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Shouldn't Good Food Come Before Cheap Motoring? By Graham Harvey

Graham Harvey won the BP Natural World Book Prize for The Killing of the Countryside in 1997. In his next book We Want Real Food he tells how modern food production has brought us to the brink of disaster, and sets out how we can fight for food that will stop us being overfed and undernourished. His new book is out in January, watch this space for more information. You can watch an interview with him here. In this exclusive article he writes about the link between the decline in quality of farm produce and the drive for cheaper road transport...

If you eat meat or dairy products, the healthiest foods come from animals grazing fresh green grass. Human beings have been producing some of their finest foods this way for more than 5,000 years.

Strange, then, that policy-makers of both the European Union and the United States seem hell-bent on destroying this form of traditional, healthy food production. Even more extraordinary, they want to sacrifice it for the benefit of the motoring lobby and the clamour for cheap road transport.

Foot & Mouth Disease - a profile

Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) is a  virus which affects animals with cloven hooves such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and deer. Contrary to popular belief, the virus is not a risk to the health of humans either through contact with an infected animal or consumption of meat or milk from it. The last human case recorded was in 1966 and needed no medical attention. It could, however, have serious impact on the economics of animal farming.

There are many ways the disease can spread from animal to animal: direct contact; contact with shared foodstuffs; airborne spreading; and the movement of objects & humans is also thought to contribute.

Whilst not fatal for adult animals, it causes a drastic drop in productivity meaning milk yields would be badly affected. The animal may also become lame, jeapordising its ability to produce quality meat and even reproduce.

When a case is confirmed in the UK, a perimeter zone is set up and all infected or susceptible animals in the area are slaughtered.

This time round there are suspicions as to how the virus was transferred to the affected farm in Surrey.

For further information on the current outbreak, click here.
To see what Prime Minister Gordon Brown has to say on the matter, click here.

Check back later on in the week for an exclusive article written by food expert Graham Harvey on the impact of the outbreak.