A Sick Industry

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A sick industry

The UK's foot-and-mouth outbreak will increase pressure for changes in

Europe's low-cost farming system, writes Michael Mann

Published: February 26 2001 20:34GMT | Last Updated: February 26 2001

22:38GMT

 

Farmers across Europe are waiting anxiously to discover whether what

started last week with a sickly pig at a southern English abattoir will grow

into a Europe-wide epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease. One Devon farm caught by

the outbreak has recently exported sheep to Germany, leading to fears that the

outbreak could escape the UK.

 

On Sunday night, health officials lit the first funeral pyre built to

burn the carcasses of affected animals. On Monday, Germany and the Netherlands

began destroying thousands of animals imported from the UK, in an effort to

stop the disease spreading. The last big outbreak of the foot-and-mouth virus

in the UK was in 1967. It is highly infectious and can be carried in the air

and on human clothing, as well as through the transport of affected animals.

 

The outbreak forced its way on to the agenda of a meeting of European

Union agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday. The meeting had been called

to discuss measures to bring under control the crisis over the spread of bovine

spongiform encephalopathy. BSE, or mad cow disease, also started in Britain,

and some argue that the latest health scare points to a weakness in the

structure and regulation of Britain's farming industry.

 

"I think people around the world can legitimately ask why is it that

Britain has more than its fair share of these problems?" says Tim Lang,

professor of food policy at Thames Valley University. I believe we're seeing

the downside of the intensification of the food supply chain over the last 18

to 20 years. It didn't cause the foot-and-mouth virus but it has created the

conditions under which it is likely to spread."

 

Other European countries are already debating similar issues, prompted by

the spread of BSE through animal feed. Renate Kunast, the new German minister

for food, farming and consumer protection, has suggested that the country

should move away from mass factory farming. In its place, she has suggested

that smaller-scale organic farming should be encouraged. That could lead to

fundamental change in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy.

 

The questions are particularly acute for the UK, which has developed big,

low-cost farms over the past two decades. The process has been encouraged by

food manufacturers, which have operated national purchasing policies. As a

result, animals from the farm in Northumberland that is thought to have started

the outbreak were sent hundreds of miles to an abattoir in Essex.

 

Regulations imposed on abattoirs to prevent the spread of BSE have put

many local units out of business, accentuating the tendency towards

concentration. Food companies have also imported more raw materials, increasing

the risk from diseases such as the Pan-Asiatic foot-and-mouth strain behind the

latest outbreak. "Britain has intensified longer, further and deeper than

anyone else in the supply chain. The food companies' reflex is to scour the

world for inputs," says Prof Lang.

 

The fact that animals and food are often transported long distances

across a border-free EU means any problems can spread rapidly. Following the

spread of BSE, which led to bans on the export of British beef, the UK imposed

tighter monitoring of animal movements. But however good controls are, it is

hard to maintain curbs on a permanent livestock herd numbering more than 25m

animals, particularly if disease is brought into the country through illegal

trade, as suggested last week by Nick Brown, UK agriculture minister.

 

Farmers First, the farming co-operative that exports live animals to

Europe from Dover, believes there may be problems in tracking the movements of

all UK animals that could have been affected by foot-and-mouth. Mike Gooding,

its marketing manager, says records for movements from the UK to European

destinations are well kept and regulations enforced thoroughly. However, he

says that some European countries have less effective enforcement. That could

make it difficult to trace the movements of all British animals.

 

Ironically, the potential spread of the infection could be made worse by

the rules intended to improve the lot of intensively-farmed livestock. Thanks

to EU animal transport regulations, agreed largely in response to British

political pressure, animals on long journeys within the EU must be allowed rest

periods for food, water and exercise. This can increase the potential for

infection to spread along the route to their destination.

 

There are good reasons for countries close to the UK to be afraid.

Britain exported 764,000 live sheep worth £32m to the European Union last year,

with 44 per cent going to France, 27 per cent to the Netherlands, 12 per cent

to Italy, and 7 per cent each to Greece and Germany. The impact of any spread

of foot-and-mouth would be enormous. Besides the huge cost and the loss of farm

income, the EU could lose its status as a country free of the disease and with

it several lucrative export markets. "We already have the BSE crisis, and to

add this on top would be a catastrophe," says Risto Volanen, secretary-general

of Copa, the EU farmers' body.

 

However, other European countries cannot place the blame solely with

Britain. Other countries - notably France - have also intensified their farming

methods, under similar commercial pressures. The Common Agricultural Policy,

which has been supported by Germany and France, offers E40bn ($36bn) of

subsidies to farmers annually. Much of this money goes into intensive farms and

agricultural enterprises.

 

Modest reforms of the CAP were agreed by EU leaders at the March 1999

Berlin summit and are due to be reviewed next year. Opponents of the CAP, many

of whom favour a move within Europe towards less intensive farming methods,

regard this review as an opportunity to press for change. Ms Kunast's comments

suggest that the traditional Franco-German alliance in defence of the CAP may

be weakening, and Franz Fischler, the EU farming commissioner, has hinted that

he favours a broad review of policy.

 

There would be attractions in shifting the CAP away from supporting food

prices and "compensating" farmers for previous price cuts. Reformers have

suggested the need to reward good husbandry and improve environmental and food

quality standards, as well as encouraging non-agricultural development in the

countryside. This could reduce the cost of absorbing into the EU countries in

the east with millions of small farmers. It would also make EU subsidy

programmes easier to defend in trade liberalisation talks.

 

Potentially the biggest prize for EU farmers would be the restoration of

public faith in farming methods. But for all the concern in countries including

the UK and Germany about food safety, it is not clear that European consumers

are ready to pay the higher food prices implied by a change in farming methods.

"The key question is the extent to which consumers are willing to put their

money where their mouths are, and pay for what will be dearer organic

products," says Stephan von Cramon, professor of agricultural policy at

Gottingen University.

 

Nor is the political way clear to a fundamental change in the philosophy

behind European farming. Jacques Chirac, the French president, made his view of

further CAP reform clear earlier this month. "Farmers are just like other

entrepreneurs: you can't change the rules of the game every two years," he

said.

 

That means there are substantial hurdles to clear before any policy

change can be agreed. The question facing Europe's politicians is whether it is

worth the effort of trying to reverse decades of farming development. The

answer could be influenced by whether Britain's alarming outbreak of

foot-and-mouth becomes another European farming disaster.

 

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