Subject: How to be an irritating neighbour.
From: "paul"
Date: 18/08/2003 13:08 GMT Standard Time
Message-id:


"martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 12:29:26 +0100, Jane Ransom
wrote:

In article , martin
writes

Many farmers received substantial compensation for foot and mouth

Farmers did *not* receive 'compensation'.
They were paid the market price for the animals that were forcibly taken
from them and destroyed.

and how would you have stopped the outbreak?

Maybe I am wrong, but didn't UK farmers reject vaccination, the very
effective solution taken in the Netherlands and wasn't the main cause
an irresponsible farmer, poor controls in the markets and filthy
abattoirs that allowed infected stock to be moved all over UK?

What would they have restocked with after selling their existing
cattle at the market price? It's obvious that specialist breeding
places had a major problem.
Where did they get the cattle that were used to restock?

Isn't the problem that UK market prices are abysmal, because of the
monopoly positions of the main buyers - the supermarkets?

They were unable, using this money, to restock
to the same levels when they were finally told they could buy more
stock.

It was called compensation AFAIR.


and
for not farming livestock in future.
This explains the large number of shiny new tractors etc. and new 4x4
vehicles a year after NE Yorkshire farming was supposed to be
devastated by the results of F&M.

The farmers round here do not have any new vehicles at all. In fact they
are still struggling, working harder than ever for lower rewards.

There are plenty new vehicles and farm machines in NE Yorkshire, it's
seeing them that made me ask my bank manager how they could afford it.


If Margaret Thatcher killed our mining industry, then you can say Tony
Blair is well on the way to killing our farming industry. Farmers are
getting pig sick of all the inaccurate, adverse publicity that is being
flung their way.

Since the UK press is mainly right wing Murdoch owned and anti-EU. I
think you are blaming the wrong person. Any reference to EU activities
made by his newspapers are basically rubbish, unfortunately this
includes farming too.

I think the whole of Europe were ****ed off with farmers being paid
subsidies for over producing stuff that nobody wants. It's not that
long ago since farmers could and did pick up UKP500/acre for ploughing
up bits of moorland. It's also obvious that with a large number of new
countries joining the EU, most with rural economies, the money just
isn't there to carry on paying subsidies at the old levels. If it
wasn't for France and their very vociferous peasant farmers, I suspect
that farm subsidies would have disappeared in the seventies.

We live on an island: God help us if we ever have a
crisis which means we can't import food and we have no farmers left to
produce it.

You'll find that like in WWII output of the right stuff can quickly be
increased. Maybe the linseed and rape seed growers will no longer be
around.

I do know that small farms and marginally economic hill farming are
having a very hard time, I know of somebody whose only income is the
money he gets from an electricity board for the pylons they have
planted on his land. Somewhere between throwing EU money at farmers to
produce wine, beef, oil, orange and grain lakes and mountains and the
problems of small farmers there must be a reasonable solution. I have
never understood why dairy farming was so heavily subsidised and beef
wasn't or why the emphasis was on quantity and not quality.
--
Martin

the main reason for not vacinating was that europe would not accept any live
stock from us. but on the other hand they won't take it for fears of other
things like BSE etc.

so the farmers are caught between a rock and a hard place.



Actually the reason for not vaccinating was that the supermarkets would not
sell milk/beef/ lamb etc from stock that had been vaccinated.

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