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23 Apr 2001
New research published by Friends of the Earth today reveals that the Government
failed to act after authoritative warnings over the danger of foot and mouth
disease.
Key bodies including the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the EU Scientific
Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare warned the Government repeatedly
that intensive farming and large scale animal movements would seriously increase
the risk of foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other transmittable diseases. But
the Government failed to take action to reduce animal movements, reduce the
density of animals on farms or even warn farmers of the need to take out adequate
insurance cover [1].
FOE wants to know whether Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown was told of these
warnings and, if so, whether he warned his Cabinet colleagues. FOE is also challenging
the Government to give details of any action it took to reduce the risk of FMD
and to ensure that farmers had adequate insurance cover.
Warnings the Government has received since May 1997 include:
In 1998, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that Europe was especially vulnerable to livestock diseases because of the large-scale animal movements with the EU as well as the high density, even overcrowding, of animals on European farms.
In 1999, the EU Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare stated that the EU was at “extraordinary high” risk of FMD because of the presence of the disease in countries on the edge of the EU.
In 1999, the Italian Public Health Ministry said that “changes in the livestock industry,such as the rapid transportation of animals over long distances, and the concentration of livestock in large intensive units, are conductive to outbreaks of exotic diseases which can occur unexpectedly”.
Commenting, Charles Secrett, Executive Director at Friends of the Earth, said:
“Spin doctors and news managers have offered us many scapegoats for
the foot and mouth crisis, from individual farmers to Chinese restaurants.
But it is now becoming clear that the Government itself must face criticism.
It has repeatedly ignored warnings about the way we farm and the consequent
risks of epidemics. Small farmers, the tourism industry and tax-payers are now
paying a very heavy price for MAFF's incompetence and the Government's love
affair with intensive farming.
He added:
“Once foot and mouth is under control, we must have a fundamental review
of how we farm in this country. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture's plan
to drive our remaining small farmers should be dropped like an organic hot potato.
We need a sustainable future for farming and food production, not a subsidy
bonanza for giant agri-businesses.”
FOE is writing to Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for answers on why warnings
were ignored, and to urge him to hold a public inquiry into the causes of the
current outbreak of FMD and the effectiveness of the responses to it. FOE will
also be asking Ben Gill,President of the National Farmers Union, why farmers
were not warned about the increased risks.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. According to NFU
Mutual, the largest provider of agricultural insurance, only10% of farmers are
insured for FMD.
2. Europe vulnerable to livestock
epidemics, warning delivered at FAO press conference, 17 February 1998. www.fao.org/news/1998/980204-e.htm.
“Europe faces a growing threat of devastating animal disease epidemics”,
FAO warned “This is mainly the result of long-distance transport
of animals and increasingly dense livestock populations within certain areas
in the region... The trend toward moving animals and animal products over long
distances has accelerated within the European Union (EU) since the creation
of the single market, according to FAO. And the opening of trade routes between
Europe, the Near East and the Commonwealth of Independent States could allow
animals infected with diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) to enter
Central or even Western Europe if they escape detection by official border controls.”
3. Strategy for Emergency Vaccination
against Foot and Mouth Disease. Report of the Scientific Committee on Animal
Health and Animal Welfare. Adopted 10 March 1999.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scah/out22_en.html
Full research briefing available from
www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/briefings/pdf/20010419120526.pdf
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
Media team
