Patrick Godwin
Patrick Godwin
Patrick Godwin is farm
manager for the 930ha
(2300 acre) Lee Farm
Partnership, Angmering
Estate, West Sussex. Soils
are chalk-based with
combinable winter and
spring crops occupying
525ha (1300 acres).
WHEN is foot-and-mouth not foot-and-mouth? When it is in the run-up to a general election with an embarrassed government attempting to get re-elected, it seems.
I have heard suggestions that "suspicious contacts" are remaining as suspicious contacts, despite positive test results for F&M. It then does not become a statistic, we have a nice sunny day with no new cases reported and Tony Blair gets a pat on the back for defeating the plague.
I do not like being "spun". Each non-case is good for the spin-doctors in London but it is a human tragedy for the families involved. Worse, it gives the impression to the non-agricultural community that the battle is won. Meanwhile, the MAFF slaughter machine grinds inexorably on, now edging up to 3.5m animals slaughtered. F&M still holds a firm grip, election or not.
There are dark mutterings emanating from Millbank Towers that farming and the countryside will have to change. We must change the way subsidies are paid by switching to more environmentally based aid. This "de-coupling" will, we are told, be carried out by a new Department of Rural Affairs which will rise phoenix-like from the self-ignited ashes that was once MAFF. Where agriculture sits on this new horizon is anyones guess.
Any fundamental change, and change there will be, must only be after wide ranging debate from informed and interested parties. Do people want cheap food at any price and from anywhere, or are they willing to subsidise greater welfare and environmental standards for a steady supply of good wholesome food? If this great countryside that the voter has been given the right to roam over is going to be kept in the manner to which they have been accustomed then there is a price to pay.
If a new way forward for all of us is spawned from this terrible epidemic then maybe some good will have come from it. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, I shall be voting for the candidate who can promise me a warm summer, kind autumn and a huge rise in the fortunes of the k *
Foot-and-mouth still holds a firm grip, election or not, says Patrick Godwin from Angmering, Sussex.