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"

The new article on FMD eradication from Israel pleads that "Common, co-ordinated epidemiological studies leading to a common control policy should be sought and supported by the international community" see below - Zimbabwe, very much in need of international support for its cattle herd, is now looking hopefully towards China. Zimbabwe faces new FMD devastation because, as the Harare Financial Gazette reports, "the government failed to source enough foreign currency to buy the vaccines necessary to eradicate the disease."
"Zimbabwe needs about one million doses of vaccines a month to completely wipe out the disease which threatens to reduce the country's cattle herd. ..... Zimbabwe has partially managed to contain the disease through paltry doses of vaccines sourced through appeals from international donor organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation, European Union and the Southern Africa Development Community. ..... The national herd is said to have dwindled from 5.1 million in 1998 to 250 000 this year due to drought, FMD, an acute shortage of stockfeed and destocking by most farmers because of the chaotic land reforms.
... Zimbabwe had an annual export quota of 9 100 tonnes of beef to the EU which used to earn the country about US$2 billion annually.
The government is said to be trying to seal a deal with China to establish a FMD vaccination production plant facility locally and save the country billions in foreign currency."

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

Shropshire Star MP hits out on cash owed for disease work ".... Mr Paterson has tabled a series of Commons questions to Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett asking why many payments have been delayed. He has also asked whether compensation payments to farmers who had to slaughter animals during the epidemic also remained outstanding. Ministers have said that delays have occurred while the Government checks the validity of claims and to ensure that there was no unwarranted spending of taxpayers' money.
But Mr Paterson said that the National Audit Office had reported that, out of 1,200 cases investigated, only 18 involved allegations of fraud, and six of these had been dismissed.
The shadow agriculture minister said: "I understand the Government has spent £20 million investigating these claims. "The delays make a mockery of the Government's threat to bring in legislation on late payment of bills." ...."

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

The Scotsman reports on the DEFRA funded research study into stocking and density levels branded by the RSPCA as "absolute nonsense' The RSPCA says that not only are the study’s conclusions questionable, but many of the 2.7 million broiler chickens used suffered in the research. The study analysed survival rates of birds stocked up to 46kg per square metre when DEFRA's own recommended limit, even for unfortunate battery hens, is 34kg per square metre..
"...Caroline Le Sueur, RSPCA senior scientific officer, criticised Defra .... "Birds crammed in at these high levels are so tightly packed it is almost impossible for them to cool down. In the scorching summer of 2003 we know that millions of broilers died from heat stress - at lower stocking levels the figure could have been much less.
The government must now acknowledge the question marks placed against this study. It has not been scientifically presented for debate in the usual journals, it has serious omissions such as bypassing behavioural issues and is not based on data provided by independent researchers. We see it not only as a useless fudge but also a cruel waste of time and money. 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

Guardian "Carol Evans, of the Peak District Rural Deprivation Forum, said: "It is shameful that many of Britain's food producers are living on the breadline, earning far less than the minimum wage. A myth still persists that all farmers are rich and greedy - this report makes clear that nothing could be further from the truth."
See also Independent "....People may have forgotten about foot and mouth but we're still dealing with the consequences. We are also penalised as farmers in the hills. It rains a lot, the weather is worse and the soil is not as deep so we are limited to livestock and our options are limited. I do benefit from the subsidies system but I do not like it at all. I don't like the hand-out effect it is having on the farming. At the moment, it's not a level playing field. We do not have the options to be as flexible as other farms and we are suffering because of that."

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

A new article (available from the Israeli Embassy in London) Foot and Mouth Disease: The Israeli Approach should be of interest in the UK: "....The Israeli Veterinary Services and Animal Health (VSAH) have the legal powers, the infrastructure and the personnel to carry out the necessary measures in order to prevent, control and eradicate outbreaks of FMD...."
The article concludes with this paragraph about veterinary cooperation and the now, much needed co-ordination of expertise and policy by the whole international community :
"Control measures hopefully leading to eradication of FMD from the Middle East are of the utmost importance for the regional countries and, not to a lesser extent, to the adjacent regions - foremost (unvaccinated) Europe. This goal might have a (remote) chance only if and when regional co-operation is implemented. Common, co-ordinated epidemiological studies leading to a common control policy should be sought and supported by the international community. Some promising steps have been already made." (for details, click here).

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

A crop-sprayer has, at present, a legal right repeatedly to spray mixtures of poisonous chemicals right up to the open window of any occupied premises. Georgina Downs, a singer who has suffered permanent health damage from the crop spraying of fields next to her family's home in Sussex, has produced a video to show the Government the reality of exactly what is happening in the countryside from the continued use of pesticides. The long-term consequences and devastating effects of hazardous chemicals on people living in rural areas will be featured on the ITV programme "That’s Esther" on Sunday January 25th at 12.30pm
Ms. Downs states that the current regulations are totally obstructive and make it almost impossible to prove causation. Currently members of the public are not entitled to access the information on the chemicals they are exposed to and nor can their doctors. Such information obtained by HSE inspectors "can only be disclosed with the consent of the person who provided it"... Read More

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

Scotsman "....The responses to disasters and emergencies such as the King's Cross fire, the foot-and-mouth outbreak, recent rail crashes and the fuel crisis had also proved the need for fresh legislation in that area." Cabinet Minister Douglas Alexander on the second reading of the Civil Contingencies Bill yesterday.
Readers of this website know that the powers the government took during the foot and mouth crisis in 2001 were sweeping and bloody and inflexible. That they were also not covered by existing legislation (and therefore illegal) has never been satisfactorily denied. As Mr Morley admitted to the EFRA Select Committee on 6 November 2001 "At the present time we do not have powers for a fire break cull.."
As the MEP Giles Chichester says below, the government "still has plenty to answer for over foot and mouth disease."
One "lesson learned" by this government seems to be to ensure that they must give themselves the power to override existing safeguards to freedom should any "emergency" (see new definition) arise. See Democracy page

Jan 20 ~ Defra's Horse Passport Pantomime

From equiworld.net Article Defra's Horse Passport Pantomime
"Oh no, you don't need a vet to apply for a horse passport" said DEFRA.
"Oh yes you do" DEFRA now says
The Country Land and Business Association has expressed surprise at DEFRA'S about turn on horse passport applications which has thrown horse owners and the equine industry into a state of confusion. Contrary to advice given to its Passport Issuing Organisations, DEFRA has now announced that owners will no longer be allowed to complete the silhouette section of the horse's passport application by themselves after 31 January unless the horse is microchipped. Instead the silhouette must be completed by either a veterinary surgeon or a person authorised by the passport-issuing organisation (PIO)....the advice being given on the internet by the various passport issuing organisations is conflicting and now out of date. Not only are we having to pay more for the privilege of keeping Europe happy, but organisations like the CLA are yet again having to use their own resources to communicate Government policy to the public."
Read in full

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

The Government has been given a final written warning by the European Commission over a failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the controversial Ash Moor mass burial site
Western Morning News ".....Failure to respond to the warning could result in the Government being brought before the European Court of Justice. ...... the Government has been told that the European Commission is not satisfied that UK legislation on EIAs adequately covers development on land owned by the state, which UK authorities have claimed was exempt from planning regulations. ...
Leading STAMP member Joe Skinner said: "....We started right at the beginning, telling them they were doing it wrong, and they would not listen to a word we said. If chickens are coming home to roost for the Government I am delighted."............
.... South West MEP Giles Chichester said: "The Ash Moor Pit is a monumental lesson in inefficiency and waste. All that money was put into it in the first place and now a huge amount is having to be spent to restore the site. 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."

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.

Sunday Telegraph Booker's Notebook " ... Terrified that it may lose£1 billion due to Britain from Brussels, Defra has tried to appease the European Commission by finding every excuse not to hand ..."
"... the UK government may well lose the £1 billion it wishes to claim from Brussels anyway.
...... Hundreds of contractors still have claims outstanding ...
....the real disgrace of this affair is that, despite Defra's shameless efforts to convince Brussels that it has been looking after taxpayers' interests, the European Commission has not yet shown any sign of being impressed. It has capped the UK's right to claim repayment at a mere £250 million, leaving £1 billion outstanding - a sum it seems the UK government may now never be in a position to claim. " Read in full

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

Private Eye this week. Muckspreader column:
"A landslide defeat for Defra in the high court has blown wide open one of the biggest scandals remaining from the 2001 foot and mouth debacle: the ministry's astonishing refusal to pay hundreds of contractors £100 million still owing ...
... ...Commission officials began to hint that they were not happy with the way Maff had been throwing money around. Farmers had been paid too much in compensation (since much of the 'cull' had been illegal, this was thought necessary to buy off their protests). Too much had been spent in every direction. In 2002 and 2003 it gradually became clear that Defra was finding any excuse not to pay the money it owed to hundreds of contractors....
Invoices for £500,000 and other documents which the firm supplied to Defra were mysteriously 'lost'. Quibbles were raised about the tiniest details of spending. ...
... when one MP raised the Furse case. the minister Alun Michael continued to stonewall....." Read in full
See also warmwell's front page from last November which goes a long way to explain why DEFRA have been so much at pains to try to find any means of lowering the bill.

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

".... These are huge sums of money, which the Chancellor was expecting and if they are not paid there will be a shortfall somewhere. ..."

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

....a protest that ordinary farmer members do not have the right to choose their own leader.
"...A once proud Union is now in sad decline, losing millions of pounds every year and in danger of becoming bankrupt - financially and morally,"
The NFU Council has been described by one of its members as: "Eighty-nine decrepit, unimaginative, super-annuated, self-important male ex-farmers and one woman sitting round a table playing the game called Buggin's Turn. The rules are simple; all office-holders move slowly up the totem pole and - provided they don't say anything which will upset anyone - they take their turn near the top"
Read more on Monday( temporarily embargoed - cannot be read until Monday)
80% of respondents to a FARMERS WEEKLY Interactive poll believe the NFU should introduce a policy of one member, one vote to elect the president and key officeholders.

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

through markets in the aftermath of the 2001 foot and mouth ...DEFRA stated that Ministers had concluded the benefits of introducing a distance limit are too small given the wider impact. But they reserved the right to revisit the issue should circumstances change." News Wales

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."

News and Star, Cumbria "Cumbria County Council-owned Cumbria Waste Management (CWM), which buried thousands of carcasses in its landfill sites, exclusively revealed to the News & Star that it is still owed £6 million for the work it carried out three years ago.
.... Mike Bareham, CWM's managing director, said: “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. We are going to fight this claim as hard as we did to rid this county of foot and mouth disease. .....We opened up our offices to Defra and did everything we could to help. We are now disillusioned with the Government.”
It is not known exactly how much money is owed to Cumbrian businesses but the Forum of Private Business (FPB), which is leading the campaign to settle payments for rural firms, has revealed that it runs into many millions...."

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

Thousands of square miles of countryside would be dominated by wind generators, up to 400 ft high....
"Lord Sainsbury has told peers that the Government's target for a massive expansion of renewable energy will be driven mainly by new windfarms, despite calls for greater investment in tidal power. ...
Lord Hooson also questioned the Government's reliance on wind power, saying that ministers "should give greater priority to harnessing tidal power, rather than wind power". WMN
See also warmwell page on windfarms

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

A letter in today's Telegraph from Andrew George, MP, Liberal Democrat Food and Rural Affairs spokesman
Re: Foot the bill and cough up
Date: 14 January 2004
Sir - Of course the Government should root out fraudulent claims made in respect of the foot and mouth outbreak two years ago, but many desperate debtors believe it is simply playing for time.According to the reckoning of the Department of Food and Rural Affairs, £800 million of the £1.3 billion arising from the claims could be fraudulent. If so, the Government is making a substantial criticism of farmers affected and of the contractors who helped Defra out of a hole.We are being asked to believe that a department which is regarded as being notoriously dysfunctional is now being uncharacteristically prudent.
From:Andrew George, MP, Liberal Democrat Food and Rural Affairs spokesman, London SW1

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"

Warmwell has recently publicised articles from the Western Morning News describing the human cost behind the cases of alleged fraud brought by DEFRA in the course of its £19.81 million investigations (in one case spending hours disputing a bill for just £1.88...). This email received from Mrs D Phillips is hard to read without wondering if such ignorance, bullying and inconsistency could really have happened. It did.
". ...... Our farm was contiguous. We did not have FMD. 15 other farms contiguous to the IP ( which was never confirmed by a blood test), were left un-culled and obviously were not cleansed.
Because I refused to allow the cleansing to be carried out... I withstood twelve months of living under first an illegal Form A, then the far more severe Form 37B.
.... 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 and that we would have to remain on a Form A for a further five months, despite the fact that the other 15 contiguous farms had never been culled. .... MAFF did however, cleanse a contiguous pig farm, where they culled 2800 pigs - at a cost of approximately £420,000 to the tax payer. Jan Kelly chose to leave 200 sows plus 200 suckler cows un-culled on the same farm. She then authorised ten weeks of cleansing to be carried out on one set of buildings, then moved the sows and cattle from the uncleansed buildings into the clean ones, and proceeded to clean the old buildings, allowing these so-called "highly infectious contiguous cattle and pigs" to transfer disease from the dirty buildings, straight into the newly cleansed ones. ...."
Read in full

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."

(Vaccination alone does not, of course, produce carriers in healthy animals)
Y. Leforban How predictable were the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Europe in 2001 and is vaccination the answer?
" ...Effective vaccines that are capable of inducing good immunity and protection within approximately one week are available world-wide.....There is no real proof in the field of the danger of vaccinated carriers and the use of differential serological tests would reduce this hypothetical risk further. In comparison, when the slaughter method is used, there is also a risk of overlooking animals that are affected sub-clinically and which could also become carriers."
This pdf file (new window) is now available on line in the series Foot and mouth disease: facing the new dilemmas edited by Gavin Thomson (OIE)

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

with Introduction by Gavin Thomson is now available online (summaries and pdf files)
"...Questioning the traditional approaches to the control/eradication of the disease and especially the justification for 'stamping-out' which had been documented in all its horror by the media in the United Kingdom was the popular topic. This concern was so intense that many drawn into the debate had little knowledge of the nature of FMD or of the behaviour of the disease and there was an understandable search for a readily available and authoritative source of such information. This special edition is primarily an attempt to respond to this need and provide an up-to-date source of information for both animal health specialists and others seeking a compendium of information on the subject....
...sections include both papers intended to provide basic information as well as papers covering 'topical' problems such as vaccination and its effects on international trade, 'carriers' and their role in the epidemiology of the disease and the environmental implications of 'stamping-out'. Some opinions differ from the official position of the OIE as exemplified by the present edition of the International Animal Health Code but this is considered healthy if we are to improve management of this disease internationally. ..."
The Index and overview is available at http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/A_rt21_3.htm

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

"Unlike animals which are carriers of foot and mouth disease (FMD), sub-clinically infected animals may be highly contagious....."
Animals in which FMDV persists in the oesophageal-pharyngeal region for more than four weeks after infection are referred to as "carriers"
Unapparent foot and mouth disease infection (sub-clinical infections and carriers): implications for control by P. Sutmoller & R. Casas Olascoaga Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 2002, 21 (3), 519-529
".....A few historical reports and some recent observations in southern Africa indicate the possibility of dissemination of FMD by bovine carriers into herds of susceptible cattle. These reports have greatly influenced FMD trade policies and thus, FMD control and eradication strategies. However, other field evidence does not support this claim and several controlled experiments were unable to show that carriers are able to initiate disease. .. In the opinion of the authors, the introduction of FMD into previously FMD-free zones was caused by the movement of clinically or sub-clinically infected animals and not by bovine carriers...
.... .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. A low number of carriers most likely persisted, but they did not hamper the eradication of the disease.
Vaccination policies and trade regulation must be based on risk assessments taking these factors into consideration..."
Sir James Scudamore's concern about detecting "carrier animals" can be read below.

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

Veterinary Journal (January) FMD - differentiating vaccinated from infected animals (new window)
".... revealed changes in the public's attitudes to mass slaughter of livestock, particularly those not obviously affected by the disease. The effect has been to question the morality and appropriateness of pursuing a stamping out policy when supposedly effective vaccines are available and where tests to detect antibodies to non-structural proteins (NSP) to the FMD virus can be used to indicate whether a vaccinated animal has been exposed to the virus or may be acting as a carrier. ..
..Modern PCR techniques to detect viral RNA may facilitate rapid screening of large numbers of samples but there is still no entirely reliable method of detecting carrier animals and those techniques that exist are highly labour intensive and expensive.... if NSP tests are to be used as a key component of an exit strategy following an outbreak where a policy of "vaccination to- live" had been employed, more research is needed. Clavijo, Wright and Kitching's review provides a comprehensive summary of the key areas needing to be addressed."
Clavijo, Wright and Kitching (The Veterinary Journal 167 (2004) 9 - 22) (new window) appear reasonably optimistic, however. Extract
"Considerable effort and attention is now being directed toward the development of new methods and techniques for the rapid and accurate detection of anti-NSP antibodies, harmonization and standardization of current diagnostic techniques, as well as the production of defined reagents."

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

See pdf file (new window) The National Scrapie Plan: progress to date and future developments by Michael Dawson
".....There has been understandable concern expressed by members of some breeds that the NSP selection requirements will result in the loss of desirable traits and blood lines, particularly in the hill breeds.
Though some research is underway and further work is proposed, it will be some time before results are available. In this respect, it is encouraging to note that the impending EU programmes allow for review if serious negative effects become evident in individual breeds."
"Encouraging" possibly, but whether any of this is necessary in the first place is still in doubt in the minds of many.

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

Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Livestock Production(pdf) by Malla Hovi
Extract"... mainly by banning some of the most intensive livestock production practices (e.g. all types of battery cages, early weaning of piglets, tethering of ruminants etc.)
...A recent UK study of organic pig production found very few health problems.... In the UK, outdoor breeding units have been relatively easy to convert to organic production, where farm size and crop rotations have allowed adequate space.... Tethering, decks and entirely slatted floors are forbidden. The minimum weaning age for piglets is 40 days .... the later weaning age in organic pig production is likely to reduce nutritional challenges in this period, as the piglets' digestive tract is more mature than in early weaning systems. A recent UK study of organic pig production found very few health problems..."

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

Munich's Tageszeitung comments on reports of slipshod testing for BSE See email

"German authorities have said attempts to save money may have been the reason for lapses in mandatory testing of beef for the disease last year. A comparison of the number of slaughtered cattle and of tests for BSE showed meat from more than 500 animals may have reached consumers without first having been tested.
The paper wrote that several conclusions can be drawn from the findings: first, that there is no such thing as 100 percent safety; secondly, the controls are at least effective in that they uncovered the lapses; and third, there is no reason to panic, for in an overwhelming 99.95 percent of cases, tests were carried out properly, meaning that the risk of being run over by a car is in Germany 1,000 times higher than being infected by BSE."
Again, the assumption is made that eating meat from a cow with BSE could "infect" humans, a claim that has never been proved, Prof Collinge's comments notwithstanding. It seems that authorities downplay the BSE risk only when they have been found negligent in respect of their own rules.

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

Hansard (new window) 6th Jan
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will introduce vaccination as a means of preventing the spread of foot and mouth disease as part of the Foot and Mouth Contingency Plan. [144177]
Mr. Bradshaw: Prophylactic vaccination remains prohibited under the new EU Directive 2003/85 on the control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). However, the Directive does give greater prominence to the potential use of emergency vaccination in the event of an outbreak.
The Government's response to the independent inquiries into the 2001 FMD outbreak acknowledged that emergency vaccination would be considered as part of the control strategy from the start of any future outbreak of FMD, where measures additional to culling of susceptible animals on infected premises and dangerous contacts were needed. The latest version of Defra's FMD Contingency Plan includes details on the arrangements that are in place to allow for emergency vaccination in a future outbreak.
Mr Bradshaw chose not to quote the part of the Directive that says, "(1) ...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
...(24) ....Community rules and the ensuing practices have not taken sufficient account of the possibility offered by the use of emergency vaccination and subsequent tests to detect infected animals in a vaccinated population. Too much importance was attached to the trade-policy aspects, with the result that protective vaccination was not carried out even when it had been authorised." (See Directive pdf.)

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. "

Mr Bradshaw - as reported by Hansard. Read in full
Mr Bradshaw must temporarily have forgotten such firms as Luke Furse Earth Moving Ltd, of Devon. It is now 1,000 days since their invoice was submitted to DEFRA but, almost three years on from the outbreak, Defra is still withholding payment of £1.2 million. According to the Western Morning News "Luke Furse, who founded the respected family firm 25 years ago, said he had been stunned when Defra began to refuse payment. He said the oldest unpaid invoice was now 1,000 days overdue. Mr Furse said that although all payments had been agreed at the time his firm had been subjected to a barrage of questions and repeated audits as Government accountants attempted to chip away at the bill. Now the firm has been told that the Government has "lost" invoices totalling almost £500,000..."

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

WMN on yet another supposed "fraud" case
".... Mr Haste was due to appear at Exeter Crown Court next Monday but Defra dramatically dropped the charges. He says he will press for full compensation from Defra. "I will go all the way to the House of Lords if I have to."..."It was a very frightening time for myself and my family. I felt betrayed because Defra had told me to make a claim in the first place. At that time I did not know whether I was going to go to prison, my wife was a nervous wreck and my son, who also runs the farm with me, was cracking up."
Yet another reminder, three years later, of what John Piper, writing in the Yorkshire Post described: "The foot-and-mouth crisis ... a lethal cocktail of folly, self-interest, Government ineptitude and spinelessness, waste and wanton cruelty, both to human beings and animals. In short, a disgrace of huge magnitude. "

Jan 9 2004 ~ "put through hell"

The Western Morning News yesterday:
"....Westcountry farmer Michael Pedrick, who was cleared of trying to cheat MAFF out of nearly £17,000 following the foot and mouth crisis, says his life was made hell by Government officials.
Mr Pedrick's solicitors, Taunton-based Clarke Willmott, are lodging a complaint against a Defra official following a bizarre scene after the court case on Tuesday. Mr Pedrick had just been acquitted of attempting to obtain a valuable security by deception from the then Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF). The solicitors allege that a female vet approached the 63-year-old farmer and wagging a finger in his face, told him: "You are a very lucky man to get off."....
.....Defra last night refused to comment on the outstanding money which Mr Pedrick claims is still owed to him or the allegation against a female vet. A spokesman said: "Any complaint is dealt with thoroughly but internally."
Many of us will remember Sir Humphrey Appleby's complacent smirk "An internal inquiry Minister" . Many, many other livestock owners were put through hell in 2001 by the ignorant bullying of officialdom. What happened to their animals was even more hellish. As for the vets, so many of whom appear to have colluded in cruelty, the RCVS may not choose to condemn the widespread breaking of the veterinary oath - but it will not be forgotten.

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

Western Morning News (new window) reports the dramatic aquittal of the case of alleged fraud. ( DEFRA has justified its delays (see below) by alleging fraudulant claims.)
"....A farmer accused of trying to cheat the Government out of nearly £17,000 during the foot and mouth crisis has been dramatically cleared. After legal submissions by his counsel at Exeter Crown Court yesterday, Michael Pedrick was found not guilty of attempting to obtain a valuable security by deception from the then Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF). Following legal arguments by barrister Adam Vaitilingam in which he said there was no case to answer against Mr Pedrick, Judge Ian McIntosh directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict saying that it would be unsafe to take the matter further. After the acquittal, Mr Vaitilingam said: "This was a heavy handed prosecution by Defra of a farmer struggling to cope with the foot and mouth epidemic....
Mr Pedrick's solicitors are now lodging a complaint with Defra over an alleged incident which occurred after the case yesterday involving a woman Defra vet. A statement issued by Clarke Willmott Solicitors said: "We were most surprised by the actions of the Defra vet who was a witness in these proceedings. We understand that she gesticulated at Mr Pedrick and was aggressive towards him, stating to him that 'he was a very lucky man' after the case had finished. We do not consider such action to be appropriate and will be submitting a formal complaint on Mr Pedrick's behalf." .... "
See Mr Pedrick's story

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 ...

... The Scotsman reports.
Hansard had not published written answers by midday. today. Attack is a form of defence well known to this government department. (See above) In early November (Hansard) Andrew George (St Ives) said
" I am pleased to hear that the Government are taking a robust line on late payers, but what are they doing about one of the worst of all late payers, namely, themselves?.... "
..and he warned that "Many of those companies are perilously close to bankruptcy, so when will the matter be cleared up?..." We heard on November 12th from Paul Gregory, the Campaign Advisor to the Forum of Private Business that the All-Party Small Business Group had already had a meeting in the Commons.
"You will probably know that a frequent response of Defra is to allege fraud (see Nigel Griffiths's answer to the PQ), All the people I have spoken to who have been subjected to this, are innocent. I'm sure that there are likely to be some persons who have gone into liquidation as a result of non-payment by Defra"
See also an article from the Western Morning News on the DEFRA compensation scandal "Defra officials had subjected contractors to "threats and intimidation", he said. They had also gone through invoices with a fine tooth comb, in one case spending hours disputing a bill for just £1.88..."

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

The Western Morning News (new window) reports a DEFRA official's reasons for refusing a licence - which seem somewhat extraordinary, given that foot and mouth is not a disease passed on by "eating burgers" nor by a healthy pig on a lead in a location where there is no disease. Regulation run mad seems to be the inevitable consequence of government departments desperate not to be held to account.
"A family has been banned from taking their miniature pot-bellied pig for walks because of the potential risk of him contracting and spreading disease.....The couple have a harness and a lead but the inspecting vet has also deemed that Mitchell might be able to eat discarded burgers on a nearby towpath that forms part of his potential walking route...
..A spokesman for Defra explained: "Some people have pet pigs which they treat like dogs. They keep them in their garden and take them for walks, but this can spread the risk of foot and mouth disease and put other animals at risk. The regulations allow us to keep a record."
See also Muckspreader (Private Eye) on December 3rd 2003

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

" ....The department would not disclose the name of the slaughter plant because of privacy concerns..." Reuters (new window)
"We have made a decision to depopulate those bull calves," USDA Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven told reporters. "In total, there are approximately 450 animals that will be sacrificed as part of this overall effort." The herd targeted for depopulation contains a one-month-old bull that was born from the infected cow before it was slaughtered on Dec. 9. DeHaven said there was a "very remote" chance the infected cow spread the brain-wasting disease to its offspring. USDA also said that since they were unable to pinpoint which animal in the herd is that offspring, all the calves in it were being destroyed. The 450 cattle will be sent to a slaughtering plant that is not currently in operation. USDA officials said the animals will not enter the food supply or be rendered into animal feed.
The department would not disclose the name of the slaughter plant because of privacy concerns. "
See also warmwell entry for June 17 2003 about the BSE outbreak in Cananda . CFIA spokesman Dr. Claude Lavigne said, "Everything that we'll ever get is here. There's no more to be gained here. It's been investigated to death.....the trail has gone cold and we're not going to find a definite source of this infection.'' In Canada, nearly 3000 healthy cattle were "depopulated" but the Pro-Med moderator wrote: ".. there is no scientific justification for slaughtering herds that were in contact with the infected animal or its offspring. BSE cannot be passed by casual contact."

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

BSE: A ProMed moderator makes this important assertion and fears ".. some less-than-humane methods may be employed...." See the ProMed website (of the International Society for Infectious Diseases)
"... Positive public relation moves often have ripples throughout related industries that are not necessarily so positive. If an animal is up and can move, it is considered ambulatory. Therefore, this moderator fears some less-than-humane methods may be employed to get animals to stand and walk in order to pass ante-mortem inspection.
On-farm inspections presently have no incentive for producers. American producers are a proud lot, and intrusion onto their property for on-farm investigation is likely not going to receive a warm welcome. Of course, most things have a price; so if the proper financial incentive is in place, the welcome mat may be forthcoming.
Removal of downer animals from slaughter facilities is likely to create an underground or secret market in which home slaughter and processing of animals that are healthy but unable to get up without the use of inhumane methods will develop, and sampling of these animal will decrease substantially.
All things considered, it again comes down to how much money the American public is willing to spend on a disease that is not contagious between animals nor is contagious between people."
See also transcript of USDA Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials on BSE Situation - January 2, 2004

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

"The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and Animal Aid have launched a High Court challenge to the decision by First Secretary of State John Prescott to allow a massive primate research laboratory to be built in the Cambridgeshire green belt. The appeal describes Prescott's decision as perverse, unreasonable and unfair."See PRNewswire

Jan 4 2004 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

Apologies. The website may not updated for a few days. Inbox

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

With now no qualification at all, newspapers even with the high standards of the Telegraph are taking as proven fact the link between BSE and vCJD.
"... the Department of Agriculture has focused its tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on cattle intended for human food, because humans can contract a form of the disease by eating infected meat."
Telegraph
Meanwhile, in the Times, John Collinge appears worried that the assumed link is not being taken seriously enough. His own scientific reputation as director of the Prion Unit at the Medical Research Council will be taken into account by readers.

January 2 2004 ~" BSE 'panic' "

A letter to the Times (new window) January 02, 2004 BSE 'panic' From Mr Ben Garratt
Sir,
What a relief to find, at last, a journalist (Magnus Linklater, Comment, December 30) expressing the views that farmers have been failing to get across for years, namely that despite the initial panic over BSE, it is, though very nasty, likely to be insignificant when considering human health.
The opposite view, first put to the House of Commons (report, March 21, 1996), ruined many businesses since then and continues to do so. I sent three cows for slaughter last month. All were perfectly healthy, though unable to conceive. Meat from these animals would have been worth £1,800 if sold on our farmers' market stall (chiefly as mince). However, since all were over 30 months old they were destroyed and our compensation from the Government will be about £280 a head. Total loss to the Government, £840.
Total loss to us, nearly £1,000.
The panic continues.
Yours truly,
BEN GARRATT, Burscombe Cliff Farm,Egerton, Ashford, Kent TN27 9BB.
Read Magnus Linklater's article
" Scientists must take some of the responsibility. They tend to play up the risks of an epidemic, lest they be accused of complacency or, worse, a cover-up; their research grants may depend on it. Politicians, for their part, have lost the trust of the public. If they say there is no danger, they are not believed. They are no longer confident enough of the facts to reassure the public, so they hope to look more responsible by emphasising the risks instead. ..."

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

Guardian "....We should not be surprised perhaps if the assumption grows that the powerful cannot be trusted in a world where too many feel they have nothing to lose ... As the new year starts perhaps one of the biggest questions each of us could ask is: 'Am I making the world a place where trust makes sense?'"

December 30 ~"Apocalypse never"

": from BSE to Sars, we are addicted to paranoia and panic" Magnus Linklater in the Times (new window) "....one single case of "mad cow" disease in Washington State threatens the entire US beef industry. ....
.... the evidence of any threat to human beings from "mad cow" disease is so slight that in any rational scientific forum they would be dismissed as non-existent. It rests on the suggestion that variant Creuzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD) can be transmitted to humans if they eat infected meat.
... Predictions of a vCJD epidemic were dire............ Last year there were just 16 deaths attributed to vCJD in Britain, down yet again on the previous year. What is more, the evidence of any link with BSE has slumped from slight to negligible.
Scientists such as the Australian, Professor Alan Ebringer, and the British farmer turned expert, Mark Purdey, have challenged the theory, first advanced by the Nobel prize-winning American virologist, Stanley Prusiner, who claims that BSE is caused by molecules known as prions which could indeed infect human beings. They argue that the cause lies elsewhere, and say the link with vCJD is unproven.
..... Why then are the voices of sanity ignored....?" (Read the Times article by Magnus Linklater in full)

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."

Scotsman - Fordyce Maxwell (new window) "...In the abstract he has submitted for the annual Edinburgh Centre for Rural Research lecture in February, Lord Melchett says that the problems of modern agriculture are:
"A combination of massive over-production and dumping on world markets of most commodity crops; continuing rapid losses of jobs in farming, and farmers; public and political concern about taxpayers' subsidies for farmers; dramatic declines in farmland wildlife; belated recognition of the decline in food quality and rapidly increasing concern about diet-related illness, particularly among children."
Similar messages are expected from the Soil Association conference at Heriot- Watt University, Edinburgh on 9 and 10 January with the basic theme being that the urbanisation and industrialisation of agriculture has destroyed public trust in farmers."

December 29 2003 ~ Farming folly

- letter in the Telegraph Opinion page
Sir
The BSE outbreak in America (News, Dec 26) underlines our Government's folly in running down home agriculture and relying on imports to feed the nation. These imports could be closed overnight through disease or terrorism. Meanwhile, 80,000 people have left farming since 1996, while Defra figures show that 17,200 people quit the industry in the year to June 2003.
Land can be improved or reclaimed if it has not been built on, and machinery can be quickly manufactured, but the skills of dedicated farming folk cannot be replaced. Other countries welcome them. Here, Defra imposes onerous restrictions, the latest being a proposed ban on farm tips that have been used safely for generations.
From: Edward Hart, Ludlow, Shropshire

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

Independent(new window) "....Dr Evans cautioned against "a premature conclusion that the definitive animal or definitive birthplace has been located". He continued: "What we're suggesting is that we need to verify, using scientific methods such as DNA, that the animal that left Canada with that ear tag is in fact the animal that the US is pursuing at this point." (see also the USDA transcript of the press conference) (new window)

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)

One does not need to be a scientist to deplore such forced cannibalism in feed lot cattle - but in the absence of factual knowledge about BSE the media are making statements, especially with regard to the assumed causes of BSE being connected to feed, that have little proven scientific basis. How many newspaper readers notice such qualifying words as "may", "could", "might", "theoretically", "scientists believe"?
Officials also revealed that the Holstein was aged six, older than previously thought. This meant it could, theoretically, have become infected by eating contaminated feed of a kind banned in the US and Canada since 1997, after the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Britain. (Sunday Telegraph)
The Sunday Herald says, "Scientists believe that BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is spread when cattle eat contaminated feed made of other animal parts." but there are, of course, eminent scientists who do not believe this.
"Some leading scientists now say BSE may occur spontaneously in about one cow in a million" (Sunday Herald) Has anyone any further information about these "leading" scientists and their pronouncements?

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

The fully referenced article about Mark Purdey's research into BSE:
extract: "... it seems likely that the UK's BSE and vCJD epidemics were caused by the simultaneous exposure ... to a toxic combination of factors" (including) " the widely used copper-chelating organo dithiophosphate (OP) insecticides and the fall out of radioactive metals....."
"American scientists have now traced their mad cow's "birth herd" to Canada" according to today's Sunday Telegraph - presumably anxious to suggest that there was no "infection" in the US itself. We read in today's Sunday Herald of "North America's first case of the brain-wasting disease" being the single cow in Alberta that brought about Canada's own multi-billion dollar crisis in May 2003 - as if CWD was unknown in North America. TSEs may well have a common cause. The problem is that the complexity of scientific challenges to the orthodoxy of hyperinfectivity, together with the fact that dissenting scientists have been derided by the Scientific establishment, make journalists very wary of quoting them. Their theories may not be right. But when a single case of BSE can cause such pandemonium, public fear and the desperate covering of official backs, they must surely now be properly and independently examined.

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

calling for a uniform system to deal with future BSE cases that would encourage full participation in testing and reporting the disease. (See DowJones Newswires)
£8.8 billion is the estimated cost to the US economy of the discovery of this one BSE positive cow. Given current ignorance about BSE, a genuine openness and sharing of expertise is now more urgently needed than ever. BSE paranoia across the globe calls out for international cooperation based, not merely on agro-economic worries about lost trade, but on proper independent scientific and veterinary research; in short, a return to common sense.

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

It looks as though healthy animals will be killed in their thousands in the US, just as in Britain five million cattle were slaughtered because of BSE. At least ten million animals - many breeding stock - were slaughtered unnecessarily in the foot and mouth crisis of 2001. This is the response to animal disease in the 21st century. The Independent article (new window) shows that contaminated feed is still being blamed for BSE - despite the fact that more than 40,000 cows, born after the UK's 1988 ban on MBM inclusion in cattle feed, developed BSE. After the 1996 ban on MBM inclusion in feed destined for all types of livestock a further small number of cattle developed BSE. At the former experimental farm at Liscombe on Exmoor when cows were fed experimentally on pure grass and silage with no concentrated feeds at all, four animals still contracted BSE. The so called infectious prion agent is a malformed prion protein that is resistant to all forms of enzyme digestion. How can it therefore be absorbed as food?
According to Susan Haywood BVSc, PhD, MRCVS and David R. Brown M.Sc, Ph.D there is
"a solid and expanding amount of literature showing that metal imbalance and TSEs are linked."
Mark Purdey amassed hard evidence to indicate that vCJD and BSE could both result from separate exposure of bovines and humans to the same set of toxic environmental factors - manganese and oxidizing agents. In spite of both field and laboratory observations, published data has been ignored by the Establishment. (warmwell BSE page)
It is puzzling that the UK authorities continue to dismiss outright any evidence that backs environmental involvement in TSEs. Professor Ebringer's highly interesting theory that vCJD is a microbe-based autoimmune disease like multiple sclerosis has also been ignored. The British government withdrew his research grant, forcing the disbanding of his entire King's College research department. It sometimes seems as if some kind of Witchfinder General is directing all policy involving new animal diseases; that anything challenging Prusiner's molecular "prion" theory must be stamped on and stamped out as heresy. Meanwhile, healthy animals must be sacrificed in order to "calm consumer fears".

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

says the Independent (new window),
".... shares in fast-food companies such as McDonald's and Wendy's plummeting and shares in Bio-Rad, a California bio-tech company responsible for a state-of-the-art test for BSE, gaining 20 per cent."
Concerned Americans may be searching the Phillips Report for words of wisdom. The taxes of the British public paid out 25 million pounds to finance the Report - but it is considered by many to have left unrevealed what lay beneath several large stones. The problems with the UK government's approach to BSE were repeated in its approach to foot and mouth - and continue still: a lack of collaboration, a reluctance to get to grips with independent research (especially from abroad) and poor communication with ordinary people who are nonetheless directly concerned.
In this letter to the (EFRA) Committee Chairman from Dr A G Dickinson (new window), there is criticism that "Lord Phillips deliberately excluded from his team anyone with direct involvement in TSE research "
"....at least, the Phillips Report kills off over a decade of MAFF propagation of the unsupported claim that the BSE strain originated on many occasions from scrapie strains being transferred to cattle in Meat and Bone Meal. (Unfortunately, the Report backs an origin for BSE that is implausible in the extreme.)" http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmagric/388/388m11.htm
In the midst of the inevitable new wave of hysteria and schadenfreudearound the world, those vets and family farmers who are still able to put ethical consideration before profit and ambition say that the way to keep animals healthy is to care for them, taking particular care of the environment in which they are kept. Anyone who has read Fast Food Nation (new window) with its exposé of the lawless industry behind fast food may read with relief that this crisis is causing shares to plummet. What should undermine consumer confidence is the murky state of the factory farmed meat industry and the collusion of those who should know better on both side of the Atlantic, not one poor unfortunate dead cow in the state of Washington.

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

The BBC reports on Washington state's consternation at finding that a "downer" cow, whose meat would appear to have already been processed and distributed, ("the meat was sent for processing and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is working to determine the final disposition of products from the animal..." ) has tested positive for BSE. Ann Veneman insists that US beef is safe. Like John Gummer before her, she is talking about how she will eat US beef for Christmas. The BBC report says - without qualification now - that BSE "Can pass to humans through infected beef products. Human form of disease called vCJD vCJD has killed 137 people, mainly in the UK "
Reuters goes even further in its confident "scientific" pronouncements:
"Mad cow disease, which officials said on Tuesday had been found for the first time in the United States, still mystifies scientists because it is not caused by a virus, bacteria or other microbes, does not alert the immune system and can jump from species to species. ...there is disagreement on just which beef products may carry the infectious prions that cause the disease"
The panic caused by BSE is hardly surprising. Although more people are killed on the road each week than by vCJD in years, the multi billion pound losses to the lucrative beef industry - in the UK, Japan, Canada and now, potentially, the United States itself - are huge. Scientific reputations are also on the line. And if, as seems more and more likely, they are wrong about the "infectious prion" theory? Britain's farming and food industry has been damaged by a tidal wave of unnecessary regulations and the EU Animal By-Products Regulation will drain billions more pounds from the UK economy.
Read again the article BSE - Dying to Know the Truth from the Ecologist. ( See also warmwell's BSE pages)

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."

From the Houghton Lake Reporter ".... The Bovine TB Eradication Project is a multi-agency team of experts from the Michigan Departments of Agriculture, Community Health, and Natural Resources; Michigan State University; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It continues to work collaboratively and aggressively to eradicate the disease from Michigan."

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

is now being advertised on the Pan American Health Organisation's website Objectives of the Conference - "To increase awareness and generate support among the public and private sectors to enable the final stages of FMD eradication from the Western Hemisphere."

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

The Scottish Ombudsman - although the pet goat was forcibly killed out of fear of infection, the Department explained that "normal preliminary disinfecting precautions were not taken after the cull as the risk of contamination after this was relatively low"
An article in the Scotsman last friday deals with the 92-page report by Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, Professor Alice Brown - just published now after three complaints were made over two years ago. It is with disappointment but not much surprise that we read Professor Brown's judgement that the killing of so many animals was "properly carried out" Had she judged otherwise, declaring along with Elliot Morley's own private admission, that there had been no legal basis for such a cull, it would surely have brought to an explosive political end all these months of contemptuous denial.
Even so, Professor Brown conceded that there were "some procedural shortcomings" - mainly relating to "the serving of notices". In a reference that can only refer to the incident involving Misty the pet goat, (this article on an American website clearly considered it one of the nastiest and most extraordinary examples of faceless bureaucratic cruelty in Scotland in 2001 ) we read that
It was also "unacceptable" that the owner's requests for information on what disinfection precautions she should take after the goat had been killed went unanswered.....I recommend that the Department now apologise to "Mrs Green" for this omission......
The Department of Rural Affairs eventually explained that normal preliminary disinfecting precautions were not taken after the cull as the risk of contamination after this was relatively low - despite having forcibly killed the goat due to infection concerns.
With such understatements are the horrors of 2001 swept gently under the carpet.

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

Apologies for the silence of the past two weeks. This has been due to illness and hospitalisation - not to inertia. It is hoped that warmwell will be updated again in the near future. Many thanks indeed to those who have expressed concern. They will be contacted individually as soon as possible.

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

" It matters more than tinkering with the health service and scheming over European voting rights. Such things are made by men and by men can be unmade. The countryside is for ever -- or for never. Fields and valleys, woods and hills once lost to building are gone. .." For anyone who (like us) missed this article by Simon Jenkins on December 12 Britain for sale: apply Gordon Brown and Co "....I have learnt that in this game there is no virtue in pleading Keats or Ruskin, let alone the glories of English nature. These philistines live in London and holiday abroad. We do better to confront them on their own ground, the concrete acres of the mind colonised by dismal science. ..
.. Of course people "want" better houses. But Britons are better housed than any other comparable nation. What they do want is something only government can deliver, the long-term protection of their landscape. ." (read in full)

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

Paragraph 2.23 is deeply worrying. The pre-emptive, firebreak cull of 2001 was not legal - as Elliot Morley admitted to the EFRA committee on Tuesday 6 November 2001.
Such a cull of animals not exposed to the disease makes no scientific, veterinary or ethical sense when vaccination can be used instead.. The powers for pre-emptive (or preventive or "firebreak") culling of animals not exposed to FMD infection are, however, included in the Animal Health Act 2002. But the section (32B) demands that the Secretary of State "must prepare a document..." all the terms of which are conveniently provided for by the latest Contingency Plan and in particular Annex C The Contingency plan - with its inadequate planning for vaccination - is in effect, the very document needed for providing "legality" for the widespread culling of healthy animals, should the Secretary of State wish it.
What is the scientific and veterinary basis for this planning? The EU Directive requires that the composition of the Expert Group must be "balanced" It is important to know who is on this "permanently operational expert group" and how it can be said to be balanced in its range of expertise.
An emailer has written to this - a purely amateur website - to say, " Goodness knows we have all tried hard enough to fight this one, but we really need heavyweight individuals en masse (from the vet and legal world) behind this."
The veterinary and legal world may well be as alarmed as we are. But no signals of this have come our way. We can only ask concerned members of the public to fax letters to their MP, to the Royal Society ( 6-9 Carlton House Terrace London, SW1Y 5AG, tel: +44 (0)20 7839 5561 fax: +44 (0)20 7930 2170 ) and to the newspapers. Defra's progress and their press statement should be questioned. How easily the media have swallowed the vaccination line - but the devil is in the detail. See below.

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

The word "immediately" does occur in the document - but sadly only in the sentence: "Emergency Vaccination will immediately be considered as an option..."
"4.3 The vaccination contractor (currently ADAS) is operationally capable of vaccinating on day 5 of an outbreak with 25 vets and sufficient trained vaccinators and support staff for 50 teams. Working under the overall control of the SVS...
4.4 Veterinary advice to Ministers will be based on epidemiological evidence and it is unlikely to be immediately available. It is probable that the time necessary for veterinary assessment of epidemiological data, the use of the Decision Tree and the development of advice on the strategic deployment of vaccination make it unlikely that vaccination would start as soon as five days after the first confirmed case."
How can it be thought that vaccination is being seriously considered if such statements are made? The very wording conjures up a picture of the same, sorry, bureaucratic dithering and lack of co-ordination that led to such misery and frustration last time. This seems to be lip service to vaccination - not the "U-Turn" that some papers are suggesting.

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

Deep concern has been expressed to warmwell that the public spin by Ben Bradshaw does not reflect the small print of the new DEFRA Contingency Plan - which lays out even more clearly that healthy animals will be killed. The revised Animal Health Act - which caused such consternation and widespread criticism last year - is incorporated.
2.23 Additional control strategies include:
• culling of other susceptible livestock exposed to the disease (e.g. premises under virus plumes, premises contiguous to the infected premises);
  and
• pre-emptive or 'firebreak' culling of animals not on infected premises, not dangerous contacts or not necessarily exposed to the disease, in order to prevent the wider spread of the disease outwith an area.
2.24 A Disease Control (Slaughter) Protocol setting out the requirements that must be followed in the event of a pre-emptive cull is at Annex C. (See more of the relevant sections)
Vaccine Top of List in U-Turn The Western Morning News today quotes Janet Bayley, of the National Foot and Mouth Group, who said the emphasis on vaccination was welcome, but warned that the plans could still allow a repeat of the contiguous cull. "... Obviously we welcome the progress on vaccination, but the detail in the contingency plan gives even greater powers for the Government to kill healthy animals. That is not what we envisaged as the outcome of the discussions that have gone on."

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

We read in the FT , under the headline "Foot-and-mouth vaccines ready" by John Mason ( Last Updated: December 2 2003 4:00)
Vaccination could be used to combat future outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease five days after the first reported case, Ben Bradshaw, animal health minister, said. Britain now has the stocks of vaccines ready for any outbreak while technical problems distinguishing vaccinated animals from those infected with the disease - which prevented the use of the strategy in the 2001 epidemic - have now been overcome.
The wording of the DEFRA news release , implying that "progress" on the part of DEFRA has "now" made it possible to use vaccination or distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals, has evidently made it possible for parts of the media in its turn to imply that vaccination was not possible in 2001 and that the ability to distinguish vaccinates from unvaccinated animals was not possible in 2001. Both were, of course, perfectly possible. Only the political will was lacking. Consequently, the contiguous cull was the ineffectual and bloody answer for the politicians - who realised far too late that it was, disastrously, the wrong answer.

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

" to emerge from the corporate mind of the department for the elimination of farming and rural affairs (Defra), with a little help from their friends in Brussels, is the need for pig owners to apply for a licence when they take their 'pig for a walk'.
Thumping onto the doormat of every pig owner in the country on 1 November came a leaflet on 'New Pig Identification Rules', telling them how to comply with the new Pigs (Records, Identication and Movement) Order 2003 Dutifully signed by that great rural affairs expert Ben Bradshaw, the minister who advertises on his website that he once came 112th in a poll of 'heroes to Britain's gay and lesbian community', Defra regarded this as a further measure necessary to comply with EC directive 92/102 .....
.... So excited has one Kent farmer, Ben Garratt, become at the thought of giving useful employment to Defra's team of veterinary officials (alas only at half-strength by the latest count) that he proposes farmers should celebrate by staging a 'National Pig Walking Day', Thousands of pig-owners will simultaneously ring up Defra to ask for the services of an official to approve their proposed route. The countryside will soon be covered in Defra inspectors, earnestly checking every inch of path, field and stile....." Read in full

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

" Pig pyramids almost certainly introduced and definitely spread PMWS and Swine Fever" is the opinion of an East Anglian emailer, who sends us this quotation from the Defra booklet "New Pig Identification rules as of 1 November 2003" on http://www.npa-uk.net/Library/Defra-Pig%20ID%20rules%20Lflt.pdf
"When a pig moves onto your holding, no other pig can move off for 20 days except for slaughter or to a slaughter market. Cattle, sheep and goats must respect a 6 day standstill. Pigs in a Defra authorised "pyramid" as approved in writing by the local Divisional Veterinary Manager are exempt from the 20 day rule."
"So," writes the emailer, "special exemption from the law for the big, usually multi-national, pig pyramids is allowed by permission ...."
Since, as the emailer points out, the leaflet was "developed in consultation with BPEX, the British Pig Association and the National Pig Association." complete with all their logos, it makes one wonder. What does "DEFRA approved" mean? Since the only people prosecuted and heavily fined for the illegal movement of pigs during the Classical Swine Fever epidemic in East Anglia were pig pyramid companies, to exempt them from movement restrictions now - while insisting on restrictions for everyone else - seems odd. The emailer says, "There have been complaints of animal cruelty at their premises, including the famous "missing Court Case" when the RSPCA and Hillside Sanctuary (Redwing) took BQP to court for animal cruelty."

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA - late payments

The continuing wrangle over the late payment of invoices connected with Foot and Mouth was the top story on the Farming Today programme on Radio 4 (Tuesday Dec 2).
The story is available on the Internet and can be accessed by visiting the link below and clicking on 'listen to the latest Farming Today programme' link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/farmingtoday/index.shtml

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

Dec 1 The DEFRA news release says,
"... Ben Bradshaw, wrote to the Royal Society last week, detailing the progress made on their recommendation" (Reminder of Royal Society recommendations)" that emergency vaccination should be developed so it could be available for use as a prime control strategy in addition to culling of infected animals and dangerous contacts in a future outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease."
We learn from the news release that "Defra has already carried out a total of over 50 Foot and Mouth Disease exercises and training events, mainly at regional level since the last outbreak." and that "...Defra is planning a series of exercises over the next seven months to check and validate the Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan. The programme will culminate in a live exercise on 29 and 30 June 2004."
The wording of the news release suggests that Ben Bradshaw claims credit for DEFRA on:
1. Negotiation of a new EU Directive on Foot and Mouth Disease control, moving vaccination to the forefront of disease control strategy.
2. Engaging with stakeholders to gain the necessary support from the farming and food industries to make emergency vaccination a workable option in the event of a future outbreak.
3. Procurement of independent supplies of Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine for the UK, which is suitable for use in a "vaccinate-to-live" strategy in the event of a future outbreak.
4. Ongoing work on the development of vaccination scenarios including a Cost Benefit Analysis to help decision making on future disease control strategy.
5. Continuing to fund research into tests that would demonstrate the absence of infection in animals post-vaccination.
6. Putting in place operational arrangements with an external contractor that would enable an emergency vaccination programme to be implemented 5 days after confirmation of the disease, subject to veterinary and epidemiological advice.
The revised version of the Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/fmd-contingency03/index.htm. (link mended) The consultation period for responses closes on Friday 20 February 2004.

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

Honest Food has responded to, and welcomed, DEFRA's Outline of an Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain. Preliminary comments include the following statement:
"Prolix and unnecessary documents do not make the lives of stakeholders, animal keepers or the various professionals who have to deal with the subject any easier as well as creating the impression that an unnecessarily bureaucratic framework is being created." ....
Extracts from comments on the strategies:
• insufficient emphasis on the need to take scientific research and its results from outside the UK and, even the EU. Private enterprise in scientific research ought not to be treated disdainfully. Naturally, the studies we have in mind are those that have been carried out under well-defined conditions and have had their results peer-reviewed (a necessary detail, not mentioned in the Outline).
• It has not been specified that all EU legislation and regulation has to be transposed into British legislation as a matter of legal requirement. This may seem obvious to DEFRA but is not always obvious to all stakeholders...
• We also hope that assurances that EU legislation and regulation will not be gold-plated in the UK will, finally, be put into practice....so far, little has changed.
• (We) look forward to a more detailed break-down of resources devoted to necessary research rather than the continuing "firefighting" and slaughter ...
• We hope that assurances about best practice and scientific research outside the UK being used will apply equally to questions of veterinary and epidemiological surveillance. It is imperative that we should leave what might be termed "the not invented here attitude" be abandoned at all levels.
• If the profitability of high levels of animal health and welfare are questionable and ill-understood concepts, then the need for a general and far-reaching discussion about the future of the livestock industry is very great, indeed.
Read in full

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

Yesterday's "welcome news of a forecasted rise in farm incomes by 35%" (FWi), as any family farmer knows, is misleading. Net farm income is calculated before any allowance is made for the labour and management contributions of farm family members.
"Other than the farmer link, every link of the agri-food chain is dominated by between two and ten multi­billion-dollar transnationals and, perhaps not coincidentally, every one of these links is characterized by large profits"
The CNFU report lists and demolishes 9 myths about competition and efficiency. The report ends
"That agribusiness corporations would rob farmers should be no surprise. But that our democratic governments would so betray us should surprise many Canadians. Not only have our governments told lies that obscure the mechanisms behind the rural crisis; our governments have pushed through laws that have armed the pillagers and weakened farmers and rural communities.
..... To paraphrase the words of folk singer Utah Phillips:
The family farm is not dying - it is being killed.
And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.
It is time that family farmers learned those names and addresses so that a united resistance can begin in earnest."
The report should be required reading for every politician or pundit who ever mentions farming in this or any other country. And anyone, farmer or just sympathiser, who feels that something very rotten is at work against our family farms will find much to think about in the Canadian experience. The CNFU, it seems, are prepared to fight back.

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

".....the blatant lie spread, particularly by the media, that beef from BSE-infected cattle carries the infectious agent of BSE. There is no evidence that a piece of meat cut from a BSE-infected cow contains PrPSc. When such a critical piece of evidence is missing from the picture one is left to wonder why no other explanation other than BSE as the cause of variant CJD is considered.....
Perhaps variant CJD was caused by BSE, but if there is another cause and all endeavours to investigate any are discredited as being illogical or ridiculous, then no advance to prevent or treat the variant CJD will be achieved beyond the serendipitous result of trial and error. ...
the pan-European occurrence of BSE suggests that alternative explanations must be considered. Although environmental damage due to industrialization sounds a rather vague cause for BSE it is a sufficiently broad base on which to launch well planned investigations into the cause of these diseases..." D. R. Brown, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, UK in his paper "BSE did not cause variant CJD: an alternative cause related to post-industrial environmental contamination" pdf external link, new window

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

".... the same basic prescription: Competition (facilitated by globalization, free trade, open markets, and deregulation) combined with technological innovation will lead to higher efficiency and fewer but larger farms. However, when we analyze this prescription and look at the underlying premises, we find that this plan for restructuring agriculture based on competition and efficiency is constructed of myths and false assumptions--some would say "lies."
It is worth saving the pdf file of the CNFU report and examining it properly. As the Canadian report says,
"... Why would we destabilize and torment our farm families, ceaselessly pushing them toward ever-larger economies of scale, making them live in insecurity and worry, breaking farms and emptying communities, if, in the end, any efficiency gains will simply be pocketed by powerful transnationals?"

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

Computer World (New Zealand) "a GIS system that fits in with MAF's own GIS infrastructure and a web-based application interface."
"MAF is seeking a critical intelligence software tool to be the framework for controlling animal diseases, including foot and mouth. While there has never been a recorded case of foot-and-mouth in New Zealand, a recent review of MAF's capability to respond to an outbreak "indicated the need for the completion of key foot and mouth preparedness projects", according to tender documents issued by MAF.
The tools sought include response management software, a GIS system that fits in with MAF's own GIS infrastructure and a web-based application interface. Up to 90 reports will be required, using Crystal Reports and interoperability with other related government databases such as AgriBase and LINZ...."

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"

"Outline of an animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain", a consultation document from DEFRA, invited responses.
Mary Marshall of the European Livestock Alliance has produced a thorough response to the outline While she welcomes DEFRA's document, she also feels that many of the issues need a fundamentally new approach. Among her main points
• It is important that animal keepers have confidence that their animals will be treated within an ethical, open and pre-agreed framework which allows secondary diagnostic tests to confirm initial general tests prior to slaughter.
• Control of animal diseases is for the good of the whole population and therefore the government must share the costs. Prevention of disease is a concern and responsibility of government, as well as the concern and responsibility of animal keepers.
• It is the government's responsibility to prevent initial import of notifiable disease.
• Animal keepers need to be trained to recognise the symptoms of and to report notifiable disease
• It is worrying that "control" is taken to be the equivalent of "Biosecurity", as if there were no other possible control measures.
• there is concern that government will pick and choose which FMD recommendations will be implemented. The final EU FMD Directive requires that the composition of the Expert Group must be "balanced".
• "Stakeholders" must be informed if "consultation" is to mean what it implies. Even with this one, Ms Marshall learned from participants at regional stakeholders meetings that, of those stakeholders that were consulted, very few feel that their views were noted
Perhaps most importantly, Ms Marshall notes that there is no mention of the IAH-Pirbright nor of diagnostic tests, both of which should play a key role in an animal health strategy for Great Britain. The government bears the responsibility of not imposing regulations that put animals at unjustified risk. It bears a responsibility to seek and take best scientific advice. (read in full)

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

FWi "Many of them have gone out of business and some are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The effects of this have been psychological as well as practical and these people have been struggling for the past two years without money owed to them."
Nobody was available for comment from Defra"

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..."

www.nfu.ca/briefs/Myths_PREP_PDF_TWO.bri.pdf A new report from Canada's National Farmers Union considers agribusiness transnationals and their role in creating the farm crisis.
".....Inefficiency rhetoric is nothing more than a smokescreen: a propaganda tactic deployed against farm families, workers, and rural communities. Only by peeling away the myths and lies can we understand the rural crisis and begin to see who is destroying our farms....."
Robin Maynard from FARM said in this response, "... Time and time again we hear politicians and industry pundits like Lord Haskins and Sean Rickard telling farmers in the UK that they've got to 'get bigger', 'be more efficient', so as to compete with farmers from North America, Australia, Argentina etc etc.
CNFU's analysis shows that to be a false route which ignores the realities of a world market dominated by vast agribusinesses with disproportionate power. ..." (More)

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

John Prescott has announced planning approval for Cambridge University's monkey brain research centre (Monkey lab gets go ahead, November 22).
A letter to the Guardian (Wednesday) says, ".... He continues in the government's misguided tradition of supporting animal experiments at all costs. Experimenting on non-human primates is not only ethically unsupportable, it is scientifically unreliable. Brain-damaging monkeys to use them as "models" of human disease is fraught with difficulties and there are dramatic differences in the way that humans and other primates react to supposedly similar brain conditions. Prescott arrogantly ignored the clear recommendation by the planning inspector to reject the project. A full public hearing was held last year and the inspector concluded that the university had failed to demonstrate that the centre was in the national interest as the government had asserted. Is it any wonder that an increasing number of citizens feel their only option is to abandon the political process and turn to protest instead?
Wendy Higgins
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection "

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

"...Cattle get TB because the trace element deficiencies in their forage render them unable to mount a defence against the challenge...
...reactor numbers are going up because every year the vital nutrients, primarily selenium, zinc, cobalt and also copper and iodine, are becoming more depleted with persistent failure to restore them to the soil. Inevitably, every year cattle defences weaken and they become more susceptible to infection from the silent carriers in their midst........Ben Bradshaw says the Government is keen to forge ahead with other measures. But there is no mention of testing the obvious; a nutritional solution to make our animals resistant to TB and indeed to any other infections that could be avoided."
Extract from a letter by Helen Fullerton of the Farming and Livestock Concern UK to this week's Farmers Guardian

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

FARM sends this press release. "... The steady take-over of food production by large agribusiness companies is a key force behind the crisis in farming, which currently sees over 300 UK farmers and farm workers leave the land every week. FARM aims to engage consumers in the fight for a viable future for farming. The Internet is a powerful way of spreading messages fast ..."

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

See Hansard ".... We are keen to improve diagnosis of the disease in both cattle and badgers and have commissioned the Veterinary Laboratories Agency to carry out two research projects, at a total estimated cost of over £950,000. ..."
Meanwhile, the Morris family are still in dispute with DEFRA over their two cows. Having had several reactor cows that tested negative after slaughter in the past, the Morris' concern can be understood. During FMD the family battled to save their herd and learned the hard way that officials prefer to follow rigid "regulations" rather than consider the facts of each case. They are not permitted a second test to verify the Ministry's skin test on two cows who reacted on June 30th. They cannot understand why they should not be allowed to pay for a more reliable test themselves, nor why they never get an answer when they ask what legislation gives DEFRA the right to slaughter their cows. Meanwhile, their local DEFRA office has written to say that another warrant has been applied for.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ New Chief Vet

Debby Reynolds, Defra SVS, is the Veterinary Director for the FSA. She was a member of the FMD official Science Group. She has been appointed to take over from Mr Scudamore.

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."

Today's Guardian Sudden rise in BSE alarms scientists "The original cause of BSE has never been established ..."

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

to assess the links between breeding for scrapie resistance and economically important production and health traits. .. The four-year United Kingdom study, which will get underway early next year, will look to provide assurances on the possible impacts the National Scrapie Plan may have on economically important breed traits, and propose breeding strategies to help minimise the loss of genetic variability. The study will be led chiefly by scientists at the Scottish Agricultural College and the Roslin Institute. ."
Mark Purdey's recent comment: ".... The taxes of the British public paid out 25 million pounds to finance the recent Lord Phillip's BSE Inquiry - published October 2000. This Inquiry reached the decisive conclusion that scrapie had nothing to do with the cause of BSE. ( "The cases of BSE identified between 1986 and 1988 were not index cases, nor were they the result of the transmission of scrapie") ... I remain amazed that none of the bodies that are pretending to represent the farmer's interests.. NFU, or sheep groups... are not picking up on this...."

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."

(From the Idexx press release on the new USDA approved test for TSEs) IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDXX), announced today (Nov 17) that it has received USDA approval for the sale of its IDEXX HerdChek® Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Antigen Test Kit. (which) utilizes a novel Seprion ligand capture technology licensed from Microsens Biotechnologies.... a scientific research and licensing company founded in 1998 to develop technologies for the rapid and sensitive detection of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and other related protein aggregation diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease - collectively known as the "protein conformation disorders." Based at the London Bioscience Innovation Centre, the company operates a dedicated category 3 level containment facility capable of handling bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Scrapie, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD) infected materials."

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."

From the ELA (European Livestock Alliance) website: "One of Ela's goals is to bring scientists, breeders and keepers together to work out a strategy for TSEs, FMD etc. The increase of TSEs in mammals throughout the world is alarming and needs cooperation and research by unbiased scientists.
We can't rule out pollution, effects of minerals, insects, in short - environmental circumstances. There are so many differences of opinion amongst scientists that it is essential to start working together" The website brings together several up to date scientific papers, including those of Dr. David Brown M.Sc, Ph.D. and Susan Haywood BVSc, PhD, MRCVS :" .....it is time for a re-evaluation of the collated information, together with more recent investigations which have an important bearing on the pathogenesis on this unique class of diseases."

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

Tom Griffith-Jones' article on GM suggests that farmers - both arable and livestock farmers - are in a unique position to speak out against GM. "The great advantage of the farming industry is that it is one of the few where the decisions of individuals can make a real difference. We are an amalgam of a myriad of small businesses, making our own decisions. "
"....In Manitoba, one of the prairie provinces, GM maize is now listed as one of the ten main weed species... after only seven years of these crops. ...extra sprays have to be used to remove these Roundup-resistant volunteers. Yields are no higher, and often lower than the non-GM version. It is no longer possible to grow organic oilseed rape in Saskatchewan, because of the contamination of the crop by GM volunteers, and a large industry has been destroyed. Even the seed merchants are finding it impossible to keep their seed clean of GM contamination. As a result of all these difficulties, 95% of Canadian farmers don't want GM wheat, which the biotechnology companies are now trying to get approved. The message from the visiting Canadians was: "learn from our mistakes - don't repeat them".
... leading scientists in the field have stopped their research because they consider the outcomes potentially too dangerous."
See also the Alliance for Bio-Integrity

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

"Phyllida Barstowe is not only an admired novelist and married to the journalist Duff Hart-Davis, but professionally breeds Wiltshire Horn sheep on their Gloucestershire farm. Until recently her flock roamed happily over the meadows round a fine young pure-bred ram. Then, on 1 September, she was visited by the department for the elimination of farming and rural affairs (Defra), to test her sheep under the EU-sponsored 'National Scrapie Plan'. ...." From Private Eye's Muckspreader

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

Western Morning News "....Margaret Beckett claimed the Government was "pouring" money into rural areas like the Westcountry. She was "astonished" by Tory claims about "how terrible things are in the countryside" and said the Government was making "considerable progress" in meeting the commitments made in the Rural White Paper three years ago. .......
Shadow Countryside Minister James Gray ".... certainly things like achieving EU sugar beet standards are perfectly laudable," he said. "But frankly that sort of thing butters few parsnips in the countryside.
.... "If the Rural White Paper and annual updates are to have any value at all they should be demanding an analysis of how the Government is achieving what it set out to achieve. If all they are is spin-doctors' self-congratulatory platitudes there is little point in having them."....
......... merging independent wildlife watchdog English Nature with parts of Defra and the Countryside Agency. Ian Liddell-Grainger, Tory MP for Bridgwater, said there was a real danger that the proposed new agency would create "a muddle of interference and bureaucrats" that would do little for either rural communities or wildlife. Mrs Beckett said a full response to the Haskins report would be published next spring." Read in full

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

FWi "Government statistics show 6,000 farmers and 11,000 labourers left their businesses in the 12 months up to the 2003 June census. The 4.6% drop in the workforce means nearly 85,000 have left farming since the Labour government took office in 1997..."
As John Humphrys said in his recent article "... It is almost impossible to make a living from a small dairy farm. A few years ago 50 milking cows would produce a decent income. Now you need at least twice as many just to survive. There is no doubt that the rural economy would benefit from more small organic farms. So would the environment. So, ultimately, would the consumer....... Our farm animals would benefit, too.... it would help if the welfare of animals and the future of organic farming were seen as two elements in a bigger issue. I think it's called joined-up government. ."

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

(see below) John Bourn speaking on Farming Today repeated the unreliablility of tuberculin skin testing regime as a means of diagnosis and said that the Government should be putting some effort into Gamma interferon testing and - yes - the development of a vaccine.

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

The Scotsman
"Euro MPs rejected the European Commission proposal, opting instead for a UK-style system of monitoring movements of flocks, and not individual animals.
The Commission scheme would have cost UK farmers an estimated £96 million to put a 14-digit code number in both ears of each of the nation's 37 million sheep....."

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

The stalemate situation is taking its toll on the Morris family. Having seen DEFRA's arguments - which they have found most unimpressive - the Morris family are taking a breathing space, mainly because of the emotional price they are having to pay over the whole issue. James, who is 8, seeing and sharing the family distress, is saying with classic childish logic, that it is "all his fault" . There is likely to be a radio documentary on the subject of the Morris family's fight but at present the emotional impact, on the children particularly, is making the parents wary of inflaming the situation. But Mrs Morris tells us that there are now many champions in the wings waiting to give support. She is bemused by the way the officials have either no idea of the anguish their manner is creating - or simply don't care.

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

working under Shadow Secretary of State for Agriculture, John Whittingdale. We remember with gratitude Mr Paterson's involvement in the FMD crisis and the questions he has raised in Parliament. During the foot and mouth crisis, he was an incisive critic of the Government bungling. He was the first MP to insist that the Government dig out, read and learn from the Northumberland Report (1968 - opens in new window) into the previous outbreak. He has been a consistent supporter of small abattoirs, small food producers, the horse industry and local diversity and has campaigned against new regulations by all agencies of Government.

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

Robert Kennedy JNr quoted in this sobering article on Smithfield in today's Independent on the subject of Smithfield in Poland. "People who live near the factory farms complain of nausea, asthma attacks and blackouts. Children at the school village began vomiting. Activists point to US studies which they claim show that factory farm workers and their neighbours contract lung disease, eye infections, nosebleeds and gastro intestinal illness. ..."
Smithfield's activity in Poland was exposed in the Spectator article last week. See also what Senator Kennedy had to say in April about how conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken attention away from environmental issues in the US, making it easier for large corporations to operate without public scrutiny and enabling them to make scandalous deals.
"Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, invented a way of raising pigs in large factory farms which creates huge amounts of pollution, impoverishes farmers, and distorts markets. By educating the public, politicians and press in other countries like Poland, we have been able to stop Smithfield from expanding into those countries. As a result of President Bush's efforts to bring Poland into the coalition against Iraq, there was a 12.5-billion-dollar loan guarantee. Attached to that guarantee were a number of requirements that forced Poland to accept U.S. corporate presence in their country including Smithfield. Part of the loan has to be repaid to Smithfield. ..."

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

... for us not to be extremely alarmed by the news that the systems for tracking and identifying livestock in England are below standard"
".... MP Edward Leigh, who chairs the Commons public accounts committee, said he was "extremely alarmed" by the problems identified in the report, which are estimated to cost taxpayers at least £15 million a year. "The information held is often inaccurate and out of date, with five per cent of cattle movements reported over five weeks late. The Cattle Tracing System in particular is seriously technically flawed - it cannot link up properly with vets' computer systems, and is increasingly unreliable. "I can't see how we can be confident that the systems would be effective in helping to track the progress of a fast-moving disease around the country. "The department must get to grips with improving the accuracy of its data." Western Morning News (Tuesday) on the National Audit Office report

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

Alistair Driver writes about the issue in the Farmers Guardian this week and there are many letters. "...The message coming through loud and clear to FG is that many farmers who believe they have been affected by those chemicals feel they have waited long enough - and another four years is just not acceptable." FG has announced this week that it will hold an in-paper seminar to replace that "postponed" by the government....it is not about allocating blame; it is about taking a close - and fair look at the facts. Don't miss your chance to speak up."
"If you would like to make a contribution, please write, with any relevant information and your contact details) to Farmers Guardian, Fulwood Park, Caxton Road, Preston PR2 9NZ or email falkingham@cmpinformation.com"
See also Muckspreader

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

" A sobering list of species threatened with extinction by damaging human activities has been published by scientists, with a warning that some cannot be saved..
"Places such as the Galapagos, Hawaii and the Seychelles are famed for their beauty, which owes itself to the diversity of plants, animals and ecosystems. "The Red List tells us that human activities are leading to a swathe of extinctions that could make these islands ecologically and aesthetically barren." ...." ." BBC

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

agvisiontv.com (Canada) In the course of an interview about BSE, dated today, Dr Paul Kitching was asked, "You were critical of the way Britain handled that outbreak arguing that the slaughter.... was a "total suspension of common sense" .......What lessons can we learn from the British experience with foot and mouth?"
Dr. Kitching: Yes it was not so much a criticism of the policy as it was a criticism of the science that went behind the policy.A lot of the policy was being dictated by predictive models and in my opinion, these predictive models just didn't have the adequate information to make them worthwhile.....policy was being dictated by these predictive models and as a consequence, a very large number of healthy animals were slaughtered.
..Inevitably when you have an outbreak of that size...politicians become involved and control the program. I think it's important that when these types of outbreaks occur that the control program is left in the hands of those who have been trained to run the control programs. They understand the disease and they understand the natural history of the disease and the rules by which the virus survives. Knowing that type of information you can bring these diseases under control - as it's been shown in the past many times...."

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Pigs on the trotter

"Farmers have been delighted to receive the latest stroke of genius by the officials of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: a leaflet informing them that, if they wish to take a pig for a walk, they must now obtain from Defra a "pet walking licence".
Furthermore, before they set out, they must notify their local Defra office, so that a veterinary official can visit to "inspect the proposed route" of the walk. Astonishingly, for the moment, pig owners are not expected to pay for this novel service." Booker's Notebook

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 ...

(Links here) John Humphrys' article in the Sunday Times November 9 2003 (see warmwell link) included this forthright statement: "The common agricultural policy has been an unmitigated disaster, riddled with inefficiencies and corruption."
The Financial Times today quotes Graham Ward, a lettuce grower and chairman of the National Farmers' Union's horticultural board: "If Mrs Beckett believes in sustainable development, she will have to explain why she is basing a policy for the future so much on the past. This would go completely against what reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) is all about. It is like promising you will find a new name for your dog Fido and then calling him Fido 2."

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

and a constant reiteration of "positive approach to health" ideology. However, when it comes down to the practical detail - the DEFRA proposed "Action Plan" for farm animal health - it appears that "positive" may be rather more focussed on disease prevention than on health promotion..." Following John Humphrys' thought-provoking article in the Sunday Times (see below) , Mike Meredith (of pighealth.com) has written: Can Biosecurity Go Too Far? for the American Association of Swine Veterinarians
"..... the relentless pressure for increased scale and efficiency of farm enterprises, driven by the insatiable consumer appetite for cheap food of consistent and "biosecure" quality. He (i.e. John Humphrys) cogently points out the illusory nature of cheap food - the hidden costs it can hold for taxpayers, human health and the environment. We are only too well aware of that in Britain, where UK taxpayers picked up a 10 billion-dollar tab for the foot-and-mouth epidemic, plus thousands of people lost their livelihoods and environmental consequences of the millions of carcases in mass burial sites will be around for many years to come. ....
Biosecurity barriers cut both ways, restricting the movement of undesirable life-forms, but also restricting potentially beneficial movement and communication...... " . (More)
(DEFRA's outline of the AHAWS strategy )

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

Report by Western Morning News report (Friday) Foot and Mouth Fiasco to cost Taxpayers Dear "European Commission officials are to visit the UK next week to complete an audit that could see Britain lose hundreds of millions of pounds because of the Government's disastrous handling of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis"...."That money must not come off agricultural budgets - British farmers must not be allowed to suffer a second time because of the Government's incompetence." " MEP Neil Parish
".....The team will also examine the huge costs associated with the controversial animal burial pits - particularly the £7 million cost of the Ash Moor pit in North Devon, which was never used, and the £19 million pit at Eppynt, in Wales, where 18,000 carcasses had to be exhumed and burnt because of leakage into watercourses." Read in full

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.."

Ruth Watkins' article for warmwell last December:
"...DEFRA and the veterinary establishment have failed to recognise that humans are animals too. The farm animals must be as remarkably similar on genetic analysis to humans as mice have proven to be. The immune system must be very similar to our own. 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...
Dr Doherty suggested they could be given chocolate containing BCG, "badger chocolates". Cattle can also be immunised, more practically by subcutaneous inoculation as in humans - it will cause an ulcer at the inoculation site in them as it does in us. The immunity is at least partially protective. ..... the gamma interferon test has been licensed by the FDA for use in humans and has been developed for cattle. The tools of modern medicine are there to be used to combat the spread of Mycobacterium bovis and ultimately to eliminate the infection."
(An emailer has also written in to tell readers that a good homeopathic remedy exists for TB in cattle. See Inbox)

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

(Thursday) DEFRA are leaning heavily in the Morris family to decide by "the end of play" today (Defra's unfortunate phrase) whether they will agree to have their two reactor cows privately killed. Mrs Morris has again "for the umpteenth time" she says patiently, asked under what legislation DEFRA can insist on the compulsory slaughter of these animals. She and her husband - experienced dairy farmers - do not believe them to be infected and their vet agrees that there seem to be no signs at all. All they want is another test to validate the skin test results from June 30. "There simply has to be a better test," she says. "If we can diagnose TB in humans without slaughtering them first why can we not use some of the human health methods for veterinary problems? It doesn't make sense."

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

Telegraph
"The National Audit Office said that the statistical black hole was costing the Government £15 million a year. The additional costs included paying staff to correct the errors, extra postage and European Commission penalties. It was critical of the way the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs operated its systems for identifying and tracking 25 million cattle, sheep and pigs in England. The NAO found that a quarter of postal applications for cattle passports contained errors. It also discovered that movement records were incomplete for one in eight animals, with the result that the whereabouts of two per cent of cattle was "uncertain". ..... A Defra spokesman said it was working towards the further reduction of mistakes."
One emailed comment read this morning: " The cattle movement records are an absolute shambles, cattle are on the record that have been dead for years; our highlanders were classified as Holstein, the list goes on and on .. .... What was it they were saying about poor communication ? Who was it that asked the question, "What sex is your bull?"
See also ( Adventures with the British Cattle Movement Service [BCMS] and the Rural Payments Agency - the bull was female there too.)

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

Indian journalist, author and critic Devinda Shawa's lecture in New Hampshire is reported in the Times Argus. He said, "... control of the world's staple crops by a handful of multinational corporations already poses significant threats to world stability and the fight against hunger.
....an extreme example of the impact of global food trade on hunger in India was the export of the 65 million tons of grain in 2001 as cattle feed to the United States. At the same time, he said, India had to import cattle fodder to feed millions of starving Indians.
"What a remarkable development program we're in," said Shawa. "We owned food being exported to feed cattle (in America) and converted cattle feed (from America) to feed humans." In Africa, he said attempts by American companies to deal with famine are actually making the problem worse. He said GMO grain does not reproduce, forcing poor farmers to buy new seed each year, with millions facing starvation as a result.
.... Many heirloom species of plants are also being adulterated in gene experimen