DEFRA rejects cost sharing ideas

DEFRA has been given more than 50 suggestions from the industry as alternative ways to fund animal health management and avoid cost sharing in future.

The list of imaginative ideas came from farmers and organisations involved in an earlier consultation process that started in 2007 and 12 regional workshops held early last year.

The list is included in the consultation document, but DEFRA has dismissed most of them for being impractical or too complex. Other ideas were not relevant because they were based on seeking revenue from sectors other than farming and could not be justified out of general taxes, it added.

The ideas included:

• charging for cattle passports
  
• making only large farms pay
  
• raising money from pharmaceutical companies
  
• putting a levy on feed
  
• using lottery funding
  
• introducing a movement tax on animals
  
• reducing DEFRA’s costs
  
• taxing supermarket food
  
• placing a travel tax on humans
  
• adding a market levy when animals sold

DEFRA said some suggestions would be considered when the latest consultation proposals are developed in more detail.

However, its main concern was that many proposals put forward by the industry did not directly affect those best-placed to manage disease risks. They were, therefore, unlikely to change farmer behaviour and lead to improvements in biosecurity.