Again

[poliphilo]

FOOT AND MOUTH MONTH

March 2001

                            

This will go down as a vile month

With sappers burying long dead sheep

And Cumbria as dark with pyres

As Mordor. But that’s agribusiness.

Feed your beasts on funny stuff,

And kill the bugs and the meadow flowers.

And what do you expect? You wanna see

Nature at her bitching best?

You’ll have to come to town for that

And walk abandoned railway lines,

Or mooch about the derelict pits

And mills where no-one’s ever sprayed.

I step outside to fetch  the bin

And the grass behind the garages

Just ticks with life that won’t make money.


So Foot and Mouth  is back- this time on a farm in Surrey, or, at least, that's where it's been first detected- but the likelihood is they'll find it here, there and everywhere,  because it's so contagious.  The footage that was used to back the story on TV last night was presumably from the last outbreak- the dead cows being stacked like kindling, the smoking pyres. 

I see (from this poem I've dug up) I was quite angry in 2001. in 2007 I'm more inclined to shrug. Yeah, this is the kind of mess human beings get themselves into. So it goes. The difference is not just that I'm older, it's that Iraq has happened in the meantime. What are a few dead cows and sheep beside the humanitarian disaster we've caused over there? Maybe anger is the more appropriate response but I'm all angered out.  Anger just doesn't seem to get us anywhere, does it?

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I find it particularly ironic that if cattle are vaccinated against foot and mouth, they're worthless, but if chicken are vaccinated against salmonella, their eggs get the Lion mark.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Surely government can face down the farmers. Surely they should.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I can't remember now who it is that opposes vaccination. It's something to do with not being able to sell our meat abroad, or something.

But if this outbreak is widespread, I think there will be a huge campaign for vaccination this time. We had no foot and mouth at all in North Wales, but due to the closure of footpaths and byways the tourist businesses lost millions. Hotels, outdoor pursuits centres, local craftspeople etc. got no compensation whatsoever for having their businesses ruined. I can't see people standing for that again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've been following the story on BBC News 24 and, yes, it does seem to be about Europeans not wanting to pay full whack for vaccinated meat.