Archive Article: 2000/12/08
No need for UKto buy foreign beef
I was shocked that a country known for its quality beef, imports 4800t of French beef annually. There is no need for the UK to import 5% of the beef we consume each year from France. British farmers are struggling to survive, we do not need French, or any other countrys imports to ruin our industry any further.
When I leave school next June I want to go to college to study agriculture at degree level. But I do not know what I am going to do when I qualify. I have always wanted to work in agriculture, but I now see no future in an industry which is doing so badly. My parents and teachers are trying to persuade me to go into research rather than practical farming because they say there are better job prospects.
I can only hope the industry improves dramatically to allow me to do what I want to do.
One thing which would help to change its fortunes is if consumers stopped buying imported beef and lamb. The UK should be self-sufficient in those products.
So, on behalf of myself and other youngsters in the same position who are looking to a future in agriculture, I have one thing to say: Buy British and support UK agriculture.
Claire Brockie
Rachan, Dods Farm, Lauder, Berwickshire.
French helped – why not us?
Cattle infected by BSE in Britain resulted in extensive cull herds in the UK and a ban on export of British beef to the EU and beyond.
There was little financial assistance for UK beef farmers from our government and no help from the EU. That meant great financial hardship for UK beef farmers.
Yet the French ban on British beef continues despite clearance from the European Commission.
The latest outbreak of BSE in France has so far resulted in animmediate financial support package from the European Commission to support French farmers and immediate help from the French government to support their farmers. Yet the UK continues to import French beef despite other EU member states banning it.
MAFF confirms that neither it nor the Food Standards Agency can detect or identify origin of beef imported into the UK. Therefore, beef from France continues to be imported without any check or control.
Why should French beef farmers receive immediate support from the EU when the British did not?
How can the French ban British beef imports when the UK is unable to detect or control beef imports from France into the UK?
Why are French herds of cattle not being destroyed – as the UKs were – where incidence of BSE has been established?
If the EU is so generous to the beef farmers in France, Germany and Spain then the same funding should be made available, with interest, to British farmers who have lost so much over the past five years.
Any failure on the part of the British government to secure fair play in this respect would be justice denied to our farmers.
Bashir Khanbhai
Conservative MEP for Eastern Region.
Maybe its true – we are cowards
When the French accuse us of cowardice (even after digging them out of two world wars) I cant help but agree with them. It has taken many months of criminal mismanagement to raise the temperature of rural England to the extent of producing a serious demonstration. But what came of it?
A few government bluffs about hospital closures and a few policemen with cameras, aided by some volatile but misinformed environmentalists, was all it took to see that it came to less than nothing. We are now left to be further mauled by an arrogant administration that thinks bluster and a few insulting concessions will keep them riding high through this term of office and into the next. Deputy prime minister, John Prescotts, White Paper is all the proof needed.
Surely, with our meat exports blocked, and farm prices at home below rock bottom, we should not be accepting meat from anywhere outside the UK. And the fact that our government finds it necessary to hide behind the Food Standards Agency in the matter of French beef shows just how right is the French accusation.
Harry Shutkever
Wythwood Farm, Wilmore Lane, Wythall, Nr Birmingham.
FSA cannot ban French meat
Lets hope that Food Standards Agency chairman Sir John Krebs receives the satisfactory answers he is seeking from the French authorities about the safeguards they have in place to make sure no BSE-infected meat comes to Britain (News, Nov 24). Any less-than-reassuring response will place him in something of a dilemma.
For Sir John will know that food safety policy from the entire EU area is made in Brussels, so his agency is powerless to do anything that does not conform to that which Brussels has already ordained.
He will also know that the borderless state of the single market means that physical checks at the point of entry are no longer possible.
Thus, a response from the French authorities that suggests the need for some form of inspection or restriction on the import of beef from France would place the FSA in the quandary that always arises when we pretend we still wield powers the EU has long stripped from us.
Tony Stone,
Press Officer, UK Independence Party, Triumph House, 189 Regent Street, London.
Dome knocking over the top
As a reader of farmers weekly for 40 years plus, I am most surprised that the FW has joined the rest of the media in Dome knocking. I refer to sites of interest for a London visit (Smithfield supplement, Nov 17).
Having visited the Dome expecting to be very disappointed, I and my family thought it was excellent value. Just to see the construction and the marvellous floor show which alone would cost more than the £20 Dome entrance fee if it was seen at a London theatre.
Too late now, but the media must carry a large portion of the blame for the lack of the Dome attendances. We were so impressed that we had a second visit during Smithfield week.
Richard Lippiatt
Wickselm, Berkeley, Glos.
Link between OPs and vCJD?
The latest revelations about BSE in France have re-opened the debate about the possible relationship of this disease in cattle and the human equivalent vCJD.
I am unconvinced that BSE in cattle was caused by feeding infected meat and bonemeal. A link between the treatment of cattle with organophosphates for warblefly and BSE has been suggested.
Could there be a direct link between organo-phosphates and vCJD? I believe organophosphates were used in head-lice shampoos. Have any of the victims been exposed to these? They are also used in dog and cat flea sprays. This is also a possible means by which victims could have been exposed.
J E Wilkinson
Western House, The Front, Middleton One Row, Darlington.
OP sufferer speaks out
Organophosphate sheep dips have been in the news recently, because some of the legal claims by OP sufferers have had to be abandoned, and also because they are back on the market. There is also growing concern among some scientists and farmers about links between BSE, CJD, scrapie and OPs.
Anyone who thinks that OPs are safe because the chemical companies give away a free tap attachment, and two pairs of nitrile gloves is naive or has less sense than the poor sheep which is going to be immersed in it. One also wonders about the amount of common sense of the government officials, who allowed OPs back on the market, thus leaving the government open to more claims that it has been influenced by the multi-nationals.
Given the concerns from some scientists about possible links between CJD, scrapie and OPs, it would seem false economy to save money by using Ops. You would then leave your business financially at risk if this link is proved and sheep subjected to OP treatment have to be removed from the food chain.
I am a victim of OP poisoning as are hundreds of others and would urge all farmers to make the health of themselves, their families and employees, and consumers, top priority, and consign these chemicals to the history books.
Jim Candy
Trerieve Farm, Downderry, Torpoint, Cornwall.
GM benefits are real but remote
Peter Melchett (Talking Point, Nov 17) states that farmers backing GM crops seem to have lost sight of the fact that the market place should decide the fate of biotech food.
I am an independent consultant who has seen the benefits of GM crops in North America both to the farmer and to the environment. I am also directly involved in farming in this country. I remain hopeful that the British farmer will one day have the choice to grow GM crops, just as Lord Melchett has the choice of growing organic crops today.
I believe if British farming is to build on its success of the past 50 years, and to make a small contribution to increasing global food needs and from less available land, it must continue to take advantage of the best technology available. Of course the consumer is concerned about GM food. The benefits are real but remote: They are with the American farmer and on commodity crops, which are included in most of our foods in Europe only in very small amounts.
Additionally the UK consumer, sensitive to food scares post-BSE, has naturally reacted to a hostile media campaign very successfully fed by activist groups such as Greenpeace. So, if Lord Melchett and Greenpeace have their way we will never have the choice as consumers or farmers.
I do not accept his argument that the trials were conceived behind closed doors. I attended one of the meetings in 1999, which discussed the plans for the farm-scale evaluations. Greenpeace was present and contributed to the discussion. A week later it was busy trashing crops.
By any standards, the jury decision of which Lord Melchett is so proud was bizarre. However, I gain some comfort from the fact that even those tabloids, which in 1999 were promoting the anti-GM cause, have chosen to question a system which fails to convict those who wantonly damage private property. Greenpeace may not find the newspaper world quite so keen to listen to its arguments in future.
Perhaps for Lord Melchett this was a battle won, but maybe not the war.
Bruce Knight,
Innovation Management, Fulbourn, Cambridge.
Spreading seed from air no go
I was interested to read the article about broadcasting of seed onto waterlogged ground (Arable, Nov 10). While your article encouraged farmers to "….try to cover seed" there was no mention of the hazard to wildlife associated with broadcasting treated seed.
We have had to turn down a great potential seeding work this autumn because we are not allowed to spread treated seeds from the air due to the hazard to wildlife presented by treated seeds lying on the surface of the field. It seems strange that this restriction applies to seed applied from the air, yet no such restriction applies to seed broadcast from a tractor.
W J Taylor
Partner, Boston Farmair Eastside, Eaudyke Road, Friskney, Boston, Lincs.
Majority back right to roam
Gareth Jones comments about the freedom to roam (Letters, Nov 10) are unfounded. The legislation reflects the wishes of more than four out of five people in Britain.
It will allow access to many fabulous areas of open, uncultivated countryside. Surveys by the Countryside Agency and others suggest strongly it will generate £ms in income for rural areas.
The freedom to roam must be protected by law because voluntary access has not worked. After 50 years, only 3% of relevant land is open to the public.
Nicky Warden
Ramblers Association, 2nd Floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London.
Gold plating a thing of the past
Neither David Richardson nor Lord Haskins need worry about the UK implementing EU directives ahead of other member states, or "gold plating" (Opinion, Nov 24). The EUs unelected commission is solving this problem for them.
As exemplified by the recently published proposed regulation on the hygiene of foodstuffs, the commission is now increasingly eschewing directives and resorting to regulations. These have direct effect the moment they are signed in Brussels and thus do not have to be transposed into UK law. For this reason also, there can be no question of "gold plating".
The additional merit is that EU apologists will no longer be able to blame the effects of EU legislation on "gold plating" and will have to come to terms with the uniquely damaging effects of this law in its own right. Given the contents of the foodstuffs regulation, they will certainly have their work cut out.
Richard North
Research director, Europe of Democracies and Diversities, European Parliament, Brussels.
Little UK food at Smithfield
With farming at an all-time low, I believe everything should be done to promote and sell British produce at home and abroad.
It was with great dismay that on my first visit to Smithfield Show for some years I found our premier primestock show had too few food outlets for visitors to taste British beef, lamb or pork carved hot from the joint into a roll.
Instead we were offered prepacked cold sandwiches which were over-priced and may or may not contain British meat.
With the high quality of beef cattle and lambs on show, why could not one of our premier agricultural shows promote British beef, lamb and park to the many foreign visitors and allow them to eat and taste the quality?
This was a golden opportunity to gain back our export markets.
Jon Rogers
Ilton Farm, Marlborough, Kingsbridge, Devon.
I refuse to pay MDC levy
Regarding on the discussions about paying the Milk Development Council levy, I would like to hear if there are others, like me, who disagrees with paying this organisation.
Am I the only one that doesnt pay?
Peter Martin,
Buckland Filleigh, Beaworthy, Devon.
Forces chicken not to standard
I find it incredible that 75% of the chicken bought for consumption by our armed forces comes from overseas (News, Nov 24).
The head of MoD meat procurement David Casey stated that poultrymeat often came from France, but the supplier met strict European standards. The fact is that this said chicken does not meet British standards because European standards allow the use of meat and bonemeal.
Ian Stevenson,
I&R Stevenson, Court Lodge, Whitton, Ludlow.
Backing EU was suicidal
Commenting on the Countryside Bill, a reporter on BBC Radio 4 said: "The countryside will have to do without farmers." Presumably that means that we shall have to do without home-grown food as well – which means a dangerous reliance on imports of foreign produce. How the French will be rubbing their hands at the prospect.
Brussels will also be delighted because it will find room for the huge amount of agricultural produce from eastern Europe which poses such a future problem for the CAP.
So it seems that the NFU, in enthusiastically supporting the Common Market from the very beginning, was persuaded to preside over its own demise.
UK farmers, consumers and our countryside have been betrayed all these years by the supposed benefit of the NFUs narrow interest.
The least it can do now is to campaign strenuously for the retention in this country of all those funds surrendered to the Brussels Commission by which British taxpayers have supported inefficient, small family farms in France and elsewhere.
Our farmers could do with some of that inefficiency in British agriculture since it seems to have benefited farmers, consumers and the countryside on the Continent so much.
Sheila Donaldson
The Gables, Cooden Close, Bromley, Kent.