Forget trying to keep track of DEFRA's chopping and
changing disease restriction zones. Stephen Carr explains what they
are really about
You may have found the latest DEFRA announcements concerning
changes to foot-and-mouth movement restrictions rather confusing.
Always ready to assist my farming colleagues, I thought it might be
helpful to explain the extent of the new zones and what they
mean.
Q The F&M Restricted Compensation Zone
This replaces the old F&M Restricted Zone and is not limited
to a small part of the south east of England, but extends across
all of Great Britain. This zone has been set up by
DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn,
not to limit the spread of disease, but to prevent the possibility
of any proper government compensation being paid to Britain's
devastated livestock farmers.
Mr Benn has already accepted that this summer's F&M outbreak
almost certainly originated through lapses in biosecurity at the
government's own
Institute for
Animal Health at Pirbright in Surrey. By setting up the F&M
Restricted Compensation Zone Mr Benn hopes to ensure that there
will be no cash leaks from the Treasury similar to the alleged
Pirbright biosecurity leak.
The only farmers receiving any financial assistance within the
F&M Restricted Compensation Zone will be some in Wales and
Scotland. These will be paid a modest amount for a light lamb
disposal scheme by regional assemblies more sympathetic to their
plight than Westminster. A few upland English farmers will also
have a small top-up of their hill payments.
Despite the industry's attempts to get the F&M Restricted
Compensation Zone lifted, it looks like this measure will remain in
place indefinitely, whatever the eventual financial damage done to
hard-pressed livestock farmers.
Q The Browntongue Patronised Zone
Covering the whole of the UK without exception, this zone was
created immediately after Gordon Brown's first speech to the
Labour Party conference as
Prime Minister last month. He praised the farming community for its
stoicism in the face of the F&M crisis, without ever admitting
his own government's responsibility for the outbreak or liability
for its financial consequences.
He went on to declare that the countryside provided "the oxygen
of our cities". Within a few weeks he was suffocating the rural
community by restricting total government F&M compensation to
English farmers to a paltry £12m, instead of the hundreds of
millions that it owes. Farmers disgusted by this hypocritical
approach can at least look forward to the Browntongue Zone being
lifted at the next General Election, if recent polls are to be
believed.
Q The F&M Past Caring Zone
Formerly known as the F&M Restricted Zone, the F&M
Protection Zone, the F&M Surveillance Zone and the F&M
Restricted Export Control Zone, this brand new area, the Past
Caring Zone, has been declared across vast areas of the UK.
Many farmers in the Past Caring Zone have been receiving as
little as 68p/kg for their prime lambs, and many breeding sheep
have been rendered unsaleable. Some farmers within the zone report
predatory pricing by abattoirs with net receipts of little more
than £10 a head after "grid deductions". And this, for consignments
of prime fat lambs with no apparent drop in the price of lamb in
the shops.
Local authority Animal Health personnel within the Past Caring
Zone have been swamped by transport and movement restriction small
print. With almost daily changes to the regulations, it has got to
the point where even they don't understand the detail, let alone
the farmers they are trying to police. Both farmers and Animal
Health personnel within this zone are now deemed to be officially
"Passed Caring".
I hope I have clarified the situation. Expect further changes
tomorrow.