Warmwell.com

Warmwell "Front Page" Archive 2001 - 2004

Jan 23 2004 ~ Zimbabwe faces new FMD devastation - its appeals have led only to "paltry doses of vaccines"

Jan 23 ~ Mr Owen Paterson has tabled a series of Commons questions about DEFRA non-payment

Jan 20 - 23 ~ "Questions should be asked about research which relies so heavily on data produced by the industry itself"

Jan 20 - 23 ~ Hill farms teetering on the breadline

Jan 20 - 23 ~ "Common, co-ordinated epidemiological studies leading to a common control policy should be sought and supported by the international community."

Jan 20 - 23 ~ an "unarguable case" for a move away from intensive chemical farming methods.

Jan 20 - 23 ~ Civil Contingencies Bill will allow sweeping new powers

Jan 20 ~ Defra's Horse Passport Pantomime

Jan 19 ~ "I am pleased to know that the Commission is keeping up the pressure on the Government, which still has plenty to answer for over foot and mouth disease." Giles Chichester MEP

Jan 16 - 19 ~ the courts have finally called Defra's bluff on a campaign of intimidation.... Of 1200 cases investigated, the National Audit Office last year found that only 18 involved fraud, non proven and most now abandoned.

Jan 16 - 19 ~ "Defra's tactics have been comprehensively ruled as illegal."

Jan 16- 19 ~ Frustrated NFU dairy farmer will make a dramatic protest on Monday

Jan 16 - 19 ~ "DEFRA has abandoned its proposals to impose a 150km distance limit on the movement of livestock

Jan 16 ~ “It's frightening that this is the way they are treating people who did their best to help them beat the outbreak. It's cynical and dishonourable."

Jan 15 ~"The reason we have tended to go in the direction of wind power is the (EU) subsidy..."

Jan 14 2004 ~ "We are being asked to believe that a department which is regarded as being notoriously dysfunctional is now being uncharacteristically prudent."

Jan 13 2004~ "...Seven months after the culling of our healthy animals, Fred Landeg sent us a seven page letter telling us that our farm was still highly infectious"

Jan 12/13 2004 ~ "There has been no instance of vaccinated carriers of the virus being the cause of the introduction or recurrence of FMD."

Jan 12/13 ~ Foot and mouth disease: facing the new dilemmas

Jan 12 2004 ~"the paradigm 'free of FMD without vaccination' is not synonymous with 'risk free'"

Jan 12 2004 ~ James Scudamore refers to "supposedly effective vaccines"

Jan 12 2004 ~ Scrapie "the compulsory EU scheme takes effect in April 2005. Implementing the EU schemes will be a major task..."

Jan 12 2004 ~ "growing evidence to suggest organic farming has improved animal welfare.."

Jan 10 2004~ Munich's Tageszeitung downplays risk of BSE after flaws in testing are reported

Jan 10 ~ emergency vaccination would be considered...part of the control strategy.....where measures additional to culling.... were needed.

Jan 10 2004 ~ DEFRA "does not believe there are any valid unpaid and outstanding invoices, submitted by businesses to the Department, for work undertaken in connection with the foot and mouth outbreak. "

Jan 10 2004 ~ Yet another alleged "fraud" case and its effect on the family concerned.

Jan 9 2004 ~ "put through hell"

Jan 7 2004 ~ "This was a heavy handed prosecution by Defra of a farmer struggling to cope with the foot and mouth epidemic."

Jan 7 2004 ~ Almost £20 million has been spent investigating suspected fraudulent claims from contractors for work to deal with the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001 ...

January 6 2004 ~ DEFRA refuses to allow pet pig out of the house "this can spread the risk of foot and mouth disease" says official

January 6 2004 ~BSE: "We have made a decision to depopulate those bull calves"

January 4 2004 ~ "...a disease that is not contagious between animals nor is contagious between people. "

Jan 4 2004 ~ the decision to grant permission for the monkey laboratory was a forgone conclusion, predetermining the result of the inquiry

Jan 4 2004 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

January 3 2004 ~ Telegraph asserts that humans can contract a form of the disease by eating infected meat

January 2 2004 ~" BSE 'panic' "

January 1 2004 ~ New Year Message: The Archbishop of Canterbury

December 30 ~"Apocalypse never"

Dec 30 2003 ~"Lord Melchett will suggest that the forces behind intensive agriculture have refused to accept the environmental, human health or social damage of the system as a serious problem."

December 29 2003 ~ Farming folly

Dec 29 2003 ~ Canada angry as American officials claim BSE-infected cow came from Alberta

December 28/29 2003 ~ "...cow blood and fat can still be fed to America's calves; and it often is, especially on dairy farms because it will boost milk yield. .." (Sunday Herald)

December 28/29 2003 ~ Alberta and Saskatchewan are known to be TSE hotspot zones

December 28/29 2003 ~ Ironically, three months ago, officials from the U.S. together with others from Canada and Mexico, wrote a letter to the 164-nation OIE

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~" It is all but certain that their entire 4,000-strong herd will have to be slaughtered so that the brains and spinal tissue of the other animals can be tested."Independent

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ BSE in Washington state: "The news played havoc on financial markets.."

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ First 'mad cow' case rattles US

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ M-tuberculosis complex genetic probe has " proven to be 100% accurate in predicting the presence of bovine TB in 449 cases the DNR has tested through 2002."

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ Hemispheric Conference on the eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease - Houston, Texas, USA - 3 and 4 March 2004

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ "Some procedural shortcomings" Misty.

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ "The countryside matters. It matters more than Treasury borrowing limits or overspending."

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA's Contingency Plan fulfills the requirements of Section 32B of the Animal Health Act - to make "legal" pre-emptive or 'firebreak' culling

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA's Contingency Plan. A MINIMUM of 5 days to elapse before vaccination implemented?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ New Contingency Plan incorporates the Animal Health Act 2002 - slaughter of healthy animals could be easier

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ Problems "now" overcome?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ "The latest act of pure genius"....Muckspreader in Private Eye

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ Why are "pig pyramids" exempted?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA - late payments

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA announces progress on Vaccination as an "additional control strategy for FMD"

Nov 30- Dec 6 2003 ~ "...unnecessarily bureaucratic framework"

Nov 28 2003 ~"It is time that family farmers learned those names and addresses so that a united resistance can begin in earnest"

Nov 28 2003 ~"...one is left to wonder why no other explanation other than BSE as the cause of variant CJD is considered"

Nov 27/28 2003 ~ who is benefiting by short-circuiting our attempts to understand and remedy the crisis gripping our family farms and rural communities

Nov 27 2003 ~ New Zealand seeks response management software for animal disease

Nov 27 2003 ~" It is important that animal keepers have confidence that their animals will be treated within an ethical, open and pre-agreed framework"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ The MPs seemed shocked and embarrassed that the contractors had not yet been paid.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" when family farms are painted as inefficient, then their loss can be swept aside as an unfortunate but necessary effect of progress..."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Experimenting on non-human primates is not only ethically unsupportable, it is scientifically unreliable

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "An alternative explanation is staring them in the face..."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ the increasing take-over of our food-chain globally and nationally by agribusiness

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Ben Bradshaw says "In 2002 - 03 we spent nearly £74 million on the bovine tuberculosis (TB) Five Point Plan.." - but there is to be no second test for the Morris family

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ New Chief Vet

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "...there is a growing belief that detailed investigation is needed into other possible causes, including unexplained transmission from cow to cow or long-term contamination in soil."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "DEFRA has announced £1.6m research project

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "There is no need for additional equipment, the test is performed at room temperature and results are available in less than 3.5 hours."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" it is quite possible that BSE and variant CJD have emerged as a result of manganese-rich industrial pollution that has only occurred in the last century."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" the science went out of the window, as perceived self-interest and political expediency came in"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ The whole of the EU's scrapie eradication programme thus rests on a card-house of unproven hypotheses.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Margaret Beckett "astonished" by Tory claims about "how terrible things are in the countryside"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ 17,000 farm workers gave up last year

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ the Government should be putting some effort into Gamma interferon testing

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Plans to tag every sheep in Europe got the thumbs down this afternoon.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "This is actually far worse than Foot and Mouth"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Owen Paterson has been appointed the new Shadow Minister for Agriculture

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "Factory farms are more dangerous for our lifestyle and democracy than Osama bin Laden and global terrorism"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The devastating foot and mouth outbreak is only too fresh in our minds...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Farmers Guardian: "OPs - have your say"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ 12,000 species face extinction

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ total suspension of common sense ...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Pigs on the trotter

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Britain's richest farmers are set to keep the lion's share of the country's £2bn-a-year farm subsidies ...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ There is much lip-service in the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy to the word "welfare"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ The European Court of Auditors is believed to be deeply concerned by FMD's spiralling costs and by the controversial contiguous cull policy

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The control of disease by killing farm animals is promoted unashamedly and no apology made for failing to apply methods in human medicine to the care of farm animals.."

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "There has got to be a better test"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ 100,000 cows go missing from records

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The common sense in science is being replaced by nonsense,"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "I have never been persuaded that it was right to ban routine vaccination - I believe there was and is a strong case for it."

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~"Kill your cows privately," DEFRA suggests

Nov 11-18 2003 ~ Mrs Beckett hints that parts of the Haskins report may not be implemented for years - if ever.

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~Lord Haskins criticises Defra's functions as "confused" and "overcentralised"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Following the axing of English Nature, Sir David Attenborough says that anything that diminishes an independent voice for wildlife and conservation is to be deplored

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "complacent and cowardly response is unworthy of the minister and his department"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Haskins recommends clarification of policy so that everyone, including DEFRA personnel, actually understands it

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~" While landowners and farmers are planting trees for the 22nd century, the Government only seems to be sowing seeds for the next election"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ DEFRA application for warrant withdrawn

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Pig factories are invading Poland.

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ David Curry : DEFRA "has too large a brief, is not succeeding and has to be reformed."

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ It appears that the Animal Health Act was cited to the Morris family as the legal basis for the killing of their cows.

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "Small farms in this country are disappearing at an alarming rate.. "

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Ministers are this weekend trying to back away from abolishing England's official independent wildlife watchdog

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Sir Peter O'Sullevan wants to stop the horse export ban from being lifted

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~Export of horses: Lord Whitty "My Lords, the Government share the concerns that many people have about the welfare of horses..We are reviewing the options..."

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Legal intimidation, use of the Animal "Health" Bill to force slaughter

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ BSE: Mr Lidington asks why Prof Ebringer's research grant was stopped

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ We will all have enough to eat if we stick to the good, old-fashioned craft of farming.

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Ninth case of BSE in Japan

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Bovine Gamma Interferon Test

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Badgers, cattle and the reality of a control and elimination programme for TB

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "A blizzard of crazy regulations is threatening the countryside's future"

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "This International Conference will be based on the valuable experience gained in the control and eradication of foot and mouth disease and other significant animal diseases and zoonoses through the use of vaccination

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "..let the Government publish Lord Haskins' report now, instead of giving secret and selective briefings

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Mrs Beckett favours yet more more centralisation

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Nicola Morris threatened with arrest over TB slaughter resistance

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Scrapie - new compulsory EU measures

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "unnecessarily onerous and unreasonably draconian.... It has nothing to do with food safety or animal welfare. "

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Mark Purdey is speaking on his research at Penrith Rugby club on Saturday 15th November at I.30 pm.

Oct 19 - 27 2003 ~"... This is how the supermarkets can keep the price down - because other EU countries are awash with milk, produced less efficiently by farmers who receive much more financial help from their governments"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Heading for Showdown on FMD Clean-up Bills "...we got what we were expecting in that Defra didn't answer the questions we posed"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ The shortcomings of foot and mouth 2001 should not be blamed on the regrettable decline in farm animal vets. Communication is still "poor"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ the "Expert Group" referred to in Section 78 of the Directive: will it include international expertise in foot and mouth disease diagnosis, vaccination and relevant new technologies?

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Commons Rural Affairs Committee raises serious concerns about the declining number of vets specialising in the welfare of farmyard animals.

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Clarification about culling and vaccination is urgently needed

Oct 19 - 27 ~ " The issues surrounding culling and vaccination must be cleared up beyond any doubt before, heaven forbid, we are ever hit again by this dreadful disease."

Oct 19 - 27 ~ EFRA Select Committee urged by RCVS to question claims that the " mathematically justified contiguous cull" brought FMD under control in 2001

Oct 19 - 27 ~ "If the government actually owned up and said that they can't afford to pay now, at least the banks could then arrange to help with companies' cash flow problems."

Oct 19 - 27 ~"Why they are asking all horse and pony owners to apply for horse passports when the required statutory instrument has neither been laid before, nor approved by, Parliament?"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ U.S. Issues New Rules to Protect National Food Supply: meanwhile, DEFRA's dogs are sniffing - but without conviction

Oct 19 - 27 ~"The Commission confirmed that it cannot contribute to the cost of destroying eight million healthy animals under the "pre-emptive cull" scheme, because compensation can only legally be paid for the slaughter of infected animals.. "

Oct 19 - 27 ~"The conclusion I have drawn from analysis of the 2001 FMD epidemic, is that indeed an effective animal disease strategy is dependent on frequent objective review

Oct 13 - 19 ~ ~ EU Compromise over sheep ID plan

Oct 13 - 19 ~"What if they had been questioned on FMD?"

Oct 13 - 19 ~ Fresh Calls for Foot and Mouth Inquiry

Oct 13 -19 ~ Contingency Plans should be made public

Oct 13- 19 ~ Telegraph: "Foot and mouth farce could cost £1 billion"

Oct 13 - 19 ~ EU Commission is considering capping the UK's total final FMD payment "grave concerns about the controversial contiguous cull policy"..."

Oct 13 - 19 ~ ""lasting mistrust" between communities in Cumbria and the government, over the handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic"

Oct 13 - 19 ~"DEFRA and its Scottish equivalent should remember that if they do not get their houses in order regarding FMD then the EU has taken the power to do it for them."

Oct 13 - 19 ~ "I have never been offered funding by the UK government or anybody from the UK in fact."

Oct 6 - 13 ~"exposure to high intensities of both naturally occurring and man made radioactive metals seems to explain the emergence of every cluster of TSE that has reared its ugly head around the world"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ How GM crop trials were rigged ".. the GM trials, whose results will be reported on Thursday, were always more political than scientific"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ significant "irregularities" in our Government's handling of the crisis

Oct 6 - 13 ~ only £217 million of a possible £948.6 million compensation for FMD losses paid to UK by EU

Oct 6 - 13 ~ FMD simulation exercise in Scotland. Mistakes were made. Lessons must be learned

Oct 6 - 13 ~ No-one will insure GM crops

Oct 6 - 13 ~ "...the Community is also a Community of values, and its policies to combat animal diseases must not be based purely on commercial interests but must also take genuine account of ethical principles."

Oct 6 - 13 ~ The government can no longer claim its hands are tied on GM by the EU.

Oct 6 - 13 ~ And so the wheel keeps grinding..

Oct 6 - 13 ~ Caught Between Science & Society: Researching & Documenting the Impact of FMD

Oct 6 - 13 ~ "...the Dutch do not take to idiotic laws all that easily"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ Einstein would not be ignored today; he would be ground down, like the rest of us in British academia.

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ according to the FSA's reading of EC hygiene rules, it is perfectly all right for an inexperienced, untrained farmer to kill animals for human consumption, but for a qualified expert to do the job is a criminal offence.

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ Government using CAP reform to divide and rule? asks CLA

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~"Emergency vaccination is moved to the forefront of control measures instead of being the last resort. The new legislation is a true reform." David Byrne

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ Dr David Paton says the world needs quicker FMD vaccines

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Mary Marshall writes today (Saturday): " Thank you for drawing attention to the simulation exercises in Wales and Scotland and to my own comments, but I would like the opportunity to clarify my suggestions:

Sept 21 - 27 ~" full details of the exercise will not be fully revealed in order to determine the effectiveness of the systems which would be put in place in relatively authentic circumstances."

Sept 21-27 ~The new national scrapie plan scheme announced by Defra has been described as "bad news and bad science"

Sept 21 -27 2003 ~ TB outbreak on Anglesey - no badgers, enclosed herd, farm was given the all-clear 11 months ago - more slaughter of breeding stock

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "The arguments against vaccination, based on the assumption that vaccinated animals can become infected without showing signs of the disease, are spurious..."

Sept 21 -27 ~ The 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in the United Kingdom: animal welfare perspectives

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Sheep at centre of BSE scare

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The FMD question is still going on

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "the banning of Canadian beef might have had a lot more to do with protectionism than health concerns"

Sept 21-27 ~ The chairman of the GM Debate Steering Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, told the BBC the overwhelming response to GM was one of "concern and scepticism".

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Canada, the U.S. and Mexico want an international group overseeing animal health issues.

Sept 21-27 ~ What input will UK stakeholders have into this important dialogue?

Sept 21 - 27 ~ more chemicals are used to grow food in Britain than in any other major industrialised country

Sept 21 -27 2003 ~ TB outbreak on Anglesey - no badgers, enclosed herd, farm was given the all-clear 11 months ago - more slaughter of breeding stock

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "The arguments against vaccination, based on the assumption that vaccinated animals can become infected without showing signs of the disease, are spurious..."

Sept 21 -27 ~ The 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in the United Kingdom: animal welfare perspectives

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Sheep at centre of BSE scare

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The FMD question is still going on

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "the banning of Canadian beef might have had a lot more to do with protectionism than health concerns"

Sept 21-27 ~ The chairman of the GM Debate Steering Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, told the BBC the overwhelming response to GM was one of "concern and scepticism".

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Canada, the U.S. and Mexico want an international group overseeing animal health issues.

Sept 21-27 ~ What input will UK stakeholders have into this important dialogue?

Sept 21 - 27 ~ more chemicals are used to grow food in Britain than in any other major industrialised country

Sept 21- 27 ~" farmers in the six counties of England's eastern region consume more than a quarter of agricultural subsidies in Britain - more than £540m annually."

Sept 21- 27 ~ The Royal Society's refusal to publish the GM crop trials overview paper likely to "arouse suspicions" about the society's motives.

Sept 21- 27 ~ "Foot-and-mouth ran wild, GM is used ineptly and we can't trust meat."

Sept 21- 27 ~ Sheep tags - "the regulation merely takes a previous version referring to cattle, changing "bovine" to "ovine" throughout"

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The Daily Mail hypes fears of sheep slaughter

Sept 14 - 20 ~ "Alternative views on cause and control have been side-lined."

Sept 14 - 20 ~ "...the biotech industry has turned to a more subtle public relations drive to gain European acceptance of GM."

Sept 14 - 20 ~ the theoretical risk of scrapie obscuring hypothetical BSE....

Sept 14 - 20 ~ live animal test for the detection of TSE

Sept 7 - 13 ~ The government is reviewing contingency plans for a sheep catastrophe, long recognised as a theoretical risk.

Sept 7-13 ~"The agent in question is a genetically modified virus designed to replicate and spread. It is a new, man-made disease"

Sept 7 - 13 ~ Bluetongue is heading north across Europe

Sept 7 - 13 ~ Zimbabwe mass cull of buffalo "futile and bizarre"

Sept 7 - 13 ~ "Defra given carte blanche to kill" - Booker's Notebook

Sept 1 -7 ~ "It is bewildering from a legal point of view that people can have their livelihoods just taken away from them"

Sept 1-7 ~"... their final farcical solution on these poor creatures?"

Sept 1-7 ~ " toxin levels are assessed via an unpleasant technique known as the Mouse Bioassay Test..."

Sept 1 - 7 ~ "There are fears that meat from lambs reared on 300 farms in Wales could be contaminated as some farmers may be illegally dipping their sheep in chemicals normally used on crops. "

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Sept 1 -7 ~ Suspected FMD in Argentina. Immediate measures taken - no pre-emptive slaughter.

Sept 1 - 7 ~ " senior veterinary staff must be in charge"

Sept 1 - 7 ~ in January 1999 the Drummond report had recommended five areas of improvement for the State Veterinary Field Service to improve its state of readiness in the event of an outbreak of disease such as foot and mouth

Sept 1 - 7 ~"rigid and inflexible approach from the centre which caused months of unnecessary anguish."

Sept 1 - 7 ~ The power to panic: the Animal Health Act 2002

Sept 1 - 7 ~ "It is patently clear that GIS and handheld wireless computers are the way we all should be moving...too often there is a game script that is played out whatever the players do or not do."

Sept 1-7 ~ Those of us who went through that first half of 2001, even as at arm's length as a reporter hearing farmers cry, never want to hear or see anything like it again.

Sept 1-7 ~ "Above all, the creation (which is a requirement in the EU FMD Directive) of "a permanently operational Expert Group ... to maintain expertise and assist the relevant authority in qualitative disease preparedness"

Aug 25 - 31 ~ A footnote on the Janet Hughes story

Aug 25 - 31 ~ Carwyn Jones says, " We did what we did in the interests of most farmers" and, of the Lee/Campbell report, " I don't think it has any value for any future control of the disease"

Aug 25 - 31 ~" In sum, stamping out was abandoned in all but name. Mass, almost indiscriminate killing took place."

Aug 25 - 31 ~ Colombian livestock owners are worried by the appearance last Monday of foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks.

Aug 25 - 31 ~"The suppression of scientific dissent is one of the most serious and visible signs of the 'academic-industrial-military complex' at work.."

Aug 19 - 25 ~ EU document states that scrapie is not considered to be transmissible to humans or to pose a risk to man ....

Aug 19-25 ~ "despite the universal scare mongering over the 'hyperinfectious' nature of the prion..."

Aug 19 - 25 ~ "Although there is a need for states to be proactive in protecting their resources, there remain more questions than answers regarding this disease."

Aug 19 -25 ~ Vaccine and Diagnostic Kits for FMD ready for use in Tunisia

Aug 18 - 25 ~"...something is out of balance, that the excessive unnaturalness we force on livestock could be catching up with us"

Aug 18 - 25 ~ Political pressure to find a quick fix is no substitute for proper veterinary research into the causes and transmission of disease.

Aug 15-18 ~ "Similar kits exist, but Saalmüller's version is quicker to use and costs one-fifth the price of its rivals." (Nature Aug 1 2003)

Aug 15-18 ~ "novel, untested policies.. unsupported by expert opinion.. may have serious ethical issues, as well as personal consequences...."

Aug 15-18 " ~ ".. failure of the peer-review process has provided a false veneer of authenticity to the models.."

Aug 15-18 " ~ No Judicial Inquiry has ever been able to probe reasons

Aug 15-18 " ~ The tired old argument about consumer resistance to vaccinated meat is referred to by NFU Wales as a "major question"

August 15-18 " ~ Janet Hughes sees limited light at the end of a long tunnel

Aug 13 ~ Warmwell.com is enjoying a short break

Aug 7 ~ "Special Advisers" to MAFF - with all necessary authority and credentials - were compelling decent public servants to act in a wholly reprehensible manner... "

Aug 4 ~ The NFU and its anti-vaccination line

Aug 1-4 ~ "the campaign to eradicate it by hundreds of Defra inspectors is based on hysterical over-reaction...."

Aug 1-4 ~ "..these results clearly demonstrate the ability of a simple peptide-based assay to discriminate between infected and conventionally FMD-vaccinated animals."

Aug 1-4 ~ Pirbright's FMD review

Aug 1 ~ The Effect of Government Policies on the Communities and Economy of Rural Britain.

Read in full

Aug 1 ~ Defra is ordering the mass burning of affected plants.

July 29 ~ scientific membership should be more inclusive and less exclusive.

July 29 ~ a "quick and organised veterinary response" to any future disease outbreak.

July 29 ~ "government departments do not have sufficient scientific expertise"

July 29 ~ " we neglect the study of animal sources of infection at our peril "

July 29 ~" The cost of moving to better welfare is often assumed to be greater than it is."

July 29 ~ "very real fear of retaliatory action"

July 29 ~ 100% of Canadian Farmers do not want GM wheat to be licensed after their experiences with rape and other GM crops

July 28 ~ New money found for fallen stock scheme - and DEFRA's 50% take-up demand is dropped

July 24 ~" Margaret Beckett's department is not operating efficiently

July 23 ~ The Labour Party will attempt to relaunch its image in the countryside this autumn by staging a one-day rural summit - in London.

July 23 ~ Spiralling debts and plummeting membership has forced the NFU to close their London HQ and sell off property (including Ben Gill's presidential style flat in Covent Garden.)

July 20/21 ~ "Dark actors playing games"

July 19/20 ~ Pressure to break up DEFRA intensifies

July 19/20 ~ "bad practice at a pig farm" led to the foot and mouth crisis says Ben Bradshaw.

July 18 ~The government's eight-week national dialogue on genetically modified organisms draws to a close today amid widespread criticism of the way it was organised.

July 17/18 ~ 70 per cent of fallen stock is taken, free, by hunts, but with a ban on hunting looming that option would no longer be available to farmers.

July 17/18 ~ The levels of bureaucracy are absolutely ludicrous, and very expensive

July 17 ~ " Is Lord Whitty aware that "SAT 2 is of concern because as a serotype it has a reputation for being highly contagious and antigenically diverse"

July 17 ~ The harder things get the more our noses are to the grindstone trying to survive.

July 16/17 ~ ".. we have had to live with all these rubbish regulations which have done nothing to improve profits, and all our exports have been driven away because of mis-handling by our Government."

July 16/17 ~ Ministers will press ahead with plans for a compulsory levy on farmers to help pay for any outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

July 16 ~ Consider this: "We would then, provided the vaccine was appropriate to the strain, consider as a first priority the use of preventive vaccination"

July 15/16 ~ Plans for sheep cull under a scrapie plan that has become mandatory

July 16 ~ Sixteen new initiatives have been unveiled today as part of an outline AnimalHealth and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain.

May 22 ~ EU Parliament votes for stricter GM labelling

May 21 ~ "The circumstantial evidence is compelling, but it has not been proven scientifically..."

May 21 ~ BSE Madness - One dead Canadian cow causes mayhem. The US immediately bans all Canadian cattle, sheep and goats, meat and other products. Tyson and McDonalds shares plummet...

May 21 ~ The stock-response belief that BSE kills people is still widespread;

May 20 ~"... knowledge commodified and subject to market forces"

May 20 ~ Ethical or moral reasons do not count. It is impossible under EU rules for Britain to stop GM crops being grown commercially....

May 18 ~ Britain's most expensive myth

May 17 ~ The EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has given North Rhine-Westphalia permission to vaccinate zoo birds.

May 16/17 ~ Stop the slaughter "The issue of whether or not vaccinations should be carried out after an outbreak so as to avoid a mass cull of birds is a moral one"

May 16 ~ Avian influenza

May 16 ~ "The authorities put the interests of a small group of exporters before the interests of hundreds of thousands of animal lovers."

May 16 ~ These fine compassionate words from the 1954 Protection of Birds Act...

May 16 ~ "The curious conviction that animals are without feelings has gone largely unchallenged to this day"

May 15 ~ These recent Parliamentary Questions and Answers into Foot and Mouth show

May 15 ~ "A Memorial to the millions of animals killed during the foot-and- mouth outbreak two years ago is to be unveiled by the Duchess of Hamilton..."

May 15 ~ Fallen Stock measures unworkable in practice?

May 13/14 ~"if justice prevails and this case is heard, the revelations will lead to renewed pressure for a Public Inquiry into FMD..."

May 13/14 ~".. An extended power to slaughter animals for disease control/prevention reasons" Scotland

May 12/13 ~ "The government is stifling science by concentrating research spending on certain universities and letting the rest languish" (In Brief column of the Times : May 12)

May 12 ~ "The following issues have to be solved before emergency vaccination can be introduced. With significant effort by DEFRA, this should be possible by the end of 2003." Royal Society Inquiry July 2002

May 12 ~ Ministers talk of enhancing consumer choice but are proposing a policy that offers no choice.

May 10/11 ~ ....a monopoly on the word "organic" itself, making it illegal for independent producers to adopt higher standards and create their own labels.

May 10 ~ "Not only are intensive systems cruel, but they make herds vulnerable to the rapid spread of devastating diseases..

May 9/10 ~ Suspected case of AI (avian flu) has been found on a farm in Schwalmtal, in the German state of NordRhein Westfalen (NRW).

May 9/10 ~ "an exemption to the six day standstill for individually identified cattle, sheep and goats attending shows.

May 9/10 ~ EU electronic tagging study: " The IDEA project has demonstrated that a substantial improvement can be reached for livestock identification by using electronic identifiers;"

May 9/10 ~ " to proceed from a large-scale project, comprising nearly one million animals in six EU countries towards approximately 200 million animals in 15 EU countries."

May 9 ~"We are shocked by this bizarre move to recommend Ministers adopt an insane definition of what is waste and what is food."

May 9 ~ "the lack of affordable homes was now 'the single greatest threat to a viable countryside' "

May 8 ~ Protest as Lidl tries to cut milk price

May 8 ~ The primary vCJD epidemic in the known susceptible genotype in the UK appears to be in decline

May 7 ~ Two recent letters published in the Veterinary Record

May 6 ~".. the proposals in their present form would be all but impossible to comply with"

May 6 ~"The following issues have to be solved before emergency vaccination can be introduced. With significant effort by DEFRA, this should be possible by the end of 2003." Royal Society

May 3 ~ It is clear that the insurance industry is not in a position to provide for the losses incurred through disease outbreaks"

May 2 ~ two letters from the "Ministry"

May 2 ~" it must be remembered that to label British food as British is a breach of the criminal law"

May 2 ~ Another fine costly mess ...

May 1 ~Ban on livestock burials on farms "As regulations go, this is one of the barmiest," said Anthony Gibson,

May 1 ~"I see striking similarities with the methods of "management" of news during the FMD epidemic, when the majority of the public was lulled into believing that the epidemic was virtually over in time for the Election."

May 1 ~ Bird flu and vaccination

May 1 ~ "the current scientific expertise allows us to believe that at present the virus strain of avian influenza in the Netherlands does not represent a risk to the general public"

May 1 ~ "Chaos erupts as burial of farm stock is banned"

May 1 ~ Disposal of Fallen Stock: the voluntary subscription scheme

May 1 ~ "Following the outbreak of SARS, one thing was certain: Professor Roy Anderson of Imperial College would soon be hitting the headlines"

April 30 ~ Relief at proposals by EU Agriculture Committee to force states to vaccinate rather than slaughter healthy livestock

April 29 ~ "Euro-MPs Demand Compulsory Foot and Mouth Vaccination" - European Commission's FMD proposal

April 28 ~"... Tony Blair is unhappy about the public perception that the Government does not care for the countryside.."

April 28 ~ "... the genetic heritage on which farming depends..."

April 27 ~ Defra strikes again - Booker's Notebook

April 26 ~"The Professor, considered one of the leading authorities on infectious diseases..."

April 26 ~ Comparisons of SARS and FMD are relevant

April 25/26 ~ we are not taking or sharing the lead in areas such as viral infections

April 25/26 ~ little or no ability to respond actively and rapidly to a new problem.......

April 25/26 ~ Increasingly, scientific research is paid for by private enterprise, which in practice means big business.

April 25 ~ SARS, viruses in poultry and pigs, and no lessons learned from Foot and Mouth

April 25 ~ What is genuinely alarming about SARS is that two years after foot and mouth, the UK is still unable to achieve rapid diagnosis and has ignored recommendations made by the Royal Society.

April 25 ~ "...fear, the disease that began to spread around the time of the end of the Cold War, was catalysed by the events of 11 September, and is currently focused on the SARS outbreak in Asia."

April 25 ~ One furious crofter's reaction to "New Rules on Disposal of Fallen Stock from 1 May 2003"

April 24 ~ "...the Government has spent millions unnecessarily in slaughtering cattle and banning certain categories of meat."

April 15 ~ Rapid diagnosis virus testing kits for SARS are being made available from today

April 15 ~ Comment from farm on NFU PR campaign:

April 14 ~"... the Food Standards Agency will be forced to introduce draconian health measures to protect consumers"

April 14 ~ "...better informed choices about food .... appreciate why our beautiful landscape looks the way it does." Mark Pendleton of the CLA

April 12/14 ~ Panic at Defra over waste disposal rules

April 12/14 ~Disappearance of the Sutmoller, Barteling, Olascoaga and Sumption paper from the internet

April 12/14 ~ Defra issues £1.4bn IT outsourcing tender - "the last desperate act of an IT-illiterate top management" says David Taylor, Labour MP

April 12/14 ~ " And there was me thinking his government had declared itself in favour of a thriving and profitable agricultural industry...."

April 12/14 ~ The Competition Commission said animal owners were paying over the odds for prescription-only medicines

April 10/11 ~ Control and eradication of FMD by Sutmoller, Barteling, Olascoaga and Sumption.

April 10 ~ Regionalisation: "an agreed principle in the International Animal Health Organisation (OIE) ..long been enshrined in EU legislation on animal health conditions for trade and imports."

April 10 ~ "SARS: No hurdles presented by validation....yet, for FMD, we are still waiting."

April 10 ~ "I can't be the only one that has noticed the "Stay where you are, don't move or you will catch it/spread it" parallels between SARS and the FMD epidemic

April 9 ~ "We hope that the RPA will at all times keep its customers - farmers -uppermost in its thoughts." EFRA Committee

April 8 ~ "Since I had failed to work out for myself why such a ubiquitous ban should be imposed by the authorities, I set about trying to ask the authorities why this was so..."

April 6/7 ~"Article 8 is not an authorisation for mass culling of healthy animals over vast swathes of countryside, such as happened in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway...."

April 6/7 ~ Emergency Vaccination section of the new EU Draft FMD Directive Proposals

April 6/7 ~ "Livermore assays are the underpinning of the Bush administration's new Bio-Watch system" Will the UK take heart from this?

April 4 ~"... the use of lay vaccinators (suitably trained and competent individuals acting under the direction of a veterinary surgeon)"

April 4 ~" I was confronted with the (anti-vaccination) views of a farmers' leader.... When I explained why his arguments were false, he got red in the face and discontinued the discussion. That is how people react when you attack "belief systems"..."

April 4 ~ "Where the outcome of these discussions may influence a future policy, I think the matter is too important to leave essential questions unanswered." Dr Barteling

April 4 ~ "What happened in the U.K. was understandable."

April 4 ~ Response by the Countryside Alliance to the consultation document on the preparation of an animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain 2003

April 4 ~ Ah yes...."scientific advice"....

April 3 ~"...any move to go down the vaccination route must be preceded by changes to international trading rules," said union spokesman Alan Morris.."

April 3 ~ References in the Welsh Assembly FMD Contingency Plan to vaccination:

April 2 ~ The pros and cons - stamping-out or (circle) culling, or by (ring-) vaccination around the outbreak area

April 2 ~"...it seems that nothing was learnt. Maybe it is psychological. Some people long for catastrophes that make them feel important. Vaccination is too simple...."

April 2 ~ The apparent lack of official interest in how the FMD virus reached us is surely one of the strangest aspects of the crisis.

April 2 ~ Before World War II there were more than 800 livestock markets across Wales and England. By the time foot-and-mouth struck in February 2001 just 180 remained..there are 156 still operating but many are under threat.

March 29/April 1 ~ We are in danger of continuing to protect farm exports at all costs, instead of using every opportunity to make the case for good science and humane practice

March 29/April 1 ~ "The plan also leaves open the question of whether vaccination would be used to deal with any future outbreak."

March 29/April 1 ~ Horse Passports - an important note about an opt-out page

March 29/April 1 ~ "The decision whether to vaccinate is entirely a matter for the Government.."

March 29/April 1 ~ The fear that vaccinated products may not find a market is still apparently raised at stockholders' meetings and may well be a major part of the reason for the UK's continuing refusal seriously to consider vaccination.

March 29/April 1 ~ More chiefs than Indians

March 29 ~ Defra's Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan (version 3) laid before Parliament.

March 29 ~ Horse Passports - all members of the equine family will have to have a passport from 31 December 2003 to safeguard the food chain

March 29 ~"... money intended to benefit farmers gets diluted before it ever reaches them."

March 28 ~ " My Lords, is the Minister really serious?

March 28 ~ Defra has definitely acted unlawfully by obtaining a writ to seize all my possessions to cover their so-called costs.

March 27 ~ registration schemes, for commercial and pet pigs, are to be tightened up

March 27 ~ "it is difficult to identify genuinely independent advice that is informed by sufficient expertise..."

March 26 ~ ".. A diktat from Brussels, which Defra never wanted, which is impossible to comply with except at ludicrous cost, yet which Defra's officials will now enforce with all the zeal for which they are legendary."

March 25 ~" The Commercial Farmers Group - a UK-wide organisation comprised mainly of larger operators - launches a discussion paper in the House of Lords today.

March 25 ~ The Office of Fair Trading has pulled out of a secret meeting today with small suppliers to discuss the failure of its Code of Practice to halt bully-boy tactics by Britain's supermarkets.

March 25 ~ The current EU Draft Directive gives no "automatic" justification for suppressive vaccination in the 3 km surveillance zone

March 25 ~ it was apparently claimed by Defra that all Infected and Contiguous Premises had been tested for FMD

March 24/25 ~ "It is so deceptive. They say they have no idea as to how the warrant was in fact issued."

March 24 ~ John Greenway's Equine Welfare Ragwort Control Private Members bill has successfully completed its second reading - Not so the Food Labelling Bill, unfortunately.

March 24 ~ "The piece by Alan Beat mentioning the report from Canada struck a loud chord with me"

March 24 ~ ".. ...vets were directly responsible for onward spread of Foot and Mouth."

March 24 ~ Relevant Expertise? "The composition of the (Science) Group evolved over time to ensure that relevant expertise was brought in, eg practising vets joined at a later stage to provide a more direct link with events on the ground. ..."

March 24 ~ Centralisation run riot during FMD - Parliamentary Question May 10 2001

March 24 ~ Sheep tagging: ". they are trying to turn us into a bloody factory," ...some industry leaders have warned they will simply refuse to comply with the regulation.

March 24 - There are already so many pressures on our smaller abattoirs that many, if they have not closed already, are facing closure

March 23 ~ 1. There are very real fears that Defra will implement killing on a major scale in the event of another outbreak of FMD, and will be able to do this in spite of the EU Draft Directive as it stands:

March 23 ~ "..normal on-farm burial does not involve "a substantial quantity of animal burial.."

March 23 ~ Scrapie bolus chokes hoggs

March 22 ~ "no comfort whatsoever"

March 22 ~ "Any failure to have the system fully in place as of 1st May rests very much with the farming organisations"

March 22 ~ farm has read the report carefully and stands by all the points raised in the original critique.

March 22 ~ "Monsanto & Cargill employees attempts to skew farm poll on GM"

March 21 ~ That such (rapid diagnostic) tests have yet to be fully validated by the OIE, several years after their initial development, is an international disgrace that demands immediate political action.

March 21 ~ "it can be abused to enforce massive pre-emptive slaughter without scientific or economic justification..."

March 21 ~ DEFRA has stated that from May 1st the on-farm burial of stock will be banned. What then?

March 21 ~ "...little to clarify long-term confusion..

March 21 ~ Removal of OTM 'makes you think'

March 20 ~ Silence Of The Lambs nominated for award

March 20 ~ GM crops: "Consents are granted by an EU-wide process, and the UK is bound by that decision"

March 20 ~ A £2 MILLION foot-and-mouth crisis centre is being built in Dumfries.

March 20 ~ The Water Framework Directive offers the potential of enormous environmental and social benefits,

March 19 ~ EU FMD Directive discussed yesterday by MEPs

March 19 ~ health and safety regulations costs close another abattoir....

March 19 ~ Seeds of doubt over GM - Letters in the Guardian from Gene Watch and Baroness Miller

March 18/19 ~ farm exposes fundamental inaccuracies among claims for GM crops

March 18/19 ~ Are consumers being misled by the little red tractor logo?

March 18 ~ "You need to get people working with the virus so they won't be frightened of the damn thing,"

March 17 ~ The only effective defence against such politicking is sound science, hard information, good communication and good emergency preparation where these issues have already been discussed with key stakeholders.

March 17 ~" to lay the blame for such bribery at the door of those farmers who were eventually forced into submission is a complete reversal of the truth"

March 17 ~ Not worthy of Geoffrey Lean?

March 17 ~ "If the Inquiry accepts the "farmer spread" argument, then surely that indicates they do not accept that airborne spread was responsible.."

March 17 ~ "Now, even DEFRA must realise that mass slaughter is no longer an option, though they are loathe to admit it."

March 16 ~ "That's bad for Democracy itself"

March 16 ~ ".. the minister who presented that shamefully-inadequate contingency plan for approval by the European Commission in 1992 was none other than John Selwyn Gummer, "Our Country Crusader"..."

March 14 ~ "The contiguous cull was controversial because it involved the slaughter of millions of apparently healthy animals."

March 14 ~ "Emergency vaccination was not used during the 2001 outbreak."

March 14 ~ "Seven mass burial pits were constructed at significant expense..."

March 14 ~ "Some of the disease's handling remain inexcusable, such as the absence of a vaccination policy..."

March 14 ~ David Lidington: "plans to use vaccination to help control a new outbreak are at best sketchy"

March 14 ~ Ash Moor Pit back in the news as DEFRA plans to sell the land on the open market

March 13 ~ FARM needs to fill two new posts:

March 13 ~ Anthony Gibson on bio-fuels

March 12 ~ DEFRA yesterday unveiled a comprehensive training package, aimed at all those engaged in the humane culling of animals, ranging from a notifiable disease outbreak to a roadside emergency.

March 12 ~ William Moyes says that Animal By-Products Regulation will create huge problems

March 12 ~" this work is underway."

March 12 ~ Continuing confusion about the new rules targeting red diesel fraud.

March 11 ~ "Perhaps Silence of a Dale shouldn't just be playing Skipton Auction Mart, but also the House of Commons."

March 11 ~ Snowie Ltd criticised

March 11 ~ Chesters Livestock Market to close

March 11 ~ Launch of CLA Rural Tourism policy Document

March 11 ~"It is always a bad sign when the man in charge starts talking about the need to draw lines in the sand..

March 10 ~ "...simply lending a tractor to a neighbour should not require a ridiculous paper chase" Marcus Themans, chairman of the National Farmers' Union technical committee

March 10 ~ "The FSA said at the time that there was no evidence of beef being used in this way in UK imports..."

March 10 ~ "The 1993 EU national contingency plans document is interesting.

March 10 ~ "It is heartening that there are farmers who care about the health and well-being of their animals, their land and their customers...."

March 10 ~ "we must persevere because there is this window of opportunity to make progress; we have achieved a lot...

March 10 ~"In response to challenges regarding the composition of the Stakeholder Group Consultees....

March 9 ~ The technology is becoming an essential component of modern disease surveillance systems

March 8 ~ DEFRA's Left and Right hand

March 7 ~ "their expertise to identify and deal with the consequences...."

March 7 ~ ".. double-tagging and no burying will be supported by countries like France and Ireland who would dearly love our sheep meat market."

March 7 ~ " The EU proposals for fighting FMD are reasonably fair, but the UK makes it clear they are willing to go beyond what is proportionate

March 7 ~ Another "consultation period"..this time on the OTMS rule

March 6/7 ~".. the sheer stupidity of it all makes me so mad"

March 5/6 ~ From the Animal Health Act 2002

March 5 ~"... with our deep cynicism of any so-called "consultation" process..."

March 4/5 ~ DEFRA to preempt GM trials

March 4/5 ~ Food Labelling Bill "The Government's approach to this Bill will be a test of the Government's sentiment towards British Farmers" David Lidington

March 4 ~"Vaccination policies and trade regulation must be based on risk assessments taking these factors into consideration."

March 4 ~ "Without Fred Brown none of the dissent about the lunatic modelling and mad slaughter might ever have been heard"

March 4 ~ "I should think there would be no other action that would do more to improve the viability of British Agriculture and the health and well-being of the people of this Nation than truthful and honest labelling."

March 4 ~ "Sir, Two years ago, a powerful national leader attacked a minority group within his own country.

March 3 ~ Comments on Defra's Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan, Version 2.5

March 3 ~ "Absent from this document are the crucial topics on improving diagnosis and record/data acquisition and analysis."

March 3 ~ Diagnostics.... portable real-time RT-PCR tests.....The US Congress has just been told that these tests are ready for use in an emergency....

March 3 ~ GIS surveillance ... " it can eliminate the need for bulky double tags on sheep and goats and reduce the amount of paper work .."

March 3 ~ Real-time alert (table top) exercises

March 3 ~ "We need balanced, focused leadership which can.. rise above.... narrow vested interest groups, researchers seeking funds .... political pressures. "

March 3 ~"Please, can we fundamentally review the contingency plan and open it up to international consultation?"

March 3 ~ Will Defra have the courage to accept this new approach to animal disease control?

March 2/ 3 ~ Defra courts confusion

March 1-2 ~"It seems that Defra is still woefully ill prepared..."

Feb 28 ~ "It would be catastrophic if another outbreak occurred while leisurely preparations were being carried out...".

Feb 28 ~ " Localisation is not Utopia; it is the only viable future we have."

Feb 28 ~ A new scheme to pay farmers to become rural guardians....

Feb 28 ~ This item on Defra's computerised database system failures was on Thursday's Farming Today.

Feb 28 ~ "..they must have broken every animal health welfare and animal health rule in the book. "

Feb 28 ~ Re: Friends like these

Feb 28 ~Re: Whitehall farce

Feb 28 ~ Just how bad is the TB problem in UK Cattle?

See also

Feb 28 ~ It is difficult to justify DEFRA's claim that the ISG is in fact independent, when the appointments to the Group and payments to the members of the Group are controlled by DEFRA itself.

Feb 28 ~ The EFRA all-party committee will investigate boosting biofuel

Feb 27 ~ "We are tending to concentrate on wind rather than wave, water, energy crops and bio-gas. People don't want wind farms."

Feb 27 ~ Janet Hughes' worry goes on and on

Feb 27 ~ Demand Farmed Fuels

Feb 27 ~ Lunacy of banning on-farm burial of fallen livestock

Feb 27 ~ IS THIS THE FUTURE FOR CARCASS DISPOSAL?

Feb 27 ~ "growing crescendo of incredulity and protest against these nonsensical proposals."

Feb 26 ~ Re: Banning fuel crops is insane

Feb 26 ~ "The way in which the High Court has acted has made me very angry indeed."

Feb 25/26 ~ Krebs trials have cost almost £24 million - that's an average cost of around £5,400 per badger.

Feb 25/26 ~ WIND WARNING

Feb 25/26 ~ ".. the Government should be "pushing" less damaging alternatives like wave energy and energy crops" Western Morning News

Feb 25/26 ~ real fears were aired in the Westcountry last night that the move could "steam-roller" through windfarm applications despite local opposition.

Feb 25 ~ United Kingdom Livestock and Products Bovine Brucellosis Outbreak in Great Britain 2003

Feb 25 ~"What is the latest on The Honest Food Bill?

Feb 25 ~ The big mistake that nearly everyone made back in mid-March 2001..

Feb 25 ~ "Farmers are likely not to admit to depression because many don't know what it is. Also they don't want to let the family down...."

Feb 24/25 ~ 25% of our land could produce all the nation's transport fuels

Feb 24/25 ~ "...the reality is that the outcome was already established by people not apparent to the participants."

Feb 24 ~" I eventually realised there was going to be no justice, only the law"

Feb 24 ~ Gold-plated bureaucracy

Feb 24 ~" The technology is becoming an essential component of modern disease surveillance systems."

Feb 24 ~".. there is hope for the future.."

Feb 24 ~" I can show that they have certainly not acted in accordance with the law in this instance.."

Feb 24 ~farm shops work. It's up to us, the customers, to ask the questions..."

Feb 23 ~ Pet cow suspected of brucellosis ( test negative) is not slaughtered

Feb 22 ~ It seems that DEFRA are making good use of the AHB already with the slaughter of cattle with/without brucellosis.

Feb 22 ~ "On the subject of TB, what the **** was DEFRA allowing Cumbrian farmers to buy replacement dairy cows from Devon after FMD?

Feb 22 ~ Brucellosis - "Several hundred cattle are to be slaughtered ....

Feb 22 ~ Double tagging of sheep EU proposals "impractical and unbearable"

Feb 22 ~"I confirm that Defra will not take any further action against you at the present time."

Feb 22 ~".... lasting national shame.... all it has done to deal with the next outbreak is pass secondary legislation to give it powers to contiguously cull which it did not have during the 2001 epidemic "

Feb 21 ~ "..the bailiffs left no contact number, gave no ID nor notice of authority."

Feb 21 ~ Ministers are considering a clampdown on cattle movements in a bid to halt the spread of the disease.

Feb 21 ~ FMD policy carried out better in Scotland?

Feb 21 ~ "Thirty months is not a magic number." Sir John Krebs

Feb 21 ~ Defra Dilley-Dalleys over Janet Hughes.

Feb 21 ~ "the newsdesk has been holding onto his reports on the issue," says Janet Hughes

Feb 20 ~ "....... the remains of a sheep.

Feb 20 ~ Two years ago to the day...

Feb 20 ~ Differentiation of Infection from Vaccination in FMD

Feb 20 ~ "..... Foot and Mouth Disease the answer must surely be through the use of vaccination as a first line of defence -

Feb 20 ~little progress appears to have been made as the second anniversary of the start of the UK 2001 FMD epidemic approaches ...

Feb 20 ~ The film - In the Shadow of Foot and Mouth -

Feb 20 ~ FARMING TODAY THIS WEEK Saturday 15 February

Feb 19 ~ Sir John Krebs: "However, in the UK in particular, the control of both BSE and Foot and Mouth disease have probably done much to put consumers' minds at ease."

Feb 19 ~ "...almost universal criticism of the expanded culling powers and their conflict with the basic human rights of the farming community"

Feb 19 ~" The High Court has still not acknowledged my application, even though I have telephoned them and written to them twice"

Feb 19 ~ " I can announce that Defra, with the devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland, will this year be reviewing the TB strategy for Great Britain." Mrs Beckett

Feb 19 ~"the real problem is that a commercially viable vaccine might not be found... If one is found, the Government must insist that it is produced, or in some way make it economically viable to produce." Bill Wiggin MP

Feb 19 ~ The Office of Fair Trading is writing to suppliers' organisations and the supermarkets...

Feb 18 ~ Robin Feakins is given leave to appeal

Feb 18 ~ TB is now raging through our herd

Feb 18 ~ "The behaviour of DEFRA beggars belief. Christopher Booker's Notebook in the Telegraph of 3rd February 2003 reveals just how nasty they really are"

Feb 18 ~" A hypothetical epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), maliciously started

Feb 18 ~ the BBC Radio Interview of Nicola Morris on the subject of the contiguous cull :

Feb 17 ~ Tim Bennett says we need a fresh approach to bovine TB

Feb 17 ~ Michael Meacher to resign?

Feb 17 ~ the once mighty and now impotent NFU. Rigid in its refusal to allow any semblance of democracy

Feb 17 ~ " the helpless ignorance of children, even in Winchcombe, who have never seen a cow"

Feb 17 ~ Janet Hughes' property is still under threat from DEFRA

Feb 14 ~ emphasis on carriers and persistent infection

Feb 14 ~ the "first and only bit of common sense to come out of the EU"

Feb 14 ~ Janet Hughes' cheque already processed - but High Court denies receiving the application

Feb 14 ~ BSE and Infectivity

Feb 14 ~ The European MP who is writing a crucial report on the viability of new sheep identification proposals is Gordon Adam

Feb 14 ~ State Veterinary Journal, Volume 12, number 1, 2002

Feb 14 ~ "...if this was a success, one would not like to see a failure."

Feb 14 ~" I have written to the judge, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton, who made the order for costs against me on 11 October 2001..."

Feb 14 ~ "Most of the (RCVS) College's activities are carried out under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966. The Act is out of date..."

Feb 14 ~ "The animal record and epidemiological information available to M.A.F.F. was so poor that the course of the epidemic or even the numbers of infected animals will never be known with reasonable accuracy.

Feb 14 ~ " The executive clearly sees the general slaughter power it now enjoys as an important part of these (contingency) plans."

Feb 13 ~ The Power to Panic: The Animal Health Act 2002 -

Feb 13 ~ "This will also enable us to maintain immunity for cattle in areas exposed to infection."

Feb 12/13 ~ Apologies for publishing without comment an article implying that BSE is "infectious"

Feb 12/ 13 ~ GM compensation for all farmers?

Feb 12/13 ~ "the deeper TB embeds itself among cattle and badgers the more expensive it will be to root out."

Feb 12 ~"...frankly I would rather think for myself than have a civil servant cock it up for me. If my product is only worth half, find a better way to raise its value or my income than this insane and wicked bloodletting they will perpetrate again in the name of 'animal health'.."

Feb 12 ~ " I want Ministers to get out of bed every day and ask, "How can I make life easier? What rule can I scrap today?" Mr. David Cameron MP (Witney)

Feb 12 ~ There's nothing wrong with technology in itself. It is the way we use it to extract the maximum profit from the land and put the minimum back that is destructive.

Feb 12 ~ Homeopathy at Wellie Level

Feb 12 ~ "I don't have time to be a nursemaid to individuals that don't fit the system" was a common view years ago as pig producers learned to survive competitive pressures by becoming larger...

Feb 12 ~ "...you can limit the spread of associated diseases and start to look for a cure"

Feb 12 ~".. local reporters have been finding out as much as they can for me from DEFRA , and otherwise I would have been kept quite in the dark."

Feb 10 ~ Under the yolk

Feb 10 ~ "more than eight out of 10 farmers are connected to the internet"

Feb 9 ~ Standstill and Tagging Rules. The Voice of Independence -

Feb 8 ~" I have asked the agriculture minister to explain how new regulations can possibly work when it means massive amounts of extra paperwork."

Feb 8 ~ Western Mail: "..the Lib/ Lab coalition has filched almost £9m from farmers' incomes through modulation and has not returned a single penny back to the industry.

Feb 8 ~ "The European Commission has certainly "gone to work on an egg"...."

Feb 8 ~ " This wonderful piece of beef ....represents an entire culture, the culture of the family farm."

Feb 8 ~ Animal Movements in England and Wales - Spring Regime 2003

Feb 8 ~ DEFRA seeks views on the EU Proposal

Feb 8 ~ The "problem" of the meat seems to lie at the heart of the UK reluctance to take vaccination seriously.

Jan 8 ~ DEFRA seeks views on "required treatments" of vaccinated meat

See full consultation letter

Jan 8 ~"..The veterinary art that asks for the herd to be depopulated to control disease epizootics has graduated into politics, which now attempts to sell the idea of preemptive strikes against political infection."

Jan 8 ~The European Commission has ordained that, from next year, every egg must be stamped with its home address.

Feb 7 ~ Janet Hughes, still waiting to hear for herself that she has won a last-minute reprieve.

Feb 7 ~ Now the word is that one of the sniffer dogs at Heathrow has developed an aversion to conveyor belts and has been allowed to stay in its kennel with a sick note.

Feb 7 ~ DEFRA insisted on being the main defendant.

Feb 7 ~ Nicola Morris will take part in next week's Taking a Stand

Feb 7 ~ successive governments made OP dips compulsory until 1992.

Feb 7 ~ A reprieve for small abattoirs?

Feb 7 ~ Small Abattoirs: EU allows Member States to decide how the costs of official controls will be met

Feb 7 ~ A new discussion forum on Preparing an Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain is now running.

Feb 5 ~ The tools of modern medicine are there to be used to combat the spread of Mycobacterium bovis and ultimately to eliminate the infection.

Feb 5 ~ Misunderstanding continues about the scale of the FMD epidemic

Feb 5 ~ We would welcome any reports, brief or long, about the Foot and Mouth programme tonight

Feb 4 ~ OPEN MEETING - Is BSE Caused by Organophosphate Poisoning?

Feb 4 ~ "The Government is completely satisfied that meat and meat products from vaccinated animals can enter the food chain.

Feb 4 ~"Commissioner Byrne shows a lack of under-standing of how the sheep industry operates ..."

Feb 4 ~ Six-day standstill could severely hamper the viability of markets.

Feb 3/4 ~ Lord Carter was given the Channel 4 'Peer of the Year' award on Saturday

Feb 3 ~ Theodore Dalrymple's words yesterday could equally apply to FMD "experts"

Feb 3 ~ The origins of foot and mouth - Bob Parry

Feb 3 ~" the public has empathy for farmers' troubles.. little understanding of the issues they face"

Feb 3 ~ Concern for Janet Hughes continues

Feb 3 ~ "those honest, brave, resilient, broken people.."

Feb 3 ~ "what is all this market-led claptrap when you get down to it?"

Feb 2 ~ "Defra fights dirty with anti-cull campaigner"

Feb 2 ~ the arguments used to persuade the farmers to part with their flocks in the Brecon Beacons were based on the assertion that these flocks must have been heavily infected. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Feb 2 ~ "Any Contingency Plan should be presented as simply as possible..."

Feb 1 ~ Janet Hughes and the demand from DEFRA for £17,000 in costs

Feb 1 ~ More on the parallels between government responses to FMD and Exotic Newcastle Disease

Feb 1 ~ the future for family farms, with an opportunity to question experts

Feb 1 ~ trying to access Government-administered help and funding "complex, baffling and bureaucratic"

Jan 31 ~ "Defra claim they have no option but to take Miss Hughes' possessions to recover taxpayers money,

Jan 31 ~ Livestock hand-reared on farms can now no longer be killed humanely on site.

Jan 31 ~ (the real problem).. . the illegal slaughterhouses, the corruption within the Meat Hygiene Service and the lack of accountability with the FSA.

Jan 31 ~ "the deficiencies of a draconian program of detection and eradication"

Jan 30 ~ Plan to elect future NFU presidents by a one member, one vote ballot thrown out last week by the union's ruling council.

Jan 30 ~ DEFRA "stakeholders" meeting today will consider FMD control strategies.....

Jan 30 ~ DEFRA is accused of "mindless incompetence"

Jan 30 ~ Breaches of animal welfare regulations not considered important by the BBC either?

Jan 30 ~ Mark Purdey will be addressing a meeting on the borders near Hereford for OPUS on February 12th.

Jan 30 ~ Janet Hughes

Jan 29 ~ "We know what a landscape stripped of livestock looks like, because we saw it in North Devon in the wake of foot and mouth disease

Jan 29 ~ "Sheep movements must be reduced and minimised, perhaps by locating abattoirs and auctions closer to each other and the source of production...."

Jan 29 ~ Janet Hughes is charged £17,000 for daring to question the postcode killing of the FMD policy and the new draconian provisions of the Animal Health Bill

Jan 28 ~ "Crooked Britain: Unfit meat"... will be broadcast on BBC Two

Jan 28 ~ .. symptoms of the insecurity, ignorance and neurosis which ... dominate the activities of DEFRA

Jan 28 ~ More incredulity over the nonsense of sheep tagging

Jan 28 ~ Where would farmers store dead lambs in a busy lambing season?

Jan 27/28 ~ An overview of chronic organophosphate poisoning

Jan 27 ~ Michael Meacher has asked to meet Mark Purdey

Jan 27 ~ The Inland Revenue is to levy a 40 per cent inheritance tax on farmhouses, farming land and other farm buildings.

Jan 27 ~ Mr Morley says: "the Department is fully informed on the science of TSEs and the prion protein."

Jan 27 ~ "TSE's may be an environmental/industrial disease

Jan 27 ~ 40,000 BSE cases born after the 1988 feed ban ...the experts have been forced to come up with an ever increasing array of implausible reasons

Jan 27 ~ Of course we acknowledge the need for various other means of disposal, but we reserve our right to continue burying those animals that are special to us."

Jan 26 ~ The F word

Jan 25 ~ Robert Uhlig meets Lord Haskins

Jan 25 ~ Livestock burial plan criticised

Jan 25 ~ "We will not hesitate to move back to a 20-day stand-still system if ....if farmers are found to be flouting the six-day movement system."

Jan 25 ~ "British agriculture has consistently been the most efficient in the EU"

Jan 25 ~ "practically all the medium sized abattoirs have gone .... those that are still struggling on will welcome the extra business. ."

Jan 25 ~ The body heroically termed the Waste Food Task Force, established by the Food Standards Agency has produced a timely report.

Jan 25 ~ .... "dangerous contacts" from Welshpool Market, where 40 local farmers refused to let their animals be killed because they did not believe them to have been exposed to the disease, not one later proved positive.

Jan 25 ~ The Great Food Swap - a report by Dr Caroline Lucas MEP.

Jan 24/25 ~ Is a mass cull of UK sheep on the way after all?

Jan 24 ~ Unfit meat scam - are we being deceived and defrauded by the very people employed at great cost to protect us?

Jan 24 ~The successful control and eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease epidemics in South America in 2001.

Jan 24 ~ EU Commission lacks courage to reform CAP says FOE

Jan 24 ~ Another foot and mouth "Nature Reserve"

Jan 23 ~ 20 day Rule

Jan 23 ~"Injecting human brain material into animals is considered "unethical"....

Jan 23 ~ DEFRA seem to be a little confused as to whether environmental factors might be responsible for Scrapie.

Jan 23 ~" even if manganese is just a risk factor, it is important that this factor be kept in the equation, because it might just be the key that unlocks the truth about these diseases. "

Jan 23 ~ More about the Horn Report

Jan 23 ~ David Lidington: Change to 20-Day Rule: at last DEFRA joins the real world

Jan 23 ~ CLA statement on 20 day rule change

Jan 23 ~ "No mention is made here of the rapid diagnostic tests that are available which would radically reduce the amount of testing time required"

Jan 22/23 ~ "The agreement between President Chirac and Chancellor Schrvder to freeze the farm budget from 2006 has forced Franz Fischler, the agriculture commissioner, to break a promise not to target the largest farms."

Jan 22/23 ~ " the reforms would impact disproportionately on the UK and could seriously damage the UK's own rural strategy."

Jan 22 ~ 20-day standstill rule - announcement likely on Thursday

Jan 22 ~ "... farmers are already doing more than enough."

Jan 21/22 ~ Prince Charles wants to "repair, restore and re-create" Britain's lost countryside.

Jan 21/ 22 ~ "We cannot afford to lose our smaller local abattoirs and cutting plants"

Jan 21 ~ BSE transmission in sheep unlikely

Jan 21 ~ The nation needs the diversity of its meat and livestock industry....We look to DEFRA to defend their interests in the imminent EU negotiations.

Jan 21 ~ "This government fails to realise that if something works, don't mess with it." Richard Burge

Jan 21 ~ DEFRA's "contingency plan"

Jan 21 ~ Why is it that the Food Standards Agency still has not made a clear statement about the safety of vaccinated meat?

Jan 21 ~ If everyone in Great Britain ate one additional cooked breakfast per month it would increase consumption of cereal by 350,000 tonnes, equivalent to the grain grown in Hampshire.

Jan 20/21 ~ CLA's Broadband Campaign - agreement reached

Jan 20 ~ "We should have liked DEFRA to have applied for a derogation for the smaller abattoirs."

Jan 20 ~".. farmers trust auction marts and their professional staff. They turn to us for advice and will abide by it. ......

Jan 20 ~"About 500 senior Defra civil servants are to be asked to take psychometric tests

Jan 20 ~ Inaccuracy of reporting at the BBC

Jan 20 ~ The European Commission will press ahead with plans to reform the Common Agricultural Policy this week

Jan 19 ~ David Lidington: "Rules put farmers under intolerable strain"

Jan 19 ~"....the far-reaching effects abattoir closure will have on very varied spheres of interest, such as DEFRA's rural and regeneration strategy..."

Jan 19 ~ Ministry wants lambs' ears pierced at a few days old

Jan 19 ~ "the housewife" has been put forward as the driving force behind the relentless and ruthless strategies to cut costs......

Jan 18 ~".. as a country we should not become obsessed with cheapness. The government already is."

Jan 18 ~ BSE in British sheep flock highly unlikely

Jan 18 ~ 20-day decision imminent

Jan 17 ~ NFU Deputy President attacks double tagging sheep proposals

Jan 17 ~ "The fact that all but one of the premises have tested negative does not mean that the policy of culling out Dangerous Contacts and Slaughter on Suspicion cases is too stringent."

Jan 17 ~ ".. they report untruths as though a known and accepted fact"

Jan 17 ~ The solution lies in reforming an industry that concentrates power and profit in the hands of the retailers - as the scramble for control of the Safeway chain demonstrates - at the expense of farmers

Jan 17 ~ King's English?

Jan 17 ~ Zimbabwe is unable to get money for FMD vaccine

Jan 16 ~ 20 day rule decision? Lord Whitty says he is "minded to reach one" in the next few days.

Jan 16 ~ Epidemiological data from the FMD crisis should, by now, be in the public domain.

Jan 16 ~" The fear that vaccination causes FMD carriers and interferes with the eradication effort is completely hypothetical and scientifically unfounded"

Jan 15 ~ ".. the despair of farmers who are prisoners of a system over which they have no control."

Jan 15 ~ "The Mirage of Process is the retreat into reorganisation, delegation, consultation or inquiry."

Jan 15 ~ "I am disgusted that the British Government would even contemplate that I could be of some threat to my country."

Jan 15 ~" a nail in the coffin of many farmers and reduce consumer choice"... Rapacious Wal Mart is hoping to evade investigation from OFT

Jan 15 ~ Robin Feakins is not giving up.

Jan 15 ~ Animal Health Bill came into force yesterday

Jan 15 ~ "Interferon could cover vaccines' weak spot."

Jan 15 ~ Professor King's knighthood criticised

Jan 14 ~ "Neither of these suggestions are suitable for my business or for the industry. Think again please."

Jan 13 ~ "The Foot and Mouth year brought home to me how completely industrial farming had subdued the nation and how mindlessly it was accepted."

Jan 13 ~ Fischler's proposals will kill off British beef production says NBA.

Jan 13 ~ "Here is the nightmare future that awaits the UK as political and farming leaders join forces to embrace it"

Jan 13 ~ Farewell to Dot.

Jan 12 ~ Bovine TB - compassion for the health of cattle and badgers Vaccination strategies for health

Jan 12 ~ "..the nightmare of the 20-day rule that closes a farm down for 20 days as soon as an animal comes onto the farm"

Jan 11 ~ Protests against the 20 day standstill rule " took place at Defra offices in Truro, Taunton and Gloucester - and outside the South West, at places as far afield as Carlisle, Preston, Leeds, Stafford and Lincoln..."

Jan 11 ~ "welcome to the nightmare of individual sheep tagging"

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Jan 10 ~ 20 day rule protests today

Jan 10 ~ Sheep and Goat tagging - the European Commission proposal for the identification and registration of sheep and goats.

Jan 10 ~ The use of "other tests not included in the OIE Manual, is permitted provided that the performance of the test has been shown to match or exceed the sensitivity and specificity parameters laid down ..."

Jan 10 ~"Clearly, safety and MAFF regulations were not the controlling factors here, but rather a desire to exploit their privileged position as the World Reference Centre to restrict competition."

Jan 10 ~ "it is a breach of duty that this has been allowed to pass"

Jan 10 ~ British government officials, livestock owners, practitioners and other interested parties should know the pedigree of this technology.

Jan 10 ~ Farm Strategy could be a poisoned chalice admits Don Curry

Jan 9/10 ~ "no major food scares from animal products or any other animal-related public health scares" ...and no animals perhaps?

Jan 9/10 ~ NFU starts big push on 20-day standstill

Jan 9 ~ Rapid Diagnosis PCR tests: a peer-reviewed publication, lab validation, and successful field tests in South America.

Jan 9 ~ FMD Contingency Plan: no reference to new technologies - rapid field diagnosis and linked GIS systems. On the contrary:

Jan 9 ~ "As long as we have the effective mechanisms of surveillance, identification and reaction, it doesn't matter where the disease has come from, it's how we react to it,"

Jan 9 ~ Defra announces that "animal health" can cause damage to the rural economy

Jan 9 ~ £2 million anticipated for Defra's Horizon Scanning Strategy for Science in its first year.

Jan 8 ~ "The government's refusal to hold a public inquiry saved the Prime Minister, Ministers and officials the humiliating and potentially devastating experience of public inquisition over their failures."

Jan 8 ~ Mrs Beckett's 'Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food' reads more like a 'Strategy for convincing the public the government cares about British farming'.

Jan 8 ~ NFU demonstration against the 20 day standstill rule in Carlisle this friday

Jan 7 ~ "Franz Fischler, wise man, cancelled his date with the Oxford farming conference this week."

Jan 7 ~ Farmers will have to become more responsible for food safety and the environment if they want red tape cut, Donald Curry will tell the Oxford Farming Conference

Jan 7 ~ Lord Whitty is pressing for new proposals to ban children under 16 from driving tractors.

Jan 1-6 ~ "we did attempt to validate Fred Brown's test and it didn't pass the validation"

Jan 1 - 6 ~ And today's Sunday Scare Story is......DEFRA to be in charge in the case of bio-terror attack

Jan 1 - 6 ~ FSA prosecutes abattoir for its help in emergency

Jan 1 - 6 ~ Prince supports fair trade scheme

Jan 1 - 6 ~ Lord Haskins should resign and someone who can plan for the near future be appointed to advise the Prime Minister

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "we are still left with this ludicrous 20 day rule .."

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "if this group can't solve the problems then change planets now"

Jan 1 - 6 ~"Fair-trade, Organic. Jolly good. But not to the detriment of non-organic but just as caring British Farmers..."

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "Fewer amenities, poor communications, struggling farmers and many rural businesses still suffering from the long term effects of the Government's and EU Commission's mismanagement of the Foot and Mouth crisis."

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "Tony Blair says he is committed to a thriving agriculture that produces a fine countryside, but the other week he said: "We can't do this alone - we need the co-operation of farmers."

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "...very substantial powers, which are having increasing effects on our lives. " ".....even if political leaders now deny their ambitions to create a United States of Europe, mocking claims that it is to become a "super-state", the original agenda remains unchanged..."

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "Under the pilot project, companies selling products from UK farms as well as from developing countries and elsewhere can apply to carry the FAIRTRADE and Soil Association marks."

Jan 1 -6 ~ "The Prince also sees the sense of the UK remaining relatively self-sufficient in food at a time when global situations can change very unexpectedly."

Jan 1 - 6 ~EU plans could be end for abattoirs. Costs could jump from £3 to £100 per animal

Jan 1 -6 ~ "we have been reluctant to recognise that the switch over has caused something of a rise in prices. We should have been more honest about that".

Jan 1 -6 ~ End of the OTMS scheme?

Jan 1 - 6 ~ "..the most dynamic regions were those which had a prosperous rural economy"

Jan 1 - 6 ~"..there has to be a 'reckoning-up' time; there has to be something positive. The Government has got to address the reasons why this tragedy happened."

Jan 1-6 ~ ".. he should refuse his knighthood"

Jan 1 - 6 - "What has also been clear to me is that there is a real gulf between those who live in our towns and cities and those in the countryside."

Dec 31 ~ " I would like to know if , in 2003, there is anyone in DEFRA, veterinary science or the establishment in veterinary medicine and organic farming who is enabled to do scientific work on the care and raising of farm animals and who is planning to address the issues I have raised."

Dec 31 ~ A few more bills like this and Britain will not be far removed from the terror states the government so condemns.

Dec 31 ~ Prof David King is given a Knighthood

Dec 31 ~ More New Year awards

Dec 31 ~"When millions of cattle were systematically vaccinated with good quality vaccines, FMD disappeared in spite of a large sentinel population in the form of calves and unvaccinated sheep and pigs.

Dec 31 ~ "DEFRA and the veterinary establishment have failed to recognise that humans are animals too."

Dec 31 ~ Scrapie: the EU and Britain contrasted

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Dec 31 ~ Vaccination of wild animals against rabies and classical swine fever

Dec 31 ~ David Lidington: Nine months on, DEFRA's "Action Plan" on meat imports still not delivered

Dec 30 ~ The livestock industry was still shackled with a 20-day standstill throughout 2002 which has caused major disruption to the farm-to-farm sale of animals, particularly sheep.

Dec 30 ~ "I think its imperative that folk know that FMD is by no means over...."

Dec 30 ~ Why does the Inspector need powers to slaughter?

Dec 29 ~ "She was a wonderful feisty woman with a great sense of humour"

Dec 29 ~ "Do you think the French give their armed forces and schools anything other than French products? Not on your nelly". Prince Charles

Dec 28 ~ Tags unworkable

Dec 28 ~ "Unstitch those threads and the ancient tapestry - our precious countryside with all it cultural heritage - will lose its traditional character and the beauty which attracts so many."

Dec 27 ~ The requirement to record the individual identification numbers of sheep in movement documents and holding registers will be a practical nightmare.

Dec 26 ~ An EU Food ban - but who will enforce it here?

Dec 26 ~ "The cynics amongst us might suggest it was simply scientists keeping themselves in jobs by persuading the Government to award lucrative research contracts."

Dec 23 ~ Woolhouse said: "We did not have the right vaccines. We still don't. The vaccines we have now would not control the disease, they're not good enough."

Dec 23 ~ "The heat from pyres of burning carcasses has died down, but argument about the management of Britain's worst-ever FMD outbreak has not."

Dec 23 ~ "There is no way in the world that these ridiculous EC proposals will work in the UK, where large flocks are often run in remote and harsh areas. It is almost guaranteed that sheep will lose tags."

Dec 23 ~ If the planet survives, Sheepdrove is working out a viable future for farming. I'm in no doubt about that. I just hope that as they succeed, they will be aware of the dangers of being big and powerful.

Dec 23 ~ "The truth is that the UK government and their equivalent MEPs are completely isolated within Europe in their continued denial of events during 2001"

Dec 22 ~ " he was too bright not to have realised by September that he might have made a terrible mistake."

Dec 22 ~ MEPs' report blasts handling of crisis - Booker's Notebook

Dec 21 ~ How is it that British negotiators in Brussels are not able to spot these absurdities, which could be disastrous to small rural businesses, before they hit the statute book?

Dec 21 ~ The UK Government stoutly maintained that Uruguay was "different" - and this amendment actually got through in the Final Report of the EU Committee

Dec 20/21 ~"tell me one insurance company which will touch foot-and-mouth cover with a bargepole?"Jim Walker

Dec 20/21 ~ "the main driver behind the Government's proposals appears to be its determination to meet the demands of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in time for its upcoming Ministerial meeting in September 2003."

Dec 20/21 ~ "I experienced bullying, intimidation and aggression at first hand, and my report went direct to your Committee at Okehampton." Tom Griffith-Jones

Dec 20 ~ Feakins Judgement - another cause for deep gloom

Dec 20 ~ "Far from being unworkable, as Professor King and his colleagues have consistently claimed, vaccination would have enabled Britain to control the outbreak more quickly without the killing and burning which caused such damage."

Dec 20 ~ Bioterrorism & Emerging Infectious Diseases - A new Low-cost CD-ROM produced by the American Govt.

Dec 20 ~ "The award for the "most brazen performance of the year in the face of hostile evidence"........to Professor David King

Dec 18 ~ "Government still hasn't learned - It is no surprise that the European Parliament inquiry into our Government's handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis has been so critical of the way it was handled."

Dec 18 ~ "Contingency planning for vaccination was minimal.' This was a major flaw in UK contingency planning and policy implementation, which should have been reviewed by the Commission and appropriate corrective action taken"

Dec 18 ~ EU FMD Directive

Dec 18 ~ "Buried deep within the 125-page document, and couched in obscure technical jargon, Article 88 on page 73 allows for measures to be taken on an "ad hoc basis" to deal with foot and mouth, when the virus appears to be spreading despite "measures taken in accordance with (the) directive".

Dec 18 ~ Neil Parish MEP, Conservative Agriculture Spokesman in the European Parliament, said: "This government is incapable of facing up to its responsibilities.

Dec 18 ~ The new EU FMD Directive will be posted up here at noon

Dec 17 ~ The Government traumatized farmers, damaged health and the rural environment and broke animal welfare rules during its handling of last year's foot and mouth outbreak, according to a report adopted by the European Parliament today.

Dec 17 ~ Excellent News from Strasbourg on the EU FMD Amendments

Dec 17 ~"I believe that people would have a lot more respect for the government if it could just bring itself to admit that it got things wrong."

Dec 17 ~ Today's EU FMD deliberations will determine, in advance of the Directive, the final wording of the report on the Foot and Mouth crisis.

Dec 16 ~ Critical report of Foot-and-Mouth crisis to be adopted

Dec 16 ~ Some of the suggested amendments to the EU FMD report by Gordon Adam and Anne Ferreira on behalf of the PSE Group

Dec 16 ~ " waiting for the perfect vaccine should not be used as an excuse for not using what is currently available, when it comes to controlling any new outbreak of FMD"

Dec 16 ~ Gordon Adam still hopes to convince the EU FMD Committee that there is "no doubt at all about the legality of the cull"

Dec 16 ~ Gordon Adam says that "vaccination would have made things worse"

Dec 16 ~ 20 day standstill ..."I have argued that Defra should make concessions to try to win back the trust of farmers. The cooperation of farmers is essential ....."

Dec 16 ~ Cheap imports of sugar, wheat and milk produce from Italy, France and Spain will be on sale in Warsaw at prices that undercut those paid to Polish farmers.

Dec 15 ~ "..you can have as many Inspections as you like and the customer is still being duped"

Dec 14 ~"The FSA need to distance itself from Sir John Krebs's personal and idiosyncratic views" Peter Melchett.

Dec 14 ~ "it would be unthinkable that such a responsible and influential scientist as Sir John Krebs could be acting not in the public interest, but in the interest of the global agribusiness interests that want to use GMs and patented seeds to "corner" the world food market."

Dec 14 ~ Cow Manure in beef, not spotted by inspectors, causes MacDonald's UK to terminate contract with ABP (Anglo Beef Processors).

Dec 14 ~ Scottish anthrax scare unfounded

Dec 13 ~ "There was widespread illegality as MAFF in its panic could not respect the relevant criminal, public and private laws.."

Dec 13 ~ Gordon Adam is still trying to dilute the EU FMD Directive by denying any illegality, any cruelty and any lack of effectiveness in the UK FMD policy

Dec 13 ~ The industry cannot survive on words...

Dec 13 ~ Supermarkets 'still failing farmers and consumers'

Dec 12 ~ Food and Farming Strategy.. Margaret Beckett will tell farmers that the future lies with themselves...

Dec 12 ~" it is time for all of us who care about the quality of rural life to work together to find a new way forward" Prince Charles

Dec 12 ~" 67,000 UK farmers have been forced off the land in the last six years alone - and little wonder when Tesco makes ten times more profit every hour than the average UK farmer earns in an entire year."

Dec 12 ~ Countless lambs not included in the half million dead at Great Orton

Dec 11 ~ EU Threat to Abattoirs looms large

Dec 11 ~ Food Standards Agency prosecutes small abattoir owner for "putting animals at risk"

Dec 10 ~ Decision - Feakins v. Defra

Dec 10 ~ "This is a remarkable story, and the two trees will provide a fine entrance to the Watchtree Nature Reserve."

Dec 10 ~ Decision - Feakins v. Defra

Dec 10 ~ "It was a bit of a shock to find out the cow had died from anthrax.

Dec 9/10 ~ FMD in Venezuela

Dec 9 ~ It seems likely that on-farm burial will cease as from next February

Dec 9 ~ "we all know what DEFRA consultation exercises are - a complete sham, the decisions have already been taken."

Dec 9 ~ Now the farmers are fighting back, and anyone who thought they could intimidate and starve the hill farmers out will face some lively opposition.

Dec 9 ~ "The cull wagons arrive and take away the bodies of stock that represent the enterprise and investment of the lives of families for generations"

Dec 9 ~ For the best articles in the Sunday Papers

Dec 7 ~ RASE Awards for science and hard work.. ....

Dec 6 ~" there might have been rather more useful ways to spend all that taxpayers' money."

Dec 6 ~ Thou shalt not compost for thy pet pig..Statutory Instrument on Catering Waste..a load of old digestion residue?

Dec 6 ~ "terrifying a population to keep interest going in a rare disease".

Dec 6 ~ The prion theory has been widely accepted particularly by SEAC, the body closely allied to the Food Standards Agency and which shares a secretariat with DEFRA

Dec 6 ~ No prosecutions to be brought against Northern Ireland smugglers of FMD infected sheep

Dec 6 ~ Systems should rely more on self-regulation and less on formal policing by enforcement agencies, says Lords' report

Dec 5 ~ "the government had awarded a contract worth £32m to the PowderJect company to supply 20m doses of smallpox vaccine in case of a terrorist attack. The problem was that Paul Drayson, the firm's owner, had given two £50,000 donations to the Labour party.

Dec 5 ~ FMD scare in Scotland was, as expected, a false alarm.

Dec 5 ~".. we note with concern the Bill's reduction of the necessary safeguards for householders and businesses facing speculative proposals for compulsory purchase orders by local authorities"

Dec 5 ~ 'Make this a farmers' market Christmas'

Dec 4 ~ NESTLÉ yesterday cancelled more than 200 milk contracts with dairy farmers in Cumbria and South West Scotland.

Dec 4 ~ Foreign policy is now a branch of showbiz

Dec 3/4 ~ No procedures prepared [let alone tested] to cope with accidents in UK bio-research labs.

Dec 3 ~ vCJD actually in decline - CJD "screening could wreck victims' lives without offering any hope of treatment"

Dec 3 ~ The European Union and the US are seeking gains for their highly competitive service sector firms in the next round of global trade talks in return for concessions they may have to make on cutting agricultural subsidies.

Dec 3 ~ Many farmers unable to conduct business because of the rule would be prepared to abide by the standstill if it was shortened to six days - NBA chief executive Robert Forster.

Dec 3 ~ Morley steps up his pig tagging campaign

Dec 2/3 ~ The Prusiner research was actually published online as early as October 21.

Dec 2 ~ "No wonder the authorities are keen for illegal meat to continue claiming the undiverted attention of the media."

Dec 2 ~ MP David Maclean ( Penrith and the Border) says, "Why punish our farmers further?"

Dec 2 ~ Before all interest in the 2001 FMD fiasco dies away completely let us not forget (and many will never be able to forget) one crucial point:

Dec 2 ~ A frightening legacy remains

Dec 2 ~ if they knew about the crisis in dairy farming, quite a small number of housewives putting a card in the box of their local supermarket saying they would pay more for local milk could change supermarket policy.

Nov 30 ~ Initial tests on bullock are negative (as expected).

Nov 29 ~ FMD symptoms in Scotland

Nov 29 ~ Manchester Conference "interesting and highly charged"

Nov 29 ~Borrowing figures announced by Gordon Brown are precisely in line with the best estimates of overall damage inflicted on the UK economy by the government's gross mismanagement of the FMD epidemic last year

Nov 29 ~ Read too Alan's trenchant analysis of the various reports

Nov 29 ~ Defra underlines that the NSP is voluntary

Nov 28 ~ Corrections

Nov 28 ~ From my reading it does not allow for a blanket pre-emptive/contiguous cull.

Nov 28 ~"The publication of the European report into the outbreak - still to be debated - was a damning finding of guilt..."

Nov 30 ~ Initial tests on bullock are negative (as expected).

Nov 29 ~ FMD symptoms in Scotland

Nov 29 ~ Manchester Conference "interesting and highly charged"

Nov 29 ~Borrowing figures announced by Gordon Brown are precisely in line with the best estimates of overall damage inflicted on the UK economy by the government's gross mismanagement of the FMD epidemic last year

Nov 29 ~ Read too Alan's trenchant analysis of the various reports

Nov 29 ~ Defra underlines that the NSP is voluntary

Nov 28 ~ Corrections

Nov 28 ~ From my reading it does not allow for a blanket pre-emptive/contiguous cull.

Nov 28 ~"The publication of the European report into the outbreak - still to be debated - was a damning finding of guilt..."

Nov 28 ~ What should have been a carefully thought through, intensively managed and adequately resourced amalgamation, phased over several months, was instead cobbled together in a matter of a few hours. We have been paying a heavy price for that - in administrative incompetence and a complete absence of political vision - ever since.

Nov 28 ~ The threat to local slaughterhouses

Nov 27 ~ Hundreds of UK abattoirs could close if new EU regulations are implemented

Nov 27 ~ "I was talking about the 20-day movement rule and how difficult it made things and he said he knew and that there was no common-sense with it."

Nov 27 ~"Anderson was not appointed to any post really, he just wormed his way in via John Krebs of the FSA to emerge as the pre-eminent computer modelling "expert", making a "presentation" of his teams findings to MAFF/King on 23rd March

Nov 26 ~ Was Christopher Booker (Booker's Notebook) letting King, Anderson, and many others, who are truly responsible, off the hook?

Nov 25/26 ~".. how it could best serve the needs and experiences of the rural and farming communities who, directly and indirectly, suffered (and continue to suffer) the effects of FMD"

Nov 25/26 ~ the government does not believe Britain should be self-sufficient in food.

Nov 25 ~ "There is no reason, except ignorance, why this island should not feed itself, value its farm animals and be a whole lot healthier - mentally and physically." Hilary Peters

Nov 25 ~ 86,260 sheep and goat blood samples were taken across the UK to test for diseases that are not, and have never been, present. Statistically necessary, or jobs for the boys?

Nov 25 ~ Swill Feeder to sue DEFRA

Nov 25 ~ Questions about legality are not going away

Nov 25 ~ "in March 2001 EU vets instructed Britain to fall back on the policy of pre-emptive culling, which resulted in the deaths of nine million healthy animals and was, under UK law, illegal."

Nov 25 ~ "Without profitable farming, both the wider rural economy and the landscape that we all cherish will suffer." David Lidington

Nov 23 ~ The EU Final Report translated by the Labour Spinners into "Anti-Government Rant"

Nov 23 ~This view was comprehensively destroyed by one two-hour meeting in a little village hall in the South West.

Nov 22 ~ Defra was a back-of-the-envelope job on election night

Nov 22 ~ DEFRA in its usual heavy handed and officious way have chosen to write these unnecessary threatening letters to the farmers - as though the delay in testing were their faults.

Nov 21 ~ EU Final Report "The report suggests that the true scale of infection was exaggerated or obscured to justify the contiguous cull policy."

Nov 21 ~EU Final Report "The appropriateness of the unvalidated models used to model the course of the epidemic remains scientifically controversial and in particular is challenged by veterinary scientists with FMD expertise.

Nov 21 ~ EU Final Report "It has become clear from the 2001 epidemic that mass culling on the scale seen in the UK and the Netherlands will not be publicly acceptable again and that alternative control strategies are therefore essential."

Nov 20/21 ~ EU Final Report"....it is crucial that the epidemiological data be published and subject to independent critical analysis"

Nov 20/21 ~ EU Final Report " ...emergency vaccination must be considered as a first-choice option from the outset"

Nov 20/21 ~ EU Final Report "Almost every line of this report should shame the government..." Neil Parish MEP

Nov20/21 ~ How the amendments fared

Nov 20/21 ~ You need to state what you know, what you don't know, why you don't know it, what you are doing to find out about it, and when you expect to be able to get back to explain what you have found," he said.

Nov 20 ~ Slaughter "on a par" with vaccination - or is vaccination to be the tool of first resort?

Nov 20 ~ "Since last I wrote about milk prices, in early September, I think it would be fair to say that the situation has gone from worse to bad. "

Nov 20 ~ " Humans and chickens have large numbers of bacteria in their intestines most of which are not just not harmful but beneficial." Soil Association

Nov 19/20 ~ "This is a research finding in totally artificial circumstances. It has no relevance whatever...."

Nov 19 ~ Deer prevent debate on FMD at Strasbourg yesterday

Nov 19 ~ Gordon Adam and the Labour MEPs " pressurising Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, .. to remove the main recommendation that vaccination be used as the primary tool against future outbreaks..."

Nov 19 ~ Was it a misprint - or does the NFU really think that one million tonnes of meat every year is "illegally imported"?

Nov 18 ~The European Parliament's special inquiry into foot-and-mouth disease tonight will agree the final text

Nov 18 ~ "It is irresponsible only to talk about obstacles without talking about action!": Dr Paul Sutmoller, refuting Mike German (Welsh Assembly)

Nov 18 ~ 10M animals died in foot and mouth

Nov 18 ~ Feakins v. DEFRA

Nov 16 ~ "How come not a single vet has even suggested this is how CSF and FMD arrived?"

Nov 16 ~ "The Prince's move came as Government figures showed that the foot and mouth crisis led to the largest exodus of farmers since the Second World War."

Nov 16 ~ "..global agenda to depopulate livestock numbers is for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with health risks to the human race, but more to do with envisioned profits from multinational GM proteins."

Nov 16 ~ Contamination by GM maize. USDA destroys £1.7 million worth of soya

Nov 15 ~"... the bill's real purpose was not just to give officials the blanket power to destroy any animals they wished, without having to give a reason, but to deprive farmers of any right to protest or challenge them." Private Eye

Nov 15 ~ All party Efra Committee publishes its long-awaited "Role of DEFRA" report

November 15 ~ Role of Defra"....When asked what was missing from the Action Plan, Sir Brian Follett replied "action" ..."

Nov 14 /15 ~ "The BushBlair campaign for pre-emptive action against Iraq appears to be modelled on British government policy during the foot-and-mouth debacle:

Nov 14 ~ No fine for France. The £100,000-a-day fine for its illegal ban on British beef was lost after the case against France collapsed last night.

Nov 14 ~ Feakins v. DEFRA

Nov 14 ~ "At 94 pages it does take some determination to wade through."

Nov 14 ~" DEFRA and the Treasury have their own agenda for animal disease insurance; a proposal that has even been dismissed by those in the insurance industry "

Nov 14 ~ I believe the UK's existing FMD Contingency Plan is just more of the same horror canned, ready to be opened like a Pandora's Box.

Nov 13 /14 ~ Animal Disease research. "DEFRA insisted that further work is needed to decide if such a sum is really necessary."

Nov 13 ~ David Lidington: Government asleep on farmers' EU grant

Nov 13 ~ Update Feakins v. DEFRA "Could this open the floodgates?"

Nov 13 ~ DEFRA's failure to secure UK's share of £84 million EU animal disease fund due to "an oversight"

Nov 13 ~ "The issue for Thursday's case is to establish what is "the lawful means of disposal" of pyre ash at Mr Robin Feakins' farm."

Nov 13 ~ Thailand, with whom the UK government has just agreed an arms for agricultural products trade agreement, has been asked to certify there is no FMD on their pig farms.

Nov 13 ~ sheep, pig and cattle producers are being phased out as a matter of global policy?

Nov 12 ~ Wales: 80% of farmers earned an average of £2,900 in the last financial year.

Nov 12 ~ "On scrapie, the Act includes enabling powers, which would provide for the acceleration of the National Scrapie Plan..."

Nov 12 ~ Sir John Krebs, the Food Standards Agency and the National Scrapie Plan

Nov 12 ~ "The National Sheep Association know of my long-standing concern about the often unfounded speculations that have been damaging to their industry during the last decade." (Dr Alan Dickinson)

Nov 11-12 ~ Cumbria likely to lose millions in regeneration money because of red tape

Nov 11-12 ~ A Science Park for Throckmorton. Peter Luff says residents must be consulted

Nov 11 ~ "Cumbria County Council could find itself in the extraordinary position of taking the government to court over a bad debt."

Nov 11 ~"I feel that I must reply to the ridiculous comments by the MLC concerning the sell by date of meat and in particular beef..."

Nov 11 ~ They withstood a siege. We supported them. And out of that victory the frail resistance to the government's farming policy was born.

Nov 11 ~ EU FMD report under threat from "compromise" amendments

Nov 11 ~ "The 20-day rule made sense in the period after infection but now it's been used to force the small family farm out of business and create the Government's vision of large unsustainable farming units."

Nov 11 ~ Yet more spin against farmers in The Independent on Sunday

Nov 11 ~ Because of MAFF action, animals were kept in conditions, for which, under normal circumstances, the farmer would have been prosecuted....

Nov 11 ~ "The field was just like a blancmange, with green pus oozing out of the soil."

Nov 11 ~ "Clearly the Meat and Livestock Commission intends to level the playing field for these unfortunate Supermarkets...."

Nov 8 - 9 ~ No compensation after all for Widdrington and Tow Law

Nov 8 ~ we reflect that the Ministry went around merrily slaughtering perfectly healthy animals without either a legal or scientific basis for doing so until the case of MAFF v. Upton.

Nov 8 ~ "Science has moved forward by leaps and bounds.." The Noble Countess sums it all up.

Nov 8 ~ This should not be a Bill about slaughter with a tip of the cap towards vaccination late on in the Bill..." Lord Willoughby de Broke:

Nov 8 ~".. a great injustice has been done to many people in the agricultural community and must be righted"

Nov 8 ~ "They see this as a memorial.'"

Nov 8 ~ The Animal Health Bill did go through at the very last minute

Nov 8 ~ A third type of slaughter policy is proposed in the Animal Health Bill. This is culling "to prevent the spread of disease", e.g. to create a firebreak'.

Nov 8 ~ In Uruguay after vaccination (29th April 2001) NO MORE ANIMALS WERE KILLED.

Nov 8 ~ "...ministers tacitly admitted they had done virtually everything wrong in their attempts to control the disease."

Nov 7 ~ Lord Greaves hailed the government concessions in the bill as a "substantial victory" for the Lords.

Nov 7 ~ EU Temporary Committee met today to consider "compromise" amendments

Nov 7 ~"If blame there is, that is where it lies..."

Nov 7 ~ The House of Lords sends the Animal Health Bill bill back to the Commons.

Nov 7 ~ The CLA says:The 20-day standstill is putting an intolerable burden on livestock farming.

Nov 6 ~"our insistence on the flexibility proposed in the Animal Health Bill and in the Lessons Learned report to allow for pre-emptive culling...." Mrs Beckett's Statement

Nov 6 ~ "The Government has accepted the advice that the 20 day standstill rules should remain in place.."

Nov 6 ~ Animal Health Bill (Programme (No. 2) Motion) (without debate). Animal Health Bill: Lords Amendments (for up to 6 hours).

Nov 6 ~ Update on Throckmorton

Nov 6 ~"British farmers are NOT overproducing"

Nov 6 ~"Yes, we will vote against the government's moves to overturn the Lords..but I fear it will make little difference"

Nov 5 ~Full text of Lords' AHB Third Reading debate is now on warmwell.

Nov 5 ~ ANIMAL HEALTH BILL - House of Commons Debate tomorrow

Nov 5 ~ The House of Lords inflicted another defeat on the Animal Health Bill yesterday - accepting Lord Greaves amendment on obtaining warrants in magistrate's court

Nov 5 ~The Government was defeated again when the Lords backed a move to give farmers the right to state their case to a magistrate before a warrant was made for entry onto premises for slaughter.

Nov 5 ~ The Food Standards Agency is not trying to reassure public about vaccinated meat.

Nov 5 ~FARM goes on the road

Nov 5 ~ " Animals from the Duchy Home Farm have to be sent to Cinderford to be slaughtered"

Nov 4/5 ~New UK farming pressure group challenges NFU

Nov 4/5 ~What are the endless regulations worth to the big producers that stifle small producers?

Nov 4/5 ~ Nick Green presses Mr Rex Toft for some answers

Nov 4 ~ No genuine farmers in new Curry group - just an NFU employee and the boss of the biggest agribusiness in the country

Nov 4 ~ Britain signs arms-for-agriculture accord

Nov 4 ~ "we have enough legislation, we don't need any more".

November 4 ~ No stamp needed for letters to your MP

November 3 ~ Last minute lobby of MPs urged.

November 3 ~"Mrs Beckett will also confirm that a culling strategy - including some contiguous culling - will remain at the heart of disease control strategy."

November 3 ~ ".. the deviancy and deception which steered the country away from a civilised programme of vaccination towards the brutal policy of mass slaughter"

November 3 ~ Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, is expected to signal the U-turn this week

November 3 ~ "The House of Lords has worked hard to draw the sting from the Animal Death Bill....

November 3 ~ "There is also deeply entrenched opposition to the Animal Health Bill..."

Nov 2 ~"Tell a lie often enough and it eventually becomes a truth"

Oct 29 ~ a degree of mystery over what really went on and an equal lack of apportioning of culpability.

Oct 29 ~ Beckett rules out answer to key inquiries on FMD

Oct 29 ~ Mass Sheep Slaughter - ".. In the audience were a few members of the FSA.."

Oct 29 ~ Farmers Weekly reports on Lord Haskins' review of DEFRA spending

Oct 29 ~"The more stupid and restrictive rules you invent, the more industrious and inventive people become at getting round them"

Oct 29 ~ "The threat is from a developer....All locals are against this, but the planning ban has been overturned on appeal."

Oct 29 ~ The Strachans are forging a trail that is so important for British farming. They are over-worked and harassed.

Oct 28 ~ Have slaughterhouses been asked if they could cope with a sudden mass slaughter of sheep?

Oct 28 ~ The Times leak - we still don't know.

Oct 28 ~ An FMD levy on farmers - yet another nail in a well hammered coffin?

Oct 28 ~ Same tired old myths from new BVA president Peter Jinman

Oct 28 ~ DEFRA's £300 million budget and nearly 300 quangos and agencies..will there be a proper investigation?

Oct 28 ~ "Time Out Looms for Welfare Bill"

Oct 28 ~ DEFRA's strict cleansing regulations do not apply to live export lorries

Oct 28 ~ A question for Mrs Beckett

Oct 28 ~ Why the EU money to fight animal disease was not applied for - and the mortal crisis of British agriculture

Oct 28 ~ No discernible improvement after the strict bureaucratic rules dreamed up by Brussels's environmental experts

Oct 28 ~ Dozens of pet birds slaughtered - and West Nile Virus now in Britain

Oct 25 ~ UK makes no bid for EU millions for animal disease eradication

Oct 25 ~ ...Anthony Gibson of the NFU said: "Defra's administration is of the standard the average banana republic would be ashamed."

Oct 25 ~ The Animal Health Bill - can it really be bulldozered through before the end of the session?

Oct 25 ~ How was a draft document requiring "as much involvement and debate as possible" (Elliott Morley) already written and leaked to the Times?

Oct 25 ~ The money goes into Defra's coffers

Oct 25 ~ Geoffrey Lean of the Independent is "Environmental Journalist of the year"

Oct 25 ~ Zac Goldsmith writes to the Telegraph

Oct 25 ~ Where is the COMMON Agricultural Policy?

Oct 24 ~ Everyone clear on Dr Anderson's reasons for not recommending the 20-day standstill in his Lessons Learned Report?

Oct 24 ~ Did the government panic during the FMD crisis?

Oct 24 ~ "government policy that has caused the problem in the first place"

Oct 23 ~ Earl Peel's amendment to the Animal Health Bill

Oct 23 ~ "Family farmers are still the major keepers of livestock in the UK.. It is painful and insulting for them to find themselves bracketed with the rogues by others who have little knowledge of farming."

Oct 23 ~ DEFRA desperate to prove to the EU that it is making progress on landfill reduction

Oct 23 ~ " Farmers forced to fork out"

Oct 23 ~ "Whilst the acceptance of the 'error' related to this farmers specific case, it has much wider implications for the veterinary profession."

Oct 23 ~The Countess of Mar's amendment - plea for "a little humanity" in the Animal Health Bill, Report Stage

Oct 23 ~ "If you starve the roots, the trunk of the whole tree will die"

Oct 23 ~ Sheep slaughter council fined £100,000

Oct 23 ~ Lessons of 1967 'were not learned'

Oct 23 ~ Catering and Food Waste not allowed for swill - but spread on fields?

Oct 22 ~ The FMD row rumbles on...but always about the money

Oct 22 ~Mr Gordon Adam MEP questions the motives of those who set up and conducted the EU Temporary Committee into Foot and Mouth

Oct 22 ~ "I see the logic of a vaccination to live approach"

Oct 22 ~ Margaret Beckett publicly refused to eat British Beef in Paris on Monday.

Oct 21 ~ All charges against Bobby Waugh have now been dropped

Oct 21 ~ Farmers for Action get Sainsburys moving on Dairy Crest

Oct 21 ~ Farming and the countryside are slowly drowning in a rising sea of regulations and rules largely founded on ignorance.

Oct 21 ~ THE WORM WILL TURN

Oct 21 ~ to hell with the risks to UK agriculture.

Oct 21 ~ The FSA resurrects a salmonella myth - Booker's Notebook

Oct 21 ~ Welsh Assembly slated for foot and mouth complacency

Oct 21 ~ "The official response to last year's foot-and-mouth crisis has been so inadequate that an attitude of resignation and pessimism is setting in

Oct 21 ~ Survey slams crisis management

Oct 18 ~ .. a London-based newspaper relying mainly on anecdotal evidence.....

Oct 18 ~ Farmers prosecuted for defying silly rule

Oct 18 ~ Ministers to be asked questions about meaningless regulations

Oct 17/18 ~ "Would it be better to put all our energy into trying to get reasonable stuff into the Animal Welfare Bill rather than fighting the lost cause of the AHB?"

Oct 16/17 ~The Food Animal Initiative

Oct 17 ~ "The contingency plan for dealing with a recurrence of foot-and-mouth should include emergency vaccination as a "tool of first resort" alongside the culling of animals directly affected,

Oct 17 ~ "You will remember my letter expressed grave concerns on the credibility of the Cumbrian FMD Inquiry chaired by Prof. Thomas."

Oct 17 ~ "We want to stop cruelty, encourage good welfare and avoid the trap of excessive legislation"

Oct 17 ~ "Our purpose is to make the public aware of the Bill and its far reaching implications..."

Oct 16 ~" we are trying to show government that the rule is draconian and will not be tolerated"

Oct 15 ~ 'It is vital that we face up to the mistakes made.. that there is adequate consultation .. a promise from ministers to deal with disasters through proper planning - not the incomprehensible panic we saw'

Oct 15 ~" the farmer is being reduced to an automated machine, controlled by someone who has no idea at all - I would like to see more decisions taken at a local level by people who know what they are talking about"

Oct 15 ~ DEFRA's proposals could mean that the risk of a foot-and-mouth or Swine Fever outbreak would increase 100,000-fold

Oct 15 ~" .....it is untrue that FMD did not hit East Anglia.

Oct 15 ~"The problem is the regulations".

Oct 14 ~ As we all knew, firebreak culling as applied during 2001 was illegal

Oct 14 ~ There is no scientific basis to support the draconian provisions of the Animal Death Bill - only the political desire to conceal and deny the unmitigated disaster of 2001.

Oct 14 ~......After slaughter, even the birds did not sing. It was as if the whole of the countryside was held in a silent invisible grip'.

Oct 14 ~ Lord May of Oxford (and the Royal Society) calls the Animal Health Bill "unbalanced" and says "contingency plans should be brought before Parliament for debate and approval"

Oct 13 ~ Government sued over foot and mouth bill

Oct 13 ~ No BSE risk from sheep

Oct 12 ~ 20-day standstill rule -"We are on the wrong road"

Oct 12 ~ Warmwell will now have to pause while the computer is mended

Oct 10 ~ AN IMPORTANT NEW WEBSITE, very highly recommended and now being developed.

Oct 9 ~ Warmwell computer in trouble again

Oct 9 ~ Lord Whitty simply doesn't know what he is talking about - and no one in the Lords was able to refute him

Oct 9 ~ "more of the same - or worse" ..The refusal of the UK Government to change future policy in its desperation to cover up past mistakes

Oct 9 ~ 20-day rule to remain in force in perpetuity.....deluge of consultation, debate and "independent" risk assessments are all nothing more than a sham - the pretence of democracy"

Oct 9 ~ Lord Moran "I am astonished that under the huge weight of criticism in your Lordships' House and outside, the Government should still be keen on a policy of mass slaughter."

Oct 9 ~ Earl of Onslow "a blind, ignorant, witchcraft-driven policy"

Oct 9 ~ Lord Livsey of Talgarth: "... I was so distressed about what was happening. Local knowledge is vital ..."

Oct 8 ~ Yesterday's Animal Health Bill (Committee stage) debate in the House of Lords ( in full)

Oct 8 ~ The cattle were neither tested nor culled on the same farms as the sheep that gave positive serology tests

October 8 ~ "... to justify killing contiguous premises."

Oct 8 ~ The table shows just what excessive carnage took place

Oct 8 ~ the government will drop plans in the AHB to reduce compensation levels to 75%

Oct 8 ~ Animal Health Bill Committee Stage continues in House of Lords today - "The scientific basis of the Bill is seriously flawed. More research needs to be done"

Oct 8 ~ "There has got to be a drive to reduce red tape" Lidington

Oct 8 ~The chief executive and assistant chief executive of the British Veterinary Association have left their posts.

Oct 7 ~ DEFRA has admitted that the number of laboratory confirmed cases of FMD infection is lower than the much publicised number of 2030

Oct 7 ~ It was Mrs Beckett who claimed ... that she had never heard of a bungled cull in the Devon parish of Knowstone....

Oct 7 ~".. the Government must make "big decisions" to safeguard the future of rural life"

Oct 7 ~ Animal Health Bill Committee Stage continues in House of Lords today - "The scientific basis of the Bill is seriously flawed. More research needs to be done"

Oct 6/7 ~ "the cruelty to people that has made strong silent Englishmen, normally the last bastions of the 'stiff upper lip' brigade, break down and cry in public..."

Oct 6/7 ~"..they were all listed as 'Dexters' (nearly 'Devon' I suppose) and the bull was 'female'

Oct 6/7 ~ "local branches never meet now. They don't even exist. But the NFU president himself can relax. If he "keeps his nose clean" and doesn't make waves, he could find himself in the next Honours List. It is the usual thing."

Oct 6/ 7 ~ It was the EU FOOD & VETERINARY OFFICE that recommended the 3km/contiguous cull

Oct 6/7 ~ Will there ever be an apology?

Oct 6/7 ~ Whole villages are rebelling against current trends.

Oct 5 -7 ~ If you missed Farming This Week, (Saturday 5th Oct) on the EU draft document,

Oct 5 ~ Culling Policy "in vain"

Oct 5 ~ "they blundered and bungled their way through this disaster"

Oct 5 ~ Have we all seen the new DEFRA Disease Control (Slaughter) Protocol?

Oct 5 ~ Animal Health Bill Committee Stage in the House of Lords - Days 3 and 4

Oct 5 ~ "...our wonderful Food Standards Agency has decided that after slaughter, the spinal column (of cattle in the Beef Assured Scheme) can only be removed in a specially licenced cutting plant - there is only one such cutting plant in the whole of the UK.

Oct 5 ~ Who is Podger, what is he? ( FSA Board Meeting to be held in BRUSSELS )

Oct 5 ~ "We feared after seeing the video [the jury] would see it as an animal welfare issue and not simply the health and safety issue it is..."

Oct 4 ~ the future of the farmed landscape looks increasingly bleak ...after 18 mont"s of involvement with FMD "his is the picture which increasingly comes into focus

O"t 4 ~ "the almost oriental desire that this new governing class has to save its own face in the aftermath of its own acts of incompetence... "

Oct 4 ~ "It was reported that unnecessary pain and suffering had been inflicted on animals because of the inexpert performance of staff, some of whom were not adequately trained."(EU Draft report para 28)

Oct 3 ~ Norwich Livestock Market is being strangled by officious bureaucracy

Oct 3 ~ Quotation of the day

Oct 3 ~"farmers are committing suicide at a rate of one every 11 days

"

Oct 3 ~" Why haven't the broad sheets covered it

Oc"t 3 ~ When will the dialogue begin?

Oct 2 ~ "Dreadful mess and suffering"

Oct 2 ~ EU draft document on UK opposition to vaccination

Oct 2 ~" only the courts can definitively determine whether the 3 km cull was legal"

Oct 2 ~ should also have regard for changes in people's way of life and in attitudes towards the environment and animal welfare

Oct 2 ~ "The practice adhered to in compensating farmers in the event of an FMD outbreak is unjust."

Oct 2 ~ Vaccination - the EU Draft Document

Oct 2 ~ Contingency Planning

Oct 2 ~ Research and Development

Oct 2 ~ protection of animals during transport.

Oct 2 ~ The EU Draft document in full

Oct 1/2 ~ "Britain's handling of the foot and mouth crisis was branded cruel, incompetent and confused ......apparent attempts by the government to stifle the EU committee findings have failed..." .

Oct 1/2 ~ What has the FSA got against sheep sausage skins and why do they seem determined to ban them despite existing evidence to the contrary ?

Oct 1/2 ~ The Drummond Report. Wise before the event.

Oct 1 ~ an inquiry concluded that the culling of more than 6.5 million animals may have played no real role in curbing the spread of the disease.

Oct 1 ~ "Government attacked over farm virus" Press Association

Oct 1 ~ " the non-vaccination policy can not continue. " Albert Maat

    One of several pres" releases from EPP-Ed show that the draft docu"ent referred to above is unlikely to please the authorities in Britain with its phrases such as "traumatised farmers" "excessive red tape" " broken animal welfare rules We will link to the actual draft document as soon as possible. .
    Example of recent pres release: European Parliament Committee hears of government arrogance In Holland as in the UK "Hundreds of angry farmers protested outside the meeting room against the EU non-vaccination policy and a number of petitions were given to the MEP's..... Dutch MEP Albert Jan Maat was deeply impressed by the social repercussions of the crisis. "To prevent the spreading of FMD schoolboys and girls were not allowed to leave the farm for some time. They witnessed the culling of hundreds of animals. Some farmers committed suicide because they lost generations of hard work." .... Farmers had to fill in numerous documents to get financial compensation. Due to the red tape many farmers did not reply in a administratively correct manner. The result was a severe cut in the compensation, with no possibility to rectify their administrative errors. .... ...With the introduction of marker-vaccines, and a new policy concerning the transport of animals, we must try to start a new policy. The introduction of the possibility of at least ring-vaccination is necessary."

Oct 1 ~ mass culling of livestock and the subsequent destruction of meat could only be justified on socio-economic grounds.

    The Epp-Ed group yesterday (Sept 30) met Professor Ian McConnell, who led the vaccination group of the UK's Royal Society FMD Inquiry team. This was followed by a consideration of the Temporary Committee's pre-draft report.
    BRUSSELS, Sept 30 (Reuters) - EU member states should apply emergency vaccination as a matter of course rather than a last resort if faced by the risk of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, a draft European Parliament report showed on Monday.
    In a working paper obtained by Reuters, the long-awaited document said the decision to vaccinate was a political one, while mass culling of livestock and the subsequent destruction of meat could only be justified on socio-economic grounds......Emergency vaccination with the aim of allowing animals to live for normal further use should no longer be regarded only as a last resort for controlling FMD but must be considered as a first-choice option from the outset when an outbreak occurs," said the draft, submitted to the Parliament's FMD Committee.
    "Decisions must be taken in a transparent manner: otherwise it will be difficult to persuade those sections of the population who suffer most from a non-vaccination policy to provide the necessary cooperation during a future FMD outbreak."
    "....Britain's handling of the crisis was not helped by low numbers of full-time veterinary staff and closures of local veterinary centres, it said. Britain had to deploy hundreds of foreign vets, sowing confusion and uncertainty among farmers." (Read more)

Oct 1 ~ We are arguing that the FSA should be removed as a precautionary measure against Transmissable Spongythinking Incapability

    Can it be possible that Sir John Krebs was unaware (reported on our "Today" page on Sept 20) of the result of the EU Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) on BSE which, at its meeting 12-13 September 2002, examined the most recent data on the safety with regard of BSE, of sheep casings and concluded that there is no additional or new evidence justifying the possible inclusion of sheep casings in the list of specified risk materials ?
    Yet, over two weeks later, we read in The Sunday Telegraph (September 29, 2002) Letters to the Editor...from Sir John Krebs
    "Christopher Booker (News, September 22) continues to claim that the Food Standards Agency is campaigning to link sheep with BSE. The simple fact is that no one knows if BSE is in sheep and we are seeking to reduce that uncertainty (sic). Sheep intestines could constitute a significant risk if BSE were to be found in the National Flock. That is why we argue they should be removed from the food chain as a precautionary measure."
    BSE has not been found in the National Flock. The scaremongering about lamb, the ill-advised National Scrapie Plan and the juggernaut Animal Health Bill - based, as they all three are, upon politically driven pseudo-science just as the FMD policies have been -are viewed with deep disgust by real experts and by real farmers. Luckily, there are those both in the UK and in Europe who are not drawn into this thoroughly unpleasant nonsense and are speaking out against it.

Oct 1 ~ The Liskeard bull gets the all-clear exactly one year after the last recorded case - and nothing has changed

    Jan Kelly, the Cornwall DVM, still in post and still apparently unable to diagnose FMD, said: "It looked very much like foot-and-mouth but the lesions weren't typical of the disease." (sic)
    So where were the rapid diagnostic tests to save all the uncertainty and worry? Dr Roger Breeze wrote to the Royal Society Inquiry (here) "...By February 2001 we had developed and tested in the laboratory a remarkable assay that detected all 7 serotypes of FMD virus and differentiated FMD virus from other vesicular diseases of livestock and from other RNA viruses. ......Given the extensive validation studies in vitro and in vivo that had already taken place at Plum Island, our expectations were that after a short familiarization period (1 to 2 days) for UK colleagues at Pirbright we would be able to take the devices and tests into the field during the 2001 FMD outbreak in cooperation with UK authorities from Pirbright or MAFF. "
    The tests were available in March 2001 They were disregarded by the same "We know best" arrogance that is destroying Britain's farming.
    After the millions of healthy animals dead, the battering of the last nails into the coffin of the rural economy, the irreversible destruction of faith in DEFRA, the heartbreak and the suicides and the billions of wasted pounds in businesses and tourism - one would have hoped that someone would have thought it sensible to USE a rapid diagnostic test last week. But we still have no contingency plan for such scares.
    "12 months on, rural life is still a long way from normal....." proclaims the FWi and one wonders bleakly how many of its readers found this a startlingly novel piece of information.

Oct 1 ~ Elliot Morley insists the 20-day rule will remain in place at least until the end of the year.

    This looks vindictive as well as unnecessary. We hear that many real veterinary experts (as opposed to the highly politicised Defra spin vets) have said that 20 days is far too long even if there were a real fear of the disease. "Two months ago, the government pledged a £421m increase in the rural affairs budget to help rebuild the countryside over the next three years... " says the FWi "Much of the money will be used to fund recommendations made by Sir Donald Curry's commission into the future of food and farming. But many proposals are a long way from filtering down to ordinary farmers. Proposals include plans for the electronic identification of livestock and for better protection from illegal food imports"...
    "....Will Cockbain said: "Controls at ports have been pathetic. Farmers and the rural community cannot go through another disease outbreak."
    "...Animal movement restrictions continue to hamper livestock sales. Countryside minister Elliot Morley insists the 20-day rule will remain in place at least until the end of the year. The rule restricts livestock movements off holdings for 20 days when new animals are brought on to farms...."
    The only "good news" that the article can find is the piece of trivia that Phoenix is now in calf. (see article) There have been widespread problems administering the animal restrictions left by the epidemic - with Government forms being branded as "gibberish" by Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins.

Oct 1 ~ The part of the national Scrapie Plan that doesn't get talked about

    A Cumbria farmer writes, " "I had my vet out last week and he was telling me that a farmer in Cumbria had his pedigree flock of Texels scrapie tested and because the tests were below R3 50 ram lambs were killed and half of his ewes; Did that get into the press? NO" Read more

Sept 30 ~ there'd be all this noise of lambs crying for their mothers, and ewes crying for their lambs and then silence. All that life-- and then, nothing.

    Bonnie Durrance, the Californian film-maker, after looking at the Rex Pyke's tape "In the Shadow" wrote, " It so powerfully illustrated the comment of a man I interviewed in Marlborough, a huntsman and very decent fellow who'd been called up to work as a slaughterman at Great Orton. "If you thought about it, you'd go crazy," he said. "the trucks would roll in and there'd be all this noise of lambs crying for their mothers, and ewes crying for their lambs and then silence. All that life-- and then, nothing."
    What those scenes show, in their quiet, uneditorialized way, is what it looks like to destroy innocent life. It's like witnessing a rape. A sin.
    Whether or not it will ever bring those responsible to justice, at least those of us with the power of speech can help to call what has happened by name." Bonnie's film about the reality of FMD 2001 in the UK is now finished.
    ".. Someone here, talking about the effects of 9/11 and the subsequent threats to civil liberties resulting from the clamping down by the justice department, said that the people he was most proud of are the "dissenters", those who stand up for their civil liberties, even when fear threatens to bring out the worst in the government. I feel that way about your staunch group, and am burning to get the film finished so I can show their resolve to the world!
    I truly believe that as the world becomes more complicated and independence and the relationships we value become inevitably more threatened, the stand that you all have taken, in knowledge, self-reflection, solidarity and love- for humans, animals, and life itself- will be the example the rest of us must learn to follow."
    Warmwell very much hopes that someone in the media will have the courage to show Bonnie Durrance's film.
Archive from september 2002 onwards