www.net-cymru.co.uk Food and Agriculture in Wales

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Items on this page in natural order:

A tragedy in Three Acts
Are there lessons to be learnt?
4.3.01:Demonstrations at Mynydd Epynt
Foot and Mouth on the Internet

Foot and Mouth Disease

At the time of writing (March 2001) British agriculture is in crisis due to Foot and Mouth Disease. In an effort to prevent the disease spreading, abatoirs have been closed, bans have been established on the movement of animals and herds of healthy sheep and cattle have been slaughtered in the attempt to establish a "fire break" around farms which have been affected. The result has been devastating not only for farmers, but also for others involved in the food industry. A ban on the movement of animals has meant the loss of regular trade for hauliers, as fleets of lorries lie idle. The tourist industry has been particularly heavily affected. The Welsh countryside has been heavily marketed as a tourist destination in recent years. Now with agricultural land and footpaths closed, there has been an emergency effort to "repackage" rural Wales to get visitors to come to attractions away from agricultural land. For hoteliers and others involved in the tourist industry, it has been a period of continued overheads, with very little income.

A tragedy in Three Acts

The rapid spread of Foot and Mouth Disease has been a direct result of agricultural practices. Ironically some of those practices have been a consequence of reaction to the earlier BSE crisis.

Act 1

BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or "Mad Cow Disease") developed in Britain in the late 80s and 90s. It resulted from the unnatural practice of making up feed from cattle from sheep remains, including brain and spinal cord.

A similar condition (known as scrapie) affected sheep, but the doctrine of the time (which was more political than scientific) was based on the belief that the disease could not pass from one species to another. It could not pass from sheep to cattle and it could not pass from cattle to humans.

We now know that both these assumptions were wrong.

Act 2

Following the deaths of a number of people from the humnan form of BSE, it became important to prevent material from brain and spinal cord from entering the food chain, even in small quantities.

In order to enforce this requirement, more rigorous inspections were imposed on abatoirs. The abatoir operators were obliged to pay for the increased level of inspection.

This increased level of inspection made small abatoirs uneconomic and many closed.

Act 3

With abatoirs closing, it became necessary to transport animals greater distances for slaughter.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease is that it appeared almost simultaneously in widely separated areas of Britain - in Cumbria in northern England, Essex in eastern England, Devon in south-western England and in Anglsey in north-western Wales.

The various outbreaks could be traced to particular movements of cattle from one part of the country to another for slaughter.

The original outbreak is believed to have resulted from feeding pigs on the leftovers from a Chinese restaurant.


Are there lessons to be learnt?

There appear to be a number of clear lessons to be learnt:

• Problems arising from intensive and unnatural agricultural practices.
• Rapid spread of disease due to the globalised market in meat.

Whether anything will change following this crisis remains to be seen.


4.3.01:Demonstrations at Mynydd Epynt

By this stage in the crisis:

• The Prime Minister has taken charge of the crisis directly
• Local elections due 3 May have been postponed for about one month
• The number of cases of Foot and Mouth in Britain has passed 1000

The Government are responding to outbreaks by slaughtering stock not only on farms affected, but also within a 3km range of the outbreak. The slaughter program is generating a serious problem of disposal of the dead animals.

A number of solutions are being undertaken:

• Burning near the site of slaugter
• Disposal in landfill sites
• Disposal in specially prepared burial sites

None of the solutions are popular.

The site which has caused the strongest protest is at Mynydd Epynt.

Mynydd Epynt (Mynydd = mountain) is an area at the north of the Brecon Beacons. The Brecon Beacons are one of the most popular centres of rural tourism in Wales. There is intensive sheep farming in the surrounding area. The area has, to date, been unaffected by Foot and Mouth Disease.

Preparations are being made to bring in dead animals from as far away as 200 miles for disposal at Mynydd Epynt. Given that the virus does not die with the animal, there is grave concern that the movement of dead animals will spread the disease to an area which (up to now) has been free of Foot and Mouth disease.

There is also concern about the effect on future tourism of the use of Mynydd Epynt for disposal.

The protesters have been unable to obtain any explanation from MAFF (the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).

Given the use of the police to move lorries into the area, the crisis is taking an increasing confrontational character. In the use of force rather than dialogue the Government appear to be becoming increasingly dictatorial.

There has been one serious violent incident. A policeman was injured when his vehicle was crushed by a mechanical digger. The protester is being charged with attempted murder.


Foot and Mouth on the Internet

Indignation at the Government's handling of the Foot and Mouth epidemic has generated a good deal of activity on the Internet.

Protesters in Mynydd Epynt have established their own site - www.epynt-disaster.co.uk This site has numerous links to other Foot and Mouth protest sites.

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Eddy Hunt webmaster@netcymru.co.uk

This page was last updated on 25 August 2001 _________ Back to: net-cymru Home Page