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BY MIKE HARRISON

PHOTOS BY IAN GEERING
 

Recovering from foot and mouth

 

  
 

When it comes to disaster potential, farming punches well above its weight. Here, we examine why...

Last year will go down as the worst year for countryside businesses in living memory. The Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crisis struck far beyond farming. A cascade of economic damage confirmed just how complex are the interdependencies of commerce - £10 billion plus was carved off the economy.

Alongside the farmers that suffered FMD outbreaks - and got compensation - considerable suffering was felt by other small businesses with no reserves of cash or diversity.

The agricultural sector as a whole contributes only one per cent to the UK's GDP. Even with six million cattle slaughtered, only a minority of cattle farms were directly affected. How could a crisis in a small corner of the economy drag down so many businesses?

The future of farming
A series of inquiries is trying to answer that question. In January a commission headed by Sir Don Curry reported on the future of farming in the UK. It concluded that the industry should play an important but diminished economic role in the future. But it did spell out the critical connections with tourism and food sales.

The report sees a need to accelerate the shift in support for farmers from production subsidies to payments for environmental schemes.

The report also wants farmers to be more involved in supply chain logistics and marketing. If they had a closer connection with consumers, the report says, they would retain more of the profits currently taken by processors and distributors.

Who's to blame?
In August last year, a distinguished big-business microbiologist, Dr Iain Anderson, was asked to examine the official handling of the crisis to decide if mistakes were made. He is due to report to the Government in the summer. Critics have implied that his independence is compromised by previous work for Labour. While there have been many public meetings to consult and gather evidence, Dr Anderson has insisted the inquiry's detailed deliberations should be private.

Getting the science right
No business that cohabits with the meat-and-milk sector can feel safe until the science of livestock diseases is understood. Even the top scientists' very independent think-tank, The Royal Society (RS), concedes that research on the foot and mouth virus 'has not always been undertaken in a systematic way'. It has set up its own inquiry under Sir Brian Follett and is due to report to the Government in June this year.

The inquiry intends to draw general conclusions about livestock infections, how to diagnose and treat them, and whether Britain's warming climate renders us vulnerable to new livestock diseases from southern countries. It will not consider BSE.

Illegal imports of animal products are probably a source of infection so recommendations are likely to include sniffer technology like that used in searches for narcotics and explosives. RS insiders say the inquiry is also considering changes in animal husbandry - for example reductions in the density of stock - and shifting livestock sales to the Internet to reduce cattle movements. It is also taking a look at the science and economics of vaccinations.

New plagues
New livestock diseases threaten all the time, and a fresh one may already have hit the dairy industry - it is possible that people get Crohn's Disease from milk. While not usually fatal, it wrecks lives with chronic abdominal pain, diarrhoea and fatigue. Doctors' records suggest that, in the UK, more than one person in 700 may be suffering from Crohn's and the numbers appear to be on the increase.

While preventative measures against the Crohn's bug are technically feasible, confidence in the European milk business might never recover if the link is verified.

The FSB's view
The FSB supports the idea that the FMD inquiries should be held in public and goes further: it wants a new one to pull together the findings of all the others. Policy Chairman John Walker said: 'The Government will not restore the confidence of businesses affected by the foot and mouth crisis without a public inquiry. It must be totally independent and more far-reaching than the tame studies under way'.


For the full article, see pages 20 - 22 of the April / May 2002 issue

  

 

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Copyright NFSE (Sales) Ltd 2002