Recent letter to 'The Journal' from the Editor of this Blog.
This week is the fourth anniversary of the Foot and Mouth crises that caused so much devastation to rural Britain. A full public enquuary so ernestly demanded by many newspapers and pressure groups was not granted by the government. Thus much of the mismanagemrnt of the crises remains unexposed.
Even before the epidemic, with its ghastly images of waste and destruction British agriculture was (and remains) a dying industry. Farming has struggled under the onslaught of successive crises -the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy and its bureaucratic demands; food scares from salmonella to BSE ; the spread of intensive farming and the concentration of buying power in the hands of the retail giants.- the British Agricultural industry is on its knees.
There is a breath of life left in the corps of British Farming but only if clear and successful policies covering land management, subsidies, and government controls are formulated.
More meaningful decisions concerning the countryside should be taken at local level, only then will our Agricultural Industry stand a chance of full recovery.
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