Have your say, w/e 10 August, 2001
13 August 2001
Have your say, w/e 10 August, 2001
The campaign to destroy farming
WE were hoping DEFRA would be an improvement on MAFF but, after watching Lord Whitty addressing the NFU, it would appear that they are even worse.
They are using propaganda to remove consumer sympathy by releasing stories to the press about farmers making huge sums of money out of foot-and-mouth, deliberatly getting infected and wasting taxpayers money on clean-up bills.
Then they make noises about never having to pay compensation in the future and cutting what they pay now.
Considering 99% of all animals culled were healthy and most of the spread was due to DEFRAs incompetence, I think they are making it quite clear where they stand, and that is for us to quit right now as there will never be a future in farming in this country.
They tried to squeeze us out financially, but that didnt work, they thought that those affected by foot-and-mouth would go, but most said they will be back.
So now theyre saying next time, we really will get you, but just maybe they might go first .
M W Fisher
mwfisher@farmersweekly.net
The vegetarian plot
COINCIDENCE or what?
One day we hear the government say they are going to
buy up light lambs and freeze them and release them later on, and the supermarkets are going to promote light lambs.
Next day all the papers are full of unfounded thoeries about possible BSE in sheep.
Is this the vegetarian editors of newspapers trying to finish off the sheep industry in areas where foot-and-mouth hasnt reached?
johnworthington@thewelshweb.co.uk
Vaccinate now
AS a graduate in agriculture, one wonders after this foot-and-mouth epidemic what future there is left for young people entering the industry.
More and more of my fellow graduates are simply forced to seek alternative careers because of the crises past and present.
Another point is the issue of vaccination.
Spending the summer in the USA and reading an article in the national newspapers, it seems that the general concensus among US farmers and the general public is that the foot and mouth situation in the UK is “barbaric” and “medieval”, and that we have resorted to prehistoric tactics to rid ourselves of this awful situation.
Why must we put our own farmers, our backbone, through such pain and anguish when we have been through so much already?
It is now, not just a case of animal cruelty but a case of human cruelty as well.
Vaccination from Day One would have been, in my opinion, achievable but stop the anguish and vaccinate now to save others from this pain.
New knowledge continuing the cull?
IS new technology to blame for sheep cull in Wales and elsewhere?
If the current bloodtesting for carrying the virus was available in the 1967 outbreak, would there have been a more massive cull then?
Is there a low level of these antibodies always present and being passed on all the time?
Kentish virus experience
KENT FARMLINE, as part of its drive to raise awareness of its mission and services, is running an online survey on its own website.
The aim of the survey is to gather feedback on the current foot-and-mouth crisis, with particular emphasis on the opinions and experience of farmers and the rural community in Kent.
Whether you live and work in Kent, or wish to express an opinion anyway, we hope you will take this opportunity to visit the KFL website and complete the short survey (7 brief questions).
See www.kentfarmline.org.uk for details.
With many thanks in advance for your support,
Kent Farmline
martyn.harvey@ellydesign.co.uk