Date: 17 September 2007

Foot and Mouth – Can Moorlands Farmers Cope With Another Crisis?

The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of Staffordshire farmers have been thrown into jeopardy with the latest outbreak of foot and mouth.  Karen Bradley, the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands, is particularly concerned about the effect that these new outbreaks will have on Moorlands livestock farmers at their busiest time of year.

Karen said:

"Tens of thousands of animals need to be moved from the hills in the next few weeks as part of the usual farming cycle and with the ban on livestock movements apart from, at the time I am writing, to slaughter, many farmers are at their wits end.

There are two areas of immediate concern that must be addressed:

• Firstly, animal welfare; and
• Secondly, if local farmers cannot sell their store animals now, will they be able to find enough income to support their families over the next twelve months?

It is vital that our already cash strapped Moorland farmers can sell their animals in preparation for the long winter months ahead.  Clearly, we cannot risk lifting the ban on livestock movements before it is safe to do so, but this is just about the worst time in the year imaginable to have such a ban.  I want to know what DEFRA is going to do to help livestock farmers in Staffordshire Moorlands.

The immediate priority must be to make sure that the latest outbreaks are contained and that everything is done to stop it spreading to other farms. DEFRA must ensure that the necessary resources are made available to do this and must offer whatever support is needed. But once that has happened, certain questions must be answered if our local farmers are to feel any sense of security for the future.

Labour has not earned our trust in its handling of rural affairs and certainly not in this current outbreak. I would like answers to the following:

1. Was any pressure applied to the Chief Vet to announce that Britain was foot and mouth free only days before the latest outbreak - which is of course now known to be the same strain of the disease as the original outbreak that came from the Pirbright Government Laboratory?  It seems strange that there was such certainty that Britain was free of foot and mouth.  The disease can survive for over 50 days in water and it is known that the original outbreak was caused by water from the Government Laboratory, which went into the drains and then seeped into the water causes and on to infect farms. If the disease can live for so long and be so easily transported by water, how could the experts be so certain that the outbreak had been contained?

As Peter Ainsworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, who visited the Moorlands in April, said last week:

“It would be extraordinary if the present problem was not related to the outbreak at Pirbright which, we now know, was almost certainly caused by negligent maintenance at a laboratory site licensed and regulated by the Government.

The Government's shameful role in the causes of the original outbreak was bad enough; now it seems possible that, in their eagerness to put the issue behind them, they relaxed security measures too early.  I fear that farmers may pay a heavy price for the Government's complacency.”

2. Why were footpaths not closed off in the affected area immediately in the first outbreak? When the second set of outbreaks started this week, the footpaths were closed immediately and yet a few weeks ago, footpaths were left open within yards of infected animals.  Why did DEFRA allow the risk of transfer by footpath users in the first outbreak, but not in the second one? 

The Government must provide an explanation for these difficult questions.

Our local farmers have had enough trials to get through in the last few years - the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, bovine TB, low milk prices, the Rural Payments Agency fiasco - they cannot afford any more major problems. 

British agriculture not only produces high-quality food to the highest standards of food safety and animal welfare, but is also a world leader in agricultural sciences. The sector is too important to brush under the carpet because the Labour party doesn’t understand it. It seems as if the Government has tried to bury the bad news about the first outbreak and then give us all a false sense of security to show they are in control. This could have devastating results for our farmers.

Over 100 Staffordshire dairy farmers have gone out of business since 1997. The country cannot afford for anymore to go out of business if we want to keep on enjoying the best food and maintain the beauty of our countryside."

Clive Langford-Mycock, NFU council delegate representing Staffordshire farmers, added:

"This recent outbreak of foot and mouth could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. My members cannot carry on taking the knocks that we have had to endure over the past few years.  If this recent case of foot and mouth isn't cleared up quickly many of our members will be out of business."