September 9 2008 ~ " remove animal health and welfare from the political arena..."

A readable and urgent article by Caroline Cranbrook, (Vice-President Suffolk CLA and Chairman of the Eastern Region Grazing Forum), appeared on Saturday in the East Anglian Daily Times warning that vital grassland and grazing animals are, in East Anglia in particular, seriously under threat.
Confidence in livestock farming has been lost as a result of seemingly never ending new rules and regulations, so many of which
"... are time-consuming, costly and seem to be devised by people who know little of the realities of farming in Great Britain..."
Without grazing, the consequences for the landscape, for biodiversity, for tourism and for the local food chain, would be devastating.
"If livestock farming is to survive, government must lobby much harder in Europe to ensure that regulation is appropriate, proportionate, sensible - and affordable. Government must also allow the industry to take much more responsibility and control of animal disease and welfare."
One solution is to remove animal health and welfare from the political arena. The article tells us that the CLA economist, Professor Allan Buckwell, has suggested
"a new, independent, non-ministerial, non-departmental agency to deal with decision-making and policy implementation for all issues of animal health and welfare... It would obviously have to have the confidence of the industry and the public, with a 50:50 industry/government balance on the board."
Read Caroline Cranbrook's article in full.