Thursday July 2 2009 ~ "We can't solve the problem of exotic animal disease threats to the US and Europe by building defenses and walls in the US and Europe- we have to intervene to help other countries remove the threat at the source."

African Horse Sickness (AHS) is one of the livestock diseases that keeps the poorest people in abject poverty - but owners of equines here too are beginning seriously to fear its arrival via the culicoides (bluetongue) midge. Many fear a slaughter policy if AHS should arrive. Vaccines could be used to protect horses but a policy needs urgently to be formulated and funded.
An email gratefully received yesterday from Dr Roger Breeze is on the subject of African Horse Sickness - but his words could also apply to Europe's attitude to other exotic disease including foot and mouth (FMD) (As Dr Breeze tells us, "It has been common EU practice to establish FMD vaccinated buffer zones via FAO in Turkey and the Balkans and now in the Caucasus to keep FMD out of Europe. Similarly, the US pushed FMD out of Mexico 50 years ago and then out of Central America and subsequently supported vaccination to help eliminate FMD in South America.") He writes:
• "... There is an old saying that it is better to have a vaccine and no epidemic than an epidemic and no vaccine.
• The countries that are the sources do not have the scientific capability to invent and produce the solutions, but they can apply these solutions if others make them available. (my italics)
Dr Breeze notes: "The first animal or human virus discovered was FMD. Most do not know that the second was AHS, discovered by John McFadyean at the Royal Vet College London in blood samples brought back from Africa. He injected horses and gave them AHS in central London!" Read email in full. Its grasp and clarity are refreshing and its message is one that needs urgently to be considered. (extract from email on AHS vaccines) As Dr Breeze says, "It's not the science though, (as usual); it's the gap between the science results and the person on the ground that needs it."

1 July 2009 ~ Enigma FL provides field-based & pen-side diagnosis. PCR result given in less than one hour.

Good news from Enigma Diagnostics, the private company at Porton Down that specialises in on-site diagnostics. The press release yesterday (pdf) was to publicise their Enigma FL (Field Laboratory) and its independent testing by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. It seems that the VLA has successfully evaluated the use of the Enigma FL to diagnose bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD).
As for "exotic" diseases, with the best will in the world, and as we saw in 2001, sending samples of suspected disease to the international reference laboratory at Pirbright takes up vitally needed time. Even those animals who did get tested in recent outbreaks of foot and mouth (and many did not) were killed by officialdom choosing not to wait for a definitive answer. It was rare for farmers to be told that their killed animals had in fact returned a negative test - but tragically many healthy animals were summarily slaughtered in 2001 and many more were killed simply because they were within the "contiguous" area of a suspected 'Infected Premise' (often a misnomer)
The Enigma FL is, of course, just one of the new generation of machines to pinpoint the presence of pathogens in real time before clinical symptoms are apparent - but, given that commercial interests tend to be given a higher priority than animal health- the fact of its being British may make its adoption and use in the UK more likely.
Read more on the rapid diagnosis page about the gradual emergence of rapid testing technology.

Wednesday 1 July 2009 ~ "no milk has been thrown away since the collapse of DFoB...all farmer members of DFoB have now been offered a contract with a new milk buyer."

Following the collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain (see below), it is interesting to read the statement (link mended) yesterday by Lord Davies.

30th June 2009 ~ ZZzzzzz

This photograph (courtesy of Johann Tasker via Twitter) sums up what's wrong with the communication between remote top down government and those who have to get on with the realities. More on the RPA page about the revelations at the NFU Council meeting today. UPDATE Farmers Weekly
"... North Riding and Durham NFU delegate Richard Betton said inaccuracies threatened to put some hill farmers in north-east England out of business unless resolved.
Farmers who grazed livestock on unmapped commons would be unable to apply for financial support unless those commons were mapped, he warned.
"I don't think any of us are reassured that the agency has learned its lessons based on our past experience," Mr Betton said."

30th June 2009 ~"We're asking Defra to go back to the drawing board on responsibility and cost sharing." Nicky Paull

DEFRA's consultation on responsibility and cost sharing closed today The British Veterinary Association considers that since animal welfare is inextricably linked to animal health, the BVA cannot support DEFRA's proposal to separate the two. What is more, there is confusion in the proposals over the roles of the Chief Veterinary Officers, the Board, and Ministers. This, says the BVA, could have "disastrous consequences for the farming and the rural economy". Nicky Paull is quoted:
"Instead of focusing on structures that confuse the process, Defra should concentrate on creating a real partnership between government, industry and the veterinary profession."
More detail on Cost Sharing page.

30th June 2009 ~ Now over 160,000 Chicken Out! supporters are backing the campaign "for a free-range future"

Over 250 MPs are lending parliamentary support, says CIWF. "We are urging the UK government to introduce legislation that improves the lives of millions of chickens."

30th June ~ From tomorrow supermarkets can stock irregular shaped fruit and vegetables

Changes to EU marketing regulations. See Farmers Weekly. "..Twenty-six types of fruit and vegetables will now be covered by General Marketing Standards,... So long as it is clean, free from pests or diseases, is not rotten, and is labelled with the country of origin, retailers will be able to market produce as they see fit. Ten other types of produce remain subject to Specific Marketing Standards, which are stricter, but there is an allowance for the fruit and vegetables covered to be marketed for processing if they fall below the standard."

Tuesday 30th June ~ Pig Business on More4, 10pm

Tracy Worcester's documentary about the impact of intensive pig farming on the welfare of animals, local communities and the environment is finally to be shown on Tuesday night Undercover investigation into pig farming in Poland is likely to provoke uncomfortable questions and perhaps, at last, answers will be demanded. Our posting for Feb 20 2009 quoted from the film:
".... "Agribusiness is taking over, poisoning, bankrupting and enslaving.." "The film challenges the corporate take over of the pig industry. So, with billion dollar industries on the war path, we have to make doubly sure that the film is legally water tight."
For information about who pays the true cost of 'cheap' pork in our supermarkets, and where to buy quality humanely raised and good value pork direct from a British farmer, look at the Pig Business website The film is now scheduled to be shown on More4 at 10.00 pm on 31st March and a DVD is available..."
As the posting shows, the film has been fought all along the line by those whose very nasty practices are going to be revealed in such strong contrast to the determination and decency of the pigs' champion, the indomitable Marchioness Worcester . In February the film was rescheduled for March. Now it will finally be shown.tonight.

June 29 2009 ~ "Assertions that grazing cattle are a long term threat to humanity must be challenged before more misinformation sinks into the public's consciousness.."

The National Beef Association continues, with its urgent new press release today, to counter the arguments of the "don't eat meat for the sake of the planet" brigade. As the NBA points out, the alternative to extensive beef farming, is ploughing up grassland to grow crops to feed humans, or animals indoors in intensive factory units. But beef cattle convert otherwise useless rough grazing and by-products (such as straw) into food for humans. The headline is Solar-powered beef cattle and sheep are environmental heroes.

June 29 2009 ~ Views "running counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful"

It is hard not to share the worry frequently expressed by Christopher Booker (see Sunday's Telegraph) that the "debate" about climate change is not a debate at all. It seems that anything that disagrees with the current assumptions (especially Ian Plimer's book 'Heaven and Earth. Global Warming, the Missing Science' which makes some commentators almost apoplectic, it seems) is not welcome. This makes it hard for those of us who want to learn the facts rather than be indoctrinated. Devotees of the theory of human-caused global warming - whether expert or not - get very, very angry at heresy. So the polar bear scientist who has studied the animals for 30 years and declares their numbers in fact to be increasing, has been told to stay away from the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December.

June 29 2009 ~ Urban Farmers - no longer a contradiction in terms

Only a handful of years ago, the threat of real hunger and social unrest was a part of history for the prosperous West - but the warning of FAO's Jacques Diouf that "All world regions are affected ... No one is immune" was a stark one. Only last year Jacques Diouf deplored that in these days of globalisation there has been
"no significant investment in the prevention of a long list of major trans-boundary animal diseases, starting with Newcastle and foot-and-mouth diseases"
Not much has changed - although the Paraguay congress does sound an optimistic note - but no less a person than Dr Bernard Vallat (see below) mentioned
the world shortage of "proteins of animal origin that can be found in produce such as meat and milk"
More detail on the Food Security page.

June 29 2009 ~ FMD: "Only an effective immunization can avoid having to sacrifice the infected cattle" Dr.Bernard Vallat in Paraguay

Bernard Vallat is quoted by mercopress.com
"FMD has a domino effect over food security given the world shortage of proteins of animal origin that can be found in produce such as meat and milk. Only an effective immunization can avoid having to sacrifice the infected cattle."
The stance of the EU which attaches grave trade penalties to FMD vaccination looks ever more out of step with the global efforts to eradicate this disease.The first World FMD congress in Asunción, Paraguay, which brought together over 300 experts from 174 OIE member countries, proposed emphasis on "vigilance, vaccination and specific diagnosis methods". Paraguay was particularly praised by the OIE Director General. Their 11.6 million cattle have been systematically vaccinated, monitored and since 2005 - and they are free of the disease.
(Interestingly, we note that a livestock website in Arkansas has chosen to use warmwell's vaccination page in its own quest to make FMD vaccination the policy for FMD control in the United States.) See more recent posts on FMD

June 29 2009 ~ "Bioaerosols are of great concern.. but odour is just as big an issue"

"Organic household waste" used to be fed to pigs, of course, but the pig swill industry was another casualty - blameless but uncompensated - of FMD 2001. (More detail).
Now the smell , the rats and the flies from industrial scale dumps are quite as much as a public health hazard as the supposed problem of pig swill feeding. "Bioaerosols" formed through the decomposition of organic material are causing grave concern to those living near large scale composting sites.
The Telegraph (Saturday) tells us that there are now 97 certified commercial composting facilities across the UK, handling more than 1.7 million tons of waste per year
".. but the number is set to double as local authorities rush to meet Government targets for recycling organic household waste..."
One emailer writes about "Viridor's massive industrial size compost site" in Devon, adding that Aspergillus fumigatus has been linked to declining bee numbers, while "discarded sanitary wear clearly seen strewn around the composting area" may well be to blame for reproductive problems in mammalian species nearby.

June 25 2009 ~ New vaccine against AHS "shows promise"

The culicoides midge, the vector that spreads Bluetongue, is also responsible for African Horse Sickness - a disease that can kill 90% of equines infected, might arrive in the UK at any time, and is seriously worrying those who care about horses. More info on the AHS page

June 25 2009 ~ the first time that "a conference has been organized to tackle the problem and ensure a global commitment to control FMD world wide"

Paraguay is hosting a global conference at which one hundred countries have sent their technical experts. It will propose the adoption of a common commitment towards the global elimination of FMD. See en.mercopress.com
"..During the three days conference...updated control methods of the disease, status of research on FMD, the application of disease surveillance methodologies; the application of and development of vaccines and the use, constraints and availability of diagnostic methods in susceptible species will all be assessed and evaluated against future needs and constraints..."
How optimistic this sounds - and one can only hope that real effective change can come about. In these days of increasing anxiety about global food security and the alleviation of poverty, surely protectionism should not be allowed to inhibit the worldwide attempt to leave the virus nowhere to go.

Thursday June 25 2009 ~ The EU to buy FMD antigens

Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link, in Spanish, that says that by 31 December of 2009 at the latest, the European Commission will buy inactive concentrates of FMD virus antigens...(Decision 2009/486/CE).
So, yet more supplies for the vaccine bank whose prophylactic use in Member States of the EU itself is still prevented by regulations whose only purpose appears to be to protect not animals but trade. One wonders if this attitde can possibly continue in the face of such efforts elsewhere to eradicate the disease - the purpose of the conference in Paraguay. The World Bank and the European Union will be providing funds to help eradicate the disease in poor countries (see link above). Yet FMD remains an ever-present risk in the EU..

June 24 2009 ~ Dismay that EU won't budge on EID

The Farmers Weekly quotes Peter Morris, NSA chief executive
"Despite the fact that there is increased support from other member states as their understanding of the implications of these rules increases, there is still a long way to go before we have enough support to really put the EU Commission on the back foot. Nevertheless NSA remains undaunted ...."
(Recent posts are on the sheep tagging page)

June 24 2009 ~ Prince Charles gives a "substantial" sum to help farm charities

The Prince of Wales, whose behind the scenes help was of such unsung importance during the darkest days of 2001 and 2007, has now made a donation to two charities helping farmers after the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain (see below) The charities are the ARC-Addington Fund and Farm Crisis Network. See Farmers Guardian (The petition run by the FG - Fair Trade for Dairy Farmers is still ongoing.)

June 24 2009 ~ A/H1N1 flu cases about 3,000 now in the UK

The BBC says today that the number of confirmed cases in the UK is 2,944, including 686 in Scotland. The virus is spreading from person to person in most countries. The last time we mentioned it, on June 5, the number of H1N1 flu cases worldwide reached 19,273. According to the WHO it was 52,160 on June 22.

Wednesday June 24 2009 ~ Lowest carbon footprint: grass-fed UK beef and lamb (killed locally), blackberries and field mushrooms

With alarm we learn that both DEFRA and the Treasury seem to consider there are disadvantages of maintaining grazing cattle in the grasslands of the UK.
"This overlong press release" as it is rather disarmingly described by the National Beef Association (read here), is actually well worth reading in full - particularly by those in power whose limited understanding may be a real threat both to the countryside and to the country as a whole. Extract:
"... The UK has only 25% of its 17.4 million ha of agricultural land as arable and 75% is grassland (7.2 m ha) and moorland and rough grazing (5.9 m ha), (with 9.34 m ha of farm-land in England). The grass and moor can almost only be used for grazing by ruminants....the total UK herd of dairy and beef cattle has fallen below 10 million for the first time since records have been kept... we are eating our potential breeding stock and sleep walking towards a national shortage."
As for the newly fashionable notion of greenhouse gas problems from grass fed cattle,
"...the fastest possible way to lock up carbon is to sow grass seed on arable land and, with grazing animals, build up the sward into a thick turf as very long term or permanent storage. This can be done in three years.." Read in full
As Caroline Cranbrook wrote recently: "...In these difficult economic times, we can play a very real part in guaranteeing the survival of our British breeds, our local food economies, our landscape and our countryside by buying British beef." (More)

June 23 2009 ~ Will the EU-27 Meeting in Luxemburg today make a difference?

Readers of this website may remember many postings about the distress caused both to animals and their owners when culling, often quite unnecessarily carried out, failed entirely to reduce stress and suffering. Scotland , after 2001, prided itself on having handled FMD better than its English counterparts, but it has been left to experts such as Dr Mike Thrusfield to point out, in relation to Dumfries and Galloway for example, that "No evidence of infection was found on any pre-emptively contiguously culled premises" Indeed, in the entire country, fewer than 1500 of 2030 so-called infected premises (IPs) were confirmed as being infected on laboratory results. This letter in the Vet Record by Adrian Wingfield, Hugh Miller, and Nick Honhold explained with authority that much culling had been unnecessary. (Their own papers are referred to in the pdf version of the letter)
October 2006: The Scotsman,
"....much research into data accumulated in 2001 has been published, including the work of Dr Michael Thrusfield at Edinburgh University and Dr Paul Kitching at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Canada. Their work confirms that the 2001 epidemic was handled in an impractical, unscientific and inhumane way. In the words of the late Professor Fred Brown, it was "a disgrace to humanity"..."
Slaughter as a political quick fix for animal disease is still very much in evidence - and unfortunately retrospective legitimacy given by the Animal Health Act of 2002 to the wider culling policies of 2001 gave even more power to central government.

Tuesday June 23 2009 ~ The Agricultural Ministers of EU-27, meet today in Luxemburg

They will debate animal welfare. One of the themes to debate in the meeting will be the animal culling procedures carried out as a consequence of diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza.
(Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link) Source (Spanish)

June 22 2009 ~ Labour whips have been instructing MPs to vote for Margaret Beckett as Speaker

The New Statesman says this undermines what Jack Straw said yesterday about putting partisan interests aside and electing a Speaker who is "best placed to lead the House of Commons to a restored position of authority and trust." Readers of this website will recall how "trust" was affected when Mrs Beckett was DEFRA's Minister of State. Her limited understanding of the word "responsibility" is illustrated here in one of the many warmwell postings that examined her competence and attitude to the rural community.
It was, of course, during her watch at DEFRA that the RPA scandal rocked the rural community and resulted in massive EU fines. At least the new Speaker will be elected through a secret ballot this time - but surely it should be a free vote. Memories are not long in politics but many,(if the East Anglian Daily Times is anything to go by) would like to see Mrs Beckett spending more time with her caravan.
UPDATE Mrs Beckett did not reply to these 3 questions put to her and all other Speaker candidates by the excellent website ""They Work For You"
UPDATE June 23 "as MPs returned from their constituencies it was clear that the whips' push had become counterproductive..." Independent

Monday June 22 2009 ~ "What is TB in cattle?" asks new DEFRA minister

An email from a farmer:
" I made an appointment to see my MP, Dan Norris ... He asked why I had come so I said, "To discuss the terrible problem of TB in Cattle".
He asked me "What is TB in Cattle". I was absolutely dismayed.
My farm is closed for trading. For the first time in our farming history here we have had a TB breakdown. It is heartbreaking. Some cows have been clean, others have had severe TB presence. We lost our handsome English Hereford Bull to TB. At the same time we have to watch the farm being overrun with badgers. We have found 3 dead in the last year too. It is a no brainer really as to what is going on..."
Dan Morris is, of course, the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA. The Countryside Alliance , after the last year's ministerial changes at Defra, spoke of
"..real opportunity here for Defra to re-focus on the issues that matter to those who live and work in the countryside"
The CA commentator now very diplomatically adds: "Mr Norris is now perfectly positioned to surprise us, and no one will be more delighted than I if he does." All the same, the phrase used after the 19th century Reform Bill, "We must educate our new masters" seems to spring to mind.

June 22 2009 ~ "grass-fed cattle can help to reduce carbon emissions"

The always cheering and readable Transition Bulletin by Rob Hopkins begins "... I've been enjoying the ripening of our own strawberries and the sight of contented cows munching in the fields after a long cold spring. Graham Harvey's wonderful book The Carbon Fields explains why they hold the key to climate change. I bought it at a wonderful evening organised by the Green Party in Totnes called the Future of Farming. Many local farmers came together with other locals to hear the news that grass-fed cattle can help to reduce carbon emissions. which we were very glad to support. .." Read in full

June 22 2009 ~ "I am absolutely appalled that this area of outstanding beauty is to be wrecked. I will be lending my full support"

"Britain's Got Talent" judge, Amanda Holden, has joined the ranks of those of us who do not see wind turbines as a green solution to the energy crisis but as ineffective window dressing. She - like many of us - sees no point in miserably defacing the remaining wild beauty of Britain with giant turbines. Professor Jack Steinberger, a Nobel prize-winning director of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva was recently quoted by the Times: "Wind is not the future...I am certain that the energy of the future is going to be thermal solar,....There is nothing comparable. The sooner we focus on it the better." More on the windfarms page.

June 22 2009 ~ EID: Scottish proposal to defer electronic tagging will be raised in Luxembourg.

It is estimated that introducing the tagging will cost about £3 per sheep - a cost that many feel is unnecessary and will lead to drastically reduced flocks; up to 30 per cent of Scotland's already greatly reduced breeding flock would disappear. At a time of increasing world hunger, this is surely madness. As Jacques Diouf has said, no part of the world can feel itself immune from the food shortage crisis. The BBC reports today that EU ministers will consider Scotland's plea to defer the electronic tagging rules. The Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead who said he was "delighted" the Scottish proposal would be considered at a meeting in Luxembourg of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council. "We will continue engagement with the UK Government to press the commission to reduce the burden of implementation ..." See also warmwell sheep-tagging pages

Sunday June 21 2009 ~ DEFRA expenditure on conferences and events

In reply to a question to a question from Bob Spink about "how much his Department has spent on (a) conference services and (b) banqueting services in each of the last five years", the new minister, Dan Norris, replied that DEFRA, (whose £300 million pound cuts have caused such alarm in past months), spent well over £2 million for each of the two past years on conferences but can provide no figures (because doing so would cost too much) for the three previous years. It is also unable to find figures for its"Banqueting Services" ( See Hansard)

Saturday June 20 2009 ~ FAO confirms that a sixth of the global population is now hungry

"Hungry" is defined as the consuming of fewer than 1,800 calories a day. The Associated Press quotes Josette Sheeran of the World Food Program. "Without food, people have only three options: They riot, they emigrate or they die."
FAO's Director-General Jacques Diouf has said that no part of the world is immune. "All world regions have been affected by the rise of food insecurity." (More on the food security page

June 19 2009 ~ Who needs Green Space?

The Who Needs Green Space campaign in the South West began on June 6th. The website is remarkable - and gives help and advice to those who think that an England under concrete and the half million new buildings planned for the South West is not the inheritance we want to leave to our children.
As one warmwell reader wrote today: "If the TB doesn't finish us off then the Regional Assemblies' Regional Spatial Strategy's proposal of nine thousand houses on the green belt will. All my flat fields will be compulsorily purchased - and the rest of the farm will be unviable."

Friday June 19 2009 ~ "a tiny thing, a millimetre: a miniscule measurement that means life or death to a cow.."

Essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of British farming - but particularly for those whose policies affect the lives of farmers is Pat Bird's Blog in the Farmers Guardian. The usually cheerful and lively resilience she maintains is a miracle. But the despair can be sometimes be seen close to the surface on occasion:
"....our TB test would have thrown up 4 inconclusives, all of which would have had another chance to prove their immune systems had fought off exposure to TB bacteria. But on severe interpretation, three animals are likely to get the chop, and another seven are stoked up to IR level. Of the three which become 'reactors', one calved a month ago, another on the day of the test and one is due next week. So it looks like I shall be bucket feeding some orphans for a while, as their mums disappear into the maw of Defra's killing machine. ..."
It is heartbreaking to read - but how much worse for the truly appalling numbers of farmers for whom this is becoming all too familiar.

June 18 2009 ~ Farmers angry at falling milk prices cause traffic chaos in Brussels

The EU observer:
"Between 500 and 1,000 mostly Belgian tractors....columns, moving at speeds of just 30 km/hour on all three lanes of the main E40 highway leading into Brussels, caused tailbacks over 20 km long. .."
The farmers aim to spend the night in Brussels and to resume the protest tomorrow. the night in Brussels and to resume the protest tomorrow. The EU headquarters, where European leaders began arriving this evening is heavily barricaded but the farmers have official permission to demonstrate as long as they keep their distance (at least 100 metres away). The head of the European Milk Board,Romuald Schaber, wants the heads of state and EU government to "put the catastrophic situation of the milk market at the top of their priorities." However, this is unlikely since those at the current meeting will be far too busy arguing about the Lisbon Treaty and who is to be the next chief of the EU Commission to concern themselves with the mere livelihoods of European farmers or the continuing viability of dairy farming.

Thursday June 18 2009 ~ "Farming without Oil" Yesterday's seminar at Cirencester College very positive

"..Positives - despite the doom and gloom- were to the fore.." A most interesting email from one of the participants of yesterday's seminar at Cirencester's Royal Agricultural College was received today. He writes,
"....The event was so oversubscribed that they are planning to repeat it elsewhere (Exeter) - and other useful events are also planned. I hope to be able to follow up on some of the initiatives I learnt about..."
Notes from the meeting, we understand, will be available shortly on the Royal Agricultural College website.

June 17 2009 ~ "destruction of roadside wildlife environments by flailing..."

The practice of flailing, using mechanical machinery, is playing havoc with insects and birds and - particularly- bees. Peter Peacock, the Highlands and Islands regional Labour MSP, is one of those who recognises the importance of leaving verges alone at this time of year and he has urged the Highland Council to do their part to help protect bees, whose numbers are declining so disastrously. Local authorities who undertake trimming of hedges on roadside verges using mechanical flails mounted on tractors are destroying roadside wildlife environments, Mr Peacock says.
"Intensive modern farming methods have also meant that roadside verges have become much more important as wildlife environments."
Several councils in the UK have now introduced policies to improve biodiversity on their roadside verges- but others remain ignorant. Dr Ruth Watkins has mentioned on Twitter her concern and says,
"The council, named and shamed, Carmarthenshire, has sent the tractors with flails and cut the verges even in the smallest lanes, vandals!!.....Written to Western Mail and to the Council & other wildlife orgs I could think of, including the WI who support the bee, on iniquity of flailing in June."
(Dr Watkins' Twitter page is one of the most interesting we have seen. Warmwell has its own Twitter page too.)

June 16 2009 ~ "Livestock industry rejection of Defra's animal health organisation proposals gathers pace."

Here is the BVA statement Extract:
".... either a distant, non-ministerial, Food Standards Agency style disease control board, whose funds would be directly controlled by HM Treasury and therefore be very likely to be quickly reduced and replaced by huge rises in compulsory levy. Or impose an AHDB style independent quango whose chairman would be invisible to the industry, and over whose policies farmers would have little control, which would require hefty levy funding too..."
Read in full.

Tuesday June 16 2009 ~ Animal Health policy: an "arms length body" is not the way forward?

One wonders how many interested farmers and animal owners the six bodies are representing who yesterday (see Farmers Guardian) gave Hilary Benn to understand that they do not support an independent body to oversee Animal Health. NFU president, Peter Kendall, was however speaking for many when he said of farmers on May 6 that "..many have little confidence in Defra on animal health issues" Mr Kendall criticised DEFRA's present management of the budget for animal health, adding, "our view is backed by the National Audit Office" (see below) and - most significantly,
"I believe that a new independent body for animal health could deliver a more proportionate and effective animal health policy. However, it must be a genuine partnership..."
Our recent postings on cost-sharing are here The website www.pigworld.co.uk has issued a useful pdf file giving a brief description of DEFRA's main proposals

June 15 2009 ~ "a pretty subversive act in America these days, cooking."

Just opened in the US, Food Inc is a film-documentary that takes a long clear look America's industrialized food system. Michael Pollan appears in the film and had this to say in an interview in Newsweek:
"...Even people who follow these issues...will be shocked to see this film, because the camera takes you places you have not been. ...As a journalist, visiting these places was transformative. To me, going on feed lots, chicken and hog operations, it changed the way I eat. You can't go through these places without being changed. You lose your appetite for certain kinds of food...
there's a lot of money to be made selling cheap food, and there's a lot of power behind it, so it won't be easy to change.."
He says that the first step in taking back control of your diet from the corporations who would feed you is to cook..."start with real food, real ingredients, and nothing will do more for your health...That's a pretty subversive act in America these days, cooking."

Monday June 15 2009 ~ global cooling trend: "inevitably, is having an impact on food production"

Whatever the truth may be about climate change and global warming, it is hard not to be impressed by Christopher Booker's column yesterday in which he says the whole world may be heading for a serious food crisis:
"...After a fearsomely cold winter, June brought heavy snowfall across large parts of western Canada and the northern states of the American Midwest. In Manitoba last week, it was -4^oC. North Dakota had its first June snow for 60 years.... midsummer snow not just in Norway and the Cairngorms, but even in Saudi Arabia... in the southern hemisphere it is winter, but snowfalls in New Zealand and Australia have been abnormal. .. frosts in Brazil, elsewhere in South America they have had prolonged droughts, while in China they have had to cope with abnormal rain and freak hailstorms...Grain stocks are predicted to be down 15 per cent next year. US reserves of soya - used in animal feed and in many processed foods - are expected to fall to a 32-year low...In Europe, the weather has been a factor in well-below average predicted crop yields .." Read in full
Is this just a very cold blip - or have predictions about global warming got it very expensively and frighteningly wrong - with, as the Booker column says, " ..all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat." If the harvest conditions this year are repeated it will not be long before accumulated global stocks of grain are at an end. As eureferendum.blogspot.com points out, these currently stand at 344 million tons, representing 17 percent of total production. "Even without the weather effect, it will not take very long at all for global stocks to erode."

June 15 2009 ~ Badgers in 1 in 10 gardens?

The RSBP's "Make Your Nature Count" survey began last Monday and runs until the end of this week. The Telegraph reports that participants' replies suggest that badgers are seen now in 1 in 10 gardens. Catherine Mclaughlin, of the National Farmers Union is quoted:
"This survey is just an informal snapshot but there is the potential that badgers - if they are infected with TB - to transfer the disease. Logic says that humans and pets like cats and dog will be exposed to that transmission."
But Paul Wilkinson, of The Wildlife Trusts, is quoted as saying that badger numbers are stable at around 300,000 in the UK. He did not mention how many of that number are infected with TB, expelled from the sett and wandering about, in an ever more distressing condition. Just 70 colony forming bTB bacteria are needed to infect a cow. A badger with kidney lesions can excrete up to 300,000 cfu of bacteria in just 1ml of urine.

June 14 2009 ~ ".. organic agriculture has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply, while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture..."

Fascinating abstract of an article, "Organic agriculture and the global food supply", in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2007), 22:86-108 Cambridge University Press
"... Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base. .... Data from temperate and tropical agroecosystems suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use..."Read in full
From next year, France is going to confiscate over 20 per cent of the billions of euros of European taxpayers' money paid to its ranch-like cereals farms and divert the cash to hill farmers, to grazing land, to shepherds and to organic agriculture. Is DEFRA contemplating a similar move, one wonders.

Saturday June 13 2009 ~ "The full cost of the foot-and-mouth epidemic has never been officially revealed..." Roseanna Cunningham

Some form of cost sharing is inevitable in view of the emptiness of the political purse. The Scottish environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, quoted by The Scotsman today, did not say - as long term readers of this website are aware - that the very high compensation (or more precisely 'compulsory purchase') in 2001 was partly to deter farmers from refusing to cooperate in a policy that was illegal.
(Before the 2002 Animal Health Act was rushed through to change it, killing untested, uninfected animals was actually against the law.) Many knew that their animals were uninfected and could see clearly that it was the unsound policy itself that was responsible for the scale of the mass culling. Some farmers - such as Guy Thomas Everard in Deven - put the value of their animals above what they were being offered as "compensation". They fought MAFF/DEFRA in the courts, and won. In doing so, Mr Everard saved not only his healthy pedigree animals but also saved the taxpayer from having to spend between £1.5- £2 million in so-called compensation. His evidence to the EU Committee still makes for very salutary reading even now, nearly eight years on.

June 13 2009 ~ Roseanna Cunningham wants to see a genuine partnership between "government, industry and science"

Hardly surprisingly, she expresses "an increasing degree of frustration" that the budget for animal health in Scotland is still controlled from Whitehall.
"Animal health and welfare are devolved, so tell us what your members in the BVA need to improve it. You'll not always get it and we cannot print money. But you will always get our complete attention.... we need to work more closely together."
See The Scotsman

June 12 2009 ~ Local Food Advisor

- "a wonderful website with a wealth of information on finding local food in your area of the UK. Just type in your postcode to find your nearest farmer's market, or look for award winning producers, local food restaurants and even vegetable box schemes..." Read more

Friday June 12 2009 ~ Michael Pollan predicts "certain breakdown for a North American food system far too dependent on cheap energy and big corporations".

In an interesting interview in yesterday's Canadian website, The Tyee, he said,
"One of the reasons we need to nurture several different ways of feeding ourselves -- local, organic, pasture-based meats, and so on – is that we don't know what we're going to need and we don't know what is going to work. To the extent that we diversify the food economy, we will be that much more resilient. Because there will be shocks. We know that. We saw that last summer with the shock of high oil prices. There will be other shocks. We may have the shock of the collapsing honey bee population. We may have the shock of epidemic diseases coming off of feed lots. We're going to need alternatives around. When we say the food system is unsustainable we mean that there is something about it, an internal contradiction, that means it can't go on the way it is without it breaking up. And I firmly believe there will be a breakdown."
Read the interview in full

June 11 2009 ~ Goodbye to cheap oil.

For the first time, the well-respected Energy Information Administration seems to be agreeing that the era of cheap and plentiful oil is pretty much over. The author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy(Amazon) writes the latest TomDispatch and the conclusion may make readers want to read the rest ....
" At first glance, the International Energy Outlook for 2009 hardly looks different from previous editions: a tedious compendium of tables and text on global energy trends. Looked at another way, however, it trumpets the headlines of the future -- and their news is not comforting.
The global energy equation is changing rapidly, and with it is likely to come great power competition, economic peril, rising starvation, growing unrest, environmental disaster, and shrinking energy supplies, no matter what steps are taken. No doubt the 2010 edition of the report and those that follow will reveal far more, but the new trends in energy on the planet are already increasingly evident -- and unsettling."
Read in full

June 11 2009 ~ The Compassion in World Farming page is clear and calm on the subject of live exports

A court in Perth (Western Australia) court recently upheld charges of cruelty in an export of live sheep by sea when a thousand sheep died during one "routine shipment" from Australia to Al Shuwaikh Port (source).As one English vet put it to us this morning,
"I wonder if CIWF should seize the opportunity to raise the whole issue again and identify all the countries which continue. Live exports are outdated and barbaric, enacted purely so that the wretched creatures can be subjected to religious slaughter (what an oxymoron that is) at the end of their journey."
The CIWF page on live exports can be seen here. Once again we quote Alan Bennett who, writing about the 2001 foot and mouth slaughter in Untold Stories (p293)wrote:
"In fifty years' time I am sure that we will not handle animals the way we do now - and to succeeding generations our behaviour will seem as barbarous as bear baiting...."
Such traffic in live animals over long distances values money before everything - and it will continue unless those who find such transport wholly unacceptable manage to support those who are calmly trying to put an end to such insanity. Support CIWF.

Thursday June 11 2009 ~ Australian MP uses maiden speech to push for an end to live sheep exports

ABC News quotes the newly elected Greens MP, Adele Carles, who has used her maiden speech in the Legislative Assembly to push for an end to live sheep exports from Fremantle.
".... inhumane live sheep trade should be banned, no-one wants it..."
Those in Australia who feel strongly that the live export of sheep is unnecessary and distressing for the animals are using an online "Humane Chain of Action" which starts today with which to show their MPs and others in Australia that there are alternatives to the stress of live export.

Thursday June 11 ~ Australia - sheep. no multi-tagging

Australia's Weekly Times: "The multi-tagging of sheep and lambs as part of the National Livestock Identification System has been deferred and is likely to be abandoned. Known as transaction tagging, whereby sheep bought by restockers and lot feeders would have to be retagged each time they were sold, was scheduled for July 1 as part of the on-going development of the NLIS for sheep and goats. But this week NLIS management committee chairman Ian Feldtmann said transaction tagging would be deferred. Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the mandatory transaction tagging, along with other enhancements for traceability, would be deferred for further national consideration. .."
It has been interesting to note with what dismay Australian farmers regard the NLIS scheme "NLIS has been a total and costly failure in Australia which should never be repeated anywhere in the world." (See below)- views that seem not to have been considered in the US, USDA marches towards their soon to be compulsory ID system, NAIS. See also the Statement of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance to USDA about the drawbacks to NAIS and suggested alternatives.

10 June, 2009 ~ Road safety's loss is Food and Farming's gain?

From Fireman to MP, and now Minister for DEFRA, Jim Fitzpatrick has been appointed as the replacement for Jane Kennedy. One searches in vain for any clue in his website to suggest what knowledge of or interest in farming and rural matters prompted this move.
Meanwhile, the Farmers Guardian tells us that Somerset MP, Dan Norris, replaces Lord Hunt as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department.
"...Mr Norris' appointment brings Defra's Ministerial teams serving under Secretary of State of State Hilary Benn up to three. The precise roles and responsibilities of Mr Norris, new Minister of State, Jim Fitzpatrick and Huw Irranca-Davies, who remains at Defra are yet to be finalised..."
It is interesting to see in the article what Mr Norris himself considers "one of his main achievements as an MP to date."
UPDATE We hear that Margaret Beckett would like to be the new Speaker.

Wednesday 10 June, 2009 ~ Oil prices steadily creeping up again.

The Guardian reports that oil prices "hit a new seven-month high today, fuelling suggestions that the world could soon see a return of the $100 barrel of crude..." (More on the significance of rising oil prices here.)

8 June, 2009 ~ Jane Kennedy leaves DEFRA

DEFRA Minister, Jane Kennedy, has left the Government. She is the eighth Minister to leave in the last few days. The Farmers Guardian says this morning, "Ms Kennedy was praised by industry leaders over recent months for working hard to engage with farmers and to tackle the problems facing them."
UPDATE. The BBC says she was "sacked".

June 8 2009 ~ Who really knows the truth about the dangers of global warming?

Certainly, Christopher Booker's column yesterday repeated his apparently well backed-up opinion that
"....the Arctic ice has failed to disappear...the ice in the Antarctic is actually way above its 30-year average.... the threatened catastrophe seems not to be happening..."
He says that the proposed new treaty in December "would cost us all $45 trillion" and that powerful non-Western nations assert that since global warming is the fault of the developed world, they will only sign the treaty if we agree to pay them $300 billion a year.
"... the Climate Change Act, committing us to restrict our CO2 emissions within 40 years to a level only 20 per cent of where they were in 1990. President Obama has committed the US to the same. Since these targets could only be met by closing down our economies, it is hard to know where we will find the money to pay...."
Why is there no properly "scientific" look at what the proven facts actually amount to? Is it that those who have nailed their own colours to the mast of belief in a coming-disaster-that-must-be-averted-at-any-price cannot allow any sceptics to question that price? (One is reminded of the mountain of regulations and the billions spent to save us from the human consequences of BSE - and the derision poured on those scientists who dared to suggest that the infectious prion theory might be wrong or that numbers of human vCJD cases were in steep decline.)

Monday June 8 2009 ~ harnessing the power of organic waste

The UK produces 100 million tons of organic waste a year while 370,000 tons of still edible food are being thrown away because the public assumes that after its "best before" date, food can become dangerous to eat. The Independent says that Hilary Benn will announce plans tomorrow to discontinue "best before" labels. Mr Benn is quoted
"It's time for a new war on waste...it's about rethinking the way we use resources in the first place. ...Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we're not sure, we're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe. This means we're throwing away thousands of tons of food every year completely unnecessarily. I want to improve labels so that when we buy a loaf of bread or a packet of cold meat, we know exactly how long it's safe to eat."
The Government also has plans to use the organic waste we do produce as fuel. Tomorrow Mr Benn will announce the location of five new anaerobic digestion plants.

June 6 2009 ~ FAO Director General calls for more and "proper" funds to help small farmers.

At the opening session of the World Grain Forum that opened today in St Petersburg, FAO Director-General, Jacques Diouf, said that aspects of the international trade system that have resulted in more hunger and poverty have to be changed:
".. average prices of food are still 17 percent higher than in 2006 and 24 percent higher than in 2005....What is important today is to realize that the time of talk has long past. .."
While 15 percent of the global population now do not get enough food to eat, he said that the present financial and economic crisis could drag more than 100 million people into chronic hunger.
"This cannot be acceptable. How can we explain to people of good sense and good faith this dramatic situation in a state of abundance of international resources and when trillions of US dollars are being spent to stimulate the world economy?"
How encouraging that someone of his stature is saying this loud and clear. Full story at fao.org/news

June 6 2009 ~ SVS (Animal Health) mugs

An email from The Royal Cornwall Show yesterday related how a farmer had gone into the Animal Health tent with a question. (Animal Health of course, is the old State Veterinary Service rebranded, or, to quote their own website: "the government's executive agency primarily responsible for ensuring that farmed animals in England, Scotland and Wales are healthy, disease-free and well looked after.")According to the farmer, the staff there, including a veterinary officer, were unable to answer the question. However, they:
"gave me a swanky Animal Health mug and a very nice AH ball point pen. I was surprised to say the least. What on earth is a government agency doing offering me promotional material? It's not as though I have a choice of service providers ... If they have this sort of money to waste then why don't they offer farmers subsidised vaccines or free Herd Health Planning?"
This current mindset of self-promotion in politics and in government departments really cannot make up for a lack of ability, knowledge, common sense and public service. And in the current economic climate it is doing more harm than merely getting on our nerves.

June 6 2009 ~ Open Farm Sunday - should be fun

Twitter has lots of information about tomorrow's countrywide event. The Open Farm Sunday website - which also has a search engine to let you find your nearest open farm tomorrow - says, "... Activities during the day may include a farm walk, nature trail, tractor & trailer rides, pond dipping, activities for kids, mini farmers market or picnics." There is lots of media interest this year as this Google search shows.

June 5 2009 ~ Margaret Beckett. Gone

Politics.co.uk "....housing minister Ms Beckett, one of the longest-standing ministers in the Labour government, announced she too was no longer prepared to be a member of the government."

June 5 2009 ~ New Chief Vet for Scotland

Simon Hall has been appointed Chief Veterinary Officer for Scotland and will succeed Charles Milne in July. In 2001 he worked in the national control centre for Foot and Mouth Disease. See Scottish Govt announcement here

June 5 2009 ~ "Let farmers and rural businesses get on with what they do best," says Nick Herbert

Speaking at the Royal Cornwall Show yesterday, the Shadow DEFRA Minister said,
"We've got to stop interfering so much in peoples' lives. We need a government that gets behind farming, in a way that has been absent for the past 10 years. What we cannot do is say to farmers that they've got to stand on their own feet, and with the other hand clobber them with more regulation and bureaucracy. That is not a viable policy." (Report in FWi)
Nick Herbert could not commit the Tories to reversing the cost sharing scheme since the "cupboard is bare" - but it is encouraging to hear him speak up against interference and regulation - even though most of this comes from Brussels. UK politicians seem powerless to do more than behave as if such rules are set in stone. However, we read in the Farmers Guardian that Hilary Benn has promised at least to try to make EID less difficult and to ask his counterparts "... across the EU to seek support for a further measure which would help our farmers. The proposal would allow farmers to delay tagging their sheep until they leave the holding.."

June 5 2009 ~Farmers Guardian launches Fair Trade for British Dairy Farmers petition.

Following the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain (see below), and with the economic recession in full swing there is now a very real danger the British dairy industry could be irreversibly damaged. A letter has been sent this week by the NFU, Farmers for Action, Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, Dairy Farmers of Scotland, NFUS, NFU Cymru and the Farmers' Union of Wales to all the major retailers, discounters and food service players, asking for action to "increase confidence among dairy farmers" In support of that letter, the Farmers Guardian is launching a petition calling for a Fair Trade for British Dairy Farmers. You can read and sign the petition here.

Friday June 5 2009 ~ H1N1 cases in the UK has reached 404

313 in England, 88 in Scotland, two in Northern Ireland and one in Wales. The Independent reports "The virus is spreading from person to person in countries as far apart as Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia. The number of swine flu cases worldwide has reached 19,273, according to the latest WHO figures."

June 4 2009 ~ "NAIS treats small-scale livestock owners as if they were large commercial producers ..." Statement of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance to USDA

The statement written by attorney, Judith McGeary, analyses what she feels is scientifically wrong with NAIS, exposes what she feels would be its economically disastrous effect and argues that NAIS would not increase food safety. She then suggests a common sense workable alternative. Extract:
The design of NAIS is not scientifically sound .... The attempt to track every movement of every animal violates epidemiological and risk-based principles. The susceptibility of animals to disease and the likelihood of transmission differ greatly depending on the species of animal, the disease, and the conditions under which the animals are kept... From an animal disease control perspective, pasture-based livestock operations are not the problem. While confinement operations present the ideal conditions for the spread of disease, pastured operations, in which animals are kept in natural conditions on rotating pastures, have a far lower risk of developing or spreading diseases... Despite the clear, scientifically documented differences between production systems, NAIS treats small-scale livestock owners as if they were large commercial producers. The backyard poultry owner with 10 chickens free-ranging is considered as much of a threat to animal health as a commercial operation with 10,000 chickens living in a crowded building..."
The statement is written in a clear, calm and persuasive manner and is fully referenced. It deserves to be read in full (here as a html page)

June 4 2009 ~ In rural America "increasing numbers of farmers are considering taking their lives"

From the Denver Post
"... compared with the same period last year - a 20 percent increase. .. really started with the change in dairy prices, as they fell last fall... economics and inclement weather have crippled operations, pushing countless farmers to the emotional breaking point, say industry experts. .."
Gary in Kansas, who sent the link, adds:
"..My friends and neighbors aren't happy people anymore. We live on a paved farm-to-market county road - traffic isn't anything like it used to be...Home and farm impovements are put on hold. Bankers aren't lending any money...."
It is distressing to chart the demise of farming just at the time when the growing of food is so vital for the world. As Vandana Shiva said in an interview last May,
"..food ultimately is not produced in the speculation and commodity exchanges controlled by Cargill in Chicago. It is produced by hard working women and men working with the soil and sun. And if you destroy the capacity of the people to work the land and the capacity of soil to produce, you're going to have hunger..."
Ordinary people are more and more interested in growing their own. Schemes such as "Landshare" and the Transition initiative also have to be "home grown" when those who might have been thought to be able to help seem less and less respected, more and more irrelevant.

June 4 2009 ~ Landshare. How it works

The waiting list for council allotments is now running at 40 years in some areas of the country. The Channel 4 website devoted to "Landshare" allows you, whether landowner prepared to lend land or grower looking for land in which to grow your own food, to find growing partners. The Scotsman - Extract:
"....Fearnley-Whittingstall is a bona fide, full-time food campaigner. Whether he's petitioning Tesco to improve the conditions in which its chickens are kept, convincing us all to grow our own organic veg, or setting up a collective that will allow people across the country to swap land to grow things on, Fearnley-Whittingstall appears passionate, genuine and somehow more approachable than most of our foodie TV personalities. You get the impression he really cares about this stuff..."
Channel 4 yesterday told the story of the first ever Landshare 'match' on "River Cottage - Landshare" and BBC1's The One Show also mentioned this inspiriting initiative.

June 4 2009 ~ Dairy Farmers of Britain, the milk cooperative, has gone into receivership

Crushing blows to UK farming are coming thick and fast. Dairy Farmers of Britain, the agricultural milk cooperative that employed 2,200 at sites in the South West, Midlands and the North East had 1,800 farmer members across Great Britain. Jack Davies in the Farmers Guardian reported yesterday that these dairy farmers supplied "over 1 billion litres to the food and drink industry, comprising 10% of UK milk production." And now the cooperative is in receivership. Lord Grantchester, chairman of the Board of DFOB, is quoted by the Farmers Guardian:
".... the decision to invite receivers is not an easy one, but the board was unfortunately left with no alternative.."
That this is the saddest of outcomes is obvious. Readers commenting on the story in today's Times express sadness, worry and anger.
UPDATE: We read on the Farmers Guardian Twitter page that "there could still be some cause for optimism surrounding the DFB May milk cheques" More later.

June 4 2009 ~ Solar power should replace wind energy, says Jack Steinberger

Jack Steinberger , Nobel Prize winner in physics and director of CERN's particle-physics laboratory, spoke at a conference of Nobel laureates at the Royal Society in London last week. His conclusion, according to the Times : "Wind is not the future," More on windfarms page

June 3 2009 ~ Egyptian pig slaughter. Stopped - for now - following massive protests

See also below. update at CIWF
Extract: " After weeks of frenetic campaigning... Officials in what is understood to be the last province killing pigs (Helwan), have "postponed" the cull. For how long, we do not know. Some 150,000 pigs are thought to have been killed, many in the most appalling ways... An international storm of protest resulted in Egypt's Prime Minister issuing a decree forbidding some of the worst killing methods. ... We are now in high-level dialogue with the Egyptian state tourism organisation and other avenues to press Egypt to adopt legislation to ensure that this cruelty cannot be repeated..."
CIWF suggests that pressure continues by our writing again - urgently to the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr Ahmed Mahmoud Mohammed Nazif. CIWF provides a useful template letter that can be used or adapted. One might mention that Egypt will no longer be considered a holiday destination until animal welfare has improved. (It may be remembered that Compassion in World Farming receives no government funding and even the smallest donation- eg by PayPal, for example - can help them. Privacy is always respected and their work is of the highest calibre.)

June 3 2009 ~ "when there's a new outbreak of a serious virus in a remote area of Africa, it can take weeks for the information to reach the state veterinary services. Efforts to control the disease are hampered by this delay...."

Telegraph
"... the combination of new types of mobile phones combined with increasing availability of broadband internet access in Africa may help.. Locally trained veterinary assistants on the ground will be able to log suspected cases of new illnesses as they happen.....clear, real-time mapping of the spread of livestock diseases, so that vaccines and treatments can be targeted much more effectively."
Meanwhile, in the UK, while similar rapid disease mapping for livestock is still not in use and the rapid portable RT-PCR technology is still not being spoken about, a new form of disease mapping for pets has just been launched. CICADA-Live was launched on Monday by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health as an interactive register of serious viral diseases of small companion animals.

June 3 2009 ~ FOOD, Inc. Release - You CAN change the world with your fork.

The Los Angeles Times reviews a new film, shortly to be released, called "Food.Inc".
"... a persuasive portrait of the evils of big American agribusiness and the often horrific journey that our food makes from corporate cornfields and cattle pens to the local supermarket....Americans end up spending less money on food than ever, but we pay a huge cost--starting with the fact that one out of every three kids born after 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes--because it's cheaper to buy a cheeseburger or a giant bottle of diet soda than a head of broccoli...."
The reviewer is not only convinced but also newly informed about "the relationship between the weakening of USDA oversight and the revolving door of Corporate Agriculture lobbyists and executives who ended up serving in key Bush administration posts." He compares: "..the way cows are raised in Corporate Agriculture, jammed so tightly together that they can barely move" with "how they're raised on an indie farmer's open field, grazing on grass instead of pellets of corn. He concludes that it makes one "want to be a lot more vigilant about where your favorite burger joint's beef comes from. This is one movie that truly provides food for thought." The Trailer is here

3 June 2009 ~ Three wild Great Bustard chicks have hatched on Salisbury Plain

Anyone born in Wiltshire probably knows that the Great Bustard was a large, swift-running bird, claimed to have last been seen in Wiltshire in the late 1890s before it became extinct in England. The great bustard that adorns the heraldic badge of Wiltshire is identical to the birds in the video (no sound) showing the chicks now born to a pair from about 80 Great Bustards which have been released, since 2004, on a Ministry of Defence-owned site on Salisbury Plain. See also report on BBC

Wednesday, 3 June 2009 ~ A/H1N1 - Healthy Scot is now critically ill

Many will be wondering if this is a worrying development. The Independent: "A 45-year-old man has become the first in the UK to be made critically ill solely because of swine flu, health officials said yesterday. ...in intensive care at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Renfrewshire last night... Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said "....in any flu scenario, small numbers of patients will develop complications and will require that kind of medical intervention." The total number of cases in the UK is still only between 300 and 400 - but according to the Telegraph, last night 61 new cases of H1N1 swine flu were confirmed in Britain bringing the total number of people who have been sick with the virus to 339.

June 2 2009 ~EID " if the proposal becomes law, up to 30 per cent of Scotland's greatly reduced breeding flock would disappear... "

The Scotsman:
"...Richard Lochhead, the Rural Affairs Secretary, has been subject to criticism on this issue. However, he stands firm ahead of a meeting today in London with the Westminster Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, which will be attended by the farm ministers from the devolved regions.
Speaking last night, Lochhead said: "Although Europe has made some concessions - delaying the original introduction date and allowing the regulations to be phased in - they do not go far enough..."
Read in full and see all recent posts on the EID page

June 1 2009 ~ Mandatory identification and NAIS. "Why has the leadership of the USA failed to consider the flawed Australian NLIS?"

While sheep farmers here shake their heads in despair at the coming mandatory EID for sheep, and small farmers in America believe NAIS is being used by powerful agribusiness to get rid of small traditional farming under the pretext of traceability and disease control, The Bovine, an Australian site, quotes Australian farmers on the subject of NLIS, their equivalent of NAIS.
Extract: "The Australian NLIS has degenerated into a farce...By error Australia has generated over 70 million cattle on the NLIS computer data base and we only have 26 million head.... Why does the USDA and House Committees select speakers who "tickle their ears?" Do they have any concern about a valid program or is their mind totally cemented toward a mandatory NAIS, come Hell or high water?....It may take a major disease outbreak to reveal that NLIS is worthless"
The Bovine claims that over 95% of Australians oppose NLIS, now mandatory with enforcements. If the farmers' opinions quoted are representative, it is very easy to see why. Lee Gerard McNicholl BVSc, MSc is quoted
"NLIS has been a total and costly failure in Australia which should never be repeated anywhere in the world."
(Read in full) As Mary Zanoni says, "It is difficult to imagine any acceptable basis for the (USDA) to subject the owner of a chicken to more intrusive surveillance than the owner of a gun." and Gary in Kansas writes to warmwell.com to say: "Opposition to USDA's proposed National Animal Identification System continues to grow here. More and more people are beginning to realize the extent of the cost this concept will have on their operations."

June 1 2009 ~ EID "The government must recognise there is much more flexibility available" Peter Morris

Farmers Weekly today quotes the National Sheep Association chief executive
"We believe it would be within the rules for a single electronic slaughter tag to be used instead of double tagging. This would allow reading of tags to be done at market rather than by the farmer - reducing the pain to individual producers and the negative impact on the industry. ...We have had no choice but to talk to DEFRA about these regulations, because if they are left to their own devices the end result will be far worse...Sadly this is damage limitations we are talking about. Nevertheless, it is important the industry unites behind a common view which will result in the authorities taking full advantage of the flexibility open to them."
Read in full - and see EID page

June 1 2009 ~ slurry storage regulations- the high costs include the loss of a third of UK dairy farmers

In NVZs (Nitrate Vulnerable Zones) farmers have to keep a record of their calculation of storage capacity for slurry and poultry manure. FWi today says that a poll of dairy farmers in south east England found "41% were likely to, or already had, given up dairying because of the high costs of complying with slurry storage regulations". Constructing winter slurry storage facilities can cost between £50,000 and £60,000 for the average dairy farm. James Mulleneux, NFU South East policy adviser, is quoted:
"The battle isn't over yet - we have almost three years to prove to DEFRA that there is an overriding need for a scheme to help farmers adapt"
Once again, it is the small farmers and tenant farmers who are most threatened. They cannot afford to invest in the storage facilities demanded by the new regulations. See also Farmers Guardian

June 2009 ~" I urge the government of New Zealand to protect its international reputation and continue to develop its chilled and frozen meat trade rather than resuming live sheep exports."

Everything depends upon whether you think sheep can suffer pain, distress and terror. First hand reports from readers, especially during the chaotic killing in the foot and mouth outbreaks, convinces most of us that they do. To learn that New Zealand is resuming the trafficking of live sheep to slaughter in Saudi Arabia is, for many of us, distressing. From the 'World Society for the Protection of Animals' website:
"....By slaughtering locally and exporting frozen and chilled meat, New Zealand currently spares animals from these completely unnecessary journeys. If live sheep are transported, those sheep are not protected by New Zealand's animal welfare laws as soon as they leave its shores. Those that survive the journey have no guarantee of a humane end...."
Perhaps some readers would like to add their names to the online plea.

June 1 2009 ~ food, friendship and tomato seedlings

DEFRA is to be commended for getting behind the nationwide "Eat Seasonably" campaign. This campaign supports the wise realisation that local, seasonal food is best and that growing one's own food in season is now a very sensible option. However, it might have been better had the department avoided (on its website) laying on with quite such a heavy trowel that "people" need to be introduced "... to the benefits of seasonal produce" and to be reconnected "with the food they are eating and the seasons in which it's grown." (Do others feel nostalgia for the days when Government Departments did not feel the need to address the population as if they were small and not very intelligent children?)
The Eat Seasonably website itself, on the other hand, is a jolly and enthusiastic feast for the eye - and even if its ultimate aim is " to encourage the mass mobilisation of individuals towards more sustainable lifestyles" (as here) it wisely does not say so.
Similarly, "The Big Lunch" is an idea invented by Tim Smit and friends one morning at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Planned for the 19th July, it is hoped that groups will sit down to lunch together "and put the smile back on Britain's face". It is very easy to start your own with a handful of friends - or find the nearest by using the Big Lunch map. As its splendid inventors say: "The Big Lunch is about sharing: food, friendship and… tomato seedlings..."

June 1 2009 ~ New research backs notion of shared psychological qualities previously only attributed to humans.

The Telegraph today:
"....Prof Marc Bekoff, an ecologist at University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are "hard-wired" into the brains of all mammals and provide the "social glue" that allow often aggressive and competitive animals to live together in groups. He has compiled evidence from around the world that shows how different species of animals appear to have an innate sense of fairness, display empathy and help other animals that are in distress."
In the Amazon description to his book, Wild Justice, the Moral Life of Animals (not yet released on Amazon co.uk),we read: "...years of behavioral and cognitive research with compelling and moving anecdotes, Bekoff and Pierce reveal that animals exhibit a broad repertoire of moral behaviors.... adept social beings, relying on rules of conduct to navigate intricate social networks that are essential to their survival....Sure to be controversial, "Wild Justice" offers not just cutting-edge science, but a provocative call to rethink our relationship with - and our responsibilities toward - our fellow animals."

May 29-31 2009 ~ Animals get sunburn too

In the hot sunshine of this weekend, our border collie, Benjie, needs suncream on the exposed white and pink skin of his nose. The Telegraph notes today: "Sunburn is a common problem in white animals - In some animals, such as white cats, this can lead to skin cancer - Use high-factor, waterproof sunblock on sunny days to protect animals that are prone to sunburn."

May 29-31 2009 ~ "the farm will probably get taken over by the National Trust..."

Several papers, including the Daily Mail, report that a farmer has committed suicide with concentrated rat poison after being bankrupted by a legal battle with the National Trust. Flooding from a council-owned landfill site when the National Trust opened weir gates had made things very difficult for the rare breeds and petting farm. A letter Mr Dearnley himself wrote last year gives an indication of his coming desperation and despair:
"...50 rare breeds sheep with 75 lambs, 15 cattle, pigs etc were sent to be shot and slaughtered in the foot and mouth outbreak not because of disease, but because the National Trust on July 28th 2000 opened two weir gates fully and drowned our hay crop. Our animals were marooned in floods for two and a half months. In foot and mouth times we had no feed and couldn't move animals off farm .. Our rare White Park cattle had to be sold last week (14 years work) to a farm in Somerset. Ironically to a farmer who gets £50 an acre for grazing land with native cattle he rents from the National Trust...."
He was told he was to be evicted last year but feared that the animals would be slaughtered if he left. A worker on the farm is quoted: "He was hounded to this. ...Now he's gone the farm will probably get taken over by the National Trust - it's all a dreadful mess and we will perhaps never know the truth."
In the Independent today, it is painful to read: "The National Trust said last night that it had repeatedly tried to reach a settlement with the farmer," adding that it had been "left with no choice" about seeking the costs incurred by the court case.

May 29-31 2009 ~"Kirsty Young's castaway is the rural campaigner Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook."

A poll by Country Life magazine recently ranked the Counterss of Cranbrook in the top twenty most influential people in the countryside. As the BBC says, "She has become a champion of the countryside" They might have added that behind the scenes, she is a most fearless, persistent and energetic supporter of all who are fighting to save what is best and valuable in the British landscape - and a tireless campaigner of regional food, farmers' markets, food labelling and small abattoirs. She was recently given the OBE and is quoted as saying "....My research into the rural economy has shown how everyone is dependent on each other and that local shops and restaurants need the fresh local meat supplied by farmers. Fresh local produce is vital not only on a local and regional level, but to the nation as a whole."
Sunday's broadcast - 11:15 on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs - should be fascinating.

May 29-31 2009 ~ Farming without oil

As warmwell reports on Twitter today, there will be a seminar at Cirencester Agricultural College on June 17 focusing on "how we will farm without fossil fuels"
"Following the success of the Transition Towns Seminar held back in February we are pleased to announce that we are now arranging a second Seminar.... We hope that the day will consider the options for local agriculture and food production after fossil fuels have run out.....95% of our food is dependent on oil through energy-intensive agriculture and food supply chains, from fertiliser and fuel to distribution and retailing - resulting in food prices and availability being directly affected by oil prices.... Professor Chris Gaskell, Principal, Royal Agricultural College, will chair the event.
Full details

May 28 2009 ~ "staunchly defending human rights and greater protection for animals.."

Many papers today report Joanna Lumley's endorsement of the Green Party. Interesting to read in the Independent, for example, her praise for the Greens' greatest asset, the energetic and eloquent Caroline Lucas. Joanna Lumley's words were:
" I urge you to cast a positive vote for a better future by voting Green in the European elections...the obvious choice for real change...Caroline Lucas is a tireless campaigner in the European Parliament, staunchly defending human rights and strongly promoting greater protection for animals."
Since her warmly praised success at getting the government to reverse their policy on Gurkha settlement in the UK (not to mention a recent online poll suggesting that Joanna Lumley is the female celebrity that most people would like to see running the country), her boost for the Greens is likely to make something of a difference on June 4th.

May 28 2009 ~ "it made no sense to put wind turbines in a low wind area, but there were so many other reasons why these turbines should never have been considered..."

Montreathmont and Rossie Moor public enquiry - result. These wild areas of lowland Angus have been saved from being turned into industrial wind parks. The Scottish Government reporter has recommended that the applications be refused.
"....The proposals were fought on two fronts by action groups Friends of the Forest (FoF) and STORM (Stop Turbines on Rossie Moor), with one campaigner last night lauding their combined drive as a key factor in convincing the government reporter to block the bids. FoF chairman Jim Hair said, "We are so pleased with this decision..."
Read in full

Thursday May 28 2009 ~ Lib Dems in Scotland use sheep to protest at electronic tagging

The Herald reports that a small flock of sheep were "delivered" to Holyrood:
"....Scottish farmers claimed it would lead to accelerated decline in the industry. A LibDem motion expressing concern about the scheme has been backed by SNP, Labour and Tory MSPs. Orkney MSP Liam McArthur will lead a back-bench debate on the issue at the Scottish Parliament."
See also sheep tagging page. The Electronic Identification of sheep is due to become compulsory in January 2010.

May 27 2009 ~ "intentionally introducing a harmful gene into the primate gene pool..."

The article in today's Guardian is likely to intensify the debate about the ethics of GM research. Japanese scientists are breeding large populations of primates with genetic faults responsible for incurable human conditions so that they can be experimented upon.

May 27 2009 ~ Oil price climbing

Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, hinted today that even higher prices, around $75-$80, - might be reached later this year. He expressed confidence that oil demand would continue to rise.
However, according to the International Energy Agency, oil consumption will contract this year by 2.6m barrels a day, the steepest drop since 1981. The FT says:
"...Mr Naimi's comments come as many traders in the physical oil market are far less optimistic, pointing to still weak demand outside Asia and record high inventories."
More on Peak Oil page latest

May 27 2009 ~ "..high-quality, safe, healthy, affordable food for all residents in the community"

America's GrowingPower.org has an ambitious and simple aim: the transformation of communities. Will Allen, their Chief Executive Officer, has been the keynote speaker at national conferences in America and has been awarded local, state, and national awards including a 2005 Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation. He believes,
"If people can grow safe, healthy, affordable food, if they have access to land and clean water, this is transformative on every level in a community. I believe we cannot have healthy communities without a healthy food system."
Growing Power began with one farmer, a plot of land, and a core group of dedicated people. A cheering website with splendid photos of what is being done with so many people from so many backgrounds - and done from the bottom up. Like the Transition initiative, these are just ordinary people getting on with what needs to be done and their influence, through the energy of the networks set up, is spreading very rapidly.

May 27 2009 ~ A triumph of hope by the Department of Health over any sensible evidence?

The statement made by the Dept of Health almost every day since the 15th May, would seem to be claiming the credit for containing the spread of A/H1N1 in Britain.
Quoted by the BBC yesterday:
"A Department of Health spokesman said: 'The localised cases of swine flu found in the UK have so far been mild, and our strategy of containing the spread with anti-virals appears to have been effective in reducing symptoms and preventing further spread of infection'...."
One does wonder on what scientific basis they can make this statement. What evidence have they got that in these cases - which have been clinically mild - antivirals have made any difference?
Seasonal influenza wains as the weather warms - without intervention from the Department of Health. The British population has not met this particular H1N1 before and the small clusters we are seeing now are just the sort of local outbreaks of respiratory infection often seen in institutions from time to time - and not usually diagnosed so intensively. There is no evidence whatsoever in this outbreak that the strategy of the DOH has "contained" the course of disease in individuals nor its spread onwards. The repetition of self congratulation in the press releases surely inspires less confidence in the Department - not more.

May 26 2009 ~ Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda, Iceland, Somerfield and Lidl are refusing to support the creation of a supermarket Ombudsman.....Only 48 hours left to sign up

NFU and ActionAid together have placed a whole page ad in today's Times ( advert) Extract:
"... The 11 largest UK supermarkets have just 48 hours left to sign up to the new Ombudsman proposed by the Competition Commission.
... A recent Yougov poll showed that 8 out of 10 shoppers back an Ombudsman.... To date only Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Aldi have said they do not oppose further regulation...
ActionAid and the NFU are calling on all supermarkets to sign up in the next 48 hours. Responsible retailers have nothing to fear from an Ombudsman. So, who will be first to sign?"
Read advert on html page.

Tuesday May 26 2009 ~ Copa-Cogeca calls on EU to help dairy farmers

Copa-Cogeca, the association of European farmers and agri-cooperatives, wants an urgent response from the EU Council and Commission to the current EU dairy market crisis. Farm gate prices have fallen sharply -"putting unbearable strain on farming families".
Padraig Walshe, President of Copa,
"The prices of EU dairy products are lower today than in 1997, while our costs remain very high. Production costs must come down and we farmers are doing our part towards this end. The current crisis, however, is also caused by a strong decline in EU dairy exports. We therefore need immediate help to stimulate the market." (see pdf)
Mr Walshe said that since every second farm in Europe was in some way involved in dairy production, the rural economy will be depressed for a long time if nothing is done.

May 25 2009 ~ "Dozens of lovely cattle with bloodlines going back generations have been destroyed and I have shed many tears of rage and frustration..."

The Farmers Guardian are now running farmers' blogs on life under the TB restrictions. Julia Evans (quoted above) is the first. The second is Pat Bird. She writes,
"...Now other bolt-ons have appeared on Defra's 'don't do' list which is supposed to keep herds free of TB. We don't share boundaries, equipment, access or grazing, but we share badgers. Currently three nearby farms have breakdowns and we are again snarled up in movement restrictions after two reactors in January.
Thirty stores, which should have gone this spring, are grazing on fields which should be feeding cows and their new calves. Others are still housed. We have a surplus of livestock but a deficit of cash flow.
The March test revealed one more reactor, and we test again early June. That will be almost 40 tests in 8 years - which have achieved just what exactly?..."
See Farmers Guardian In spite of the "rage and frustration" both of the first two blogs are written with almost saintlike patience. When one understands what TB on a farm means such cheerful forbearance may appear extraordinary.(TB page)

May 25 2009 ~ 75% rise in the price of oil since February

The Economist's article on the present price of oil is worrying to those who consider the loss of cheap energy to be far more of a real threat than climate change. Oil prices have been rising steadily in recent weeks. The coloured chart in the article shows this starkly. The Economist says:
" ... The explanation is simple. Oilmen are worried because they believe that many of the factors behind the record-breaking ascent last year remain in place. Much of the world's "easy" oil has already been extracted, or is in the hands of nationalist governments that will not allow foreigners to exploit it. That leaves firms to hunt for new reserves in ever more inhospitable and inaccessible places...Worse, new discoveries tend to be smaller than in the past and to run dry faster."
In other words, the Economist is saying what peak-oilers and this website have been warning since 2004. (oil page) Meanwhile we see - as Christopher Booker put it in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday - "mind-boggling sums cited by governments all over the world" to be spent on "measures they wish to see taken to 'stop climate change'... In the US, the latest costing of President Obama's "cap and trade" Bill is $1.9 trillion, a yearly cost to each US family of $4,500.... "
Whatever the future may hold in terms of pandemics, social unrest and terrorism, hunger and meteorological acts of god, the truly prescient - despairing of common sense from above - are getting on fast with preparing for "Transition" As John Papworth has just said to Rob Hopkins "The Transition Network with its focus on local currency, food etc. is the only voice of sanity on the political scene"

May 25 2009 ~ "This is going to be a marathon rather than a sprint..."

H1N1 is spreading faster than official figures suggest. Only about one in 20 cases is being officially reported in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the virus may be 300 times more widespread than health authorities have said, according to John Oxford in yesterday's (Independent) The figures of confirmed cases are giving the wrong impression of the spread of the disease since the symptoms are often so mild that "while the authorities were not hiding cases, they were not hunting very hard for H1N1.."
This morning, Bloomberg quotes Australia's chief medical officer, Jim Bishop, after the 17th confirmed case in Australia and with test results are pending on 41 others: "I think we will see the number rise. This is going to be a marathon rather than a sprint."
An emailer yesterday, after noting John Oxford's words that surveillance was not really happening, commented: "Surprise, surprise! Sounds all too familiar"
(The paragraph above was not intended in any way to dramatise the global situation. As has been gently pointed out to us in the past weeks, the spread of a typed H1N1 is not really any more significant than any other 'flu of low pathogenicity spreading - without particular surveillance each year. Nor is the risk of a return with a vengeance in the Autumn any worse than for any new strain of flu.)

May 24 2009 ~ Austrian trial suggests GM maize affects fertility

Soil Association press release reports that the Austrian Government's call for research found, in a long-term feeding trial, mice fed on GM corn or maize had fewer offspring and lower birth rates.
(More about GM on the GM page.It's become a "for or against" issue but one should surely be grateful for the benign aspects of the technology. However, we are concerned that safety issues and small farmers' distress are conveniently underplayed in the headlong rush by biotech companies for monopolies and mammoth profits.)

May 24 2009 ~- An organic vegetable garden at Number 10?

The Organic businesses have managed to persuade Hilary Benn to propose, at least, an organic vegetable garden at Number 10 to rival that at the White House. They condemned Hilary Benn for voting at EU meetings to stop Germany (and others) from banning Monsanto's GM maize. The Welsh Assembly Government propose to make GM companies liable for any damage their GM crops cause. [2]
Hilary Benn's careful reply was that he "did not oppose the fact that the Welsh government were adopting their own position on this issue", and apparently agreed that claiming there was "no evidence that they are not safe", as he did in the meeting, is not the same as saying that there is evidence that GM crops are safe.

May 23 2009 ~ WHO flu update 36..

Last updated world total from the World Health Organisation (update 36) was 11,168 with the UK total at 112 and Spain 113. In Chile and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere, cases are more worrying since, as Margaret Chan has said, H1N1 in Southern Hemisphere could mix with ordinary flu and mutate in "unpredictable ways" (Reuters)
UPDATE WHO update 37 (Sunday) puts UK total at 117 - but we note that John Oxford has said it's actually nearer 30,000 - at present symptoms may be so mild that those infected don't even notice. (Independent) "the figure, put out by the HPA, is increasingly coming to be seen as unrealistic..."

May 22 2009 ~ "Zero Grazing...Has not further intensification of stock breeding and husbandry been associated with greater and more frequent outbreaks of disease?"

In yesterday's session of oral questions in the House of Commons, we heard from Robert Key, David Taylor and Sir Patrick Cormack about the spectre of zero-grazing: a euphemism which means large numbers of cattle kept indoors and away from pastures all year round. Robert Key spoke of
"fears about the animal welfare implications of zero-grazing . ...."
David Taylor made the alarming statement that the NFU, "has mounted a vigorous rebuttal of criticisms of zero-grazing" and asked,
"....has not further intensification of stock breeding and husbandry been associated with greater and more frequent outbreaks of disease?"
Many will not have found Jane Kennedy's replies reassuring.
Is there no one who can explain to her that,not only has grass-fed beef increased marbling of fat, which melts into the meat during cooking and gives it a better flavour. but also - and vitally important - as Caroline Cranbrook wrote in February,
"Our grazing livestock ... are the guardians of our landscape. The mosaics of small fields, downland, heathland, fells, salt-marshes and most of our wildlife reserves all have to be grazed to maintain their beauty and biodiversity. Without livestock, they would revert either to arable cultivation or become abandoned thickets...."
Read in full at Country Life

May 22 2009 - "... the need to grow much more food": Hilary Benn

During oral questions yesterday, Hilary Benn was asked by Sir Nicholas Winterton "...is not it time that the common agricultural policy and the UK Government's endeavours were directed more at helping United Kingdom farmers?" There was much in similar vein from both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Tim Farron said, "....we have a farm payments system underneath the common agricultural policy that rewards many wealthy estates that do not need the money and wastes £7 million a year on making small payments of sometimes as little as 70p to people who, with all due respect, are not farmers."
Nick Herbert, the Tory Shadow Minister, asked,
"Why did not Britain fight harder against the absurd and costly proposals for electronic sheep tagging?
The Secretary of State left it to Hungary to put the issue on the agenda at a recent Agriculture Council.
He says that the current labelling rules on food are nonsense and need tochange, but he will not introduce a compulsory scheme to stop British consumers being misled and our farmers being let down. When will the Government stand up for Britain's interests in Europe?"
The section can be seen here.

May 22 ~ Georgina Downs' pesticide case still hangs in the balance

FWi "...judges will decide in the coming weeks whether to uphold a High Court ruling made last autumn ....High Court judge, Mr Justice Collins, ruled that DEFRA was not doing enough to assess the potential for harmful effects on human health before authorising new pesticides for use on UK farms. But this week DEFRA fought to have the decision reversed. ..."

May 21 2009 - "Vaccination - the foundation of prevention": Professor Albert Osterhaus on H1N1

ProMed quotes Professor Osterhaus (Head of Virology at the Erasumus Medical Centre in Rotterdam) in this posting of a forum thread at flutrackers (here).
Speaking at at Europe's largest conference on infectious diseases in Helsinki ( European Society of Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases) he said that
the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) is without question one of the most important events of the past 40 years in human influenza.
And he stressed that the current H1N1 threat is a serious one. He outlined the "3 cornerstones of medical preparedness in the face of swine-origin flu: Good surveillance and diagnostics; effective treatment/antiviral therapy; and vaccination, the foundation of prevention".
(WHO report 34 shows the global H1N1 flu total at 10,243, with 102 in the UK )

Thursday May 21 2009 - Birds used as natural pest controllers in the Middle East

Owls and kestrels are being employed as agricultural pest controllers.BBC
".. Many farmers are installing nest boxes to encourage the birds, which hunt the crop-damaging rodents. In Israel, where there is a drive to reduce the use of toxic chemical pesticides, this has been turned into a government-funded national program."
It's nice to read that barn owls in Israel are not very territorial and are helping to carry out pest control in neighbouring states too. Motti Charter, a researcher from Tel Aviv University and team leader of the Global Owl Project in Israel, is quoted: "...the project is really bringing people together... They don't know the national boundaries."

Thursday May 21 2009 - "The problem with the bees is the monoculture situation": Michael Pollan

On this very engaging short video clip, Michael Pollan explains how bees now have to be transported across country to almond crops since, except when they blossom, there is nothing for the bees to eat for 50 weeks of the year. "We need to plant bee habitat where we grow our crops. If you're gonna be growing almonds, then a certain percentage of land needs to be devoted to wildflowers or whatever the bees want." (warmwell page on the bee crisis)

May 20 2009 - "The OIE strongly encourages the effective implementation of these standards"

A news release from the OIE in Paris today:
"...the OIE recalls that culling of animals should always be carried out in accordance with OIE international standards on killing methods for disease control purposes (Volume 1; Section 7; Chapter 7.6 of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code.."
The Second OIE Global Conference on Animal Welfare, actually held in Egypt itself (in Cairo) last October rallied support from all OIE Members and partners for the worldwide implementation of OIE animal welfare standards.

May 20 2009 ~ "Egypt's mass pig kill is quite simply the worst atrocity to farm animals that I have ever seen." Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming

When we telephoned the CIWF this morning , the website news about the atrocity had not yet been updated. It now has.
CIWF's Chief Executive, Philip Lymbery, handed in a protest letter at the Embassy yesterday but didn't apparently have conversation with anyone who could give any assurances. Several of us have been seeking further information direct from the Egyptian Embassy by phone - but eventually received the less than helpful information that no one there was able to comment - while the speaker herself, "didn't know anything". However, we know of other efforts that are being made at a higher level than our own in the hope of bringing some economic as well as moral pressure to bear on the Egyptian government and - while we cannot name those who have taken trouble to express protest - we are extremely grateful and encouraged.

May 19 2009 ~ "What a gut wrenching species we are"

One response sent to warmwell.com from Sabine Zentis:
"... I had a quick glance at the Compassion in World Farming website and I just couldn't stand it. I just had a look at my diary, we slaughter approx. 30 animals a year and we have never ever treated them in such a way. We always make sure that they don't know what's up until the last minute. What a gut wrenching species we are and religion is far from turning people into better humans.
I think I will go out and watch my calves, only thing to keep me sane."
As she implies, there is almost certainly a "religious" side to the extreme ferocity with which these pigs - 400,000 of them, and "unclean" except in the eyes of a minority - are being hauled off to a very slow and agonising death through burning and suffocation. Most of us "just can't stand it" either and a protest must be made.
Roger Ledger, writing from Shrivenham in grief and horror, warns readers not to watch the video link: "I have seen this or something similar and it will break your heart."

May 19 2009 ~ The Egyptian Government's action is cruel beyond measure. Please join protest

Compassion in World Farming warns that their footage of what is happening in Egypt to kill pigs is sickening
"...we have seen hundreds of live pigs being thrown on top of each other into huge dumper trucks. Some must surely suffocate right away or break their limbs. They are then driven to a mass grave, thrown into it and covered in what appears to be quicklime...material is made up of factory wastes. The pigs start to scream because of the searing pain until they die some 30 or 40 minutes later."
CIWF is protesting in person at the Egyptian Embassy in London today and calling on the Ambassador to urge his government to halt the slaughter immediately. and calling on the World Animal Health Organisation (the OIE) to urge its member state, Egypt, to halt the slaughter and to abide by the OIE Guidelines on humane slaughter, which Egypt endorsed in 2005. Please do help. This is the worst case of mass slaughter we have seen. This is no time for an online petition. Please write in person. Suggested content

May 19 2009 ~ "a targeted and humane cull of badgers must be a part of the action necessary to tackle Bovine TB"

The Shadow DEFRA Minister, Nick Herbert MP, has met farmers in Devon at a meeting described by Torridge and West Devon, MP Geoffrey Cox, as "useful and important" in developing a future Conservative government's policy towards the control of bovine TB" More on TB page

May 19 2009 ~ Journalists still making false assumptions about the cause of FMD 2001.

No official announcement about the cause of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 has ever been made. Although it would have been convenient to blame Chinese food (an attempt was made), a stray ham sandwich or the conditions on the Bobby Waugh farm in Northumbria, no such cause was actually seriously accepted (the charges against Bobby Waugh specifically excluded his practices having been the cause of FMD) It is therefore worrying to read - as if it were fact - in today's edition of the Australian North Queensland Register
"Food scraps from a café fed to pigs in the United Kingdom in early 2001 caused the foot and mouth disease outbreak that resulted in the slaughter of 4 million animals on 9500 farms."
The FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, has already archived this article without comment but it is factually inaccurate, not only in its assumption about the origin but also in regard to the numbers killed (in excess of ten million in fact). Long standing foot and mouth lesions were being found in sheep nationally once the disease came to light, suggesting that FMD had been circulating quietly in sheep before the February outcry (Origins page). When lucrative trade in meat depends so much on a country's not having FMD, the temptation to avoid disclosure is very great - a dangerous state of affairs that should be changed. It now seems unlikely that the truth about the origins of 2001 FMD will ever come to light.

May 18 2009 ~"Resolved, That this House has considered the matter of swine flu."

The Secretary of State, Alan Johnson's oral statement on the 14th May
(Extract: "......We do not know enough about the virus yet. It is important to note that countries in the southern hemisphere are entering their flu season, which may mean that the disease gains a firmer global foothold during our summer period. Past flu pandemics in the UK have been light in the summer with an increase in cases in the winter. It is possible, therefore, that there will be a second wave of the virus in the autumn." Hansard
This was followed by quite a lengthy debate on the subject.

May 18 2009 ~ The "Territorial Army" to deal with Foot and Mouth?

We read in today's Independent that
"...The Commons Defence Committee expressed concern at the level of preparation for dealing with threats which had been identified to the UK's sea ports and other critical national infrastructure.... also urged the Ministry of Defence to make greater use of the Territorial Army in dealing with civil emergencies - like floods or foot and mouth - rather than always resorting to regular forces."
While one agrees that coordination and proper integrated planning is essential for the effective running of the country at times of civil emergencies, such a statement is looking back to the terrible days of 2001 when the army was brought in. The panicky, uncoordinated and unsound "kill on suspicion within a 3 km radius" policy meant they were asked to kill often perfectly healthy sheep, lambs, cows, calves, pigs and piglets and others - valuable breeding stock and even pets. The distress of some of these soldiers is documented.
Such a course should never, ever, be contemplated again in a civilised society.
Emergency vaccination and rapid on-site diagnostic advances mean that such scenes belong in the Dark Ages. Never mind "terror from the sea" - the disastrous policy of FMD 2001 was home-grown terror of a sort never to leave the imagination of those who had to witness it.

May 18 2009 ~ With careful selection they are "good-tempered and good honey-producers"

As the bee page reports, bee populations fell by 30 per cent in the winter of 2007-08 DEFRA's £4.3m promised expenditure on research into the decline will be added to by the Co-op who is putting forward a 10-point "Plan Bee". The Independent today looks at the native black bee. which was
".... used for centuries as the honey-producing bee but was replaced by more productive bees from Italy and eastern Europe in the 19th century. The Co-op Group... is putting £10,000 into the project as part of its 10-point Plan Bee. "Native black honeybees are considered by some beekeepers to be more aggressive and poorer at producing honey than foreign strains," the Co-op said. "But over tens of thousands of years, the native black honeybee has evolved thick black hair and a larger body to help keep it warm in a cooler climate, and a shorter breeding season to reflect the UK summer. With careful selection, they are good-tempered and good honey-producers."
(Bee page)

May 18 2009 ~ " if these charges become a reality a lot of businesses will go to the wall".

A message - seen on the Farmtalking forum on the subject of DEFRA's "cost sharing plans" and per capita (including horses) animal charges to farmers - comments:
"The proposed cost per horse of £10.50 per annum in England only (for now) is to be found on Page 22 in the impact assessment (pdf) On Page 20 of this document
• Dairy Cattle annual cost would be                   £4.80
• Beef Cattle                                                     £1.20
• Sheep                                                             £0.09
• Pigs                                                                 £0.82
• Poultry                                                            £0.04
The writer comments that the cost-sharing meetings with DEFRA don't seem to be getting much publicity "...but I do think if these charges become a reality a lot of businesses will go to the wall." Since even animal sanctuaries as well as farms and riding schools will face these extra costs "..as many of us as possible need to book into the meetings to let our views be known." http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/ahws/sharing/pdf/rcs-registration.pdf

May 17 2009 ~ BSE reported in one Canadian cow by CFIA. ProMed feels the report is 'unclear'.

The ProMed posting quotes the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) report of May 15 which blandly states:
"...The age and location of the infected animal are consistent with previous cases detected in Canada..."
but, since none of this information is given, one understands why the ProMed Moderator (TG) comments:
" This animal was born after the ban (BAB) on ruminant products being fed to ruminants, so it is unclear just what is consistent. If the epidemiology points to spontaneous cases in a certain location, then more work is needed to understand why they are occurring."
BSE and its assumed but unproven link with VCJD remains a mystery and one that has caused a great deal of grief and a mountain of regulation. (warmwell page on BSE etc.)
UPDATE The Reuters report here certainly implies that feed was to blame. How could this be so when the cow was born after the feed ban - as so many others have been? There seems to be something of a smoke screen around BSE, hiding the fact that, in reality, very little is known for certain about its causes and effects.

May 17 2009 ~ " It is anticipated that a license application for an FMD vaccine will be filed within a year."

GenVec Inc ".....Our lead vaccine candidate targets the prevention of a major animal health problem, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Development efforts for this program are supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is anticipated that a license application for an FMD vaccine will be filed within a year."

May 17 2009 ~ Every single one of the eight scientific expert witnesses to the EU inquiry in June 2002 said that vaccination must be used in any future outbreak

Robert Uhlig in the Telegraph reported this at the time. Unlike those experienced scientists however, the then government Chief Scientist, David King (now Sir David), went on defending the view that vaccination was not a practical option for controlling the disease. Yet even at the time
• tests to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals were already being used in Turkey, in Bulgaria, in Macedonia, and in Albania for several years before 2001 and cost very little.
• Vaccines against foot and mouth were fully effective in 2001 and sufficient supplies of the correct strain were available at the time of the outbreak.
• Unlike in 2001, no one now pretends there is any risk whatever involved in the eating of products from vaccinated animals.
• (More updated information on the FMD vaccination page)
There is no sound scientific basis to a non vaccination policy. The legitimate concerns of meat producers could be solved at a stroke if the EU were successfully lobbied to change the outdated and unnecessary regulations about FMD vaccinated products. No public inquiry has ever properly corrected the misinformation put about at the time nor correctly examined the origins of the 2001 outbreak.

May 16 2009 ~ policy should be driven by "the best experts from all countries" rather than by the trade interests of individual Member States.

Agd.nl reports (Dutch) that the new head of the Utrecht vet department is calling for EU-wide cooperation of the "best experts". Anton Pijpers thinks the Dutch way of approaching animal disease is better and cheaper than that in many EU countries and says that Holland should export its expertise to neighbouring countries:
"There are more efficient ways of combating animal disease...The Netherlands ...has knowledge that could benefit Europe"
He wants to see an EU wide policy that can come into play at the very beginning of a disease outbreak - a policy driven by "the best experts from all countries" rather than by the trade interests of individual Member States. (Thanks to Ruud Peys for this link)

May 16 2009 ~ A/H1N1 quietly rumbles on.

In spite of the widespread feeling that it has turned into a damp squib, new flu cases increased by over a thousand during the past 24 hours (source).
In the USA, Wyoming, Alaska and West Virginia are the only states not to have reported cases of H1N1 flu. At least one expert in the UK predicts that we will have a world pandemic as a result of spread in the Americas.
The banning of pork in some quarters does seem an extraordinary move however when no one at all seriously thinks that uninfected meat can cause disease (As we said yesterday, DEFRA oddly allows all suspected bTB culled cattle into the food chain). Should not attention be centred on getting birds vaccinated against H5N1 and tracking down foci of infection? There is far more waste of life - including that of children - as a result of H5N1 (even though a new study is now suggesting that the 'human nose is too cold for bird flu...'

May 15 2009 ~ "factory pig farms that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane..."

Whether or not the underlying cause of the A/H1N1 flu will prove to have anything to do with intensive pig farming, the experienced vet, Michael Meredith's comment here seems relevant:
"Epidemics seem to serve an important role in the evolution of human societies - so often we seem to drift "off course" for a period of time until a shocking epidemic wakes us up to the need for a wiser, healthier lifestyle.."
The online petition of Avaaz.org to Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO and Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO
"We call on you to investigate and develop regulations for factory farming in accordance with public health safety standards. Food production must be regulated to ensure global health security."
The petition has achieved 200,000 signatures in just 6 days and can be signed here (where one can also watch the increase in numbers in real time.) Read more.

May 15b 2009 ~ "I can show you which badger setts are infected, where sick badgers are hiding out and trying to survive, and where they die in horrible circumstances."

The Western Morning News quotes a farmer, expert in TB, who has been promised by Nick Herbert (Shadow Minister for DEFRA) that there would be a focused cull of sick badgers as soon as possible if there is a Conservative government within the next year. He also promised that he or Jim Paice would accept Mr Hill's offer. Mr Hill warned, "You'll be really shocked with what you discover."
Telegraph article yesterday spoke of a farmer friend who is
"thinking of giving up, because he can't bear the thought of breeding quality pedigree dairy cows simply to feed them into the maw of the Government's bTB killing machine"
More detail in the latest on the bTB page - including two controversial claims from a farmer correspondent to warmwell.

May 14/15 2009 ~More and more financial problems for vet students mean fewer and fewer vets

The situation for vet students (the majority now are women) is not looking good according to the British Veterinary Association. For home grown would-be vets, the BVA Survey shows there are now all kinds of financial and psychological difficulties - including fee debts running to thousands - with all the resultant stress, depression, and anxiety. The financial 'triple-whammy-effect' mentioned is that students can't even get a paying job during the holidays because of heavy and compulsory extra mural studies.
It seems that only those supported by well-off families will be able to find veterinary training affordable - which goes completely against the current government drive to encourage fair access to the professions.
The BVA position statement, suggests ways in which the current financial provision for veterinary students should be reviewed. And this is vital and urgent. Lack of farm vets threatens not only animal health and welfare but also food safety and public health.

May 14 2009 ~ The Farmers Guardian headline "Morley heads list of ex-Defra Ministers drawn into MP expenses scandal"

Alistair Driver notes the names of other Labour politicians, very often mentioned with some disfavour in warmwell paragraphs since 2001, who have been embarrassed with the recent revelations: Elliot Morley has actually been suspended by his party but the claims made by Margaret Beckett, Ben Bradshaw and David Miliband leave one feeling just as thoughtful. If cynics are tempted to say "politicians are all alike" they might remember that Hilary Benn and several others we could mention have never tried to use MP's privileges to line their own nest.
The BBC today - to the astonishment of many readers, it seems, writes of Mr Morley's "straight-talking manner, commitment to the environment and understanding of animal welfare issues". We remember Mr Morley rather differently.

May 14 2009 ~ Sorry BBC, we do not agree.

Magnus Linklater, put it well in 2002 when recalling the specious arguments against vaccination sent as a round-robin by Mr Morley during the 2001 crisis so that all MPs would support the government's mass killing policies. Mr Morley continued to assert, long after it was apparent to all that the contiguous 3 km cull was most certainly illegal, that no law had been broken by the policy. (The law was hurriedly changed a few months later when the Animal Health Act was pushed through.)
His language seemed rather less than the "straight talking"the BBC remembers when humorously derided by Simon Hoggart here.
As for "understanding of animal welfare"- this would not seem to stretch to cows and sheep. In 2002 Mr Morley expressed irritation that farmers were starting to say that bovine TB seemed to be getting as serious as FMD. As for the disastrous 'research' mix-up that very nearly led to the destruction of the entire British sheep flock, this wry comment from Australia's ABC radio at the time sums up the way those responsible had tried to shrug off the blame for a near disaster. (It is barbed writing - but, like much serious comment, also very funny.)

May 14 2009 ~ Could the development of A/H1N1 have been 'human error'?

As we said yesterday on Twitter, the World Health Organsation has been told by a researcher and virus expert, who had collaborated on research that led to the development of Tamiflu, that the swine flu virus may have been created as a result of human error. The Australian concerned, Adrian Gibbs, intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs used to grow viruses and from which vaccines are then made. He had found the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus to be about three times faster than that of the most closely related swine viruses, suggesting it may not have evolved in pigs.
The World Health Organization is reviewing his study The FAO and OIE will also be looking into the question. Mr Gibbs said he aimed to submit his three-page paper to a medical journal.
However, Nancy Cox, director of the CDC influenza division is quoted on Bloomberg ".. contrary to what the author has found, when we do the comparisons that are most relevant, there is no evidence that this virus was derived by passage in eggs." ( The Bloomberg article gives more detail)

May 13 2009 ~ European biofuels firms buying up land in poor countries

Is national food sovereignty in these countries being threatened by the desire of the rich countries to grab new supplies of energy? The EU Observer worryingly reports today that "Massive tracts of land in Africa, Russia and Ukraine are being bought up or leased by richer countries to ensure access to food and for production of biofuels - a development that could result in unrest as locals begin to lose access over their territory. An area roughly the same size as the amount of farmland in Germany is in play and at a cost of tens of billions of euros."
(A concerned email from Roger sums up what many feel.)

May 13 2009 ~ Three Additional Cases of Influenza A (H1N1) Confirmed. UK Total Case Count Rises to 68

And we hear that the CDC's PCR diagnostic rapid test kit to detect H1N1 has now been not only been distributed to all states in the U.S. (see below) and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico but are also being shipped internationally as well. "This, combined with ongoing monitoring through Flu View should provide a fuller picture of the burden of disease in the United States over time" says the CDC.

May 12 2009 ~".... the industrialisation of those beautiful upland landscapes throughout the United Kingdom that attract visitors from all over the world"

Lord Reay's speech last week contained the following thought-provoking words about the cost - in all senses of the word - of windpower:
"... The current fashionable pursuit of so-called renewable energy must rank as one of the most lunatic policies ever adopted ..
.. the percentage of what would be produced by turbines over a year if running at full capacity, even of offshore wind turbines - barely rises above 27 per cent.... this absence of wind is very likely to coincide with periods of extreme cold, or, in the summer, extreme heat, when electricity demand surges.....
.... per delivered megawatt the capital cost of wind is three to five times the cost of nuclear, 10 times the cost of gas and 15 times the cost of coal... ."
It is useful to read the whole speech - perhaps the whole debate. See also Windpower page

May 12 2009 ~ Eight years ago to the day - have any lessons been learned?

The Guardian May 12 2001:
"Michael Tas, Maff director of disposal operations... admitted that a method of confirming a case of foot and mouth within two or three hours, which had been pioneered in the US, had not been looked at because Maff did not have the time or the scientists to look at it properly. His comments came as Maff admitted that nearly a third of the animals slaughtered had later proved negative in tests. "The institute of animal health in Pirbright, Surrey, was having to deal with 60,000 samples a week. They had no space and no time and no spare scientists...."...."
Yet, the rapid tests were used in the same year in Uruguay " where they performed splendidly on farm in a remote area." It may be remembered too that an offer from the private sector to help with sample testing was dismissed. (as here) . Are things any better now?

May 11 2009 ~ "This bill will phase-out pig gestation crates, veal crates and hen battery cages by 2015"

The New York State Assembly considers a bill today (Bill No. A08163) which refers to the
"... confinement of animals for food producing purposes; prohibits any person to tether or confine any pig during pregnancy, calf raised for veal, or egg-laying hen who is kept on a farm for all or the majority of any day in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up and fully extending it's limbs and turning around freely; establishes that commission of such crime shall constitute a class A misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for a period not to exceed one year and/or fine not to exceed $1,000" See /assembly.state.ny.us
It seems incredible that any human whose imagination is not impaired could oppose such a measure - but we shall see. The bill has been referred to the Agriculture Committee, where it awaits a vote.

May 11 2009 ~ Transition, resilience - and a day at Cirencester in June on "Transition Farms"

The Transition Farms Seminar will look at the options for local agriculture and food production after fossil fuels have run out
"....95% of our food is dependent on oil through energy-intensive agriculture and food supply chains, from fertiliser and fuel to distribution and retailing - resulting in food prices and availability being directly affected by oil prices..."
More detail from www.nationalrural.org - and recent posts on Transition and Food Security

May 11 2009 ~ FAO plan to keep foot and mouth out of Europe

ABC Rural reports very briefly on a plan to stop Foot-and-Mouth disease spreading to Europe which has been agreed on by the FAO
"...14 Middle Eastern and West Asian countries including Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon are most affected ... The plan involves coordinating the different agencies and authorities which control the disease, to prevent it moving further west.... In Iraq, where the war has affected veterinary services, the Food and Agriculture Organisation is investing about $14 million to restore animal health programs."
It is hard to fathom how a continuing ban on vaccination within the EU can be justified - except on grounds of EU trade - when the FAO seeks to coordinate efforts, including vaccination, outside the borders. In effect these countries are vaccinating on the EU's behalf because the EU wants to preserve its privileged but scientifically unjustifiable position. And as we have seen, the losers in an outbreak here, apart from the hapless animals themselves, are livestock owners many of whom do not send live animals abroad and the entire rural community.

May 11 2009 ~ Rapid RT-PCR test kits now being used all across America to differentiate flu virus strain

In America, confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, although mild, are nevertheless multiplying. (WHO update 24 puts US cases at 2254 but has still not updated UK figures.)
RT-PCR kits, determining what kind of virus the patient has within two to three hours, are now being used in all 50 states - ironically, without the official approval that has caused such delay in the field of animal health. Bloomberg reported last week that : "Laboratories.... are receiving test kits from the CDC to look for the markers of swine flu."
An email from the US asks warmwell: "They're not waiting for official approval before using the kits here. What's happening in the UK?"
Does anyone know? Informed comment gratefully received by email.
More on rapid diagnostic kits
BBC today "...the Health Protection Agency stressed that because of the time taken to diagnose swine flu, all 10 newly-confirmed patients may already have recovered and be symptom-free."

Monday May 11 2009 ~ Producing flu vaccine: "There's a reason why not a lot of (companies) want to do this.."

An Indiana Star article explains how reluctant vaccine manufacturers are to make flu vaccine: there are no big financial opportunities in it.
"... it's hard to predict how many people will get flu shots because nobody knows each year how bad a flu season will be... governments would have to guarantee the vaccine would be bought... it couldn't be done until the new version gets safety testing.."
The article is worth reading in full.

May 10/11 2009 ~ The elements conspire against the warmists

With so many billions being invested - and made - because of the theory that man has caused climate change, it is thought-provoking to read in the Sunday Telegraph that "an international team of scientists has used the latest electro-magnetic induction equipment to discover that the Arctic ice is in fact "twice as thick" as they had expected."

May 10/11 2009 ~ The final straw for sheep farmers?

www.yourcanterbury.co.uk reports that farmers taking part in DEFRA's consultation say sheep tagging rules really must be changed to stop farmers giving up - and that some of them "believe their views are likely to fall on deaf ears." Alan West, secretary of the Romney Sheep Breeders' Society, is quoted:
"... Defra is not renowned for sticking its head above the parapet. If the regulations stay as there are, there will be some farmers who say enough is enough. What with the problems in the past with foot-and-mouth and bluetongue, this could end up being the final straw."
Recent posts on sheep tagging.

10 May 2009 ~ Today's H1N1 map shows flu cases in the Southern Hemisphere

The map can be seen here: www.who.int (although it fails to note that the total in the UK has now risen to 48.) www.ajc.com reports:
"... swine flu has extended its spread in the Southern hemisphere, where flu season is just beginning. Argentina and Brazil have now confirmed their first cases of swine flu, joining Colombia as South American nations reporting infections.."
The fact that there are confirmed cases in the Southern hemisphere seems potentially serious.

May 10 2009 ~ Vaccine meeting on May 14

Whether the virus fizzles out at the end of the Northern Hemisphere's flu season or, spreading in the Southern Hemisphere then comes back north in a nastier form, depends in part - according to Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - "on whether its traits hold steady, mutate, or mingle with the deadly H5N1 bird flu circulating in Asia", reports Bloomberg (free registration needed to retrieve article) , adding that a WHO panel will meet on May 14 "to decide whether drugmakers should begin producing hundreds of millions of doses of a vaccine against the new illness."

10 May 2009 ~ "Perhaps our Government would have done better to send a leaflet to itself".

Comment from Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph on the government's swine flu advice.
(I thought their TV advert was understated and dramatic with its use of colour and monochrome - until I realised the sound was off. Then, for me at least, the insistent voice-over quite spoiled the effect.)
The Sunday Telegraph article begins, however, with a summary of what Marta Andreasen faced when she was appointed to sort out the EU's accounts. Her book on EU, Brussels Laid Bare is published tomorrow. It concerns her attempts to put things right - and the subsequent and increasing hostility and threats: "...her life descended into a five-year nightmare, as she faced one tribunal or court after another, all finding her wholly to blame," writes Christopher Booker.)

10 May 2009 ~ Warmwell Twitters

Ultra-short updates - when appropriate - will be posted on Twitter for an experimental period.

Sunday 10 May 2009 ~ "best course of action for the welfare of the herd" was to kill 500 of them

The huge pig farm in central Alberta where pigs were found to be infected with the new swine flu virus was the scene of a mass killing of pigs on Friday - not because of the virus, but because "the pens had reached maximum capacity". This will recall the so-called "welfare culls" of the dark days of Foot and Mouth 2001 when animals were in such distress from lack of food or overcrowding that it seemed "kinder" to kill them. Until animals are kept in conditions where they can live without distress in return for the animal 'products' we take, there will be health and stress problems that can easily rebound on human beings.
( Circumstantial evidence is the only proof that the carpenter at present being blamed actually did infect the Alberta pigherd. Source)

Saturday May 9 2009 ~ H1N1 The WHO's latest flu tally puts the number of confirmed infections at 3440 cases worldwide in 29 countries

In the United States cases continue to increase - today 1,639: Yesterday's total in the US was 896. WHO's update 23 reports cases in the UK as 34 - but health officials have confirmed eight new cases of swine flu today (BBC), bringing the UK national total to 47. Twenty nine countries have officially reported 3440 cases of the influenza.

May 8 2009 ~ "the converging crises of the 21st Century"

On Wednesday 6 May, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas met to consider "How should we respond to the converging crises of the 21st Century?" The speaker was Prof. Thomas Homer-Dixon (author of 'The Upside of Down' and 'The Ingenuity Gap') - and there are now some very interesting sound or powerpoint files that can be downloaded from the www.appgopo.org.uk website by interested members of the public. "Resilience" is certainly becoming an important concept.

May 8 2009 ~ GM crops fail massively

The seedless cobs (three varieties) show no sign of disease from the outside. See www.digitaljournal.com
"South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation...Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems..."
Recent posting on warmwell.com's page about Agrobiotech production.

May 8 2009 ~ 27% of broilers suffer from painful lameness

Peter Stevenson from Compassion in World Farming was very clear on this morning's Farming Today. 90% of chicken sold in the UK is still intensively produced and he was quick to squash any claim that welfare standards are any higher here than elsewhere. The Northern Irish poultry producer, who sounded a pleasant man, gave the usual answer - we are only producing what the consumer wants..etc etc.
CIWF's quiet dismay about the exploitation of farm animals has won universal respect for its factual approach. The CIWF chicken page is here - and it may well make those prepared to read it feel revulsion for certain "farming" methods. (Many warmwell readers will, of course, already know at first hand how chickens that are cared for properly are delightful as well as productive. Such readers will be wholly behind the Chicken Out! campaign which today handed over to the government a giant postcard signed on behalf of more than 150,000 supporters and over 200 supportive MPs who want to take the welfare of chickens seriously - through UK law.)

Friday May 8 2009 ~ H1N1 "still serious gaps in the knowledge about the virus"

Following some confusion about whether pork is safe to eat , an updated joint statement from the FAO, OIE, and World Health Organization intending to reassure the public about pork has been quoted on ProMed. Extract:
".... Influenza viruses are not known to be transmissible to people through eating processed pork or other food products derived from pigs... Pork and pork products, handled in accordance with good hygienic practices recommended by the WHO, Codex Alimentarius Commission, and the OIE, will not be a source of infection..."
The moderator (AS) sounds a note of caution: "... Since there are still serious gaps in the knowledge about the virus, its epidemiology and pathogenicity, communicating clear, unanimously accepted and scientifically-based information and advice to the public is complex..." The posting is best read in full
The WHO's update 20 reports that
"...24 countries have officially reported 2371 cases .. Mexico has reported 1112 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 42 deaths. The United States has reported 896 laboratory confirmed human cases, including two deaths. the United Kingdom (32)..."

May 7 2009 ~ TB has been found in several pigs in Cornwall over the past six months.

The Farmers Guardian quotes one unfortunate outdoor pig farmer whose pig was confirmed with bTB after tests following the discovery of head lesions:
"These pigs had only been in woodland which is totally fenced in....Wildlife infection is the only thing it can be. I think I was the fourth case in Cornwall in the past six months and my concern is ... it is going to take hold in outdoor pigs..."
According to DEFRA there were 10 confirmed cases in pigs across England in 2008 and it was also found in domestic cats, dogs, llamas, alpacas, deer, goats and sheep last year. A veterinary nurse from Cornwall also contracted bTB. The FG included this ominous sentence from DEFRA: "We have legal powers to place any suspect animals under TB movement restrictions... The Government will become involved if there is a threat to cattle..."..but many are questioning just how effective Government involvement has been when the disease is ever more rampant in the UK and other species are now falling victim to bTB. UPDATE The front page of Friday (May 8) Western Morning News: Massive Leap in Animal TB cases. See WMN

May 7 2009 ~ WHO is considering an overhaul of its pandemic ratings system

Officials at the World Health organisation headquarters in Geneva said they were discussing changes to the six-point scale to make clear in the future the gravity of the threat posed by a new virus. See FT

May 7 2009 ~ H1N1: 28 confirmed cases in England and four in Scotland.

The Independent
"... A further 390 suspected cases of the H1N1 virus are being investigated. Across the globe, more than 1,658 cases have been confirmed and 44 people have died - 42 in Mexico and two in the US. In America, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention increased the number of confirmed cases from 403 to 642, including the two deaths."
The World Health Organisation says at least two injections will be needed to protect against both the seasonal form of flu and the H1N1 strain and will ask drug companies to start producing swine flu vaccine once they finish making seasonal flu jabs.
Meanwhile, ProMed calls the WAHID report on the affected pigs inthe Alberta farm
"....an absolutely fascinating report as it clearly indicates how the proverbial zoonotic bridge is a 2-lane highway. Humans and animals can interface and transmit disease through many varied and unpredictable scenarios...."
read ProMed

May 7 2009 ~ A 'dating agency' for landowners looking for livestock to graze their land and for livestock keepers who need pasture

Like Manchester's giant allotment idea and LandShare, here is another cheering, timely and excellent idea. Natural England and the East of England's Grazing Forum have introduced the Grazing Exchange - and the website explains its service which is completely free of charge and open to everyone. (Read in full)
The grazing livestock industry may be small and very fragmented in the Eastern Region, but its importance is disproportionate to the numbers of animals involved - since it is these animals which not only safeguard the landscape and its biodiversity but also underpin the local food chain, particularly farmers markets, farm shops, village shops, pubs, hotels, and so on.

May 6 2009 ~ Jane Kennedy: "this isolated, short-term trial involving wild boar took place at a time when foot and mouth ..and other exotic diseases were not present in Great Britain"

Mark Harper asked what precautions the Food and Environment Research Agency have put in place "to prevent the spread of disease among wild boar populations which are fed meat." (Hansard May 5.) Jane Kennedy replied:
" ...Although the feeding of animal by-products to animals is a potential route of transmission...this isolated, short-term trial involving wild boar took place at a time when foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other exotic diseases were not present in GB. As such, DEFRA is confident that this particular activity did not increase the risk of introducing FMD or other exotic disease..."
One might wonder, given DEFRA's confidence that feeding meat carries no disease risk at all at a time when FMD is not present, why the feeding of meat is "not sanctioned in farming or domestic feeding practice" at such times. The deliberate feeding of meat happened in January - although other non- meat delicacies could have been created without the Foresters getting so alarmed and angry at what they saw as dual standards of safety.
The research, it seems, aims to test "a species-specific method for delivering a contraceptive to wild boar"(see DEFRA statement below) However, we are reliably informed that no hormonal contraceptive or pituitary releasing hormone yet exists that is species specific - so there may well be a risk of affecting the mixed mammalian species within the Forest of Dean. How the different dosage to which they will be exposed will affect the individual boar or any other species is unknown.

May 6 2009 ~ "Frighteningly absurd"..... "meat should never ever have been included in the trial. It should never have been considered as a possibility"

One emailer writing of the wild boar experiment in the Forest of Dean is unequivocal:
What seems particularly illogical is that they were looking at different alternatives for their contraceptive bait, which means they were considring that meat could be a viable medium for the bait.
But meat should never ever have been included in the trial. It should never have been considered as a possibility.
Apart from the obvious Animal By-Product regulations and the concerns on which they were based, there would be no guarantee that regular baiting with meat either in trial conditions or in the field could be safe. What would the safeguards be?
The whole thing is frighteningly absurd. It would be interesting to know the names of the scientists involved in this silly and dangerous experiment."

May 6 2009 ~"We know how cavalier DEFRA is with money and it seems vital that we should have some control, since it is our money that will be spent "

www.farminguk.com quotes the chairman of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association, Tom Vesey about the cost sharing consultation launched last month.
Peter Kendall's latest remarks are also quoted by www.farminguk.com He says farmers are "dismayed by Defra's proposals and many have little confidence in Defra on animal health issues" He criticises DEFRA's present management of the budget for animal health, adding,
"our view is backed by the National Audit Office" (see below) "I believe that a new independent body for animal health could deliver a more proportionate and effective animal health policy. However, it must be a genuine partnership..."
Read in full and our recent postings on cost-sharing The website www.pigworld.co.uk has issued a useful pdf file summarising DEFRA's proposals Brief description of the main proposals

May 6 2009 ~ Flu origin? What is of more importance is any gene changes which increase virulence.

Marie Gramer, who runs a reference collection of swine flu viruses at the University of Minnesota in St Paul, was quoted in the New Scientist yesterday.
"...While triple reassortants are common in North American swine, the novel H1N1 may well have first appeared in pigs elsewhere - Mexico seems an obvious possibility, as the known first human cases emerged in there. Given international movements of both pigs and people, the virus could have emerged wherever the North American reassortants have travelled. It might even have first arisen in people.
There is also a chance that it first arose on a US pig farm, but was never sent for analysis because it caused only mild disease. "I don't think it's possible to say,"..."
What is vitally important - and now possible, thanks to modern advances - is to keep an eye on what happens to the virus genetically. That will allow the real experts to track, as (or if) they emerge, any genetic factors which could increase virulence, turning this "mild" flu into something much more to be feared.

May 6 2009 ~ "One World, One Health" said the OIE in January....but global sickness looks ever more likely

Bernard Vallat in his OIE editorial says,
"The new concept, "One World, One Health", has recently appeared, indicating that the world has suddenly woken up to the link between animal diseases and public health. And about time too! ...
....We can only hope that the discussions currently taking place on the concept "One World, One Health" will eventually lead all countries to give a firm commitment to making their animal health situation transparent and setting up mechanisms for the early detection of disease outbreaks..."
It is alarming to see a new strain of Foot and Mouth disease in Iraq that may well be impervious to present vaccines ( Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this worrying link) UPDATE Ruth Watkins writes that "there are one or two new FMD serotypes emerging possibly from India and Pakistan, with multiple infections and carriage of FMD in buffalo and other bovines, from complex recombinations and rearrangements of the FMD RNA genome and these have been emerging in Iraq and Iran. It is not surprising that such events take place, and not particularly onerous to make a new vaccine to a new serotype if required using the tried and tested methods."

May 6 2009 ~ How right was Professor Fred Brown when he advised years ago that FMD could be eradicated if there were a global policy.

It does seem that until countries cooperate with their technologies and expertise for both human and animal health (rather than use animal health as a basis for protectionism or a political weapon) we are in ever increasing danger from virus mutation. As for rapid and on-site diagnosis, our attention has been drawn to an academic paper that oddly claimed that in 2007 "For the first time, real-time RT-PCR results were used to recognize preclinical FMD in a cattle herd". This is simply not true - as our page on rapid diagnosis will clearly show.

May 6 2009 ~ WHO update 16 - Now 27 cases in the UK

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_05_05a/en/index.html "As of 16:00 GMT, 5 May 2009, 21 countries have officially reported 1490 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.
Mexico has reported 822 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 29 deaths. The United States has reported 403 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (140), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Colombia (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (4), Germany (9), Ireland (1), Israel (4), Italy (5), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (6), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (2), Spain (57), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (27)...."

Wednesday May 6 2009 ~ DEFRA hopes to raise £24 million a year from the headage levy on pigs, cows and sheep

The FT:
"...Defra hopes to raise £24m a year from farmers to contribute to a new animal health body, which would shave costs from the department's budget to deal with diseases such as foot-and-mouth or bluetongue.."
Peter Kendall considers this "unfair" until security at borders (for which farmers cannot possibly be responsible) is tightened. As for the insurance DEFRA thinks farmers can take out, the FT reports that insurers consider this "impractical".

May 5 2009 ~ H1N1 in Southern Hemisphere countries: " We are in a critical phase."

Julian Tang, consultant with the Division of Microbiology at National University Hospital in Singapore, is quoted today by Reuters. He explains that although so far: "we have not seen any particular virulence with this virus, it can be a candidate for reassortment with other potentially more virulent strains of influenza, such as avian H5N1." The new H1N1 flu virus is expected to surge in the southern hemisphere when the winter season begins. Bill Rawlinson, head of virology at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney is quoted:
" It does appear mild but every year in Australia, we have 1,500 to 3,000 deaths due to flu. When you get a new strain...you do see an excess of deaths due to new strains because people don't have immunity."
Raina MacIntyre, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at the University of New South Wales, is also quoted as saying, "We are definitely more at risk given we are coming into our winter, when influenza transmission is intensified ... we are in a critical phase right now." Read full article Another interesting article today is Reuters' ( "What happens if swine flu goes away?")

May 5 2009 ~ Between June 24-26, 2009 the first World Congress for the Eradication of FMD, will be held in Paraguay.

More than 150 scientists and 600 participants from around the world will be attending. (Source in Spanish) Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link)

May 5 2009 ~ OIE comments on the findings of "A/H1N1" in pigs in Canada

"... The Canadian Veterinary Services decided immediately to put the farm under quarantine. The sampled pigs tested positive to the"A/H1N1 virus". It was a mild disease and the pigs have now recovered... the OIE is waiting for the results of scientific experiments aimed to determine the susceptibility of different animal species vs the "A/H1N1" isolated in infected humans..." Read in full

May 5 2009 ~ EU may face a new energy crisis

(Bloomberg) "Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin warned that the European Union may face a new energy crisis because of risks associated with oil-and-gas transit via Ukraine..."

May 5 2009 ~ "an animal virus like swine flu is a completely predictable (and was a widely predicted) response to our modern horribly cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems."

The Huffington Post today asks:
".... Are we really so addicted to eating meat (even as we demand that meat be inexpensive, meat processors want to make more money, which means faster, meaner ways of raising and slaughtering animals for food) that we're willing to risk the millions who could die from such mutating viruses? Has our desire for gustatory pleasure at any cost pushed us into terrible consequences as we creep toward an ugly future? The "big one" may not be this particular version of the flu, but scientists say we have not seen the last of H1N1; not by a long shot.
...No one is glad for the swine flu or the economic meltdown, but maybe these great calamities are the push we needed to re-boot and start afresh. We are a world out of balance, to be sure. .."
Read in full

Tuesday May 5 2009 ~ As of 18:00 GMT last night, 21 countries have officially reported 1085 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.

WHO report (14)
"Mexico has reported 590 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 25 deaths. The United States has reported 286 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (101), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa Rica (1), Colombia (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (4), Germany (8), Ireland (1), Israel (4), Italy (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (6), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (54), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (18)."
See Promed for updates.
(In Toronto a youngster who came down with the H1N1 virus in Alberta has now become severely ill. It's the first time since the outbreak came to Canada that anyone has experienced anything but mild symptoms, and there is no evidence that the child has been to Mexico. Source)

May 4 2009 ~ "... nine meals from anarchy"

As media interest in H1N1 slowly recedes, a letter in the Irish Times reminds us of the risks of a global pandemic really happening:
"... we have become blind to the risks of a systemic failure... ...there is probably not more than three days' food supply available in-system, a result of our super-efficient, just-in-time delivery models.... .. as urban populations rise, industrialised agriculture expands, and growing pressure is placed upon our eco-system..."
The writer concludes that the "peak and decline in global oil production" makes the risk of a supply chain collapse even more likely and urges everyone, as a matter of urgency, to "reassess our vulnerabilities and how we manage risk". (See also warmwell pages on food security and the Transition Towns initiative.)

May 4 2009 ~ "If lessons are learned they are the wrong lessons"

Hilary Peters sends this heartfelt email:
"We treat our animals so badly that sensitive people can't bear it at all, so badly that they are susceptible to disease.… Then when we think we might catch their diseases, we treat them even worse. There's such a simple solution but we are looking in the wrong direction. All we have to do is treat animals well. Will we notice this before we destroy our animals our planet and ourselves? Highly improbable."
Once again we feel we must quote Alan Bennett, writing about the foot and mouth slaughter in (Untold Stories p293)
"In fifty years' time I am sure that we will not handle animals the way we do now - and to succeeding generations our behaviour will seem as barbarous as bear baiting...."
Like Hilary, however, can only trust that there will be "succeeding generations". If there are, they will have learned to recognise the self destructiveness inherent in our barbarity.

Monday May 4 2009 ~ WHO latest update on H1N1

Bearing in mind the view that we may, after all, be going to see a pandemic as a result of the flu reaching poorer Southern Hemisphere countries such as Costa Rica and Columbia (See WHO update 13)- just beginning their flu season - we note the WHO latest case count (updated):
"...20 countries have officially reported 985 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.
Mexico has reported 590 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 25 deaths. The higher number of cases from Mexico reflects ongoing testing of previously collected specimens. The United States has reported 226 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (85), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa Rica (1), Colombia (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (2), Germany (8), Ireland (1), Israel (3), Italy (1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (40), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (15).
There is no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. ..."
See Promed for updates

Sunday May 3 2009 ~ Police in Egypt have been using tear gas against people resisting the killing of their pigs

Scenes that recall the dark days of 2001 in the UK are taking place in Egypt. Livestock owners, many of whom knew a cull of their healthy animals was unnecessary, were nevetheless shouldered out of the way by the extraordinarily inept policy of contiguous killing in 2001 - and now, in a move the United Nations says is "a real mistake" , Egypt's 300,000 to 400,000 pigs, not infected by swine flu, are to be summarily killed. Police are apparently preventing residents from moving pigs away from their neighbourhood to hide them from officials seeking to enforce a cull. Pigs are mainly raised by the Christian minority and it is hardly surprising that some people suspect that the Egyptian government's decision is politically motivated rather than from a misguided but genuine concern for public health. See Financial Times

May 3 2009 ~ H1N1 over-reaction? Margaret Chan says the flu could return "with a vengeance"

The head of the World Health Organisation has hit back at critics who have accused the WHO of an over-reaction to the flu crisis, warning that it may return "with a vengeance" in the months ahead. She told the Financial Times that the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere meant an initial outbreak could be milder but then a second wave more lethal - as happened in 1918. See FT
Costa Rica and Columbia however are now entering their flu period and cases there have been confirmed today. This bodes ill for the liklihood of a pandemic.

May 3 2009 ~ A Mexican worker may have infected Canadian pigs with H1N1 - an "important new development" says ProMed

This news, suggested by the BBC..
"...Canada has announced that a herd of pigs has tested positive for swine flu.
A senior agriculture official told a news conference that the pigs may have been infected by a farm worker who fell ill after returning from Mexico last month."
.. is repeated by the Chinese news agency news.xinhuanet.com which reports that this has been the first time that the new H1N1 flu virus has been found in pigs. They are from a farm in the western province of Alberta: "Genetic testing shows the pigs in Alberta were infected with the same virus responsible for cases in Mexico and other countries around the world."
UPDATE ProMed also covers this report. We read from the quoted article that all the pigs are recovering or have recovered and that "The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote." The moderator, however, says that this "important new development poses "several key important questions which ProMED-mail hopes will be answered shortly...As always, with the influenza virus, answers to these questions will inevitably generate new questions but the sooner we get some of the basic facts out, the better we can understand this important new development."

May 3 2009 ~"... flies were recognised as causal factor in the respiratory disease that was affecting the locals at that time"

We are told that some time ago many swarms of flies invaded La Gloria from the waste manure lagoons next to the industrial pig units. Health officials had to come and spray on a big scale as the flies were recognised as causal factor in the respiratory disease that was affecting the locals at that time. An emailer sends links including one to a paper by an international team of scientists - including Jay Graham and Ellen Silbergeld of Johns Hopkins - published in the May-June 2008 Public Health Reports.pointing to a concrete example of flies acting as a flu vector.

May 3 2009 ~ Sows at La Gloria live with their piglets in cages so small that they have room to lie down but not turn around

The Mail on Sunday quotes Dr Michael Greger, director of public health and agriculture at the US Humane Society
"There is evidence that flies landing on animal waste can spread the flu virus for miles around. Pig waste lagoons are a great danger to human health. There are many ways - the wind for example - that illness can be spread from them. In the case of this current swine flu, the virus could easily escape from factory farm facilities.
Sows at weaning farms such as Site 8-2 live with their piglets in cages so small that they have room to lie down but not turn around, a company spokesman said. They stand on grates over a water-filled pit. Once a week, the urine and manure is flushed into the lagoon, which has a clay lining that the company says prevents any seepage."
Read the article which also quotes Professor Hugh Pennington.

Saturday May 2 2009 ~ "It isn't the pig factory smells... but commercial units with hundreds and thousands of pigs are sufficiently large to provide the "immune driven mutation.." writes Dr Ruth Watkins

In response to the editorial on factory farming and swine flu in the New Scientist, Dr Ruth Watkins (virologist and farmer) writes in this email
"A molecular test for RNA, such as Dr Breeze's test, would be the best way of finding what you do not know might be there, Especially in a virus as variable as influenza. The new H1N1 2009 human virus must have been in swine somewhere, it would seem from the sequencing and analysis of the genetic data that it is there somewhere.."
She writes that the commercial units with hundreds and thousands of pigs are sufficiently large to provide the "immune driven mutation" since the newly reassorted virus has to compete with the original swine virus and then exit the pig in sufficient quantity to be infectious, be competent to infect a new host, and to compete with other prevalent influenza viruses. Even so, she suggests that the likely outcome is that the virus then fizzles out. (Read in full link mended- apologies)
As for the confusion about the origin of the virus and whether it really is a triple reassortant, Andrew Rambaut's work suggests strongly that although this is now "a human flu in that it is spreading from person to person .. it is clear from the analyses here and elsewhere that it has its immediate origins in swine flu."

May 2 2009 ~ H1N1 From ProMed summary of the current situation

ProMed "... as of 1 May 2009 there have been a total of 367 cases and 10 deaths due to influenza A (H1N1) infection officially confirmed coming from 13 countries, up from 257 confirmed cases and 9 deaths from 11 countries yesterday (30 Apr 2009). .... According to newswires, France and South Korea have confirmed cases, all with history of travel to Mexico. Countries with contact cases (those without a history of travel to a known "infected" country, and known contact with other H1N1 cases) include the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom (Scotland), and Germany."

May 1 2009 ~ Private Eye sums it up....

The front cover reminds us that there are worse things than swine flu...

May 1 2009 ~ "The Department of Defense can fast track a reagent within hours for use in hand held satellite linked PCR device..."

On the subject of the inability of states to conduct on site testing for pandemic H1N1, Stephen M. Apatow, Founder, Director of Research and Development Pathobiologics International, has written a memo mentioning the rapid diagnostic kit by which the Department of Defense can fast track a reagent within hours.
"This molecular diagnostics technology has existed for years but has not yet reached the grassroots physician/veterinarian level."
Without validated tests, he says, there is a wait of 2-3 days because samples need to be shipped to the CDC lab in Atlanta. He calls this "a public health infrastructure disgrace" He recalls in the midst of a previous WHO pandemic level 5 scenario,
"..Roger Breeze did the PCR presentation at this meeting and my paper "Agricultural Security and Emergency Preparedness: Protecting One of America's Infrastructures" was a reference point for agricultural security. .."
Link to Humanitarian Resources Institute memo.

May 1 2009 ~ Rapid diagnostic test: "this identifies the current H1 and future changes in that target that have not yet evolved"

Meanwhile, Dr Breeze has given warmwell.com permission to quote from a letter whose subject concerns the ability of the TessArray® RPM-Flu assay to detect the current H1N1 flu accurately and fast. Dr Breeze comments:
"This technology provides the actual sequence of up to 1500 bases of the nucelic acid target so if the H1 target mutates this test tells you the mutation directly. It is biosafety level 2 and does not require Biosafety level 3 containment because no virus is grown."
Extracts from the letter The language is highly technical - but we read that TessArae makes the following offer to recipients of the letter:
"If you want to analyze clinical specimens with suspected 2009 outbreak swine flu, we are available to support your use of the TessArray RPM-Flu 3.1 assay.
If you are willing and able to share your assay results with the community, then we are willing to replace a few of your TessArray RPM-Flu 3.1 assay kits at no charge."
The key point - as Roger Breeze makes clear- is that this rapid diagnosis kit "identifies the current H1 and future changes in that target that have not yet evolved."

May 1 2009 ~ "If you want to get money out of government, go and ask government for money for your research," says Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins (his article in yesterday's Guardian expresses frustration at how irresponsible it is of scientists as well as journalists to hype the flu scare) was in adversarial conversation with the Professor of Virology at Barts, John Oxford, on the Today Programme. Listen again to the interview
John Oxford defends the way scientists turn to the media by using BSE/CJD as an example of where there should have been more hype: "I told my children not to eat beef...". An unfortunate choice... " An industry was almost destroyed!" said Simon Jenkins, reminding him that "We're still paying the price of that scare in the closure of abattoirs everywhere." Why are the scientists not screaming about the 1000 people who die every week from MRSA and C difficile he asks, and the thousand children a day dying of malaria?
Listening to the replies to this one feels it was just as well they were speaking from different rooms. The thrust of Simon Jenkins' argument is that "scaring the public as a way of getting money out of the government is irresponsible". Listen Again

May 1 2009 ~ "Factory farms are not biosecure at all."

Johann Hari in the Independent quotes Dr Ellen Silbergeld, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins University: "People are going in and out all the time. If you stand a few miles down-wind from a factory farm, you can pick up the pathogens easily. And manure from these farms isn't always disposed of.."
He concludes
"Of course, agribusinesses is desperate to deny all this is happening: their bottom line depends on keeping this model on its shaky trotters. But once you factor in the cost of all these diseases and pandemics, cheap meat suddenly looks like an illusion. ... we need to shut down these virus factories - before they shut down even more human lives."
Read in full

May 1 2009 ~ " it is unclear whether or not anybody has actually tested the pigs and workers at Granjas Carroll"

Blogs are calling upon mainstream media for responsible investigation into the potential role of CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) We read on www.cjr.org
"Major news outlets have tentatively begun to do just that over the last two days...La Gloria is located close to a million-pig farm, Granjas Carroll, which is partly owned by Smithfield ... So far, however, there is no evidence of a direct connection between the farm and the swine flu virus. But there are reasons to both suspect and doubt that such a connection exists... so far, authorities have yet to find an infected pig in Mexico, let alone at the Granjas Carroll farm. None of the pig farm's workers appears to be sick, either..... it is unclear whether or not anybody has actually tested the pigs and workers at Granjas Carroll...Clearly, it is too early to make bold pronouncements about CAFOs' role in abetting the epidemic ...." (read in full)
One warmwell reader who, like so many others, feels "Agriculture should be in the hands of humans and not corporations", has read the Smithfield release, makes a wry comment and directs us to a sobering and well written piece by Elissa Altman in the Huffington Post.

May 1 2009 ~ "The situation continues to evolve rapidly," says WHO - but advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders.

"As of 17:00 GMT, 30 Apr 2009, 11 countries have officially reported 257 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.
The United States Government has reported 109 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 97 confirmed human cases of infection, including 7 deaths.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths: Austria (1), Canada (19), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8)...." See ProMed for latest postings

Friday May 1 2009 ~ Britain's first flu case of infection inside Britain

is expected to be confirmed today, after the number of confirmed cases in the UK rose to eight. See Sky News which quotes Dr Alan McNally, senior lecturer and influenza diagnostics researcher at Nottingham Trent University. He said human-to-human transmission within the UK would not be a significant development. "... We know that it is transmitted from human to human, it has happened in other parts of the world and we know it will happen here. I know that there will be interest in it because members of the public will see that they don't need to have been to Mexico to get it."

Friday May 1 2009 ~ BEE DECLINE "... there is also a concern about the possible effect of pesticides on bees."

Ed Vaisey, Wantage's MP, spoke yesterday (Hansard):
"...One of the features of colony collapse disorder is that one does not come to the hive and find a lot of dead bees; one comes to the hive and finds no bees. They have not necessarily been killed by the varroa mite.
There is a theory that pesticides destroy bees' brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. It is interesting that urban bees are doing better than rural bees. Some people posit the theory that that is because there are fewer pesticides in an urban environment..."
More on bees.

Thursday April 30 2009 ~ "The clinical picture in the United States is looking a bit more like the Mexican situation"

The Washington Post quotes Nancy Cox, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adding
"The number of known cases in the United States hit at least 91 ...With the virus now clearly being transmitted person-to-person in the United States, WHO officials said the outbreak appeared to be on a trajectory toward the highest alert level -- "phase 6" -- which is marked by sustained transmission in at least two regions of the world. "
There are currently only 5 confirmed cases in the UK. In order to give some perspective we recommend Christopher Booker today in the Daily Mail:
"...One of the benefits of analysing a whole series of scares is that it shows us how consistently they follow an identifiable pattern, from the moment when they begin with some scientific confusion to the time when it eventually becomes clear that any genuine threat had been inflated way beyond any relation to reality. In all sorts of ways the current panic over swine flu is already fitting into that pattern.."
That the virus could fizzle out on its own is, of course, a possibility - but so is the worst case scenario that the World Health Organisation must consider.

April 30 2009 ~ "All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans."

World Health Organisation statement last night: "....This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency, and at an accelerated pace." WHO's statement in full

April 30 2009 ~ "Nature has a way of ignoring the best-laid plans of men"

Magnus Linklater, writing in the Times before WHO raised the level to 5 and noting several similarities with the killer flu of 1919 such as its mild early form, nevertheless says,
"... It would be absurd to predict that the present outbreak will take anything like the same course. Everything suggests that those who are showing the symptoms of influenza after returning from Mexico are experiencing little more than mild discomfort .... We do not yet know enough about the medical history of those who have died in central Mexico to tell whether the virus has mutated into a more deadly form there - or whether the spread has more to do with the state of medical care in a poverty-stricken area than the virulence of the strain itself. "
The article considers James Irvine's view that the virus may mutate into something deadlier - but also, as Colin Fink reminded us below -and as Magnus Linklater puts it - viruses "tend to develop into a milder form that will last longer rather than a deadly one that has a limited shelf-life."
Concluding that at present we simply don't know, he says that we should "be aware that nature has a way of ignoring the best-laid plans of men, and taking a course that defies all our predictions."
Responding to this, James Irvine writes to warmwell praising the article but commenting on preventative measures that he feels should be taken.

April 29 2009 ~ WHO raises alert to level 5

www.presstv.ir "Considering the rapidly increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases, WHO officials have decided to consider raising the pandemic alert level to phase 5." This may be largely because the first case of a European with flu not contracted in Mexico has been reported. Washington Post Summary "... Nearly a week after the threat first emerged in Mexico, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, underscoring the threat of person-to-person transmission."

April 29 2009 ~ The UN says Egypt's plan to cull pigs is a mistake

The Star.com "UN Says Culling Of 400,000 Pigs A Mistake. FAO Unsuccessfully Trying To Reach Egyptian Officials"

April 29 2009 ~ "f you are a parasite/pathogen, it pays not to kill your host..."

"We are all really awaiting the sequencing data from CDC (US Centers for Disease Control) then we may have a handle on what this virus is all about."
Dr Colin Fink (Micropathology Ltd) writes to warmwell.com today:
"It does seem strange that it has been associated with a high mortality in Mexico but not so far elsewhere. One has to ask whether the deaths are primary 'flu deaths ( as in the 1919 outbreak which killed fit young people in 3 - 4 days) or whether these deaths are in a group who have suboptimal nutrition and may have had secondary ( or existing) bacterial infections which were the cause of the mortality?
Another possibility is the presence for more than one strain but still H1N1 . One not very easy for humans to catch except by close contact with pigs, but very pathogenic in humans, and the other far more easily transferred between man and man but much less virulent. If you are a parasite/pathogen, it pays not to kill your host - your chances of genetic persistence (what each species is about) are diminished if you kill the vehicle.
Most new pathogens which jump species, recognise this maxim and quickly become less virulent within the new species."
(The Google map of outbreaks (the UK now has 5 cases) can be seen here in a new window.)

April 29 2009 ~ H1N1: "What one would like to see is a professional and independent analysis of the methodologies currently being used, as well as methodologies that could be used but aren't."

Always aware of how sadly little integrated the controls for human and animal disease still are (it was in an article for warmwell.com in 2003 that Dr Ruth Watkins deplored the failure to apply methods in human medicine to the care of farm animals when on genetic analysis they are so similar), we note with interest this second H1N1 flu article from James Irvine's LandCare website. Wondering how long will be the wait for promised H1N1 test results he wrote,
" As in all outbreaks of viral diseases - be they in livestock or humans - speed and accuracy of diagnosis is of the utmost importance....Where are these tests being done, by whom and using what technologies?"
The public, "widely informed regarding the utilisation - or non-utilisation - of modern scientific advances" are aware of "the control - or lack of control - of the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease UK 2001"
Is today's underfunded Pirbright ("at least partially responsible for the most recent Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the UK," he says) really able to contribute to " the management of the present impending crisis? Or is it still resisting the better integration between human and animal disease control in the field of virology?"

April 29 2009 ~ H1N1: The Independent looks hard at Smithfield pig factory operations

The article describes how 15,000 "squealing hogs" in 18 warehouses comprise the intensive pig production of in the Mexican town of Xaltepec
"The reports of swarming flies, terrible smells and pictures of rotting pigs left scattered around the perimeter of its industrialised pig farms in Mexico are echoes of the concerns that have long been troubling environmental activisits, campaigning against Smithfield in all the countries in which it operates, not least in the US. Critics say that - even on top of any questions about the humane treatment of the pigs - the sheer quantities of manure that have to be disposed of when thousands, or tens of thousands, of animals are housed together make it impossible to run this business in a safe way."
The article repeats the worry that confining pigs together risks diseases spreading fast, "a problem that farmers overcome by pumping the livestock full of vaccines and other drugs". An outbreak of Classical swine fever in Romania cost Smithfield $13m. One wonders if the present crisis can be instrumental in putting an end to these practices. See also below and today's letters in the Guardian

Wednesday April 29 2009 ~ H1N1: "The analysis of Dr. Rabadan and colleagues is surprising..."

ProMed here refers to the statement sent to Promed by Raul Rabadan, PhD of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York which says,
"...We are puzzled about sources of information that affirm that the virus is a reassortment of avian, human and swine viruses. It is true that the H3N2 swine virus from 1998 and 1999 is a triple reassortant, but all the related isolates are found since then in swine."
The moderator (CP), after thanking Professor Rabadan expresses surprise
" in view of previous statements which have gained currency that the genome of this virus is comprised of components derived directly from avian, human and swine sources. We look forward to seeing a detailed account of this new analysis."
If the deaths in Mexico (suspected total now 159 this morning) really are deaths from flu alone rather than secondary bacterial infections perhaps exacerbated by poverty, the mystery of why the virus is so much more virulent there remains. Dr Irvine's suggestion below that it may have been in Mexico for a lot longer than is apparent seems likely - and although the flu season in the UK is over, H1N1 may well come back with a vengeance in the Autumn. As the moderator in this ProMed posting says,
"the second wave can be more pathogenic than the first wave, and inclusion of the present virus in the vaccine for the autumn therefore should have the highest priority (I am sure it does)"

April 28 2009 ~ "Each chicken will have less floor space than an A4 sheet of paper"

How many viruses thrive in the stressful conditions of intensive farms? Yet the EU has decided that battery chickens can be crowded together even further and will allow 21 birds to spend their lives packed into every square metre of chicken "farms". Since the UK Government says it does not want to make British chicken farms "uncompetitive" it is unlikely to disagree - although the Independent quoted a spokeswoman for Defra who said the Government "had yet to make up its mind about stocking density".
(Outside the room in which I type this, in the April greenery and blossom, an elderly stout white hen pecks busily around the garden with her two companions before retiring for a short interlude in the egg-laying box of her coop. She comes running when called. Unlike DEFRA, she has no opinion at all about stocking densities.)

April 28 2009 ~ "For the first time ever, we are on the threshold of being able to stop a pandemic "

Delegates at the Biocontainment, biosafety, and biosecurity conference in London were told that de-centralisation and speed are needed to produce emergency vaccines but the rapid manufacture of vaccines to fight pandemics is hampered because "process design, building, and validating production facilities" can take so long. www.tcetoday.com quotes Peter Latham from consultancy BioPharm Services
"... There is no point producing it (vaccine) after the first or second wave of the pandemic. Rapid availability of vaccine is essential to preventing disaster. For the first time ever, we are on the threshold of being able to stop a pandemic..."
The answer suggested was single-use pre-qualified disposable units.
Case studies on the 2007 Foot and Mouth outbreak were looked at during the conference that ended today. We read too that "one of the keynote speakers (presumably Prof Nigel Lightfoot, the Chief Advisor to the Health Protection Agency) was called away to a Cabinet Office meeting to brief ministers on the UK's strategy for dealing with flu pandemics."
As the Snowmail email rather wisely says today, "Certainly, there is a contingency plan - but what's written down on paper may look less impressive in reality. The image of a calm, authoritative disaster response is seductive. But if the worst comes to the worst, a lot of controversial decisions will have to be made by a small number of people."

Tuesday April 28 2009 ~ "Joseph Domenech, told the BBC that rumours that people had been falling ill last month near some intensive pig farms meant the FAO had to act"

The number of probable deaths from the virus in Mexico has risen to 152 The BBC reports that "UN food inspectors are going to Mexico to examine reports that industrial pig farms were the source of the outbreak". The Director General of FAO is quoted as saying that there had been
"no indication of human cases of direct contact with pigs but this can never be totally sure..."
The theory that pollution from a Mexican subsidiary of Smithfield's giant intensive pig producing industry, Granjas Carrol, might possibly be the source of the flu, first began to circulate on the internet on April 24th. According to the flu timeline produced by a site called biosurveillance.typepad.com "Veratect reported local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico...Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies...."
( Veratect's tracking services provide animal and human infectious disease event detection and tracking globally. They are using Twitter for updates..)

April 27/28 2009 ~ "the world's scientific community should urgently collaborate to produce an effective vaccine"

Following the confirmation of 2 cases in Scotland, Dr. James Irvine's www.land-care.org.uk site now carries a view differing from those depending on epidemiological models:
"... But many of us remember just how fallacious epidemiological models were during the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak UK 2001..."
He says that an explanation of why the virulence of the virus ".. (as indicated by the severity of symptoms and the death rate) in Mexico seems to be much higher than the same virus in other countries around the globe" may be because the virus "has had a free run in Mexico for some considerable time before its inherent danger was recognised" and he feels that the world's scientific community should urgently collaborate to produce an effective vaccine to the mutant strain as soon as possible.
Certainly, one warmwell reader, writing from Mexico city where she has been since January 6th in Iztapalapa, the biggest and most populated 'poorer' part of Mexico City with the highest number of cases of deaths from the virus: "Of course we suspect the thing has been around a lot longer than they are saying ..."
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from the current phase 3 to phase 4.

April 27/28 2009 ~ First suspected cases of H1N1 in Germany (tests returned negative)

Many thanks to Sabine for this link (in German). 2 people have been isolated in Bielefeld on suspicion of having flu after returning from Mexico. A third person is said to have contracted the disease. Lab results to confirm/rule out H1N1 should be available tonight.
Yahoo news is reporting suspected cases in Spain, New Zealand, France, Israel.
WHO is coordinating the global response and is not advising travel restrictions. Latest information - unsensational - is best read on ProMed.

April 27 2009 ~ DEFRA's more "risk-based approach" to monitoring and enforcement..

It was pointed out in the Blogosphere this morning that the Budget Red Book reveals DEFRA's plan to cut £44 million from
"animal disease surveillance through a more risk-based approach to monitoring and enforcement and by sharing costs with industry"
(This is at the bottom of page 131 as part of DEFRA's £381 million savings plan. ) Would any reader care to comment on what might constitute the definition of a "more risk-based approach"?
One remembers the Department's risk-based approach of ignoring Pirbright's pleas for the updating of their facilities some time before the escape of the FMD virus in August 2007 and then the risk-based decision to kill inside and around farms rather than use available supplies of emergency vaccination. Many experts on the ground advised that it would prevent spread. (Instead, it will be recalled with gloom, infection reached the very edge of Windsor Great Park and caused enormous losses throughout the country.)
Defra's decision in February to break its funding commitment for Pirbright re-development risks a formerly first-class international reference laboratory committed to public service sinking even further into a commercial mire might be considered risk-based. And what is "risk-based enforcement"? Has anyone any idea? One would be grateful to know.

April 27 2009 ~ "Influenza A (H1N1) virus, human"

ProMed is the best place to read the true situation with what journalists are calling "swine flu". The latest posting is here with links at the bottom to previous ones. ProMed moderators are agreed that "swine flu" is a misnomer:
"ProMED-mail's veterinary and viral disease moderators have discussed the nomenclature of this condition, and have agreed that we should refer to it in the titles of postings as "Influenza A (H1N1) virus, human", omitting the word "swine". For now, at least, that is what we will do, amending the titles of earlier postings in this thread (as shown in the "see also" section below)."
There is currently no evidence that the disease is circulating in pigs.

April 26 2009 ~WHO's current pandemic alert phase is still at level 3

ProMed has summarised the latest information on the Mexican 'swine' flu.
".... a meeting of the Emergency Committee, (defined) the H1N1 (also known as "swine flu") outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern". The current pandemic alert phase is still at level 3 (see the chart with pandemic alert phases available at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html with a suggestion that this.. may be altered depending upon how the situation progresses...
USA.. .. there have been 11 cases confirmed thus far by the CDC... full recovery..."
In Mexico there are now 1324 known cases (it was about 1000 less than 24 hours ago) There are now 81 reported deaths. No reason for the disparity in severity between Mexico and the US is apparent.

April 26 2009~ " a reminder that Mother Nature is still the most skilled bioterrorist out there.."

ProMed says that although there does seem to be "significant human to human transmission" it is unclear " if any measures could have been effectively implemented that would have interrupted transmission earlier.... a reminder that mother nature is still the most skilled bioterrorist out there.." Read in full. None of the US cases is linked to known exposures to either swine or poultry. ProMed's posting (03) deplores the usual crying of wolf at such times in the press.
"....."spin doctors" are casting stones, blaming cover-ups and slow responses as responsible for the outbreak "escaping", and rumors of implicated swine production farms as the foci where the outbreak allegedly began -- an unfortunate situation that seems to repeat itself every time there is a major outbreak with many unknowns."
The (04) ProMed posting contains a 1] Brief history and terminology of swine flu [2] Comments on swine, poultry prevention and risk [3] National Pork Board Producer Guidelines

April 26 2009 ~ Concern mounts that the new Mexican 'swine' flu strain could cause a pandemic

(See also latest swine flu news from Google) This is universally referred to as "swine" flu, but ProMed points out that there have not been any cases in pigs yet, adding in a second posting that "it is too early to conclude that this virus has originated in swine". . However, this new and unusual strain of H1N1 swine flu has killed at least 20 people and possibly 48 more in Mexico and it genetically matches eight mild cases first identified in California and Texas. There are suspected cases in Canada. Reuters reports that the World Health Organization warned on Saturday that this strain could cause a pandemic.
"...World Health Organization director Dr. Margaret Chan has said the strain of H1N1, a new combination of porcine, fowl and human flu virus strains, has the potential to become a pandemic strain because it does spread easily and does cause serious disease...CDC (US Centers for Disease Control) experts note that while it is possible to contain an outbreak of disease that is in one limited area, once it is reported in widespread locations, the spread is impossible to control.."
The WHO's pandemic alert level is currently at 3 on a scale of 1 to 6 - but may now be raised. So far, pigs are not officially implicated, but the EU has now declared a ban on the imports of pig products from Mexico. We understand there are now suspect cases in both Switzerland and the Netherlands.

April 26 2009 ~ Forest of Dean wild boar: DEFRA tells stakeholders that "the feeding of meat bait in this trial has now stopped"

See below. An email, swiftly sent to "stakeholders" following the story, says the meat bait ".. was part of a controlled research programme, about identifying the best methods to deliver birth control" and that the ".. aim of the research was to evaluate a species-specific method for delivering a contraceptive to wild boar in the future if a suitable one is developed. The bait was being dispensed from feeders from which only the boar could feed. No contraceptive was being fed in the bait..."
UPDATE Several readers have said that boar are omnivores rather than "vegetarian" However, writes one, "The disease risk is a different kettle of fish, I agree. Many health problems on pig farms are due to the ban on feeding animal protein to pigs; soy and fish meal can't substitute animal protein from a nutritional point of view."

April 25 2009 ~ Australian professor says climate change is unavoidable - but that humans are not the cause of it.

Whatever the truth about Climate Change, it is refreshing to read that an expert and independent scientist is not afraid to be branded a heretic or "denier" (a word oddly reminiscent of holocaust denier). Professor Plimer, University of Adelaide Professor of Mining Geology, deeply concerned by the new dogma that humans have caused global warming, says his book, Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science would
"knock out every single argument we hear about climate change...It's got nothing to do with the atmosphere, it's about what happens in the galaxy..."
Professor Plimer, celebrated in Australia for his work, says the planet has endured constant climate change and rapid changes in the past but that "Not one has been driven by carbon dioxide." He has been described as "a confronting sort of individual, polite but gruff, courteous but combative" and we read that "Heaven And Earth is a brilliantly argued book by someone not intimidated by hostile majorities or intellectual fashions."

April 25 2009 ~ DEFRA spending on opinion polls, focus groups and market research

The table given by Huw Irranca Davies in reply to PQ 263608 on Wednesday suggests, after a quick calculation, that such expenditure (on researching and shaping public perceptions) since DEFRA was formed in the wake of foot and mouth in 2001, has passed £4 million.
Our own inability to understand exactly what all this money was spent on is evidently shared by a reader who comments:
"...2007-8: Defra spent over £100,000 on researching Business perceptions of Defra in two separate studies in 2008, and over £28,000 on Farming Link - Qualitative newsletter evaluation. What on earth is "Farmers segmentation" which comes in at over £56,000?
2006-6: Environmental branding gets nearly £30,000 which is significantly more than Avian flu research approx. £26,000 - and Environment Direct Branding Research warrants a further approx. £57,000. Segmentation quantification costs £11,000 - what on earth is that?
2005-6 The Perceptions of DEFRA - General public tracking 2005 sounds distinctly ominous at £26,000. .."
The writer suggests that 'Perceptions of DEFRA' might have been discovered rather more cheaply - and are hardly helped by all this jargon, which should be consigned to the dustbin (along with all the other such bizarre examples of non English as coterminous stakeholder engagement).

April 24 2009 ~ Manchester's plan to grow fruit and vegetables: 'These are public areas and there is no reason why people shouldn't be able to help themselves to the produce grown.'

The Mail reported on Wednesday that Manchester is going to use its 135 parks to grow food for everyone. A warmwell reader comments: " I think it is a lovely idea - and just what needs to be advocated right across the UK - every village, town and city should be doing this."
"....The scheme will also see around 20,000 soft fruit bushes introduced across the city. The three-year plan aims to reintroduce rare fruits such as mulberries, damsons and greengages. The plants will have signs telling people their name and the right time of year to pick them. Vegetable patches will also be created, but because they need more work the produce will go to the volunteers who tend them. Beehives are also being set up at a number of sites across the city - each capable of producing up to 80lb of honey a year. ..." Source
What an encouraging and refreshing article. Manchester Council's Parks and Leisure officer is quoted; "We were amazed by the number of young people who told us they didn't know where fruit and veg came from." And of course, even fewer people know - or want to know - from where and from what supermarket plastic film-wrapped meats come.
(See also pages on Transition Towns and Food Security)

April 24 2009 ~ DEFRA denies cost-sharing plan includes passing on costs of bovine TB to farmers.

Bovine TB is endemic. DEFRA's plan was for farmers to insure against "exotic" disease outbreaks. Farmers Guardian says that the original plan contained in an annex to the consultation that bTB is listed alongside exotic diseases such as foot-and-mouth, bluetongue and avian flu. The FG says
"...NFU members appeared genuinely stunned as the implications and inconsistencies of the consultation were outlined by NFU staff, with one admitting the presentation had 'frightened us to the core'..."
Although many NFU members just want to refuse any discussion, Peter Kendall points out that not responding to the government's consultation (which he has nevertheless called "disgraceful, inconsistent, irrational, illogical and the figures just don't add up") risked farmers losing control of the responsibility sharing element and could lead to an even greater share of the costs.

April 23/24 2009 ~ ARS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and GenVec are now collaborating to develop the new FMD vaccine for inclusion in the U.S Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile

News of the recent developments in vaccines and testing for foot and mouth have again (see April 3 posting below) been appearing in the US today - See Technology improves FMD detection and control , an article which tells its farming readers about the infrared test that can detect "... potentially infected cattle in large groups, without examining animals individually." Mentioned too is Tetracore's test that can detect RNA from the FMD virus in less than two hours and the new vaccine developed by ARS chemist Marvin Grubman and his colleagues which can be produced without using infectious FMD materials.
Most encouraging of all is the news that "ARS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and biopharmaceutical company GenVec, Inc., in Gaithersburg, Md., are now collaborating to develop the new FMD vaccine for inclusion in the U.S. Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile - and are also working to combine the interferons and the FMD vaccine so they can be administered concurrently to provide almost immediate protection." (FMD recent posts)

April 23 2009 ~ "The disease implications are frightening"

Wild Boar are primarily vegetarian and DEFRA's contraception project in the Forest of Dean, now apparently using meat, is causing concern both from a disease standpoint and the worry that these hitherto largely harmless animals may start looking for more meat by killing livestock. Dr Martin Goulding, an expert who has studied and written about wild boars in England, is quoted today by www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
: "The disease implications are frightening and it risks turning an animal which is primarily vegetarian onto meat as a food source with implications for livestock kills - boar are not normally interested in livestock but they sometimes will scavenge dead animals and road kill."
A spokesman from the Pig Veterinary Society is also quoted: "The principle of feeding meat or meat products to pigs is 100% discouraged. Diseases like Foot and Mouth can live in meat for years, so feeding it to pigs and other livestock could pose a tremendous risk of a further outbreak." (More)

April 23 2009 ~ DEFRA's baited offal for wild boar in the Forest of Dean

Since Foot and Mouth can be spread particularly rapidly by infected unvaccinated pigs, and since the UK (and EU) policy is that no susceptible animals are vaccinated in the UK, the increasing numbers of free roaming boar are of particular concern.
DEFRA and the Forestry Commission are carrying out trials - not to vaccinate against such diseases but to limit population growth. The chemical contraceptive GonaCon ^TM - a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) - is added to an offal bait that, it is hoped, only wild boar will eat (see www.britishwildboar.org.uk Its effect on other wildlife is not known.
An email received today from the Forest of Dean expresses concern about the possible effect of the hormone on humans particularly now that the Forestry Commission is to permit the stalking and culling of the Forest boar for sale as food. He is concerned about a possible decline in local human births. Wild boar are messy eaters and part of what they eat will inevitably find its way onto the forest floor making it available to non-target species. (See also BBC page on wild boar in Britain)

April 23 2009 ~ Reports of wind farm health problems growing

www.ctv.ca "More people are coming forward saying they're experiencing sleep problems, headaches, and heart palpitations caused by living near windmills.... Of 76 people who responded to the informal survey, 53 reported at least one health complaint. .." More

April 22 2009 ~ Now, more than ever before, one sees the good sense in insuring against disaster rather than expecting to be bailed out by the public purse

Insurance against livestock disease is the "obvious" answer - but as the NFU (see below) says, it fears that farmers will not be able to get cover from commercial insurers. Certainly commercial insurance companies are hardly likely to be falling over each other in their rush to give cover against diseases such as FMD when intensive farming methods coupled with global live movements and an EU non-vaccination policy can result in such heavy financial costs.
The welfare and social costs are just as great - and just as unnecessary. As professors David Campbell and Bob Lee wrote after the 2001 crisis,
".. if vaccination is not adopted, stamping out is again bound to decay into mass, cruel slaughter when the next major outbreak occurs."
Sure enough, in 2007, we saw vastly more animals killed on suspicion than were infected - and this in spite of the advice of experts on the spot - and vaccine of the perfect serotype being available at Pirbright (at the very centre of the outbreak).

April 22~ Farmers were told in 2001 and still believe the unscientific nonsense that it is impossible to sell vaccinated pedigree cattle..

..yet a test that discriminates FMD vaccinated cattle from those that were previously infected was invented in the US in 1994 - fifteen years ago - and such tests are marketed by several companies. Intervet's Checkit FMD-3ABC is endorsed and validated by Pirbright and a FMD vaccine is specifically designed to be used with that test.
The practice of responding to animal epidemics such as FMD by quarantine and mass slaughter of all the animals not only on the infected farms but also in the vicinity dates back to the Pope's physician in 1711 before the existence of viruses and bacteria was even suspected. Not surprisingly, many who deplore this are kept awake at the thought of another such animal holocaust in the UK when the current EU and UK policy is so outdated and so unsound.

22 April 2009 ~ NFU concerned that farmers might have to finance nine tenths of the cost of combatting an outbreak of a disease such as foot-and-mouth

The FWi reports that the NFU will fight DEFRA's responsibility and cost-sharing plans "despite conceding English livestock producers will have to accept more responsibility for animal health in future" NFU president Peter Kendall's words to the NFU Council meeting in Leamington Spa this week are quoted:
"This is one of the most ill-thought out consultations I've ever read. The costs are based on the value of output and not disease risk so there is a risk of pitting sectors against each other..."
As Mr Kendall pointed out, the "opposition parties" have given no indication that they wouldn't introduce cost sharing measures. "The government is looking to cut back on spending with at least £15 billion of cuts across departments already earmarked. The European Commission also expects cost sharing schemes to be in place by 2012 ..."
The reaction of the National Beef Association (NBA) to the Defra proposals for disease cost and responsibility sharing was reported below yesterday.

21/22 April 2009 ~ Changing conditions on pig farms

It was Alan Bennett, writing about the foot and mouth slaughter (Untold Stories p293) who said:
"In fifty years' time I am sure that we will not handle animals the way we do now - and to succeeding generations our behaviour will seem as barbarous as bear baiting...."
The British Pig Executive now insists the Quality Standard Mark label guarantees 'very high welfare'. Compassion in World Farming do not agree.
With tact, patience and understanding of the farming industry, CIWF quietly works for change. They want those who feel that pigs should be raised healthily to write to the EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and suggest possible wording for a plea for a new EU Regulation on meat labelling. It should require that labels show by what farming methods the pig was reared. (To send this takes rather less than one minute and could make a huge difference).

21/22 April 2009 ~ National Beef Association says NO to cost and responsibility sharing because the cost to farmers would be too great

The National Beef Association has rejected Defra proposals for disease cost and responsibility sharing Stackyard.com reports that the NBA :
" .. is the first organisation representing beef farmers to do so publicly and is hoping others will join with it and help to persuade government to adopt more suitable alternatives..."
The NBA proposes, as an alternative, a new drive to tackle the inefficiencies in Defra's current £400 million a year animal health budget. They consider that a continuation of the present core stakeholder group system would be more effective, and considerably cheaper, than DEFRA's proposed scheme.
The NBA committee considers that establishing a separate animal health board modelled on the FSA could well have better animal health results but the expense would be very great and that an unnecessary, ineffective, and inefficient tax on livestock keepers -just at the time when so many farmers are simply giving up under the pressure of costs and regulations - would be a great mistake.
The NBA want an independent audit, driven by farmers, into Defra's management of animal health. (Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for the link)

21 April 2009 ~ bovine TB- £27.5 million pounds spent on killing TB suspected cattle last year

Hansard yesterday:
"Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many cattle have been slaughtered because of suspected bovine tuberculosis in the last 12 months; and at what cost.
Jane Kennedy: In 2008, 27,455 cattle were slaughtered in England (26,038 as test reactors, 487 as inconclusive reactors and 930 as direct contacts). The 2008 spend on compensation for England was £27.5 million."
This stark figure cannot convey the distress involved. Unfortunately, as we know, existing diagnostic tests have not been developed far enough yet to be able accurately to diagnose either bovine or human TB - as this summary, received in March clearly shows. And as Dr Fink says, " I am sure that the present skin test kills perfectly healthy animals that have just met the infection but have walled it off and simply have a white cells reaction to the organism."

20 April 2009 ~ Wind turbines: "... I think, now that I know as much as I do, I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole" James Lovelock

If you lagged the roofs of 500 homes it would, apparently, have the effect of putting up one turbine. Interesting this morning to see Geoffrey Lean in the Independent saying : how consistently the government has failed to provide incentives for efficient energy sources that are routine in other countries...
"...Four years ago, it promised to provide £50m to help develop wave and tidal power, an area where Britain has a potential world lead. But the resulting Marine Renewables Deployment Fund has yet to give a penny to support this.....a similar failure to honour an undertaking by Mr Brown last September properly to insulate six million houses over the next three years. In practice, this would involve providing cavity wall insulation to a million homes. The official Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency told the IoS last week that filling cavity walls was running at just 500,000 homes a year."
Meanwhile, the march of the giant wind turbines continues. It is an issue where feelings run extremely high on both sides - with thoughtful objecters finding themselves vilified as nimbys. Informed arguments about inefficiency fail to dampen the ardour of supporters.
The many independent dissenting voices making disturbing comments include Aase Madsen , the Chair of Energy Policy in the Danish Parliament. He calls them "a terribly expensive disaster." Cumbria in particular is being swamped by turbines 22 storeys high. More on wind page

19 April 2009 ~ "... treating them worse than drug dealers, and all for cod!"

Advice from the scientists on whom Brussels relies has led to yet further drastic cuts in EU cod quotas - yet, in reality, cod are still so abundant in the eastern Channel that it is, says Christopher Booker, "almost impossible to avoid catching them". (If you go over quota you must throw the fish back, dead.)
France is offering fishermen a 4 million euro subsidy if they will agree to suspend fishing. But in Britain, as Booker points out, the response is
".. first to steal everything our fishermen own and then put them in gaol"
This refers to the imprisonment of two trawlermen whose homes were frozen by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. They were sent to jail, not for their breaking of the strict fishing regulations, but for trying to pay off the £385,774 fine by borrowing against their homes.Meanwhile, in a saner world, those aware of the coming shortages of food and who are getting involved in Transition Town initiatives are well aware that "...(a) if we wait for the government, it'll be too little, too late; (b) if we act as individuals, it'll be too little; but (c) if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time" (More)
UPDATE 21 April (BBC)

19 April 2009 ~ Will the proposed annual "tax" on farm animals include horses?

Horse and Hound urge horse owners to engage with the government consultation. "The British Horse Society (BHS) has cautioned against any further financial burdens being placed on horse owners in the current economic climate unless there were very clear and necessarily reasons for doing so."

19 April 2009 ~ A new way to engage with citizens?

An interesting article in the Sunday Times suggests government bureaucracy in an emergency - seeing the public as an extra problem to be "managed" (unfortunately, a foot and mouth outbreak is one of the "emergency situations" envisaged. Sad, when effective and timely emergency vaccination could prevent the drama turning into a crisis ) - would be better replaced by the harnessing of sites such as Twitter and Facebook as effective emergency management tools. In 2001 some of us tried to do this informally - and reached only those in the know. Had Twitter and the widespread internet usage that now exists been in existence then, instant and useful information could have reached the many left in doubt and despair. The article also suggests that rather than dictating to people, the "nudge" technique has far greater impact:
"We will become a far more resilient nation once politicians and policy makers realise just how much they need us."
Read article

19 April 2009 ~ UK is more self sufficient in food than during World War 2? What does Jane Kennedy mean?

Both Jane Kennedy and Hilary Benn (at the NFU centenary) have trotted out the idea that we are now more "self sufficient in food now than we were for most of the last century".
David Drew asked on March 30 (Hansard) how domestic self-sufficiency in (a) food production and (b) domestic food consumption is calculated by DEFRA. The answer given apparently, is a sum:
"(Adjusted UK food production) (UK food production) + (Food imports) - (Food exports).
One is reminded of the letter from Sir Anthony Bamford,published in the Financial Times in January. ".... billions of unnecessary 'food miles' clock up as we import indigenous foods such as potatoes, apples and sugar, causing congestion, road infrastructure costs, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Since the Ministry of Agriculture became Defra, a strong support of farming has shifted to a woolly focus on "rural affairs", and lack of interest in food self-sufficiency is further evidence of this. The department should remember that the agri-food sector accounts for 6.9 per cent of the total economy and provides 3.6m jobs which, incidentally, is more than four times as many as the car industry in the UK. And it could generate more, should Defra do its job..."

17 April 2009 ~ Swedish Bio-gas from pig waste project will produce the equivalent of 2.1 million litres of petrol

The Reuters reports that " Eighteen Swedish farmers and the 130,000 tonnes of excrement produced at their farms each year are part of a pilot bio-gas project in which methane gas is extracted from the pig by-product before it is put out in the fields as fertilizer. Once infrastructure is in place, methane gas will be pumped to a purifying installation via a network of underground pipes and turned into bio-gas. ." The amount of energy they expect to be developed in the first two-year phase will be the equivalent of 2.1 million litres of petrol - enough, says Reuters, to run 30 trucks, 30 buses and 250 cars per year. The project manager has already received a visit from Scotland and had inquiries from different parts of the world.

17 April 2009 ~ A decade of decline in home grown food

The Farmers Guardian "Defra data charting agricultural output for the decade up to the end of 2008 revealed a 22 per cent drop in the dairy herd, a 40 per cent drop in pig numbers, a 25 per cent drop in lamb numbers and a 13 per cent drop in beef herd numbers..... a 25 per cent reduction in area used to grow fresh vegetables and a 30 per cent drop in fruit orchards. Overall, Britain's self sufficiency in indigenous food has fallen 9 per cent to 74 per cent and the trade gap in food and drink has risen by 50 per cent in real terms over the decade. .."
Nick Herbert, Shadow Defra Secretary, is quoted:
"Importing increasing quantities of food we can produce ourselves is a waste of potential, creates unnecessary vulnerabilities and adds to the mounting pressure on stretched world markets."
Read in full.

16 April 2009 ~ "if you destroy the capacity of the people to work the land and the capacity of soil to produce, you're going to have hunger. "

Yesterday's Belfast Telegraph article on the reasons for so many farmer suicides in the Indian agricultural state of Chattisgarh was reproduced in full in the IndependentA new awareness of the dangerous scarcity of fresh water is beginning to dawn on those who perceive a global crisis caused by the end o cheap energy.
India's groundwater aquifers are quickly disappearing. An article in the New Yorker explained in 2006,
"There were two million wells in India thirty years ago; today, there are twenty-three million...people have no choice but to dig deeper. Drill too deep, though, and saltwater and arsenic can begin to seep in... ."

April 16 ~ " a country that can subsidise biofuel and chemicals should instead subsidise the return of small farmers to the land."

Vandana Shiva's words seem more and more relevant. As she said in an interview last May,
"food ultimately is not produced in the speculation and commodity exchanges controlled by Cargill in Chicago. It is produced by hard working women and men working with the soil and sun. And if you destroy the capacity of the people to work the land and the capacity of soil to produce, you're going to have hunger...We need more farms producing more locally-grown foods. This country that can subsidise biofuel and chemicals should instead subsidise the return of small farmers to the land. This would solve much of the unemployment problem too..."
As she says, the tragedy is that unless we bring local food sovereignty and "food democracy" back into the picture, there can be no solutions to global hunger and thirst - only quick fixes for the privileged incapable of seeing the whole picture. (Food Security page)

April 16 2009 ~ Recent judgements in foot and mouth and TB compensation cases

See Farming UK :"....The only way of appealing this judgment is to petition the House of Lords, and I know the NFU is taking advice on this issue at present. These cases show the innate conservatism and establishment-mindedness of the judiciary, who are not willing to impose financial responsibilities on Government unless they have to as a last resort. It will be interesting to see if either case proceeds further up the appeals process and fares better if appealed. Tim Russ leads the agricultural team at Westcountry lawyers Clarke Willmott."

April 16 2009 ~ Food Standards Autority Food Fraud Unit "has a wider remit and addresses the need for a wider focus when tackling food fraud"

Which? considers that the fraudulent food market in the UK is worth about £7bn a year - or around 10 per cent of the entire market - but of course the true extent of fraud could only be calculated if it all came to light - which it certainly does not. The FSA defines food fraud as being committed when "food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer" - selling products unfit for human consumption, for example, such as those of unknown origin or which are well past their sell-by-date; or misrepresenting the contents of food in some way; substituting cheaper alternatives or making misleading statements about its source.
The warmwell "dirty meat" page examines some aspects of a very nasty trade. It would be encouraging to think that the new unit really will tackle this dangerous trade head-on. See also www.foodeast.com

April 15 2009 ~ Sheep EID "This could do to the sheep industry what TB is doing to the cattle industry."

From January 1 next year, each of Britain's 30 million sheep will have to be fitted with an electronic tag. 92 per cent of the cost will fall on farmers themselves at a cost of £5,000 for an electronic tag reader and up to £1.50 per tag. The Telegraph quotes John Hore, a farmer from Pilning, near Bristol:
"We are prepared to fight this to the bitter end. The strength of feeling is such that it is quite possible we will see farmers taking to the streets. We are just not being listened to. And we need our government firmly behind us. We have 30 million sheep in this country - probably more than the rest of Europe put together. They want each one of those sheep to be individually identified. And farmers are saying 'No, it's just not possible'. This could do to the sheep industry what TB is doing to the cattle industry."
The technology is likely to prove faulty in real life conditions. FUW hill farming committee chairman Derek Morgan is also quoted: "I dread to think what the full costs to the EU sheep industry will be. This report (a report complied by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 2006 ) simply adds to the already overwhelming evidence that shows that costs of EID are completely disproportionate, while the benefits are negligible, and could actually be negative in the case of a disease outbreak. We are committed to fighting this ridiculous legislation to the bitter end ....." (background)

April 11 2009 ~ "Five bat species... protected by criminal law from all except the wind industry.."

The wind turbine page latest is a plea to save 24 acres of attractive rising chalklands near Cambridge from the German wind developer Enertrag. The Icknield Way runs close beside the proposed site, and the Roman Road from Cambridge to Horseheath is nearby. There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest a stone's throw from one turbine. Five bat species in the area have been identified - protected by criminal law from all except the wind industry it would seem.
If - in spite of Mr Ed Miliband - you feel like helping, please see this posting for more information.
We are very glad that the MP for South East Cambridgeshire is James Paice (Shadow Secretary of State for Agriculture and Rural Affairs) and that one may register one's support for or against the Linton windfarm on his website. (See also today "Gordon Brown shows how green he really is" Sunday Telegraph)

April 10 2009 ~ " It's going to be really critical in this next phase of human existence that we value the land, the soil, and the people that look after and grow our food"

In a speech reported on the Canadian website www.straight.com, the mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, speaks out in support of the University of British Columbia's threatened on-campus farm:
"In a world with peak oil and accelerating climate change, the importance of local food security has never been greater. We've seen entire civilizations wiped out because of a lack of food security... we've got to ensure, particularly in an urban setting, that we're focused on a good solid locally-based food system."
Such words echo Vandana Shiva's Soil Not Oil, in which she champions small, independent farms. (The Soil Association has a booklet of the same name, which also features Vandana Shiva. ) In her book she calls for a return to local economies and small-scale food production and suggests there is a stark choice to be made: we either choose a 'business as usual' market-centred short-term escape for the privileged - or - (as the Transition Town Movement aims to do), we urgently prepare for a people-centred, fossil-fuel-free future offering a decent living for all.

April 9 2009 ~ bTB - An oral vaccine for badgers is expected by 2014 at the earliest - and a change in EU legislation is needed before it can be used in the cattle population.

Once again we see how an unchallenged and unhelpful EU rule is standing in the way of vaccination. Vaccine manufacturers will not, in the hope that rules might change, invest large amounts of time and money in researching and producing bTB cattle vaccines for Europe when they are forbidden. Yet the example of bluetongue, (where even those most opposed to vaccine could see that there was no other viable control method), showed how rapidly the vaccine manufacturers sprang into action once they could see a market opening.
The Final Report of the Bovine TB Advisory Group made up of farmers, vets and Animal Health officials as well as DEFRA personnel, expressed concern yesterday that
".. there may be over-reliance on a future vaccination programme (cattle and badgers) - this should not negate the urgent need for measures to tackle the problem now... ."
As well as developing a plan, to be submitted to Mr Benn, "for reducing the incidence of bovine TB from cattle in England and moving towards eventual eradication", the new TB Advisory Group is drawing up an eradication plan to submit to the European Commission. It is to be hoped it will include an urgent request that the rules forbidding cattle to be vaccinated be re-examined. However outdated the rules about vaccinated animals may be, they will surely go on gathering dust until a vigorous effort is made to change them.
More on the TB page today

April 9 2009 ~ Mystery of FMD cows "imported from Europe"

We are baffled by a news story from Bahrain www.tradearabia.com which says,
"Cows recently imported to Bahrain from Europe were found to have been infected with the deadly foot and mouth disease (FMD), it was revealed. No figures are available but all the cattle affected have been slaughtered, said Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry animal wealth director Dr Salman Abdul Nabi Ebrahim. Thorough checks on all cattle imports from the 'FMD endemic' countries had ensured that any stock displaying symptoms of the disease were immediately destroyed, he told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News..."
The report does not say where in Europe - but if the cows actually came from somewhere in the EU this raises serious questions. The EU's status as "FMD free without vaccination" (see also below) means that all ruminant livestock and pigs in the EU are susceptible to FMD. (More news if and when it appears. Gulf Daily News carries the identical report.)
UPDATE We now see from ProMed that the infected cattle came from Somalia -with a vaccine certificate. The posting is worrying.

April 9 2009 ~ Dear Commissioner Fischer Boel ...this is a retrograde and worrying possibility

"We are hearing about the possible withdrawal of the EU legislation that requires eggs and egg packs to be labelled according to whether the eggs were produced by intensive battery methods or not. The public has woken up to the way hens and other animals are exploited by factory methods and want to be able to make a proper informed choices in order not to encourage methods of production that sicken them. Voluntary labelling is ineffective - whereas the EU egg labelling regulation has been a success. Animal welfare is seen more and more to have a direct connection with human health and welfare. Please do what you can to make sure this retrograde step is avoided..."
CIWF has drawn attention to this possible retrograde step and makes it easy to send a similar plea to the EU Commissioner for Agriculture.

April 8 2009 ~ DEFRA Bongo lessons hit the mainstream headlines

The posting below (March 13 ) from FWi - about a vet's distress at "team building" drum games at a time when bovine TB is such an urgent and terrible issue - has become mainstream news in the past few days. The Telegraph is particularly scathing and quotes Nick Herbert, the Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary:
"It is incredible ....It is these useless Defra Ministers who need their heads banging together to stop wasting public money and deal with this dreadful disease, which left unchecked is costing millions of pounds and increasing animal suffering."
According to the BBC, these 'awaydays' cost about £500,000 for 15 country-wide one-day conferences and took up the time of 1,700 vets "normally on the front line of tackling diseases in livestock" At a time when DEFRA hopes farmers are going to pay half the costs of disease control policy, such use of funding is unfortunate. The Uttoxeter Advertiser quotes a local farmer, David Brookes: "We take animal disease very seriously but we're constantly having to jump through hoops to meet Government requirements."

April 8 2009 ~ A new test that can detect MRSA without culturing the bacteria or amplifying the DNA

As an example of the many advances now being made in the field of rapid diagnostics in both human and veterinary medicine, a new test from Adnavance is nearing completion. It can detect MRSA bacteria directly, without requiring that the DNA be amplified. The Adnavance website says its platform will "de-centralise the market" (More)

April 7 2009 ~ "The mountains went into labour, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse."

In spite of enormous pressure from financial and ideological lobbying, Europe's cut in emissions, we read, will amount to a miniscule 4 percent by 2020, far below the ambitious 20 percent target. The Charter of Palermo is an urgent bid to save the European countryside from the devastating impact of giant turbines - which anyway "don't fulfil the fundamental demands of sustainable development". Put forward by the European Platform against Windfarms (EPAW), the Charter notes that windfarms have, for decades, drained most of the public funding dedicated to renewable energies, degrading the European countryside without ever having demonstrated their usefulness. (More)

April 6 2009 ~ Rather suddenly, the Royal Show at Stoneleigh is "no longer economically viable following recent disease outbreaks and a failure to appeal to both the public and to farmers."

This year's Royal Show will still go on between 7th and 10th July - but the RASE press release confirms it will be the last. The news has provoked many reactions. "What does this say about food security, the ability of the UK to feed itself and how we are to adapt in times of peak oil and financial down turn and cost of imports growing?" asks a warmwell correspondent today. Jonathan Long in his FWi blog is baffled.
".. If on 1 March the Royal Show was still a priority why isn't it now and why was the document published on 2 April without being amended?..."
The Telegraph : "...so long as our butternut squash was being flown in from Nicaragua or wherever during the years of plenty, no one much minded that our indigenous growers were being driven to the wall by supermarket groups that have eyes only for their competitive margins...."
More press reports

April 5/6 2009 ~ "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."

It is encouraging to see how many recent entries - those on the subject of UK policy about FMD vaccination and diagnosis - are finding their way onto the news section of the FMD Surveillance and Modeling Laboratory, University of California at Davis and are archived there.
All the same, the important thing to remember is nothing can happen in improving animal health policy in the UK until we have a body that has - in the words of Peter Kendall - "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."
Such a body needs independent experts of clout who can explain concisely and carefully the issues that have, for so long, been overriden by politics. Whether the appointed board envisaged by DEFRA in its desire to relieve itself of funding for its own policies can be the needed independent body is still somewhat in doubt. Certainly this seems to be the view of the latest Smith Institute report. (See cost sharing page)

April 3-5 2009 ~ "superior disease-outbreak response" tools against FMD

Eight years after the catastrophic UK outbreak it is extraordinary to read in a single ARS/USDA article news of three technologies "for superior disease-outbreak response" - all of which show how wholly out of date is mass slaughter policy against foot and mouth.
".. ARS-developed tools.. a rapid diagnostic test which can detect RNA from the FMD virus in less than 2 hours...laboratories throughout the United States could use the test to diagnose samples rapidly...
the world's first effective molecular-based FMD vaccine... can be produced without using infectious FMD materials, which means it can be produced safely, in the United States, without expensive, high-containment facilities..
...IRT cameras can identify at-risk cattle 48 hours before they begin to show any clinical symptoms... the hooves of healthy animals appear blue-green, whereas infected cattle have orange-red feet.. . "
Read News release in full. The article Foot and Mouth Disease Novel Technologies Improve Detection and Control appears as a pdf file in the Agricultural Research Magazine April 2009 - Vol. 57, No. 4
See also recent warmwell FMD posts

April 3 2009 ~ "..something is happening to the food supply.." Chapter One "Feeding Britain"

Feeding Britain, a report by the Smith Institute think-tank: "....we can no longer take food for granted... The meat and dairy supply chains face particular challenges." More on the food security page

April 3 2009 ~ European vaccine bank will stockpile 100,000 doses for all nine strains of African Horse Sickness.

The Horse Trust, aware of the serious threat of AHS, put pressure on the government to establish an African Horse Sickness working group - and, as we reported in December, SCOFCAH is creating a vaccine bank of all 9 types of AHS vaccines (100,000 doses of each type for double inoculation of 50,000 animals) But, in view of Dr Meiswinkel's warnings and the ever-present threat to Northern Europe of AHS, things are moving rather slowly. More detail AHS page

April 2 2009 ~ "...the current DEFRA Ministers are collectively rather better than many who have gone before.."

Having read today's posts about vaccination below, a much respected emailer, who thoroughly understands the science, writes,
"The answers provided by Defra civil servants to so many of the relatively simple written parliamentary questions must surely cause the Ministers to squirm with embarrassment when they deliver them. It is now well known that
1. Vaccination leaves no residues (unlike some antibiotics/parasiticides/other chemicals etc etc)
2. If we eat meat, we eat products from vaccinated animals
3. If we consume dairy products, we are consuming products from vaccinated animals
4. If we believe that a voluntary prophylactic vaccination scheme will produce adequate vaccination cover for bluetongue, a notifiable disease with considerable welfare implications, we need to see a psychiatrist
5. It would appear to be simplicity itself to get these messages across to the public and the industry."
The writer adds, "The current Ministers are collectively rather better than many who have gone before, so why don't they rise up and refuse to spout the garbage they are given to read out?"

April 2 2009 ~NOAH survey shows that fewer than one in ten people still believe that animals should be culled rather than vaccinated

(See National Office of Animal Health news release) And fear of vaccination among those few is probably caused by misinformation about vaccination - still going unchallenged and perhaps even encouraged by those for whom EU protectionism is profitable. Some continue to believe that eating vaccinated meat somehow involves 'chemicals'. In fact, vaccinated meat has not one trace of "vaccine" in it. The immune system, having responded to the jab, destroys the natural viral protein by biodegrading it - it can be likened to a wasp sting - the substance injected is biodegradable, indeed it is biodegraded by the very cells that form the immune (antibody) response. As we have written elsewhere, the logical conclusion of rejection of vaccination is the assumption that FMD infection is preferable. Ignorance about vaccination is precisely what allows the EU trade rules to persist. Even though the NOAH survey showed that less than one in ten believed that animals should be culled rather than vaccinated in an outbreak, one third were still worried that vaccines can be transferred into the food we eat. This is why NOAH's recommendation to improve understanding and acceptance among the public is so vitally important for the health of UK livestock.

April 2 2009 ~ DEFRA is not following up the NOAH survey on new public acceptance of farm animal vaccination

After the National Office for Animal Health conference in March The role of vaccination in animal health - future technology and societal acceptance, Phil Sketchley, the chief executive of NOAH, said:
"We need to thoroughly explore the role vaccination has to play in animal health and, most importantly, how we can best communicate with the public to improve understanding and acceptance of new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers." (see below)
It was thus very disappointing to read Jane Kennedy's answer to David Drew (Hansard) on March 27 which reveals that DEFRA is not interested in following up this vital communication and research exercise. One of the key planks of the justification for not vaccinating against FMD (foot and mouth disease) has been that the public won't buy vaccinated meat - a misconception never adequately put to rest in spite of the ever more widespread sale of meat from animals protected by vaccines. As far back as 2004, one of the objectives of DEFRA's own Emergency FMD Vaccination Project Board Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control Policy Communications Strategy was to be "assured that there is public acceptance that products from vaccinated animals are safe to consume". Unless, for motives unknown, DEFRA does not agree that informing the public about "new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers" is desirable, Jane Kennedy's answer seems very unfortunate.

April 1 2009 ~ Cows killed by TB policy are worth only the value of their dead carcasses, says High Court Judge

When David Partridge had eight valuable cows slaughtered as reactors in 2006 he received just over £1,000 a head - about one third of their market value. He has now lost his High Court Appeal for enhanced compensation. Lord Justice Collins ruled that the true value of any animal slaughtered was the salvage value of its carcass. DEFRA's comment? "Cattle compensation is a major cost to the taxpayer" See BBC report

April 1 2009 ~ Although the same midges as those that spread Bluetongue, there is no UK contingency plan to deal with African Horse Sickness (AHS)

There is no humane contingency plan in place to fight this serious horse disease that could arrive at any time. "Seek out and destroy" won't do when the victims are valuable racehorses or pets - but the development and authorisation of vaccines and rapid diagnostics cannot happen without political will - and one fears both a lack of official appreciation of the seriousness of the threat and a reluctance to get on with preparations.
An article on page 18 of the current online edition of RCVS news ( pdf file here) refers to the use of polyvalent vaccines in Sub-Saharan Africa to tackle the 9 strains and monovalent vaccines used once the serotype is identified. More detail on AHS page.

April 1 2009 ~ Peter Kendall: "It must be a genuine partnership..and must have real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."

On the subject of Cost Sharing, www.thisissomerset.co.uk quotes the President of the NFU: "It must be a genuine partnership between livestock farmers and the government, and must have real powers and be able to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues." It also quotes South West MEP Neil Parish, Conservative chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, who said, 'Defra had "a bit of a cheek" to ask farmers to contribute to disease control, given its constant dithering over bovine TB and the fact that the last major animal disease outbreak in the UK - foot-and-mouth - was caused by government failings.'
"Given the misery already dished out to farmers across the country as a direct result of this Government's failures it will be a real kick in the teeth for the Government to now come to them with a bill."
(Recent posts on Cost Sharing)

March 31 2009 ~ 7 FMD farmers' claims for damages "struck out of court"

The farmers, who were not directly affected by the disease itself but who felt compensation ought to due when IAH, Merial and Defra had been negligent in allowing the virus to escape from the Pirbright laboratories in August 2007, said they had suffered heavy losses because of the widespread movement restrictions and loss of export trade. The Farmers Guardian says, "The ruling marks a victory for the three defendants in the case - Institute of Animal Health (IAH) and Merial, as operators of the Pirbright site, from where the virus leaked, and Defra Secretary of State Hilary Benn, as its licensor and regulator..."
The other 7 farmers who lost livestock were compensated - out of court - by IAH and Merial. See below.

March 31 2009 ~ BVA President urges those involved to make sure their voices are heard in the Cost Sharing consultation

Nicky Paull said today in a BVA News Release, "The proposals described in Defra's consultation will have significant implications for the livestock sector including how veterinarians engage with their clients and government in managing disease. The BVA will be examining the proposals closely and will be putting our views to government. I urge veterinary surgeons, and indeed all in the livestock sector, to get involved with the consultation and ensure that their voices are heard."
(The DEFRA consultation is here. See also coverage in FWi)

March 31 2009 ~" It's the job of the government to keep out disease": Peter Kendall

The President of the NFU was quoted in the Telegraph:
"I am furious that Defra is still trying to get farmers to contribute to their costs when the department doesn't have a good enough handle on its own costs...."
But as Roger Breeze pointed out in his paper (when the notion of cost sharing was first put forward four years ago), if cost sharing comes with mutually accepted "performance benchmarks" it will be
"a welcome change, because when the government... set all the rules, the results were demonstrably not to anyone's liking.."
By "industry" he meant all those concerned with livestock and poultry from farm to fork. But here is the snag:
"To be a partner in a real negotiation, the industry has to know what it wants"
Officialdom has for so long insisted on being in charge that farmers with good ideas but with decreasing time, money and optimism, groan to each other about the daft rules and antiquated policies - but have not found a united voice to make explicit what is wanted. As in economics and politics generally there is a lack of vision and leadership.
The exception is where people with a strong drive for safer, healthier systems can see an urgent need for change. Their voice is getting stronger and the government would be well advised to listen harder. (See also Cost Sharing and Food Security and Transition pages)

March 31 2009 ~ "Never let a crisis go to waste. ... a chance for business to transition from an anonymous, complex system to one that is direct and transparent."

Invigorating article at Ode magazine about change from within rather than top down:
"People are tired of business as usual. The exasperation is palpable, but so is the hope that this time, we can and will do things differently..."
Rob Hopkins (Transition Culture) has just been made a Fellow of Ashoka. Its founder, Bill Drayton is quoted in the Ode article. "Social entrepreneurs are the role models, the mass disrupters and the mass recruiters of local change-makers. They are the ones who get thousands of people and thousands of communities to stand up and say together, 'Oh, that's a pretty good idea. I'm going to make that work here.' That's the spirit we need to infuse throughout society."

March 30 2009 ~ 800 traditional but outlawed vegetable varieties now available from the Heritage Seed Library

As many of us are gloomily aware, three corporations only, (DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta), now control more than a quarter of the world's seed markets. In the past 100 years, 90 percent of UK's vegetable varieties have been lost, with the same happening elsewhere.
In order to "protect customers" the EU insisted that seed varieties be properly "tested" and "approved" before being allowed to be bought or sold - and consequently banned those not tested - amounting to hundreds of traditional varieties.
Now, however, the UK Heritage Seed Library which conserves over 800 varieties threatened from extinction, is making seedlings available from its Warwickshire site from Sunday 5 April 2009. We read that in tests done by Garden Organic,
"older heritage varieties outperformed their newer counterparts at withstanding poor weather conditions, disease and the scrutiny of taste tests."
How to join. See also warmwell.com's food security page

March 30 2009 ~ "details of proposed fund-raising mechanisms...."

Hand in hand with details about its long discussed new independent animal health body comes what Alistair Driver in the Farmers Guardian calls "a mechanism to raise funds from farmers" - and yet another consultation is launched for the big players in agriculture about plans for an "arms length" body to take over responsibility for animal health policy from Defra. "Defra said its proposals would 'help to reduce the risks and costs of animal disease, improve confidence in animal health policies and ensure that livestock keepers who benefit from animal disease control measures (sic) share the costs of those measures with taxpayers". As the farmersguardian.com says
"It is likely that one of the favoured options will be a livestock keeper registration scheme that would effectively be a headage payment on each animal farmers owned."
See also DEFRA news release today

March 30 2009 ~ dismay at plans to install "an expensive new organisation, possibly modelled on the "over-staffed and sluggish Food Standards Agency" to run animal health policies ... for which the bill is mainly funded by farmers

Last September, the NBA's Kim Haywood said she was 'dismayed' at the prospect of the registration scheme and outlined why it could cost cattle farmers as much as £30 a head. "Under current plans such a scheme would have to generate £425 million a year to fund Defra's unreformed Animal Health operation and then acquire a building for the proposed new body which could require a one-off payment of at least £150 million. On top of this, contingency funding to meet the expense of exotic disease outbreaks, like FMD, avian flu, bluetongue and swine fever, would have to be accumulated for research into exotic disease protection, also funded with levy proceeds too." (More)
As for "improving confidence in animal health policies" much 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..." as Caroline Cranbrook said recently, adding that CLA economist, Professor Allan Buckwell's view of any ' independent', new body is that it must be a "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" More

March 30 2009 ~ "the livestock production and animal product processing industry and the retail sector should all pay a share of the above costs not borne by government because all components benefit from animal agriculture - this includes auctions, retail stores and slaughter plants."

Defra talks of "improving confidence in animal health policies" and claims that livestock keepers "who benefit from animal disease control measures" should share the costs of those measures "with taxpayers". However, a rather more foolproof scheme has appeared several times on these pages (Industry Cost Sharing) in which "Performance Benchmarks" are a necessary component for all parties. In addition (extract):
"...The government shall ensure that sufficient laboratory capability and capacity exist to perform all diagnostic and differential diagnostic tests during and after an outbreak in a timely manner.
All components of the livestock production and animal product processing industry and the retail sector should pay a share of the above costs not borne by government because all components benefit from animal agriculture - this includes auctions, retail stores and slaughter plants. The consumers' portion is paid by government tax revenues..."
Read in full and see also warmwell.com Cost Sharing page

March 30 2009 ~ "Let us be proud to be nimbys, our backyard is the countryside and that is the face of Gaia": James Lovelock

James Lovelock, long a hero of this website for his gentle, modest, and far-seeing wisdom, was quoted by The Observer yesterday. One sentence seems as resonant as that of the boy who called attention to the nudity of the Emperor:
"There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas."
See also warmwell.com's windfarm page

March 29 2009 ~ TB "Sooner or later it will splash out into more cats/pets/ companion animals than we have now, and onwards into people."

Farmers in the TB hot spots are in constant apprehension and grief. But they also fear that TB is spreading to human beings. Here is one of today's emails
"... friends south of us on the coast, have lost 23 at the last swipe (dairy), they've lost over 200 now, in about 9 years. And others about 8 miles north, with their farm for sale, will lose 53 (out of 80 ish) dairy cattle.
This is worse than FMD, Mary. It never ends...
... tuberculosis contamination in the environment now, is phenomenal. Sooner or later it will splash out into more cats / pets / companion animals than we have now, and onwards into people..... vets tell me that by 1970, true cattle TB was all but eliminated. What we have now (they say) is badger adapted TB, feeding back up into sentinel tested cattle, and any other mammals who have the misfortune to come into contact with it. This level of environmental contamination is something we as human beings have not encountered before, and sooner or later it will blow up in Defra's face."
(Read in full and see also warmwell TB page)

Sunday March 29 2009 ~ Why aren't we already starting a programme of BCG cattle vaccination, and getting the rules about the use of vaccines changed in Brussels?

Humane and knowledgeable article in www.farminguk.com today.
"By foolishly allowing the TB bacillus to build up in the wildlife reservoir during the last 25 years, we are very nearly past the point of no return..... Just as eradicating TB was erroneously thought to be the only answer to the problem of tuberculous milk in 1932 (pasteurisation eventually solved that one), so attempting to vaccinate badgers now is too late and too costly in slaughtered cattle and disillusioned farmers.
Why did Defra take 11 years spending £23 million in vaccine research, before resorting to the BCG vaccine that is widely used in humans and is available in vast quantities from Sweden? And why, if that vaccine works for badgers, aren't we already starting a programme of cattle vaccination, and getting the rules about the use of vaccines changed in Brussels?" Read in full.
The writer, a Devon farmer of considerable experience, considers it is the only way ahead "with TB testing and the slaughtering of reactors a thing of the past. I hope I am around to see it." Getting rules changed in Brussels. They are not set in stone. For FMD too, this should be the vital and urgent first step. Only then will modern technology be able at last to transform our archaic and inhumane animal health policy

March 27 2009 ~ Energy Crisis: "Last year's crippling oil prices may be just a taster of what is to come."

Rebecca Hosking's film, "A Farm for the Future" can now be watched online The photography is stunning. The message is stark:
"..."... the alarming question of whether there'll be enough food to keep us fed. If our farm is to survive it will have to change...All the farms I know, including the organic ones, are utterly dependent on fossil fuel, particularly oil. Last year's crippling oil prices may be just a taster of what is to come...to Dr Colin Campbell, the facts about our oil supply are simple.
"I don't think there's any serious doubt that we're close to this turning point, a sort of turning point for mankind you could say, when this critical energy - for agriculture in particular, which means food, which means people - is heading on down..."
Since, as Miss Hosking says, "if we didn't have oil refineries..., in this country we'd pretty much starve", her vision for the future of farming is of vital importance. After the evidence is in, she reaches some fascinating conclusions:

March 27 2009 ~ "Now I have learned the Big Lesson: Biodiversity keeps us going.. it protects our food."

Rebecca Hosking's film, "A Farm for the Future"
"....It is the attention to detail that a gardener can give to a small plot that makes it so productive...up to five times more food per square metre than a large farm...Supermarkets, reliant on industrial scale transportation and the farms that supply them are unlikely to survive as oil declines, but a collection of veg. plots, allotments and smallholdings could easily make up for their loss - but only if we have a lot more growers...."
Richard Heinberg is shown agreeing - but adds "We'll also need a lot more full time farmers". The film concludes, "I'm fascinated to find out what species of grasses we have and how I can improve our pastures and how we can make the most out of our trees to benefit our cattle but we need to produce more than just livestock..for any of these ideas to work it is essential to preserve the farm's wildlife and work even harder to preserve greater biodiversity."
The film is a joy to watch, and as Rebecca Hosking says, the pioneers' work shown is a big inspiration. She talks of a national effort, even a bit of government leadership - but qualifies this by adding, "..in an ideal world". Watch in full.

March 27 2009 ~ Energy prices affect everything - including food supply

(FT) "The number of chronically hungry people has surpassed the 1bn mark for the first time as the economic crisis compounds the impact of high food prices, the United Nations' top agriculture official has warned." And the New York Times quotes a spokesman from the IMF who says of oil, " today's low prices could be setting the stage for another price run-up in the future." (see oil page)
The global crisis makes actions such as "quantitative easing" look as weasly as the words themselves.
President Obama spoke in advance of the G20 of "restoring the sustained growth that can only come from open and stable markets that harness innovation, support entrepreneurship and advance opportunity." Perhaps. But Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, recently wrote that it was the "growth binge" that led us into such a mess in the first place,
"...... We are all going to have to share the bitter fruits of our society's century-long growth binge.... The only silver lining is the possibility that now, at last, as the trends (Peak Oil, the failure of growth-based economics, the failure of industrial agriculture, climate chaos, and so on) are becoming so starkly clear, policy makers will begin seriously to contemplate a Plan B...."
Read in full

March 27 2009 ~ Plan B is already being implemented by down to earth opinion

The prescient professor, Tim Lang, spoke last May of
"...fundamental problems about oil dependency, water shortages looming, growth of population, changes of diet, all the things that are beginning to emerge on the international scene..."
adding that the UK really does need
"to re-learn the gardening skills it lost a century ago and to change its diet to one that includes less meat, fewer dairy products and more fruit and vegetables"
The far-sighted action of the Transition Town movement involves ordinary people at grass roots level and has immediate and comprehensible appeal - while initiatives such as LandShare aim to help everyone to help themselves.

March 27 2009 ~ Enlightened shepherding - a few moments of stunning light relief

Wonderful border collie work (and computer wizardry..) The advert for Samsung on YouTube is unmissable.

March 26 2009 ~ DEFRA accounts for massive rise in bTB: " a combination of more cattle being tested for TB and a higher rate of reactors being identified"

Is this not rather like claiming that the world's population has risen because we are better at counting?
See warmwell bTB page "

March 26 2009 ~ Non-vaccinating EU facilitates Iraq's massive foot and mouth vaccination campaign

On March 13 the European Commission sent to Iraq a consignment of 500,000 doses of FMD vaccine, from the stocks stored in the European Community antigen bank as a contribution towards their vaccination campaign. Today we read in the FMD news service (University of California, Davis) that the intense FMD vaccination campaign that is currently being conducted will continue for an "indefinite period of time".
The vaccine, sent at the request of EuFMD, arrived in Iraq ten days ago "in order to control the current outbreaks".
The irony may occur to some that justification given for this action is that the Iraq outbreaks "may also pose a threat to the EU" The EU itself, having jumped off the vaccination bandwagon in 1990, is fearful of FMD on its doorstep - but cannot seem to see that its own discrimination against vaccination leaves the virus a free hand if it crosses over that doorstep. The original worry about differentiating vaccinated from infected animals is solved by DIVA vaccines and it is harder and harder to hide the true, unscientific protectionist reason for the rules. As Dr Keith Sumption, Secretary EuFMD, wrote in December 2006 describing a similar vaccination programme in Turkey, (FAO website) :
"FMD is a virus that propagates incredibly quickly -- when it discovers a new niche where there is no immunity among animals, it just rips through them. Europe is FMD free, and animals there aren't vaccinated against it - so they have no immunity."

March 25 2009 ~ The Bio-Seeq Portable Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory is now being field tested

It is almost exactly eight years since a then state-of-the-art diagnostic kit was offered to - and rejected by - the UK government. As Roger Breeze told Farming today in 2004:
"... it is really preposterous for people to say that in some way this is some sort of theoretical device which has yet to be tested. The Department of Defense is using this every day in Afghanistan and Iraq - all over the world. There are thousands of these machines in use all the time. And so, you know, the people who think this is theoretical really ought to get out there in the world and see what is really going on..."(Read in full)
Now, the EuFMD Commission, with support from the EC (DG-SANCO) and the Government of Turkey are to carry out field tests on the portable diagnosis machine developed at Pirbright. Keith Sumption, Secretary EuFMD Commission, is quoted in the latest EUFMD newsletter
"BioSeeq has great potential to meet the need for a rapid and sensitive FMD test suitable for areas normally free from the infection. ...and could be used at the frontline in the management of epidemics when they occur. Speed in confirming FMD is vital as any delay potentially increases the impact of the disease."
Better late than never, some might say - but already, a new system of rapid on-site tests with far greater potential than PCR is waiting in the wings, we understand - and hope to be able to give more detail soon.

March 25 2009 ~ "This system makes possible the mass vaccination of a susceptible animal population without compromising the serological identification of convalescent individuals."

"Application of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests to foreign animal disease eradication", was written 5 years ago by John Pasicka of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg, and published online by Cambridge University Press in 2007:
"....eradication efforts which rely solely on quarantine and stamping-out measures can present a formidable undertaking. This, combined with growing economic and ethical considerations, has led to renewed interest in the use of vaccination ..... Vaccine effectiveness within a population is a function of its ability to reduce virus transmission. .... Nevertheless, vaccination can also complicate serological surveillance activities that follow eradication, if the antibody response induced by vaccination is indistinguishable from that which follows infection. This disadvantage can be overcome by the use of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests...."
DIVA vaccines and tests have been available for several years - and as Colin Fink reminds us below,
"... the whole exercise of vaccination is to reduce the virus shed into the environment to a level which stops the disease (measles smallpox, polio, Foot and Mouth etc) from spreading. Any very low level infection in a recently vaccinated animal meeting wild type virus is of no consequence...."
Yet a presumed threat from "carrier animals" is still emphasised in such publications as this month's paper in Epidemiol Infect. 2009 Mar 17:1-11:"The effect of vaccination on undetected persistence of foot-and-mouth disease virus in cattle herds and sheep flocks" PubMed (David Paton et al). It is tempting to suspect that the preoccupation with "carriers" is more commercial than scientific. Pirbright, so starved of funds, is naturally and understandably interested in a market for its own serosurveillance and testing kits.

March 25 2009 ~ "No allocation has yet been made for 2010-11 onwards and as such we are unable to provide any estimates."

James Paice asked how much DEFRA plans "to allocate for measures to tackle bovine tuberculosis in the next three years." Jane Kennedy's full reply can be seen on the bTB page.

March 23 2009 ~ EU to discuss calls for the electronic identification of sheep to be voluntary rather than compulsory

FWi has two articles on EID today; one about the crunch talks today, Eu to discuss possibility of voluntary EID and an article about the disaster that will befall the UK flock if compulsory EID is introduced next year ; 50% could be lost: Sheep flock threatened if EID introduced
The Farmers Guardian article about the meeting is here. Extract:"... Industry leaders have expressed optimism that the meeting could be the turning point..."
Update from www.farminguk
Update March 24 FWI "Sheep EID looks certain as talks fail" See also Farmers Guardian "....despite support from UK Ministers, industry leaders have admitted a wholescale change to the rules is now 'off the agenda' Support came from Farming Minister Jane Kennedy as well as colleagues from Germany, Ireland, Greece and Eastern Block states. But with larger member states such as France, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands failing to back to the resolution, compulsory EID still looks set to come in from January 1 next year."

March 23 2009 ~ "... a 'trend line' on our graph of cattle casualties up to 2014 when we are told a vaccine may be available, is not a pretty sight..."

The Bovine TB blog, bovinetb.blogspot.com shows the graph....


... and the entry should be read in full. Extract: "...Last year was the worst on record - and far worse than during the eradication clearances of 1950s. Defra have presided over a one sided policy which has hoovered up just short of 40,000 cattle during 2008, has snarled up 7,928 herds - and shows no sign of slowing down..."

March 23 2009 ~ connecting the dots between food, health, economics, and sustainability

The important thing about the new White House garden,according to the New York Times Room for Debate Blog is that
"those connections are being made in a visible and lasting way on our country's most emblematic patch of ground."
Scrolling down the page about the Obama's garden, we read also:
"Swaths of manicured grass require an industrial maintenance schedule and take more resources from the environment than they give back. If the owners of these symbolic lawns don't begin to dig them up they risk someone else doing it for them."
(On March 6, guerrilla gardeners in Brisbane placed rows of cabbages, lettuce and rosemary in the lawns outside the Queensland Parliament House as a protest against the proposal to replace some of the state's fertile farmland with coal mining projects. They were moved on by security guards.)
Very relevant is the Farmers Guardian article today quoting Women's Food and Farming Union president, Ionwen Lewis
"Now that we have entered a period of global food shortages, it makes little sense to prevent farmers from responding to clear market demands for their produce. Surely, it must now be our duty to produce as much food as possible...I do have confidence for our future, as farmers will be needed more than ever."

March 21 2009 ~ bTB: "I am truly THRILLED about this film..."

Tim Garratt, Auctioneer at Rendells in Devon has written to Chris Chapman about the new bovine TB film : "Bovine TB - A Way Forward". Because of the severity of the disease and restrictions, Chagford March Store Cattle Fair was cancelled for the first time in more than 200 years. More on the TB page

March 20 2009 ~ "a four-way win for food sovereignty"

Brazil's fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, has developed "dozens of innovations in food security", in particular by finding connections between the interests of farmers and consumers. It offers local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers. The city's initiatives also include large community and school gardens. The federal government contributes toward school lunches - but where this was once spent on processed, corporate food, the food now comes fresh and mostly from local growers. More here.

March 20 2009 ~ "A vaccine would avoid that dispersal effect, which as the science reveals, is a major flaw in a badger cull"

Today's Farmers Guardian article by Alistair Driver on the badger vaccine campaign quotes Colin Booty, the Senior Scientific Officer of the Wildlife Departmentof the RSPCA:
"This is certainly a step in the right direction, as this method of control, unlike culling, targets the disease itself rather than the animals, which can be its unfortunate host. A vaccine would avoid that dispersal effect, which as the science reveals, is a major flaw in a badger cull."
Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive for The Wildlife Trusts, seemed to sum up what many people feel about the news: "We know this trial will not provide an immediate answer to combating bovineTB but it is a very welcome initiative."

March 20 2009 ~ Prof John Beddington predicts a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages within twenty years

The new Chief Scientific Adviser says the crisis will hit "by 2030" Prof Beddington told the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference last week
"There's not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems."
The simple impact of this population clock highlights the accelerating world population. He sees GM crops that can be resistant to drought and salinity as part of a possible solution. The wikipedia.org entry on population control looks at the question from many angles.

March 20 2009 ~ "Defra must confound its reputation for bungling big projects by deploying the vaccine effectively..." Dan Rogerson, MP

Farming UK quotes Melanie Hall, the National Farmers' Union regional director, : "....Vaccination can't stop the tidal wave of bovine TB by itself - particularly not in the South West where the disease has us in such a stranglehold.. " and also North Cornwall Lib-Dem MP Dan Rogerson, member of the EFRA committee: "The Government has finally heeded calls from the farming community to get on with a vaccination programme. The news is long overdue. Now Defra must confound its reputation for bungling big projects by deploying the vaccine effectively. But Ministers cannot use this programme to dodge the question of badger control. A vaccine will only ever be part of the solution."

March 19 2009 ~ The five-year Injectable Badger Vaccine Deployment Project - efficacy trials show a "very noticeable protective effect" on badgers.

See Alistair Driver's report in the Farmers Guardian today: He quotes Hilary Benn, who acknowledged the project was primarily a 'stepping stone' to a more widespread vaccination policy in the future owing to the practical limitations of vaccinating badgers in the wild and thought its impact on disease incidence would be "relatively small". The ultimate goal was to produce oral badger vaccines and a cattle vaccine but acknowledged there are major hurdles to be overcome (e.g. see below : EU Directive Article 13 requires Member States to ensure "anti-tuberculosis vaccination" is prohibited under their eradication plans. ) Badgers are to be trapped and vaccinated by trained officials in the field. The aim is to vaccinate 'as many badgers as possible'. The BCG vaccine will be identical to that widely used in humans and made by the Statens Serum Institute, in Copenhagen, where vast quantities of the human vaccine are produced. The FG report also gives the verdict of Prof Glyn Hewinson, head of TB research at VLA

March 19 2009 ~ Bovine TB: Campaign to trap and vaccinate badgers to begin next year.

The Times today reports that the vaccination campaign will begin next year in six of the worst-affected areas,
"....expected to include the South West and the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire borders. Farmers are likely to be involved in vaccinating the badgers and will be trained this year."
This will be considered good news by those who, like the filmmaker Chris Chapman, want to see healthy badgers vaccinated against the disease. His update upon the progress of the film about TB in Devon contains the heartening news that Anthony Gibson OBE, who was South West Regional Director of the NFU during FMD, has agreed to take part in the film. See warmwell.com TB page for the update and see Parliamentary comment last November.

March 18 2009 ~ "There isn't Them and Us, there's only Us."

As an antidote to news about such things as the IMF, "fat taxes" and the Government's new push for genetically modified crops (Independent), Rob Hopkins, on the new Transition podcast, produced by Carl Munson, speaks engagingly about a helpful meeting with Devon County Council about the real crisis facing us.
"Given the severity of what we have to do and the miniscule timeframe in which we have to do it....there's a lot that can be done from grass roots level but then you relatively quickly run into the things you can't do unless you have your local Town Council, District Council, County Council on board as well....The role of various layers of government is to enable what the tier underneath it is saying it wants to happen."
He speaks of the fascinating work being done looking at land use and how far food can be produced locally -
"but the question that keeps coming back to me is
'Why are we the ones doing this? Why isn't DEFRA doing this? This is vital stuff. People ask, 'Can Britain feed itself?' but then say, 'I don't know' - and move on."
He talks about the practical questions that need to be addressed, the nuts and bolts of the food system, "growing vegetables for everybody is easy..growing cereals for everybody gets harder, and meat is very, very difficult."
Rob Hopkins talks of the world tour for training those interested in terms of being a catalyst, a "microrhyzal fungus", he jokes, in the speed of the spread of enthusiasm for the ideas of Transition. There are now already 160 formal Transition initiatives in the UK and hundreds of what he calls "mullers". The sense of optimism and humanity from all those featured on the podcast, including Patrick Holden, is almost palpable and although the podcast lasts for 40 minutes, the beginning is unmissable. (More on Transition Initiatives.)

March 17 2009 ~ "...we will, ultimately, have a healthy, efficient sustainable food and farming sector"

Prince Charles is urging farmers to back Future of Farming Week. He is quoted in Farmers Weekly
"For many farmers, changing to more environmentally friendly practices seems to be a daunting challenge. But by starting with simple measures I hope you will see that these changes are possible. In this way we will, ultimately, have a healthy, efficient sustainable food and farming sector here in Great Britain."

March 17 2009 ~ "FABBL standards, for livestock at least, contain nothing at all other than a farmer's existing statutory requirements."

Email received today:
" I was looking at the FABBL (Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb) Farm Assured standards recently with a view to selling 2yr old lambs ... I was very surprised to see that the FABBL standards for livestock at least, contain nothing at all other than a farmer's existing statutory requirements. In other words, if you are already complying with the law in having your animals correctly tagged, with the right amount of space at housing, keeping correct notes of Movements etc etc you are at FABBL standard.
I feel this is misleading. I was expecting far more - especially as this scheme is promoted as something we should, as livestock keepers, aspire to.
To my mind it is not checking the right things. One local FABBL farmer never pre-movement tests his cattle for TB when going to and from summer grazing. Even if his annual test is within 60 days of one of those movements, the other would fall outside it. Nor is he vaccinating against Bluetongue - relying on his neighbours to protect his stock by their vaccination programme. I for one will be looking for far more than the "Little Red Tractor" symbol in future when I buy my meat."
Is this what other readers have found to be the case? According to the website www.redtractor.org.uk the Red Tractor logo appears on over £7.5 billion worth of food every year and is "recognised and trusted by millions of shoppers".

March 16 2009 ~ "We crave fast food because we know it's bad."

An article in the Independent: "... the impact of fast food on health is weighted against the poor..." See also Jeremy Laurance in Tuesday 17 March's Independent:"If you don't like the booze price hike, just wait for the fat tax"
The first article quotes Professor Philip James, chair of the International Obesity Taskforce who says that the "radical solution" is to change the discrepancy between the prices of healthy and unhealthy food - by taxing the unhealthy food.
"...people drop their fruit and vegetable intake when they are short of money and tend to eat more sugars and fats, which are cheaper. I've proposed for years that the Government taxes unhealthy food. It's a necessary response to the credit crunch."
Taxing unhealthy food is a necessary response? Another, more interesting "radical solution" both to the credit crunch and to ever increasing central government interference is that of the Transition Towns movement. People work from the grass roots up to organise themselves into resilience and towards self sufficiency. Nine Tools for a Happier Society look like an antidote for the helplessness of the credit crunch and self destructive cravings. Even better - for those who have not yet read it, see the review here by Carolyn Baker of Rob Hopkins' Transition Handbook. Australia too is looking for change that avoids "top down" diktats. See the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal competition results "Me-Change" including, for example, the project to connect local shoppers with local farmers.

March 16 2009 ~ "We wait three sick-making days. I have to restrain myself from compulsively running my hands over the necks of the cattle..."

The Locks Farm blog in Devon expresses what so many feel: "bTB testing…again? ...... Then on Friday, Friday 13th, Sally returned to read the test. As always I feel ill. As always Olly says to me "I know we'll go clear." I wish I had his confidence..." Read entry. See also warmwell.com bTB page

March 15 2009 ~ When computer modelling goes haywire.....

From today's Sunday Telegraph. Christopher Booker writes about the climate conference held in New York
".. organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by the Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.... Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence... it is already painfully clear that the computer forecasts are going hopelessly astray..."
One shares Christopher Booker's deep concern that distinguished scientists who dare to go against the current orthodoxy, are ignored and sneered at:
"... there is no dialogue on these issues.."
(See also the graphic and comment at Eureferendum which also makes one seriously question the received wisdom about global warming.)
With what gratitude and affection many of us remember Professor Fred Brown and his gently persistent attempt to bring sanity to the FMD policies of 2001 - yet another case where seductive but flawed computer modelling drowned out any voice of humane reason, however distinguished.

14 March 2009 ~ Despite the recession, farmers' markets recorded a growth of 18.6 per cent last year according to the Soil Association,..

.. highlighting the importance of provenance over price. As consumers prefer locally sourced products - and look to avoid premium costs - research agency Admap estimates that by 2020, 30 per cent of food products will carry the labels of independent producers, rather than global brands." Telegraph

March 13 2009 ~" I have been reduced to tears today. It shows the people who thought this up don't realise the dreadful suffering that is going on in farming." Midlands vet

Headed "Defra Vets Sent to Bang Drums as TB Rages", page 8 of Farmers Weekly this Friday describes recent experiences of the Midlands Animal Health Division who attended a training day on 10 March where, instead of being updated on disease, its prevention and treatment, the 130 staff spent the day playing games, banging drums, etc, in order to develop "effective teamwork". Also in the Farmers Weekly online version.

March 13 2009 ~ Mitchells finally gets paid - with £121,000 in interest

The last months of Mitchells Auction Mart in Cumbria struggle for fair payment from DEFRA have been chronicled by warmwell.com here.

March 13 2009 ~ "the draft Regulation represents a major step forward.."

The European Parliament Agriculture and Rural Development Committee is due to vote on Monday (16 March) on the draft EU Regulation dealing with the protection of animals at the time of killing. The British Veterinary Association says that it has argued for a long time that slaughter without pre-stunning is, "from both an animal welfare and an ethical standpoint, totally unacceptable" See press release

March 12 2009 ~ "European science advice looks very deficient" Professor John Beddington.

The BBC today reports how the present Chief Scientific Adviser is leading efforts to update Europe's system and is calling for more independent advisers and for policies and regulations to be independently assessed.
Certainly, science independent of the fear of upsetting the establishment, might point out the fallacies of the present EU FMD policy.
The FMD Vaccine Differentiation Group, for example, repeats the mantra that there is a possibility that vaccinated animals "can subsequently become infected with FMD virus" leaving out the most important point - that even if they were, in the short time before developing immunity (and the vaccinates would be unlikely to be rubbing noses with animals on farms infected), the amount of virus shed is so vastly reduced as not to pose a danger. The Group suggests that the virus would "replicate in them sub-clinically and be present persistently for a long time" but as Dr Colin Fink points out:
"... the whole exercise of vaccination is to reduce the virus shed into the environment to a level which stops the disease ( measles smallpox, polio, Foot and Mouth etc) from spreading. Any very low level infection in a recently vaccinated animal meeting wild type virus is of no consequence and NO animal which seroconverts to vaccine will be a long term excretor of virus."
Removing the discrimination against FMD vaccination for Member States is of such importance that a website such as this - with the moral support of many of those who do understand the science and deplore the unnecessarily destructive present policy - has been pleading for change for nearly eight very long years.

March 12 2009 ~ "farmers still have the mental scars from the ordeal..": Ben Fogle

Ben Fogle is an explorer and the son of Bruce Fogle, the well known vet, who wrote to the Veterinary Record in May 2001, "Most of us, I imagine, have personal feelings about the logic, value and welfare considerations of foot-and-mouth disease control strategies". Ben Fogle, after making a film about the Brecon Beacons where so many healthy hefted flocks were slaughtered in 2001, has called for
safeguards "to prevent a repeat of the devastation wrought by the disease in 2001"
Wales Online quotes Mr Fogle:
"I still remember my father...coming home with sad tales about how farmers with herds that they had nurtured for many years, having to watch healthy livestock be slaughtered, just in case foot-and-mouth took hold. .....The Government needs to put into place better plans of action, should a similar outbreak ever happen again."
He says that a lot of people "forget how hideous the trauma of foot and mouth was". That can be true only of those who were lucky enough never to know just how hideous it was.

March 11 2009 ~ EU's 1st 2009 bird flu case found in Germany

A wild duck, shot during a hunt in Bavaria and tested as part of an EU-wide monitoring programme was found to have H5N1. See ProMed. None of the other 39 birds shot on the hunt showed signs of illness. "There are so far no indications of the virus spreading in the wild bird population," said an official from the Starnberg District Office.

March 10 2009 ~ "a combination of approaches will be required to achieve significant control of bTB"

The Society for General Microbiology Independent Overview of Bovine Tuberculosis Research in the United Kingdom;a Defra Sponsored Review published in November 2008 (see pdf file) gives small comfort in its conclusions about present methods of control for bovine TB
".. even new diagnostics based on g-IFN release are unlikely to be effective in identifying latently infected animals and will only be used periodically;
the use of diagnostics in cattle will not eliminate environmental reservoirs of disease;
vaccines for either badgers or cattle have limitations...
culling may only be effective in certain circumstances....
improved husbandry measures could have some impact on the frequency of disease, but the required husbandry procedures are poorly defined and their impact is unquantified.
...future models should consider how different control measures would interact if implemented together...."
See warmwell.com's bTB page for more detail. See also the clear explanation sent to warmwell.com of the present problems of diagnosis for TB.
UPDATE March 11 See www.farminguk.com -The disgrace of TB eradication Extract: "... The disease could cost taxpayers GBP1 billion over the next four years.."

March 10 2009 ~ Jane Kennedy says,"Bees are just about the most hard working of insects"

The Western Morning News speaks of a "10-year blueprint to protect and improve the health of honey bees" involving the "tracking down" of the UK's amateur beekeepers
"They will be told of the need to alert the National Bee Unit (NBU) to bee health problems and encourage them to register on BeeBase, its beekeepers database."
On March 6, in answering a question from Tim Farron about how much DEFRA was spending on research into CCD and varroa, she told the House of Commons (Hansard) "the syndrome called colony collapse disorder in the USA are currently unclear and we have no current evidence to suggest that it is occurring in the UK."
More on the warmwell.com bee pages

March 8 2009 ~ "the government simply can't ignore this issue"

The Observer today, reporting on the cost and the ever increasing numbers of cattle slaughtered as a result of the bTB policy, quotes Peter Kendall;"This disease is spiralling out of control. At a time when the country needs a robust farming sector, providing high-quality food and rural job security, the government simply can't ignore this issue. The misery and stress levels affecting cattle farmers is immeasurable and it is absurd that the slaughter of 40,000 otherwise healthy cattle is seen as acceptable."
UPDATE "Does he now agree with those of us who argued in 2001 that such slaughter was "absurd".... ?" An emailed comment from Alan Beat following Peter Kendall's quoted remarks in the Observer.

March 6 2009 ~ "His Lordship did not so read the section"

Ruttle Plant Hire Ltd, in its long battle to be paid late payment interest on invoices from nearly ten years ago - the CSF outbreak that immediately preceded foot and mouth 2001 - has been successful in appealing against DEFRA's argument that "mistakes in a supplier's invoice" allowed the Department to avoid late payment interest penalties. (See Times March 4) As Lord Justice Jacob said, the phrase "notice of the amount of the debt" from the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998. does not require the invoice to be perfect before interest can run.
"... If it did, that would lead an employer looking for the smallest detail of error in an invoice. If he found one, he could delay payment of the whole sum and avoid payment of the statutory interest."
The February 27th 2009 judgment was a Court of Appeal decision and binding on all lower courts.
In 2004, Ruttles managed finally to get paid by DEFRA for its FMD work (£13.7million was due plus interest).

March 6 2009 ~ " The disputes are usually trivial and include such items as formal errors in the invoice."

From "Review of the effectiveness of European Community legislation in combating late payments" ec.europa.eu/enterprise/regulation/late_payments/doc/finalreport_en.pdf in which we see a dim view taken of such behaviour and a conclusion that "efforts need to be renewed constantly and that no improvement can be taken for granted":
"The JDM and Ruttle cases involving UK public entities are edifying. In these case the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs disputed invoices clearly in an attempt to delay payment or avoid payment altogether. The Courts found for the complainant ..." (p 243)
Christopher Booker could only write about the 2004 Ruttle case a year later (link) :
"Hundreds of firms fell foul of Defra's decision in 2002 to avoid paying its foot and mouth debts. Many, under Defra's remorseless pressure, eventually agreed to settle for a fraction of the money owed, under "confidentiality" agreements forbidding them to discuss their case..."
The judgement of Feb 27 may cheer those whose debts from DEFRA are, even now, still outstanding from 2001 but it is too late for those actually bankrupted by the Department's methods to avoid such payments - methods that some might consider a scandalous misuse of power.

March 5 2009 ~ "I may be an exception in this but I have come to like the Fallen Stock scheme."

"It is very hard to get a deep hole here (rock at 18"), unless a death pit is excavated (permanently open) or a digger available on-farm...... Losing an animal is bad enough, now at least I just have to get it the end of the track, make a phone call, get showered and go to work....." ( More from this email on the Fallen Stock pages)

March 5 2009 ~ On appeal from Tesco, the Tribunal throws out the Competition Commission's 'competition test'

Over a year ago (Feb 08), warmwell.com reported on "the Competition Commission's proposed remedies" to help farmers and growers, together with the appointment of an ombudsman having "sufficient powers to deal with the supermarkets' bully behaviour". The proposed plans (see also below) have met with stiff opposition from Tesco and the other giants.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has now upheld an appeal by Tesco against the Competition Commission's proposals to force local authority planners to consider which retailers were already operating in their areas when granting planning permission. The Competition Commission argues that the Competition Appeal Tribunal
"has not challenged the rationale for a competition test to tackle local supermarkets' monopolies or its design. The appeal was upheld on the narrow grounds that certain considerations about how the test would work and its costs and benefits should have been explored further in the report."
(Full report in FT which says there will be a follow-up hearing on March 16 ) The Independent quotes Nick Bubb, an analyst at Pali International: "If I was Tesco I would not be going around crowing about defeating the Competition Commission. It could backfire on Tesco if the commission decided to be more forceful in its approach."
The Labour MP, Barry Sheerman, has now called on the leader of the House, Harriet Harman, to set up a debate on Tesco's 'monopoly'.

March 4/ 5 2009 ~ "the need for continuing advances in vaccine technology combined with clear communication"

The National Office of Animal Health (NOAH)'s conference - "The role of vaccination in animal health - future technology and societal acceptance" - was held at The Royal Society in London yesterday. The results of a consumer survey were "encouraging" according to the NOAH press release. "with the onset of recession, consumers are giving more thought to the food they buy - they want good value, more local produce and to be assured of high animal health and welfare".
Phil Sketchley, chief executive of NOAH, is quoted: "We need to thoroughly explore the role vaccination has to play in animal health and, most importantly, how we can best communicate with the public to improve understanding and acceptance of new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers." Read in full

March 4 2009 ~ "an absence of an effective partnership approach on this issue "

More from today's NAO report:
"......Many farmers consider that an absence of an effective partnership approach on this issue, as they see it, threatens to undermine the current testing and surveillance regime for Bovine Tuberculosis. The Department has not authorised any badger culling in England, but announced in July 2008 further research to develop a vaccine effective against Bovine Tuberculosis. ...
... during all of our four case study visits farmers and livestock owners, and other industry stakeholders, consistently felt that the information (i.e. the DVD and leaflets sent to farmers illustrating "bio-security precautions") was often simplistic, of poor quality and too often impractical. Farmers preferred, and were more likely to trust, advice from their private veterinarian, industry association or from the trade press..."
See full report (pdf)

March 4 2009 ~ NAO report says Defra is failing on bovine TB

This important report from the National Audit Office, published today, "The health of livestock and honeybees in England" concludes that DEFRA is failing on bovine TB. Although it accounts for a large proportion of the expenditure of DEFRA and Animal Health (SVS) this disease,as all readers know, is out of control and getting worse.
"...The Department spent £225 million in 2007-08 on managing endemic diseases. Of this £77 million related to Bovine Tuberculosis....In 2007-08, 86 per cent of Animal Health's expenditure on managing endemic disease was absorbed by measures to control Bovine Tuberculosis, compared with 78 per cent in 2005-06..
...The reluctance of some farmers to cooperate with the testing regime is due to their concerns that they will be subject to compulsory culling, disrupting trade, dairy production or calving and consequential lost income. In areas such as Gloucestershire, there is also a wider frustration and belief that cattle testing alone, in the absence of badger culling, will not deal with the Bovine Tuberculosis problem... Infected animals have to be isolated from the rest of the herd until they are removed for slaughter, and farmers raised concerns that in practice isolation can be difficult to maintain for an extended period and can cause the animals distress.."
More extracts from the report to follow above as soon as possible.
See also warmwell page on bovine TB and the page on the honeybee crisis.

March 4 2009 ~ Diagnosis of TB - the problems

Accurately diagnosing both bovine and human TB is very problematic - as this summary, gratefully received by warmwell.com from Dr Colin Fink (Micropathology Ltd), clearly shows. The search for host proteins as specific marker of active TB infection is being undertaken as a matter of urgency; the problem of diagnosis is just as important in children. Unfortunately, as we know, existing tests for cattle are tragically far from being efficient and, as Dr Fink says, " I am sure that the present skin test kills perfectly healthy animals that have just met the infection but have walled it off and simply have a white cells reaction to the organism." Read in full

March 3 2009 ~ France moves to protect hill farms and organic agriculture

(See last week's Independent) From next year, France says it will confiscate over 20 per cent of the billions of euros of European taxpayers' money paid to its ranch-like cereals farms and divert the cash to hill farmers, grazing land, shepherds and organic agriculture.
".....the change in French attitudes does suggest that it may be easier to rebuild the CAP in 2013: moving away from subsidies for mass production of food and towards aid for small rural communities, traditional livestock farming and organic agriculture.
While criticising the very existence of the CAP, successive British government have also tended to defend the flow of payments to larger cereals farms and have resisted the movement towards direct subsidies for smaller, more "traditional" forms of agriculture..."
Read in full

March 2 2009 ~ "differential based on suffering"

It was with gloom that we read that in Taiwan the percentage of pigs being vaccinated against FMD nationwide has dropped from 50 percent last November [2008] to the current level of less than 10 percent. (See ProMed) The Taiwanese Swine Association is apparently very worried by the Council of Agriculture which, in view of last month's outbreaks, is now considering the resumption of nationwide vaccination at a time when the Swine Association had hoped to be "moving toward a zero injection rate to meet the OIE's requirements" One encouraging comment from the Teipei Times yesterday was a quote from Taiwan's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health:
"it is about the science. We will make the final decision after talking with the Swine Association and experts..."
But how far the science can prevail when the meat exporters are desperate to meet the "OIE's requirements" remains to be seen. As for the EU, when will the Commission finally accept that the discrimination against vaccination has no basis at all in veterinary science or virology - but exists to give trade advantages. In other words, it is a price differential based on suffering. Foot and Mouth is rampant in the world as these ProMed reports reveal. Few doubt that modern FMD vaccines are effective and safe, but vaccination is still feared because of the complicated OIE requirements about disease free status in which the differentiation between vaccinated and non-vaccinated status - once justified by science - can only be described now as wholly and disastrously out-of-date (see FMD vaccination page).

March 2 2009 ~ Bovine TB: A Way Forward

Dartmoor Photographer and Filmmaker, Chris Chapman is currently working on an independent film about the bTB crisis in the Westcountry. (See below) From the press release:
"Bovine TB - A Way Forward will highlight the current anomaly whereby vets and farmers, under present legislation, are unable to take control of the crisis. The film will cover as many viewpoints, suggestions and arguments as is possible and will offer a positive way forward for both farmers and the public to understand the interaction between cattle and badgers and the need to identify and accommodate healthy 'green' badgers..."
See warmwell.com's bovine TB page for more detail and the full press release.

Saturday 28th February 2009 ~ Sickening. Factory farms: " breeding grounds for virulent disease"

An article in the much respected Mother Earth News website is very timely when one sees again the disease uncovered at the Bernard Matthews factory farms in Suffolk. The article, "The Hidden Link Between Factory Farms and Human Illness" reminds us yet again that the cheap food produced at such profitable facilities comes at a great cost to humanity - even to those who refuse to eat meat from factory farms. The article quotes from last year's Pew Report (see our posting below) and says
"...Factory farm production is intensifying worldwide, and rates of new infectious diseases are rising. Of particular concern is the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes.."
Once those pathogens become widespread in the environment, it's very difficult to get rid of them. Read the article at Mother Earth News - and also the full Report from the Union of Concerned Scientists which also highlights the dangers to humans of intensive livestock production.

27th February 2009 ~ Time to scrap the fallen stock regulations

"Given that only one animal out of all those tested in England and Wales last year under the fallen stock scheme proved positive for BSE, is it not now time to review the ban of on-farm burial and lighten the burdensome and costly regulation that farmers have to endure?" See Hansard and the refreshingly sensible comments of Roger Williams - followed by the Minister's reply that "not enough member states are worried about the matter to change the nature of the regulation itself"

27th February 2009 ~ "What is sickening is the mire of differing opinion on what to do".

The Devon photographer, Chris Chapman, whose work in 2001 so successfully highlighted the tragedy of foot and mouth, is working on a proposal to make a film about the present bovine TB crisis. £3000 has been already raised towards a target of £12000 - and he hopes to begin filming very soon. He writes,
"We are in a TB hotspot here on the edge of Dartmoor and not far from my house is a huge old badger sett which we know has very sick animals...It seems utter madness to me that this can be allowed to continue - no decent farmer would let his animals suffer in this way and yet we have legislation in place that prolongs suffering in wildlife. ...
We have good vets on board willing to speak, and a retired bacteriologist who will speak about vaccination (without being gagged!).."
Warmwell.com will be following the progress of the film and we hope to have a press release from Mr Chapman next week.
Please see bovine TB page for more details.
UPDATE 28 Feb Chris Chapman has now begun filming.

27th February 2009 ~ An anxious wait for the 7 farmers.

More on the FMD case from Farmers Weekly An NFU official is quoted: "The fact the judge has reserved judgment and not thrown out the case is an important first hurdle cleared. The next step is the judge's decision which may take days or weeks. If he rules in favour of the farmers it will then move on to a full trial and the possibility of appeals before any compensation will be awarded. It is potentially a very long road ahead." (See also below)

27th February 2009 ~ "Our grazing livestock are the guardians of our landscape - we still have our traditional British meat. But even that is under threat from supermarket pressure...."

Country Life recently conducted a British beef tasting. The winner out of about 10 different breeds was the Longhorn ( see examples of the breed)
One of the judges, Caroline Cranbrook, explains in her article"Britain's Best Steak" in praise of British grass-fed beef;
" ... Research suggests (and diners know) that grass-fed beef tastes better. Traditional breeds also have increased marbling of fat, which melts into the meat during cooking and gives it a better flavour. Treatment at slaughter is another factor.
If animals are stressed before slaughter, the meat becomes tough. Short journeys to the local abattoir equal less stress for the animal, fewer 'food miles' and better meat.
Our grazing livestock ... are the guardians of our landscape. The mosaics of small fields, downland, heathland, fells, salt-marshes and most of our wildlife reserves all have to be grazed to maintain their beauty and biodiversity. Without livestock, they would revert either to arable cultivation or become abandoned thickets...."
Read in full at Country Life

26th February 2009 ~ Bird Flu at Bernard Matthews again

BBC "... DEFRA has carried out tests at Bernard Matthews breeder sites in Ubbeston, near Halesworth, and near Yaxham, close to East Dereham. The birds tested positive for avian influenza but not the highly pathogenic H5 or H7 types. Defra has not advised a cull of the birds but has placed a movement restriction on them."
Warmwell.com pages from 2007 chronicle the H5N1 outbreak at the Bernard Matthews premises in 2007 from its beginning in February two years ago. It will be remembered how in 2007, testing was not complete until 14 days after the Bernard Matthews plant was allowed to be re-opened. Bernard Matthews was close to being prosecuted for alleged breaches in hygiene regulations but - to the astonishment of many, far from facing charges, the company was even granted £589,356.89 in compensation, funded by the taxpayer.
Although it seems as though today's reported case of a notifiable disease may not be as serious as first feared, it is to be deeply regretted that DEFRA has not chosen vaccination as even part of their strategy to combat Bird Flu. As Dr Ruth Watkins asked in an article written many months ago for the CLA,
"... Why not vaccinate free-range poultry and pheasants as well as hold vaccine in reserve to ring vaccinate an outbreak in a domestic flock? ..."

26th February 2009 ~ Farmers' claims "serious, substantial and meritorious"

The three-day hearing in the case brought by the remaining 7 farmers claiming damages following the 2007 foot and mouth disease outbreak concluded today with the Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, reserving judgment. Richard Lissack QC, for the farmers, said their claims were "serious, substantial and meritorious".
Tim Lord QC, representing the farmers, "It is nothing short of scandalous that there should be these losses as a result and that they should go uncompensated."
On Monday, the Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, said: "…I have very much in mind how devastating the consequences of this outbreak surely were to a great many livestock farmers."
The solicitors instructed by the claimants are Thring Townsend Lee & Pembertons, one of the NFU's panel firms. The claimants are also represented by Richard Lissack QC, Tim Lord QC and Maya Lester. See Farming UK

25th February 2009 ~ "The point has been reached where the threat to global sustainable food security requires action"

The meeting referred to in a BBSRC media release last week on the subject of food security has taken place. (See warmwell food security page) Jack Davies in the Farmers Guardian reports: ".... scientists said they will look at how crop yields can be increased and how science can help deliver improvements in animal health and productivity. Dr Helen Ferrier, chief adviser at the NFU is quoted:
"It is now widely acknowledged that there is an impending crisis in the security of food supplies globally. We commend BBSRC for convening this meeting. By ensuring that the UK has strong food and agricultural research base we can ensure that the country has a secure and high quality food supply in the future."
The BBSRC will now develop a roadmap for scientific research which will be put out for public consultation in the spring. Read in full

February 25 2009 ~ "Is the credit crunch affecting your business?"

An appeal about a pilot programme "for a major British broadcaster" about how the current financial crisis is affecting small businesses in the UK - " in particular we are keen to feature a business from the agricultural sector." More

24th February 2009 ~ Out of court settlement for 7 of the 14 FMD farmers

Several papers report the news about the out of court settlement (Google - News). As we report below, there were 14 farmers who claimed redress after the Surrey outbreak in 2007 . When the case began in the High Court yesterday, the defendants did not admit liability but they have settled out of court the claims of the seven farmers whose livestock was killed during the 2007 outbreak. The case at the High Court will be contested by IAH Pirbright and Merial. Their co-defendant is DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn as licensor and regulator of site. The case is likely to last until next Wednesday.

23 February 2009 ~ a parallel hierarchy of administrators - on NHS lines?

Animal Health - both the concept and the renamed SVS - needs to be overseen by the very best skilled veterinary managers. Now, however, regional administrative directors are working alongside the regional veterinary directors. The background of the chief executive of Animal Health, Catherine Brown, is BUPA, the National Health Service, Community Mental Health and Equal Opportunities. All admirable. But is DEFRA creating a parallel hierarchy of administrators along the disastrous NHS lines- weakening the authority of the vets? According to DEFRA one of the Chief Executive's tasks is
"to modernise Animal Health's operating model"
DEFRA's claims to be "working collaboratively with the industry, delivery partners and policy makers", "leading the control of notifiable animal diseases on the ground" and "delivering Government's wider objectives in animal health and welfare" are looking shakier than ever - as the news below shows.
And as for those administrating "managing" and "modernising"- in a crisis, will they be aware of - and admit to - a lack of knowledge in their attempts to be "leading control of notifiable animal diseases on the ground"?

23 February 2009 ~ That was then

Just months ago, Dr Iain Anderson's 2007 Report suggested that DEFRA should take the lead in transforming IAH into a 'National Institute of Infectious Diseases', supported by funding from government and elsewhere and with links to universities. He also suggested creating an Independent Advisory Committee on Animal and Emerging Infectious Diseases (see below) to take a strategic view of animal health. The Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills, Sixth Report, Section 5, strongly agreed:
"107. The Pirbright redevelopment is of considerable national importance. We recommend that as a matter of urgency DIUS (via the BBSRC and Large Facilities Capital Fund) and Defra settle how they are to share the cost of the Pirbright redevelopment project ... the final settlement should be announced by the time the Government responds to this report...."
Read in full The response to the Anderson Review appeared on February 3 2009. (pdf) and makes it quite clear that DEFRA is most definitely not going to be taking the lead in any transformation of Pirbright and that not much in the way of a "final settlement" can be expected from that quarter.

23 February 2009 ~ This is now

"...a big question mark over our ability to react to future outbreaks, at a time when we will be under increased threat from new animal diseases.." says Professor Keith Gull, the Chairman of the IAH governing body, and a microbiologist at Oxford University, quoted by The Observer article: "U-turn over 'foot and mouth' lab". It makes for grim reading. So much for the Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills' urgent advice: " All funders of high containment laboratories must ensure that long-term funding for running costs is provided... The Government has a particular responsibility in this regard.."
A statement from the Royal Society this month said that the redevelopment of the IAH site at Pirbright should be a priority, while an optimistic BBSRC statement on Feb 13 says
"... in the longer term IAH should become a single site Institute, based at Pirbright....(see also below) IAH should have SAPO-4 large animal containment facilities and SAPO-4 laboratories at Pirbright and BBSRC Executive should work with IAH Executive and Defra to ensure long term financial sustainability."
But the financial sustainability to ensure such internationally recognised high standards is now looking uncertain. See The Observer article.

February 22/23 2009 ~ Professor Gull: "Defra has avoided the conclusions of the Anderson report and has gone for a short-term solution.."

"... that shows it has failed to learn the key lesson that a more integrated, long-term approach is needed."
As the Farmers Guardian made clear last week, the tightening of the purse strings was in fact likely to have been a Treasury move (as so often):
"Sources within Government have suggested the Treasury intervened.."
On the principle of 'He who pays the piper..', one is even tempted to wonder whether a lessening of DEFRA's influence might turn out to be a good thing in the end. The harking on about "value for taxpayers' money" by Defra's spokeman, quoted in the Observer, makes one - as usual - wonder what universe the Department inhabits - especially when contemplating examples of what DEFRA has considered value for taxpayers' money in the recent past.

February 21 2009 ~ "The point has been reached where the threat to global sustainable food security requires action."

A meeting on Thursday (19 February) in Central London, convened and led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) brought together "leading scientists, policymakers and funders with farmers, food manufactures and retailers" As the BBRSC release says, "With an inexorably growing population, with global harvests threatened by climate change, the very real threat of exotic and endemic animal disease and with a global economic downturn disrupting the flow of trade, the world faces a growing food security crisis." The meeting intended to "produce a set of priorities to address in order to deliver sustainable food security..." (See also warmwell.com's food security page)

February 20 2009 ~ "Meat that could seem to be very cheap could be at the cost of our own lives," Richard Young, Soil Association Adviser

"I am so sorry to inform you that my film Pig Business on More4 has been postponed til March 31st ...that is if they ever dare show it." The trailer of the film, Pig Business can be seen here and is most definitely worth a few moments' extension of our attention span. This is not just about the obscene way in which nimble, intelligent creatures are treated in the intensive "pig industry" but also the effects of such exploitation on Nature itself - including human health. Warmwell.com has been watching the expansion of the innocently-named Smithfield Foods - particularly in Poland - with increasing alarm.
"There is... no greater corrupter of politicians and government officials than corporate agribusiness. In Poland, the convergence of a politically virulent American corporation, Smithfield Foods, and a government made up of former Communists threatens the destruction of Europe's last oasis of traditional peasant agriculture,"
wrote Tom Garrett of the Animal Welfare Institute in 2003 and the film's trailer begins with a stark reminder from Mr Garrett of what is happening in Poland and elsewhere today in 2009. In factories, far from the public gaze, the application of industrial systems that were designed to build cars and machines, are applied to living creatures.

Feb 20 2009 ~ "Agribusiness is taking over, poisoning, bankrupting and enslaving.."

So says the indomitable Marchioness Worcester at the beginning of her film. She says, "The film challenges the corporate take over of the pig industry. So, with billion dollar industries on the war path, we have to make doubly sure that the film is legally water tight."
For information about who pays the true cost of 'cheap' pork in our supermarkets, and where to buy quality humanely raised and good value pork direct from a British farmer, look at the Pig Business website The film is now scheduled to be shown on More4 at 10.00 pm on 31st March and a DVD is available.

February 20 2009 ~ "Many are now waking up to the reality that food security is no longer a certainty..."

So said Jim McLaren, president of NFUS, as reported in The Scotsman.
"One of the big problems facing the industry is the increasing level of regulation and bureaucracy. The immediate concern is the proposal to introduce individual identification for sheep throughout the EU. This would be virtually unworkable in the UK and Ireland.... I have asked vets to explain what the proposed new system will deliver compared to what we have now, and the general consensus was absolutely nothing."
Mr McLaren spoke again of the need for an Ombudsman to oversee the way major retailers engage with their suppliers. Farmers could take to the streets, he warned, if EID was insisted upon. He said that this was one of the issues upon which Hilary Benn should take action. "He should hold up his hands and tell Brussels that their ideas are unworkable and unnecessary." Read in full

February 19 2009 ~ "...We lost about 47 cattle over 4 and half years from that 'closed herd'... Only 3 had lesions or were culture positive..."

An email from a West Country farmer who had done everything possible to ensure that the farm was "biosecure". It starkly details the present bovine TB situation - in which, after a short respite and renewed hope,
"we lose another 4 young cows, three of which are heavily in calf. One would have calved six weeks after she is shot, which pretty obscene - to be polite - which I am not."
As for the cost of such losses to the country:
".. immense, as most of these cattle were in calf, so two lives lost not one. And their milk potential all of which has to be replaced by imports. Ditto with beef cattle slaughtered.
...The environmental contamination from free roaming infectious badgers (as opposed to tested, slaughtered sentinel cattle) should not be underestimated. And this is a risk human beings have not faced before. M.bovis is a zoonosis, it is not easily cured, and it does readily transmit between human beings. .."
Read in full - particularly the detailed information about the spoligotyping on carcasses of heavily infected badgers nearby ("This info was dragged out of a very reluctant Defra/VLA.") which showed that the badger TB genotypes - type 9, vntr 6-5-5-4*-3-3.1 - exactly matched the farm's reactor cattle genotypes - type 9, vntr 6-5-5-4*-3-3.1.
"...Three recent cases in humans (Bristol, Glos and Cornwall) have all traced back to an identified environmental spoligotype, with the Cornish case identifying 'badgers known to inhabit a sett in the garden' as a prime risk. Are they still there?"

February 19 2009 ~ "Article 13 requires member states to ensure "anti-tuberculosis vaccination" is prohibited under their eradication plans.

What the farmer terms DEFRA's "gem re legality" for the use of badger vaccines hardly inspires confidence that DEFRA has the will, energy and understanding forcefully to question and challenge the EU on TB vaccination. DEFRA says,
"...The possible grounds on which we might argue that they do not require Member States to prohibit vaccination of badgers - separate from any arguments for cattle vaccination - is that Article 13 only requires a prohibition on the vaccination of cattle, even though it is not expressly so limited, on the basis that a reading of the Directive as a whole indicates that its obligations are only intended to relate to cattle. However, there is no certainty that this argument could successfully be relied upon as a basis for introducing a badger vaccination policy and we would run the risk of being infracted by the EU Commission if we did so.
.....we will discuss our proposed intentions with the Commission to seek their views ..."
Read email in full

February 19 2009 ~ "assurance scheme is not keeping track of its members' activities".

The company at the centre of the avian influenza outbreak in November 2007, Gressingham Foods, is the subject of this disturbing report from news.five.tv
"....the manager has decided after Christmas that the left over Turkeys should no longer enjoy the welfare benefits. But rather than hand back his certificate, he hasn't even told Freedom Food of his decision. He has then horribly neglected the birds, allowing them to fall into the condition you see in my report..."
As we saw in reports from Daily Mail in 2007 the desire for profit leads to inhumane working conditions that numb the people involved to such an extent that more is at risk than the animals' welfare. ".....The latest video is another embarrassment to Matthews managers who had claimed they did not tolerate workers abusing poultry. The new film shows a balding worker in overalls delivering eight separate kicks to turkeys in a shed on a farm at Wreningham near Wymondham, Norfolk. ..."
The intention of the much vaunted Freedom Food certification is to protect animals and inspire consumer confidence. The protection of animals is now considered to be very much connected to the health of humans. H5N1 virus type thrives in systems with intensive mass holdings. When sickly birds are kept in stressful conditions and in conditions hostile to their breed it weakens the immune system whereas keeping animals in a manner fitting to their type preserves varied, robust stock.

February 19 ~ The National Trust is to release enough land for up to 1,000 allotments across the UK by 2012.

. The land on some of the most famous country estates in Britain will be available for individuals or community groups in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The release will be organised through the Landshare website, which matches growers with available land (see below)

February 18 2009 ~ BBSRC decision to close Compton laboratory

As we report below, the Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) was to meet on February 11. It was decided at that meeting last Wednesday to merge Compton and Pirbright. A business case has to be prepared in order to get funding from the Department for Innovtion, Universities and Skills (DIUS). This decision will have shocked many people - not least the more than 250 staff at the Compton lab who are thought to be affected by the news.
The Newbury Today website reports: " The council said it also intended to work with IAH bosses and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to ensure long term financial sustainability."

February 18 2009 ~ "The general problem cited was bureaucracy and, in particular, transport regulations... the burdens became intolerable."

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) has carried out a survey of those members keeping breeds at risk. Of a substantial sample of 350 members, 288 valid returns were analysed. Members were asked to state whether they intended to abandon livestock keeping either in 2008, or within the next three years.
The results are very worrying and could be disastrous for some of our breeds.
The RBST will be monitoring the situation and lobbying hard to champion the concerns of native livestock keepers. See also pdf file in full

February 17 2009 ~ "... I can only conclude that the BBC is institutionally uninterested in the real countryside..."

"... the people who live and work in it, and the problems and the discrimination that they face day by day. All this of course breaks the BBC's own Charter and the codes of conduct derived from it..."
This link to an article in the Mail today, "One Man and his Blog", sent to warmwell.com this afternoon, may well be of interest to others who are saddened by certain aspects of a once justly loved institution.

February 17 2009 ~ "Hilary Benn said he hoped a badger vaccine would be available in 2010 - and that the South Hams could well be the testing area for it."

News from the Western Morning News . It quotes Hilary Benn: "It would seem sensible to me to trial the vaccine in a badly infected area .." He explained that he had received a delegation from MP Anthony Steen's constituency of Totnes in his offices in London. He said: "Depending on the what the scientists tell us, an injectable vaccine for badgers will be available next year, with an oral vaccine in about four years' time and a cattle vaccine in five years."
Once again, however, as with FMD vaccine, the regulations of the EU still discriminate against animals that have been vaccinated. "Under current rules, vaccinated cattle would show up as simply carrying bovine TB and be refused entry to the Continent."

February 16 ~ "... a host of vegetable plots, allotments and smallholdings ....could make up for the loss of industrial-scale farms."

Rebecca Hosking's film (read full article in yesterday's Mail) will suggest the need for a lot more growers. Some reports estimate it's going to take as many as 12 million growers - but we already have 11 million gardeners and the idea of growing food is becoming more and more popular. Birds no longer follow the plough because the action of powerful modern tractors fails to aerate the soil. Permaculture has the potential of returning fertility to the land and sustaining biodiversity.
"Could permaculture feed Britain?" Rebecca Hosking asks Britain's leading expert in permaculture.
'Good question,' he said. 'A better question would be, "Can present methods go on feeding Britain?"
Only 150,000 farmers - average age 60 - are left and policy makers fail to see what is coming. She mentions the government's response to the Chatham House report (see below) with all its warnings for the future, and like us, feels astonishment that the DEFRA spokesman can continue to insist that the UK 'enjoys a high level of food security'
"A Farm For The Future" will be screened on BBC2 at 8pm on Friday and repeated on Sunday, February 22.

February 16 2009 ~Share scheme for people with no place to grow

A garden sharing scheme is likely to be set up in Romsey - and may well be the first of many. The idea is part of the Transition Towns initiativeHampshire Chronicle quotes a member of the group behind the project: "...We are hoping to set up a garden-share scheme to match people who want to grow food with others who have space for growing food but, perhaps, not enough time or energy."

February 16 2009 ~ " These figures should alarm all policymakers..."

In the cold weather, wind turbines provided only 0.4 per cent of the energy needed. As a letter in the Times today:
"There were periods in January when wind hardly registered at all. These figures should alarm all policymakers when one considers that the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) will result in the UK having to close down nearly a third of its coal-fired power stations by 2015. ....Wind energy's failure to deliver during the continuing cold period should be a wake-up call. We need to better support more reliable and predictable renewables such as tidal stream."
Wave and tidal power is far more likely to provide sustainable energy - and it does not destroy areas of outstanding natural beauty. What a tragedy that the 1970s Salter wind duck scheme, that can convert 90% of the wave motion it stops into electricity was stalled during the 1980s owing to a miscalculation of the estimated cost of energy produced - overestimating it by a factor of 10 - an error which was only recently identified. (More)

February 14 2009 ~"the era of cheap food in British supermarkets could be over within a decade" Telegraph

The Telegraph this week: "A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said Britain 'enjoys a high level of food security'..... "
One really has to wonder at such uninformed complacency.
When the article goes on to say that the era of cheap food here could be over "within a decade", this can mean also "by the end of this year"
".... the average family's weekly spend in ... the food shop... is only going to worsen. .... the rising cost of commodities, such as grain, which is used for animal feed, will have a direct effect on the price of bacon, pork and beef. ..also affect the price of dairy products and other animal produce. .... Driven by increasing oil prices and the costs of fertiliser and animal feed, the price of basic foods such as milk, bread and meat will lift..."
The Chatham House report is clear - and might be considered required reading for spokespersons for DEFRA:
"...Corporate decision-makers, government policy-makers and consumers are facing a future beset by uncertainties of resource supply and distribution.....'business as usual' models could at worst fail, and at best be poor preparation for the coming period. EU/UK food supply arrangements will be required to operate profitably around a significantly higher price norm, one that reflects the true cost of resources...."
See also food security page.

February 14 2009 ~ "only someone whose soul belongs to the 18th century could so casually dismiss the government's role in negotiating with the rest of Europe in order to minimise the damage to agricultural exports..." Guardian

Today's Farming UK appears to be re-issuing an article from the Guardian in 2007 when foot and mouth had been confirmed in Surrey:
"...vaccination.... today it could eliminate the risk of a foot and mouth epidemic at a stroke. it need not become the crisis as long as the infection is not allowed to escalate into an epidemic.
Everything is in place to prevent it, but every day a decision is deferred, the risk increases that the disease will spread to other farmed animals....
In the origins of this outbreak at the Pirbright research site lie the obvious solution...."
More recently, in November 2008, Hilary Benn himself said: ".... In relation to foot-and-mouth, and we put, as you will know, the vaccination teams on standby when there was the outbreak last year, I think attitudes have shifted compared to where they were in 2001."
Mr Benn is right. Attitudes have certainly shifted.
Now what is needed from the UK Government is to set an example that the rest of the Member States would be very likely to follow, and get the EU Commission to re-examine the scientific basis for its discrimination against FMD vaccine.

February 13 2009 ~ ".... the potential for being a very serious risk to public health"

Alistair Driver (Farmers Guardian) relates how BVA President, Nicky Paull, told Hilary Benn at a recent BVA dinner:
"The continuing spread of bovine bTB within cattle and wildlife - particularly badgers but also other susceptible species such as deer - has not only an unacceptable impact on animal health and welfare but also the potential for being a very serious risk to public health. And we should not forget the health and welfare of our farming communities."

February 13 2009 ~ Another plea for trial vaccination of badgers

In Devon, a farmers' delegation led by the MP for Totnes, Anthony Steen, told Hilary Benn about the emotional and psychological impact when 300 cattle a week are being slaughtered in Devon alone. A trial vaccination of badgers in the county was once again asked for (as did David Drew in November) - but as the Herald Express explains, "inoculation combined with a badger cull..has controversially been ruled out by ministers."
Mr Steen found "extremely distasteful" the present policy of protecting badgers at the expense of prize cattle.
On the matter of the vitally needed badger vaccines (see below) Hilary Benn is evidently willing...but, as usual, "subject to advice that I receive.."
In the eight years of running this website, one has not become more optimistic about the quality, experience and expertise of the source of such "advice" as is listened to by policy makers and those who control the purse strings: for major diseases, vaccination strategy verges on farce, surveillance is almost wholly inadequate and animal movement policy often seen as unhelpful. (bTB page)

February 13 2009 ~ "Animal Health" keen to review "the reactor removal process" ..."with a view to improving timescales."

The surreal situation of bovine TB continues with farmers more and more powerless and distressed. An example is Stephen Yates in Shropshire, who told the Farmers Guardian that he has been waiting three weeks to hear when a single reactor would be removed - and has heard the same complaint from farmers across the county. The paper quotes an "Animal Health" (i.e. SVS) spokeswoman, the usual adept of DEFRAspeak it seems, who referred to the "target" being to remove 90 per cent of reactors within 20 working days and that "the reactor removal process was being reviewed with a view to improving timescales."

February 12 2009 ~ "The scientific case for a new, state-of - the-art national centre for animal health research is overwhelming..."

BBSRC, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, is the main funder of research into animal health and welfare. It intends to bid to the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills for additional funding for developing a "stand-alone flexible research facility for the coming decades." IAH staff have been informed of BBSRC's plans to press ahead with development of a new national facility and the revised plans for IAH were to be considered by BBSRC Council on Wednesday 11th February.
. The much respected Professor Douglas Kell, now Chief Executive of the BBSRC, is quoted in this IAH press release: "..The scientific case for a new, state-of - the-art national centre for animal health research is overwhelming. The BBSRC will continue its plans to invest in, and provide, the world-class facilities that are essential to ensure that the UK has advance warning of disease threats and the underpinning research necessary to develop diagnostics, vaccines and other controls." (See also below)

February 11 2009 ~ "new wind turbines and solar cells haven't prohibited the emission of even a single gram of CO2"

Der Spiegel (in English) , Feb 10 2009:
"... Experts have known about this situation for some time, but it still isn't widely known to the public. Even Germany's government officials mention it only under their breath. No one wants to discuss the political ramifications...big energy companies have an interest in maintaining the status quo. As a result, no one is pushing for change. Everyone involved is remaining silent.."
(More on the Windfarm page)

February 11 2009 ~ Learning on the Land - an educational project in Sussex that deserves support.

Tablehurst Farm, 30 miles from London, needs letters of support from as many interested individuals and organisations as possible in its bid for Lottery Funding for the project - which will allow the farm to bring to life its educational ideals. 1000 school children will live and work for a week each year to learn about farming, cooking and the importance of links with the land. This is resilience in action and will encourage vital change upwards from young grass roots. Please do send a short email of support to Georgia Taylor (or letters to: Hindleap East, Priory Road, Forest Row, East Sussex RH18 5JF)

February 11 2009 ~ Advertising Standards Authority bans British Pig Executive advert

The BPEX advert says, rightly, that "well cared-for animals mean better quality meat" but the ASA decided that the claim that precedes it, which reads: "British pig farms have very high welfare standards, assured by the Quality Standard Mark," wrongly suggests that all pigs in the UK are treated to very high welfare standards. BBC
".. Pork adverts claiming British pigs have "very high welfare standards" are inaccurate and must not be used again, the advertising watchdog has ruled...."
It was ten years ago that Compassion in World Farming's Peter Stevenson gave the simple advice that some pig farmers still seem unable to accept: "Pigs are active and very intelligent animals. A tail-biting pig is a bored pig. Give them the environment they need - enough space, a supply of straw, proper food and water - and they'll be happy." (More)

February 9/10 2009 ~ "FMD free without vaccination" - a trade advantage which needs to be re-examined scientifically

In spite of the EU's page: Questions and answers on vaccination policy of the EU few can be in any doubt that the discrimination between "with vaccination" and "without vaccination" has nothing to do with so-called "fear of vaccinated carriers" and everything to do with protectionism. The "vaccinated carrier" risk, as we see below, is negligible - and it is this false perception that creates the two-tier system rightly feared by exporters. A scientific acknowledgment of this would expose as unnecessary the EU regulations on animals, meat and products vaccinated against FMD. As Appendix 63 of a recent FAO conference on FMD says, it is real levels of risk - "not perceived risks" that
"must be considered when developing regulations and guidelines for the international movement and trade in animals and animal products. It must also be the most important consideration when deciding on the various options to deal with an outbreak.." Read full extract
In the paper's recommendations: " ...the policy of restrictions on export trade when part of the livestock population is vaccinated for controlling outbreaks should be reconsidered...If the vaccination option is used at an early stage, it will cause the least disruption of social and economic life. .." It is disturbing that it is the regulations themselves that are regarded as sufficiently set in stone to preclude any challenge. The scientific basis of these regulations must be re-evaluated when, without vaccination, there is such widespread waste and distress at the time of an outbreak.

February 9 2009 ~ Argentina: "Without pasture, you have nothing...they are killing the meat machine..."

Few may realise that, like drought-ridden southeastern Australia, Argentina is suffering the worst drought in a generation. As the Washington Post puts it today:
"...The cattle for the most part are dying of hunger, as the dry skies have shriveled up their pastures, along with huge swaths of Argentina's important soy, corn and wheat fields..."
Because of the success of Argentina's soybean production more and more ranchers have been selling off their cattle or transferring them to less fertile pastures, without devoting "appropriate investment in pastures and watering systems." As we reported in May, beef farmers have been badly affected by the limiting of beef exports. It is distressing to read that "more and more ranchers have moved to fattening animals in feedlots" One farmer comments:
"In Argentina, the quality of the beef that we have is because the cows are raised on the pasture. This is what gives it the flavor you don't get in the feedlot. We are basically producers of pasture. The cows transform pasture into meat, and into milk. Without pasture, you have nothing."
As for Argentina's FMD vaccination campaign, Farming UK, without comment on the dire situation in Argentina, reports that all bulls and cows there will be vaccinated once a year from 2010 with other smaller animals still being vaccinated twice a year. This, the authority says, will maintain the country's status of being free from Foot and Mouth Disease with vaccination.

February 8/9 2009 ~DEFRA is to break its funding commitment for Pirbright re-development

In November 2006, Pirbright's memorandum to the (then) Science and Technology Select Committee:
"The budget for the new build is £121 million including inflation and, in terms of capital expenditure, both DTI and Defra have committed their full contribution for the life of the project (2004 - 12)"
Even so, IAH saw a a funding gap of £8.2 million per annum to cover the higher operating costs..."Defra have not yet been able to commit to funding its/VLA share of the potential future funding gap - as per Recommendation 1 of the Gateway 2 report of 9 February 2006. This commitment is being sought as a matter of considerable urgency..." Now, however, as Alistair Driver in the Farmers Guardian reveals, DEFRA seems to be pulling out of funding the re-development of Pirbright itself. The responsibility now falls entirely onto BBSRC, which will now have to "submit a business case" to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (the former DTI) in the hope of getting the funding necessary to complete the project.
DEFRA's decision may have put in jeopardy the future of an effective disease control programme for the UK. NFU's Peter Kendall is quoted: "It is now absolutely critical the BBSRC is able to raise the money. If its budget is also constrained, it will be very, very damaging." He said that notwithstanding the 'financial meltdown' on Government finances DEFRA's decision ignored the 'underlying messages' about food security.
Read article in full Read IAH 2006, Pirbright's memorandum and article in Nature.com

February 8/9 2009 ~ FMD in Basra - animals helped with antibiotics and pain-killers until the disease type is determined and vaccines sent - from Pirbright

This report from www.irinnews.org reveals the very different attitude to FMD that exists outside the EU and US. The general director of Basra province's veterinary hospital believes there are probably slightly more than 50 percent of the province's nearly 120,000 livestock affected and the outbreak has killed about 80 young (less than six months old) cattle, buffalos, goats and sheep. "We have already sent samples to laboratories in London (i.e. Pirbright in Surrey) to determine which type has hit Basra and we are expecting to receive the results and new vaccines within the coming few days." Dr Sabah Jassim, the general director of the Basra-based Veterinary Company, which is affiliated to the Iraqi Agriculture Ministry,commented, ".... it is a disease like other diseases that hit animals."

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June 2 2009 ~ "Climate Change Reconsidered"

Published today in Washington and in conjunction with the "Third International Conference on Climate Change" is a 880-page book suggesting that global warming is neither man-made nor would it have harmful effects. The scientists involved are "an international panel of nongovernment scientists and scholars who have come together to understand the causes and consequences of climate change" Ironically calling the joint authorship the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, (NIPCC), they question the findings of the IPCC and support instead the position that the warming of the twentieth century was moderate and not unprecedented, that its impact on human health and wildlife was positive, and that carbon dioxide probably is not the driving factor behind climate change.
It will be derided - but for those who worry that anyone who questions the received wisdom on "global warming" is immediately subjected to ridicule - and those who would like a second opinion -, it is interesting to see the webpages and chapter summaries.