Analysis:
Farm crisis
An accident waiting to happen?
by Robbie MacGabhan
February 25-27, 2001
"I honestly hadn't seen anything wrong with my pigs."
This was the opinion of Robert Waugh, who, with his brother Ronald, ran Burnside
Farm at Heddon on the Wall in Northumberland, northern England. His farm had
been reported to the RSPCA by the Hillside Animal Sanctuary because of the
squalid conditions there. The RSPCA called in the Ministry of Farming and
Fisheries, whose officials visited the farm in late December and January telling
the Waugh brothers only to 'pull their socks up.'
The conditions on the Waughs' farm allowed foot and mouth disease to not only
incubate and spread through their own livestock, but also to a nearby abattoir
and now, over a week later, has led to 24 separate incidents of the disease
in England and Wales. The chain of events that started on Burnside Farm has
led to an unprecedented level of action and intervention by the British and
Irish governments to stop the spread of the disease, but should more have
been done earlier?
No effort it seems is too small to halt this disease spreading, and the financial
costs of the operation must be massive. However, three vitally important issues
have not been addressed, one is the underlying factoryisation of farming and
the second is the impact of the EU and its agricultural policy. Finally there
is the question of the quality of food on our table.
What does this latest outbreak say about the safety of food being eaten by
the general public, and what are the regulatory authorities doing to ensure
that the quality of the food being sold to consumers is of the highest standards
possible?
FACTORY FARMS
Foot and Mouth, E-coli, Salmonella, BSE - it's a lot more than coincidence.
For more than ten years the farming sector has been rocked by a series of
crises that have all served to undermine consumer confidence in the quality
of the food products we eat. This crisis has been caused by the transformation
of farming from being family-run businesses into an industry where profits
and costs dictate a factory philosophy for food production services.
The Waughs' farm that generated the first known Foot and Mouth outbreak was
a product of two factors, one economic and one political. Farming was a business
for the Waughs and Burnside Farm is just one of many holdings and agribusinesses
they owned or had an interest in. Their situation is replicated in farming
business across Britain and increasingly in Ireland where farming as a way
of life is dying and farming as a business is growing. The Waughs were running
a farming business where costs were cut and, it seems, so were corners.
We know that rotting pig carcasses had been left with live pigs and pieces
of raw meat were found lying around the farm. We know that sows gave birth
not in isolation but among other pigs and that grown pigs were eating piglets.
Is this a vision we want to contemplate at dinner time? Yet it is the one
that is facing us today, albeit unbeknownst to most consumers, who really
don't know where the family roast has been before it hits the Sunday table.The
other factor affecting the operation of Burnside Farm was a complete failure
of the regulatory authorities to actually enforce proper procedures on the
farm and act adequately late last year when alerted by the RSPCA.
Now no effort is to be spared to eradicate this disease. However, had more
resources had been put in ensuring food quality from the farm through the
processing and retail sectors we might not be facing the crisis we are today.
FAILURE OF EU REGULATIONS
Part of the reason that there are now 24 reported cases of foot and mouth
in Britain is because EU regulations and economic forces within the industry
have caused the closure of hundreds of abattoirs in Britain and Ireland. Farm
animals, sedentary beasts by nature, are being moved hundreds of miles across
Britain and Ireland for two reasons. One is the obvious need to slaughter
animals, the second is the speculative dealing in farm animals where dealers
are continually shuffling stock from mart to mart in an attempt to capitalise
on price differentials for animals.
The EU regulations that have forced many abattoirs to close were supposed
to increase safety and quality at abattoirs across the EU. Their ability to
spread infectious diseases rapidly across huge distances shows not only a
failure of EU agricultural policy but also highlights how incredibly badly
thought out it was in the first place.
FOOD QUALITY
Finally, there is the Issue of factory farming production methods and the
issue of quality. BSE and its variants exist today as a disease because farmers
saw offal as a cheap alternative for feeding cattle and sheep. Why was there
nobody there to say that low cost farming methods were actively changing the
food chain and turning cattle and sheep into meat eaters? Where then were
the regulatory authorities which are trying to contain foot and mouth now?
It is the same look behind the ill thought out support at governmental level
in Ireland and Britain for the use of GM foods. We have no idea what the long-term
effect of these foods will be on humans who consume them yet no thought was
put into this when companies like Monsanto were allowed to conduct tests on
state-run farms in Ireland.
In Britain in the early 1990s, the then Conservative government actively discouraged
research into the possibility of humans contracting BSE. How many people will
needlessly suffer because of this and other similar shortsighted decisions?
Yes we need to do everything in our power to tackle the Foot and Mouth crisis.
We need also to look at the underlying reasons that created the situation
where we have to face up to this potential disaster in the first place.
© RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
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Editor's note: These actions taken by those in the know are not performed
by chance or are they "ill thought out." They are deliberate. Look
who's behind it. Monsanto.