A little more topical stuff, back to fun soon, we hope...

[glenatron]

I do not use the term evil lightly, but I would say that this article is genuinely evil.

If anyone suggests to you that farmers are crying crocodile tears over the subsidised slaughter of animals they were going to slaughter anyway, perhaps you could suggest this situation to them:

Imagine that there is a computer virus in circulation that makes your screen have an off-green tint to it. It's easy enough to fix, but it spreads quickly and the government is very concerned about it so they resolve to stamp it out. They hear that you once had an email from someone who may have had the virus on their computer, so they send the police round. The police don't give you a chance to back-up any data from your computer or anything else, they just take it out of your house and smash it into tiny pieces with a hammer. Then they smash all those pieces into pieces. Then they burn what is left. In compensation they give you the value of your computer- after depreciation for it's age and general wear-and-tear. You receive no compensation for the years of work stored on the computer and there is no way you can possibly recover it.*

Mandatory culling is not a smart policy - it preserves our international trade with the US and Japan (a tiny tiny proportion of our meat exports) at the cost of rare breeds being lost, precious and carefully bred herds being wiped out and small-scale farmers livelihoods being destroyed. The only winners are the really huge agri-barons who are the major powerbase at the NFU, who are in turn the voice of all british farmers as far as DEFRA are concerned.

Anyone wanting to know more about what is going on with the current Foot & Mouth outbreak ( and any future ones ) should keep an eye on Warmwell, Jonathan Miller's blog and Matthey Weaver at The Guardian. The majority of journalists covering it have simply no idea what the issues are or what is going on. Unlike most news topics this is somewhere that some bloggers, those whose main expertise is relevant to the field, actually have more useful information to give than the mainstream media.

* analogy thought up by someone on downsizer

Comments

[wldhrsjen3.livejournal.com]

As the wife of a third generation farmer struggling to maintain this farm's viability for future generations against the incursions of urban sprawl, higher input costs, and tighter markets, all I can say is:

BARF!

We have similar problems here in the US. Why is it that agricultural policy is set by people with no freaking idea? They try to regulate an industry they don't understand and they can't be bothered to consider the long term implications of their decisions.

*shakes head in frustration*

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Oh fuck YOU, Mirror! ARGH. I don't know why I clicked on that link, I just KNEW it was going to piss me off. :P

Argghhh. So many people have this bullshit view that if you're a farmer, you're literally rolling around in cash and you don't have to do any work and blah blah blah.

I want to punch people like that.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's so angry-making is it not? It awakened a fury deep in my heart and made me want to grow to 800 feet tall and embark on a godzilla-style stomping frenzy through the centre of london.

Aside from that it didn't bother me much.

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

"It awakened a fury deep in my heart and made me want to grow to 800 feet tall and embark on a godzilla-style stomping frenzy through the centre of london."

XD That's brilliant. And now I have a mental image, too. Aaaaaaaaah. :)

[spirithorse21.livejournal.com]

It's so awful that the UK is going through another terrible outbreak AGAIN and in only five years. You've barely recovered from the last outbreak with Mad Cow, and now H&M ... and it came from a lab!

I've been seeing this on the BBC everywhere and I just feelso bad for the farmers. And you're right. that article is truly evil. But that is what happens when people who know nothing of agriculture try to pontificate on the subject.

[stu-the-elder.livejournal.com]

It's like Jessica in Neverwhere, "Don't feel sorry for them Richard, they all have jobs really, and homes.." (on the homeless)

- Crumpwright