as a threat to humans. A bit of thymus in one carcase that slipped through an otherwise tight net isn't a real risk and the FSA's position here can perhaps be understood.
However, the FSA position on the really diseased meat getting into the human food chain cannot be understood. Because of lax laws and a reluctance to get to grips with a nasty problem that involves criminal gangs and vast amounts of money, public health really is in danger.

16 March 2005 ~ The U.S. Senate have approved a Republican plan to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Reuters says "The government estimates up to 16 billion barrels of oil in ANWR are technically recoverable, although much of that would be too expensive to produce at today's prices."

16 March 2005 ~ Prince Charles has paid tribute to the women of the farming industry yesterday for "taking the lead in a time of great change." WMN

15 March 2005 ~ Jon Snow's ever readable "Snowmail" asks today (among other things) "Is nuclear power creeping back on to the global energy agenda? Julian Rush is at the G8 Climate Change conference - let's see.
Britain, one of the world's biggest arms sellers says it wants to draw up a treaty to limit them. It's Jack Straw's initiative, is this what Labour party strategists were trying to tell us about flying pigs?.."

15 March 2005 ~ Noel Edmonds says that the energy crisis is too important to be left to politicians and (as with Animal Health) that we need a "ground up, not "top down" approach. "Campbell Dunford, chairman of Save the Vale, which hosted the forum, and has fought off plans for giant turbines in Blackmore Vale, said: "The issues are huge but we can all make a small difference....This is not a future problem, it is a problem now." WMN today.

15 March 2005 ~ Peak Oil "... if we turn out to be wrong then we merely look silly. However if the detractors are wrong, if the fountain of eternal energy, whatever that might be, is not found soon then the western civilisation we all know and love, contingently reliant upon oil to feed, clothe, house and medicate itself is about to end. .." Scoop.co.nz
"OPEC ministers from Algeria and Libya rejected Saudi Arabia's plan to increase oil production, saying the group can do nothing to control this year's surge in oil prices.." Bloomberg.com (Is it really the right time for DEFRA to be talking about a "post agriculture era" in the UK?)

14 March 2005 ~ Animal health and public health is just too important to be left in the hands of career politicians. But there are questions that will not be answered without the determination of some of them. On its front page, the WMN reports the story Tories Pledge to hold Foot and Mouth Inquiry.

14 March 2005 ~ Has anyone else been wondering who is to pay for the Sudan1 fiasco, another odd happening, full of secrecy, squabbling and buck passing? It all seems a symptom of the fact that food production is now a global industry, controlled by just a handful of companies. See also Comment and Observer article

14 March 2005 ~ Defra's mastery of information technology... We have been forwarded a refreshing letter from the Farmers' Guardian about DEFRA's spy in the sky (see below)
".....Could they alter the map of Britain as they have of our small farm? Would the Isle of Wight be missed - or Cornwall?
Who knows what dark deeds are afoot..."

11/13 March 2005 ~ Mrs J Hughes from Buckinghamshire sends this email about DEFRA's spy in the sky technology. It is, she says, being used to check out that farmers are following the 'rules' given for Country Stewardship. Reactions to her email would be most welcome.

11/13 March 2005 ~ Crucial new fishing industry laws "... Mr Bradshaw seemed to have some difficulty in answering the questions put to him. But his Labour colleagues remained silent, until they could dutifully give this mountain of unread paper their approval. Few probably even realised that the regulations under discussion were approved in Brussels last December and have already been law for three months. Whatever Parliament thought about them was thus wholly irrelevant." Booker's Notebook

11/13 March 2005 ~ "We are in the position of a chap with a headache whose doctor prescribes “aspirin”. As the pain doesn’t go away he is given ever more potent and expensive pain-killers until he becomes really ill;…and all because the doc can’t be bothered to find out why the poor fellow has the headache in the first place..." Richard Mawdsley sends this account of a fascinating argument about government, agriculture and the mess we are in.

11/13 March 2005 ~Hexham Courant "...George Howarth MP said: “We want the Government to accept that they have taken away people’s livelihoods as a result of Defra’s failure to supervise one farm.” The £40 million swill processing industry was closed down after it was alleged that foot-and-mouth had spread from swill used at Burnside Farm.."

11/13 March 2005 ~ Lord Sainsbury, has just donated £2 million pounds to the election fund of the New Labour party As the speakcampaigns.org website says, "Sainsbury is the key to why this government is so determined not only to build the primate laboratory, but also to impose GM crops and food products on the population, despite huge public opposition in both cases." (Thanks to Bryn and Richard for this information)

11/13 March 2005 ~ It looks as though organophosphate poisoning may have killed 27 children and made 103 others very ill in the Phillipines on Wednesday. It is still unclear how pesticides could have infected the cassava snacks eaten by the children, but it is likely that farmers sprayed trees growing above the tubers. http://news.balita.ph

11 March 2005 ~ The penny, as well as the petro dollar, is starting to drop . The International Energy Agency has said that the "soaring demand for oil is threatening to prompt political clampdowns on fuel use" See Peak Oil pages.

11 March 2005 ~ A Yorkshire Post letter from a well informed and eloquent farmer concerns what he rightly sees as a form of blackmail, and adds "... avian influenza is a human killer as well. So if the Government doesn't wake up today, it will not only be destroying farming..."

11 March 2005 ~ Email received on the subject of Mr Blair: "....now we hear he was in the House - but didn't want to sit in the Chamber to hear the debate. Even if he doesn't actually go - at least he is deservedly getting the treatement he deserves and Parliament is showing it has some backbone. I think once he has been deposed the reluctance properly to investigate the costs of foot and mouth 2001 might also be lifted. ."

10/11 March 2005 ~ Farming Life comments on the swill processors' plight. The article quotes David Fursdon, CLA deputy president: "This was a heavily regulated industry and no swill processor was actually prosecuted in relation to the outbreak of FMD, so why haven't they received compensation like other groups whose businesses were banned by governments - for example mink farmers?" 62 swill feeders were put out of business as a result of the ban.

9 March 2005 ~ A 81-year-old Vietnamese man whose two grandchildren are being treated for bird flu has tested positive for the virus even though he showed no symptoms Reuters See also below for ProMed moderator's upbeat comment on unapparent symptoms.

9 March 2005 ~ The Miami Herald notes that a network of 3,500 emergency workers, farmers and veterinarians will be trained across the state to identify, then respond to any kind of agricultural emergency in order to help protect the food supply from terrorist attacks and natural disasters and also " to save Georgia's $42 billion agricultural industry from economic ruin"... they noted that "suicides among British farmers increased substantially after their herds were destroyed during an outbreak of foot and mouth disease." read in full

9 March 2005 ~ "How will the price of food be affected when the costs of bringing it to market rise dramatically? How much of our economic model will survive, given that much of it presupposes cheap oil? Can we continue to assume that we can procure raw materials for manufacturing from anywhere in the world? Can we assume that we can sell goods anywhere?"
Interesting that concern about the end of cheap oil is at last beginning to be in the mainstream and business papers. See NZ Business Day article on peak oil page

8/9 March 2005 ~ DEFRA has announced another consultation - this time "on the proposals to amend the legislation on BSE testing to facilitate trade in cattle over thirty months for human consumption" read on DEFRA website Extract:

8 March 2005 ~ Poor old "Air Miles Margaret".... Mrs Beckett has declared that ministers will be forced to make energy savings in their departments to offset the carbon dioxide released by their planes.
WMN quotes Norman Baker ( Lib-Dem environment spokesman) "You'd have to reforest the Amazon to make up for Margaret Beckett's air flights"

8 March 2005 ~ Fallen Stock scheme. Wales. "Quite simply, it has been a failure so far....Farmers, having paid into the scheme, are having to wait up to and in excess of three weeks for carcass collection, and the standards at centres are far from being examples of good bio-security..." Farmers Weekly. More on warmwell's fallen stock page Scrapping the scheme and allowing farmers to use bio-digesters to decompose carcases would seem to be the best solution to the continuing chaos.

7 March 2005 ~ WMN ~ "Farming Minister Lord Whitty is also meeting growers, wholesalers, processors and food service companies today to highlight opportunities for them to supply the public sector. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is leading a drive to encourage public bodies, schools and hospitals to serve meals that meet government objectives on health and nutrition."

7 March 2005 ~ "....plans for more than 6,000 turbines to be built across the country threaten to damage the unique scenery that has influenced a host of writers, artists and poets. A report by the Scottish Wind Assessment Project (Swap)..." for the Independent article today and the SWAP report, see windfarm page

6/7 March 2005 ~ "World oil peaking represents a problem like none other. The political, economic, and social stakes are enormous....If peaking is imminent, failure to act aggressively will be extremely damaging worldwide." For those interested, see Dr. Robert L. Hirsch's summary of a recently completed study for the U.S. Department of Energy

6/7 March 2005 ~ In Germany, the public is becoming increasingly restive about wind farms. They tend to occupy shorelines, high points and open country, making them highly visible. Der Spiegel says: "Resistance to the encroaching 'asparagusing' of the landscape by the affected population is growing across the country." See warmwell windfarm page and today's round up of news including article from the BBC

6/7 March 2005 ~ Barbara Sutcliffe, the doughty fighter for justice on organo-phosphates, sends a link to a website which details all chemicals in use in agriculture. This information was published in Farmers Weekly by Barbara in a letter in the Feb11-17 edition. The website is: http://turva.me.tut.fi/iloagri/natu/fh_main.htm There is a facility to tap in the chemical in which you are interested.

6/7 March 2005 ~ Let them eat cake? An email just received from a farmer reports a DEFRA official's remark that we are now in a "post-agricultural era" - by which he presumably meant that the UK is to be a non-food producing part of the enlarged EU and that the giant supermarkets will provide.... Such folly is extraordinary at a time when even this government must see that the era of cheap oil itself is over, and - however much of the countryside is covered in giant turbines - the cost of energy and particularly of transportation is going to bring globalisation to an end. (Iran and Venezuela - two of the world's major oil nations - have responded to US policy to get tough on rogue states by threatening to cut supplies to world markets. See peak oil news pages)

6 March 2005 ~ "...the implications of the Government's dismissal last week of an urgent plea by 350 vets and scientists that it should act now to halt the epidemic of bovine TB that is sweeping through Britain's badger population. In an extraordinary step, the vets wrote an open letter to Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, expressing their "despair" at her refusal to permit a targeted culling of TB-infected badgers." Bookers Notebook

6 March 2005 ~ DEFRA, on page 7 of their handbook on Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) says: “DEFRA has designed ELS to be simple to administer, with a minimum of paperwork.” The link below takes you to DEFRA’s ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN page guide. http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/pdfs/es/els-handbook.pdf (Actually, page 2 alone temporarily deprived me of the will to live.)

5 March 2005 ~ We hope to be able to make or get a transcript of part of Farming Today This Week in which we heard that bird feathers from China can carry the bird flu virus. Although, because of avian influenza, poultry meat has been banned, duck, chicken and turkey feathers were still being imported. Professor Hugh Pennington says the virus can survive in faecal material on the feathers and cleaning cannot insure against this "very nasty business" and that we should not rely on luck in the face of a "very great risk" for indigenous birds or potential to kill people. He says he is "unhappy about the importation of feathers". DEFRA issues no guidelines for any but the most cursory visual testing. No lab testing for pathogens is done at all. They are only interested in "certification". Inspectors are, sadly, not infallible? (Front Page)
See also BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4321059.stm

5 March 2005 ~ Jan in Cumbria comments today "There are other countries who attempt to protect their people.... We allow all sorts of 'dodgy' non UK meats through our borders..." and he sends a link to New retroviruses jump from monkeys to humans See also our pages on dirty meat

4 March 2005 ~ Simon Jenkins on the sham of the New Forest's new status as a National Park has some rare praise for DEFRA "....Margaret Beckett’s born-again agriculture ministry, now grandly titled “environment, food and rural affairs”. Yesterday it announced details of the new Environment Stewardship Scheme, heralding the most radical change in farming since the advent of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is possibly the last hope of stopping Mr Prescott from opening the urban floodgates. .." Read in full

4 March 2005 ~ Times "Every farmer in the country will receive £12 an acre if he signs up to follow basic green farming practices. Other householders with more than 25 acres may also sign up to the new scheme. All organic farmers will receive a base rate of £24 an acre. For the greenest farmers, who look after sites of special scientific interest or own land with archaeological remains or monuments, there will be an extra payment that could be as much as £195 an acre.". (What a pity that journalists such as Valerie Elliott continue to feel it appropriate to feed the urban public's erroneous view of farmers (fostered by government spin) by writing sneeringly of "government handouts" )

3 March 2005 ~ Mr Davidson asked Brian Bender of vaccination "...would farmers have a veto again with the bill falling on the taxpayer?" It would be good if the truth of all this could be stated simply.

The difference in approach taken by the government today has nothing to do with new advances in technology. Those advances were available in 2001 - as warmwell has been saying for four long years - and we are frankly sick to death of hearing about "hindsight" from those who deliberately ignored the experts at the time.

3 March 2005 ~ Tom Murley, director of HgCapital, told the second annual Wave and Tidal Energy Conference it was not so much about saving the planet from global warming as about market share. ....
They were in it for the money, so should the green electricity industry be, he said. It was a straightforward commercial fight." Read Reuters alertnet.org article or in full here

3 March 2005 ~ Oil prices climbed to near $55 a barrel today. Some traders said they were stunned by how rapidly crude futures have advanced. See peak oil page

3 March 2005 ~ Wind farms in Scotland "according to a poll commissioned by BBC Scotland. Some 55% of those questioned by Mori Scotland said they objected to plans, with 42% expressing strong opposition. However, 29% said they supported the proposals and 18% strongly backed the renewable energy schemes. "

3 March 2005 ~ Milk: "...Farming leaders in the Westcountry yesterday gave a cautious welcome to the increase in supermarket retail prices, but said it was vital that the increase was reflected in the price paid at the farm gate." WMN

3 March 2005 ~ News from Cumbria News and Star is that DEFRA, facing a High Court action, has finally settled out of court with Cumbria Waste Management, to whom they owed £5 million; a deal that is "likely to be the biggest so far arising out of FMD – more than the £1.4 million paid to Lakeland Waste Management last year. Now the only firm in the county still awaiting Defra payment for FMD work is Cumbria Contract Services (CCS),which still has £1.7 million bill outstanding for work including disinfecting roads." See also warmwell page on FPB campaign about small and private businesses still owed money by DEFRA.

3 March 2005 ~ WMN article "Bird Shooting Ban is Typical Labour Policy' quotes Richard Haddock: " Farmers and landowners are "doing everything possible" to introduce cirl buntings to the area but flocks of up to 18 magpies are a constant threat to the programme. We don't want to eradicate them altogether. We want to be able to keep them under control. This is yet another nanny state introduction. They are losing touch with reality.....the new law would force farmers to use traps to kill nuisance birds, which he said was a more cruel method as well as time consuming The farmer has to wring the bird's neck when he finds it trapped in the cage."

2/ 3 March 2005 ~ Bovine TB - Farmers mobilise for nationwide protest - Robert Forster "...we are not ready to endorse Government plans for farmers to bear a greater share of control costs which last year topped £92 million, are expected to hit £110 million by the end of this year, and could increase in further 20 per cent annual jumps thereafter. Farmers will only agree to contribute to the cost if they have more say in control strategies and are sure that they are working..." See WMN and the Bovine TB Blog for reaction from the West Country to "The strategic framework for improving control of bovine tuberculosis."

2/ 3 March 2005 ~ WMN "Farmers and landowners in the Westcountry are furious about "incredible, unmanageable" new rules governing the shooting of pest birds, which they claim came into force "without warning". The new laws, which came into effect yesterday, mean those who own land must be able to demonstrate they have explored every avenue for controlling nuisance birds before resorting to using firearms." See also WMN Thursday

2 March 2005 ~ Avian flu is now referred to as the possible cause of a "deadly flu pandemic" that could "potentially kill more than 50,000 Britons". See London Standard. John Reid has announced that 14.6 million doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, costing £200 million, would be stockpiled after all. (See below for Geoffrey Lean's comments on Feb 20 ) The World Health Organisation's cumulative count for avian influenza fatalities has not been updated since 2 Feb 2005 according to ProMed Mail today.

1 March 2005 ~ A Holstein Friesian cross cow born on 3 October 2001 and slaughtered as a casualty, was confirmed today as having had BSE. This brings to 100 the number of cattle born since the MMBM feed ban of August 1 1996. Professor William Hill, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Edinburgh is carrying out an independent assessment of the possible causes of BSE cases born after the reinforced feed ban of August 1996 (BARBs) at the request of DEFRA. See also TSE page

1 March 2005 ~A Cornish engineer, Pat Cooke, has drawn up plans for a tide power generator he believes has the potential to supply a quarter of Cornwall's energy needs. The Ocean Hydro Electricity Generator (OHEG), which would work by harnessing the tidal power of the sea, would be six times more powerful than a single wind turbine. WMN

1 March 2005 ~ Some much needed good news. The Independent reports that the "Fairtrade Foundation, which guarantees that produce meets a minimum set of trade standards, found that sales of approved products in the UK rose by 52 per cent last year to £140m compared with £92m in 2003. That shows consumers are increasingly prepared to pay a premium for a product to ensure farmers in the developing world are guaranteed a stable income.."

1 March 2005 ~ TB. After foot and mouth, the NFU lobbied Defra to allow the movement of livestock from herds that were overdue for bovine TB tests. The ISG's "forcibly expressed" advice to restrict cattle movements was ignored by DEFRA who ruled that it "would not be proportionate to the risk". The ISG report comments, "We are now seeing the consequences of this lack of caution." See icWales

1 March 2005 ~ "Is there an ill wind blowing for wind farms?" asks Angela Kelly of Country Guardian. Following the two articles in the weekend's press: the Aberdeen Press & Journal, "RSPB joins fight against plan for Lewis windfarm" and The Guardian, "Report doubts future of wind power" (see windfarm page) a panel based phone-in and questions will take place today between 13.10 and 14.00 on BBC Radio Scotland. CLICK HERE to go to BBC Radio Scotland online

28 February 2005 ~Georgina Downs points out today that the Government’s response to Sudan 1 is contradictory. "The Food Standards Agency has stated that the withdrawal of products containing the substance Sudan 1 is a "precautionary measure" and stated that "the risk is likely to be very small, but it is sensible to avoid eating any more" Yet despite substantive evidence of the risks to people in the countryside from crop-spraying, the Government has not taken any action at all ..."

28 February 2005 ~ Thousands of horse, pony and donkey owners face a maximum fine of £5,000 from today ( repeat offenders can go to prison) because they have failed to comply with European Union regulations and not bought passports for their animals. The passports cost between £20 and £30 but owners also have to pay a vet to fill in a silhouette identifying markings. About 500,000 horse passports have been registered. But up to a further half a million are still not covered. In last March's debate , Bob Spink said, " The horse passport is a disgraceful regulation. It is simply being pursued to feed the cruel and poorly regulated European slaughterhouses—largely to provide horsemeat for the salami trade, which is something that people in this country find repugnant. We should seek to stop the live export for slaughter of all animals from this country, not seek to extend it to horses. ... "

28 February 2005 ~ An interesting email received today about the Beaufort Hunt

28 February 2005 ~ Julian Jones was banned from keeping animals for life nearly six years ago - yet was convicted yet again last week after a distressing find of sheep dead and dying in a filthy barn. Criminal gangs make vast fortunes by selling decomposing meat for use in 'smokies'. While the FSA, created for our protection, says it would be a breach of EU law to create a new offence against this loathsome trade, we can only be grateful for the tireless efforts of Dr Yunes Teinaz, Senior Environmental Health Officer for Haringey and his virtually one-man battle, carried out in spite of death threats and intimidation. See Dirty Meat page

28 February 2005 ~ Protecting the ravens at the Tower from carrion crows - whose numbers are escalating in London. The Independent says " ... the cull may not be legal for long - putting the ravens' future in jeopardy. Ministers in the Department for the Environment have ordered a review of the law under which wild birds - including crows - can be shot."

27 February 2005 ~ That "animals may be so emotionally similar to humans that welfare laws need to be rethought." is the subject of an article in the Sunday Times. John Webster, professor of animal husbandry at Bristol, has just published a book on the topic, Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden. It should be required reading for anyone with responsibility for animals. The virologist, Dr Ruth Watkins, wrote to warmwell in 2003, "The control of disease by killing farm animals is promoted unashamedly and no apology was made for failing to apply methods in human medicine to the care of farm animals as in the FMD epidemic of 2001."

27 February 2005 ~ Didi Phillips speaks for many when she reminds us that during 2001 the methods of the police state, now so feared in the face of the Terrorism Bill, were already in place and used against farmers who were virtual prisoners in their homes " ..... in our case it took ten days to get a licence for an ambulance to come onto our farm ! If Labour's backbenchers are so shocked about the new powers being proposed in the anti-terror laws, why didn't they say anything during FMD 2001 when farmers were imprisoned on their farms for months on end. ... " Read email in full

27 February 2005 ~ The Sunday Herald reports that the Scottish Executive is "under investigation by the European Commission for 32 alleged breaches of laws on nature conservation, waste, fishing, sewage treatment, farming and environmental assessment. ....Several rules on foot-and-mouth disease, the movement of farm animals and the trade in plants are also being broken" including "a directive controlling trade in “semen of domestic animals of the bovine species”. . .." Read in full

27 February 2005 ~ Earlier this week, as we reported, Thailand approved a program to vaccinate free-range chickens, ducks, fighting cocks and tropical birds reversing an earlier ban.

27 February 2005 ~ As for the rumours that bird flu "has spread much more widely than was previously thought" ProMed says that there are continuing doubts about the sensitivity of the diagnostic test performed in different laboratories. Although it has been widely reported that encephalitis may be associated with avian influenza..., "100 encephalitis cases examined subsequently were found to be H5N1 virus-negative". "Convincing seroprevalence data are still lacking. The Japanese data now favor an interpretation that avian influenza virus infection of humans is widespread and mostly unapparent. If confirmed, such data should be a cause for rejoicing rather than a reason for generating further alarm and despondency. - Mod.CP

27 February 2005 ~ The Sunday Telegraph asks "You call this environmentally friendly?" and discusses "....proposals to replace the existing power cables with a 400,000 volt-line would see 164ft-high pylons - double the size of the current pylons - built through the central Highlands, with some structures erected in previously untouched areas..." See article and windfarm page

26 February 2005 ~ From the Front page of the Guardian "Wind farms are an expensive and inefficient way of generating sustainable energy, according to a study from Germany, the world's leading producer of wind energy. The report, which may have ramifications for the UK's rapidly growing wind farm industry, concludes that instead of spending billions on building new wind turbines, the emphasis should be on making houses more energy efficient..." Read in full
Warmwell windfarms page (new window)

25/26 February 2005 ~ Peak Oil conference "...By 2010, many energy resource experts predict that global oil production will peak and start to decline ....The purpose of the session is to inform Massachusetts' legislators, staff, and the public about the implications of the imminent decline in global petroleum production. The session is titled “Cheap Oil; Gone Forever”. ." peak oil news

25/26 February 2005 ~ “The environmental movement has lost its way, favouring political correctness over factual accuracy, stooping to scare tactics to garner support. Many campaigns now waged in the name of the environment would result in increased harm to both the environment and human welfare if they were to succeed.” Dr P Moore, a founder member of Greenpeace http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2026964

25/26 February 2005 ~ vCJD: STERIS Limited today announced that its product for removing and inactivating prion contamination from surgical instruments is immediately available for sale and use in United Kingdom hospitals. The detergent can remove and inactivate prion contamination from surgical instruments in 15 minutes

25 February 2005 ~ The Ecologist this month contains a review of Janet Hughes' The Killing Pens.

25 February 2005 ~ Sir Brian Bender's answers at the PAC committee on Feb 23 (see front page) have caused Robert Persey to express his feelings forcefully on the NPA forum
"Why should farmers pay for DEFRA negligence in the future?. Why should farmers pay for FMD or Swine Fever that jumps out of a landfill site or a meat composting centre? Isn't the Government culpable by playing fast and loose with our food supplies and letting infected meat into our Country? Are landfill operators or compost site operators forced to carry £5 billion of insurance cover? .." asks Mr Persey. (Read in full)

25 February 2005 ~ A recent study of 5,500 badgers found that 26 per cent tested positive for tuberculosis. That was in 1996-98 and it is predicted that the incidence today will be higher. Infected badgers, gaunt and in pain, no longer resemble the plump faced friendly creatures on the RSPCA statement (see below). Dr Ruth Watkins' article seems more relevant than ever. WMN's articles on bovine TB today. 350 vets who have written a letter to Defra Secretary of State, Margaret Beckett, expressing a vote of no confidence over her handling of the growing bovine tuberculosis crisis and have called on the Government to agree to a controlled cull of infected badgers. Valerie Elliott has written about this in the Times Mr Owen Paterson has tabled 600 parliamentary questions on the link between bovine TB and badgers. (WMN)

25 February 2005 ~ Today's statement by the RSPCA ".... The RSPCA strongly opposes any suggestion that badger culling should take place, as suggested by the open letter signed by 300 vets reported today....the government must simply stick to its position and make no decision until the trials have been properly concluded." "

25 February 2005 ~ Beef on the bone off limits...again The end of the OTM scheme could mean the return of the beef-on-the-bone ban http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=17463&sec=18&hier=2

24/25 February 2005 ~ "... Saboteurs in Iraq have regularly targeted oil pipelines. Labor unrest in Nigeria threatens that country's output. There are also concerns about output growth in Russia and Venezuela. "If there's any kind of disturbance in the Middle East, you're easily going to see $60 a barrel," said Carl Larry, an analyst at Barclays Capital in New York..." Peak Oil news

24 February 2005 ~ "Ken Livingstone is to spend £1million protecting London's emergency workers from a feared Asian bird flu outbreak. The Mayor said he had decided to act before an expected government announcement on the levels of anti-viral drugs it planned to buy for the country. .." Evening Standard (Thanks for this link, Pat.)

24 February 2005 ~ "So we now have ultimate "proof" that man-made global warming is real and that carbon dioxide is the culprit. However I question whether our own Government has the slightest belief in this. Three years ago the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution warned that, "by 2050 air transport, unless curbed, will be one of the principal contributors to climate change caused by human activities". On 18 January, Mr Blair celebrated the unveiling of the A380 Airbus, the world's largest airliner, which will emit over 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide per 24-hour operational cycle..." Letter from Sir John Etherington in the Independent yesterday. See also windfarm page

24 February 2005 ~"We have had a Food Standards Agency operating in this country for several years now, yet without Italian surveillance thousand upon thousand of consumers would have been eating these apparently unsafe products. The Government and its various agencies, including the Meat Hygiene Service, have been very quick to jump on farmers and abattoirs, loading them up with regulation and control almost to the point where it has become impossible to trade at all. We have been the easy targets to hit. There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence around of sharp practice in the higher reaches of the food chain - but remarkably little action or enforcement against it." The WMN quotes Gerald David, whose family runs a chain of butcher's shops across Somerset and Devon. He is quite right. Government agencies hit the easy soft targets at the bottom of the food chain but are very unwilling to take on the real food criminals.See Dirty Meat pages (new window)

24 February 2005 ~ Yesterday's anti GM demonstartion " was organised by Friends of the Earth (FOE), the Five Year Freeze, FARM and the National Federation of Woman's Institutes. The rally was attended by the former Environment Minister Michael Meacher MP, who said the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, were supporting GM in defiance of their own policies. "Everyone except the Government is against GM. Public opinion is overwhelmingly opposed and if anything it's hardening. The supermarkets aren't stocking it," he said." WMN

23 February 2005 ~ Close to 140 million birds have died or been destroyed in the Asian bird flu epidemic so far. Many farmers are now in deep debt with poultry farm losses in Asia in 2004 estimated at more than $10 billion. The FAO has called upon the international community to respond to the urgent requirements of the Asian countries for support in their efforts "to get on top of this current serious situation."

23 February 2005 ~ Scarecrows from across the Westcountry will be deserting their fields today to descend on Westminster to lobby the Government to keep Britain free from genetically modified (GM) crops.... "scores of people from the South West are travelling to London to urge their MPs to stand up for their right to choose GM-free food, for stricter rules to prevent GM contamination, and liability laws to ensure that biotech companies pay if anything goes wrong". (WMN)

22 February 2005 ~ "Loss of forests; the building of roads and dams; urban growth; the clearing of natural habitats for agriculture; mining; and pollution of coastal waters are promoting conditions under which new and old pathogens can thrive, according to research published today in Unep's Global Environment Outlook Year Book for 2004/2005." Read in full (Independent)

22 February 2005 ~ "Politicians, supermarkets and consumer watchdogs renewed their criticism of the FSA while calling for a public inquiry to examine why the dye was not detected sooner. .." Independent

22 February 2005 ~ ProMed Mail on avian influenza and the possibility of a "a very significant development"

22 February 2005 ~ "The sad tale of the iron triangle (of alarmism) and the iron rice bowl (of science) ..." an extract from the pdf file of "Climate Alarm- Where Does It Come From?" by Richard Lindzen at http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/264.pdf, sums things up perfectly - in three succinct pictures.

22 February 2005 ~ The British Goat Society supports "KIDS FOR KIDS" a charity that began when its founder, Patricia Parker MBE, visited Dafur and met a nine year old boy walking seven hours to reach water. According to Xinhua, Patricia and her son were abducted by rebels on Saturday. The charity has provided water for 50,000 people and lent goats to over 400 families - hence its name. "The tragedy of the current conflict is that it has made life even harder for families here" We are invited to help. (Patricia and her son are now safe.)

21 February 2005 ~ The courageous and outspoken Vandana Shiva writes in Zmag today about a new Food Law which" floods India with toxics in foods and replaces our strict PFA and our natural food systems with toxic processed food. .." She says, "....There is only one system for food safety – locally produced, freshly processed food ...." As supermarkets rush to remove hundreds of products, dyed with Sudan1 from the shelves and the FSA struggles to justify its existence, what she writes about " the disease causing homogenous, centralized industrial food culture of the west" is more relevant than ever - both to India and to us. Read in full

21 February 2005 ~ Didi writes to point out that the major part of the " £40 million pounds which is still owed to contractors for work done during FMD 2001" was for "work building pyres to dispose of healthy cattle and sheep not infected with FMD, and for cleansing and disinfecting farm buildings on farms contiguous to FMD premises. Many of these so-called infected premises were never even blood tested for FMD."

21 February 2005 ~ The scandal of unpaid FMD bills by DEFRA is reported worldwide. ".... a report from spending watchdog the National Audit Office confirmed that £40m was still owed to contractors who worked on the clean-up. The news prompted public accounts committee chairman Edward Leigh to accuse the government of "dragging its heels" on the issue...."

21 February 2005 ~ Farmers whose cattle suffered from TB but who are now clear of the disease are receiving letters from the SVS stating that, even though clear, they will not be able to sell any of their animals in the markets or outside the hotspot areas.
Farmers in the SDA areas are to receive half the amount of single farm payment (SFP) than neighbouring lowland farmers. This new restriction will mean that they cannot even hope to get a proper market price for their animals. No one inside the area is buying.

20/21 February 2005 ~ Energy investment banker Matthew Simmons, of Simmons & Co International, says, "we may have already passed peak oil" Peak oil news on warmwell.

20/21 February 2005 ~ The end of cheap oil will have dire social implications that are not being talked about by politicians. Alternative energy sources are indeed urgently required but giant wind turbines, 22 storeys high and marching across the landscape literally in their thousands, are neither an efficient nor a democratic answer.
The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies February 2005: "...other measures deserve to be given closer consideration, but they involve much greater political sensitivity. ... it is time for the UK and other EU Governments to face up to these realities, and open up a wider debate.." "CO2 Emissions Reduction: Time for a Reality Check?"
See windfarm page

20/21 February 2005 ~ "...Derek Baxter, chairman of the planning (regulatory) committee, said: "If I thought these turbines were going to have any benefit I would support them. I think they are just going to lead to expensive electricity to the detriment of those living near them." edp24.co.uk

20/21 February 2005 ~ "Mr Bradshaw's call to close the south-west England bass fishery to pair-trawlers was rejected by the European Commission in August" is the final sentence in the IoS's article "Fishing boats 'kill 2,000 dolphins a year'" Greenpeace has launched a High Court challenge to the Government, seeking a ban on all pair-trawling for bass within 200 miles of the UK. (Booker's Notebook commented on this last October)

20/21 February 2005 ~ Avian influenza. Against louder media forecasting of a human pandemic, now that a small boy in Vietnam has died without respiratory symptoms, we see that ProMed Mail sounds its welcome and customary note of caution:[".... rather much is being extrapolated from study of a single fatal case. The level of exposure and immune response of the general human population in the region is still an unknown quantity. ...." - Mod.CP]

20/21 February 2005 ~ Geoffrey Lean in the Independent on avian influenza: "Experts warn that because of air travel the pandemic could reach Britain within a day of breaking out in the Far East. A drug that can treat it, oseltamivir, already exists, and is mainly marketed as Tamiflu. But although other countries are rushing to stockpile Tamiflu, the Department of Health says it will make no decision before the spring."

17 February 2005 ~ "A massive oil and gas drilling project planned by Shell off the eastern coast of Russia could lead to the extinction of the Western Pacific grey whale, a report has warned. The study, commissioned by the oil company itself, recommended operations be halted..... A consortium led by Shell is seeking some $5bn of public cash to help fund the initiative, including money from the British taxpayer. " Independent

17 February 2005 ~ The "McLibel Two" never gave up. The European Court of Human Rights now says that they should have been granted legal aid for the marathon legal battle with McDonalds... the government’s failure to provide them with legal aid effectively denied them the right to a fair trial. Scotsman

17 February 2005 ~ UK Atomic Energy Authority "recorded more than 40 security breaches, including eight incidents it classified as "failures of security leading to unacceptable or undesirable consequences". The disclosure could not come at a worse time for the government, which is preparing to authorise the controversial construction of a new generation of nuclear power stations later this year." Scotsman

15 February 2005 ~ And now for the good news...on Friday the 13th, 2029, the