|
|
|
Issue
No.5 Summer 2001
Foot
and Mouth Disease: What Can We Do?
by
Eugene Byrne
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is not manufactured
artificially by malevolent saboteurs nor is it either, an unpredictable
Act of God over which we have absolutely no control. FMD is a virulent
virus that has been present somewhere in the world for years and indeed
in some countries it is a constant and ongoing threat to agricultural
life. The point, however, is that the disease can be controlled, eradicated
and prevented from returning but at a price.
Unfortunately there is a tendency in some quarters
to either sensationalise the issue or to search for convenient scapegoats.
There is little doubt that some farmers, cattle dealers and meat factory
owners have acted in a criminally irresponsible fashion in relation to
the recent outbreak of FMD in Ireland. Nevertheless, there is something
superficial about concentrating solely on this aspect of the problem.
The fact is that many of these reckless people are acting out of greed
but it is a greed that the bulk of meat consumers have indirectly encouraged.
Moreover, central government, both north and south, has facilitated the
type of cheap food policy that has for many years caused distributors
to concentrate on price rather than on health.
There is reason to believe for example, that
the current outbreak of FMD has its origins in the use of contaminated
pig swill fed to animals in England. It has also been reported that regiments
of the British Army are importing beef from areas of South America where
the disease is widespread. Nor are these isolated unprecedented incidents.
It is now a well-established fact that the mad cow disease came about
as a result of feeding cattle with the powdered remains of other cattle.
In each of these cases, the root cause of the
problem was the desire to either produce cheap food or to supply the consumer
with cheap food. The question of economics took priority over public health
safety. This is not to say that the authorities are deliberately encouraging
the distribution of inferior food or even that they ignore health risks
but that they are just not sufficiently rigorous in pursuit of healthy
eating.
To understand why government tolerates this it
is necessary to recall that encouraging the provision of cheap food has
long been seen as both a humane and economically useful measure. Indeed
throughout the last years of the 19th century, this very policy helped
to both raise the standard of life for working class people and simultaneously
strengthen British industry by allowing the cost of labour to be maintained
at a certain level.
The risk inherent in this policy of course is
that on some occasions a rare or difficult to detect disease may slip
past the less stringent British and Irish food inspectors. Moreover, after
living for years with this mindset, there is not in Ireland and Britain
the same acute awareness of food purity as one finds in many parts of
the Continent, for example.
In order to regain popular confidence in our
food industry, it will be necessary to also change peoplešs opinions on
the importance of better food and diet. It will also be essential to allow
people to afford the additional cost of more carefully produced and regulated
food. Organically grown food may well prove to be one of the best ways
for people to eat safely. Yet this type of food is more expensive than
mass produced materials with the obvious implication for low-income families.
In the particular case of FMD it will clearly
be vital that governments take a firm initiative not just to eradicate
the outbreak but to also prevent it re-occurring.
In the first place, it will be important to treat
Ireland as a single agricultural entity and one that is pro-active in
safeguarding its farming and food sector. It may be necessary to prohibit
the importation of all livestock unless they are accompanied by a tightly
regulated permit from the Dept. of Agriculture. Alternatively it may be
necessary to hold animals in quarantine for a period of time before permitting
them to enter the wider agricultural environment in Ireland.
These would be new measures for cattle and sheep
entering Ireland but they are not unheard of in other countries or with
other animals. Dogs entering Ireland are routinely quarantined, so why
not those animals we eat?
As for the misplaced perception that these type
of restrictions are not possible within the UK and would be, therefore,
impossible in Northern Ireland one could look to a couple of precedents.
It has long been the case, for example, that the Ministry of Agriculture
has imposed restrictions on whatever strain or breed of potatoes farmers
are allowed to grow in parts of the North of Ireland.
For many years the British Queen potato could not be grown in County Tyrone.
The island of Jersey imposes strict regulations on what type (if any)
of cow can can be imported on to the island in order to protect the purity
of their famous Jersey cow.
These may seem extreme measures but they would
be capable of ensuring that disease was prevented from taking hold of
Irish livestock.
Ultimately however, there has to be an acceptance
that these measures come at a price and that somehow this price must soon
be paid. Governments are best placed to help but they must be pressurised
to do so.
|