Product Description
Even before the foot and mouth epidemic British agriculture was already in its death throes. Struggling under the onslaught of successive crises - the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy and the bureaucratic demands of the EU; food scares from salmonella to BSE; the spread of intensive farming and the concentration of buying power in the hands of the retail giants - British farming has been brought to its knees. Who is to blame? The government, the farmers themselves, supermarkets, the CAP, the EU? In this book Dr Richard North investigates the many causes of farming's imminent demise. His list of suspects is long, and his analysis pinpoints the guilty parties. There may just be a breath of life left in the corpse of British farming, but only if clear and successful policies covering land management, subsidies, government controls and how to deal with scares are formulated.
From the Author
As for vaccination in relation to FMD, there is not only a vibrant debate on this subject, world experts such as Prof Fred Brown have advocated the same and both the EU Commission and the OIE are reviewing their position.
Finally, conspiracies there may be... theories they are not. The exposition on BSE and the activity relating to the concealment of the potential problem of vaccines using bovine material is a faithful record of the BSE Inquiry and the evidence submitted (which I checked in person). The activity on the Belgian dioxin crisis is taken from the Belgian Parliament official inquiry, translated personally from the French. The salmonella in eggs analysis was based on a seven year study, much of which contributed to my PhD thesis which, of course, was subject to rigorous academic scrutiny.
About the Author
Dr Richard North is a leading agriculture policy expert with experience of both the private and public sectors. He is the author, with Christopher Booker, of two books on bureaucracy and the EU: The Mad Officials (1994) and The Castle of Lies (1996).
