The 'noughties': a turbulent decade that changed UK farming forever

Foot-and-mouth, 2001

FARMING was going through a tough time. Then, out of blue, on February 20, 2001, came the news that foot-and-mouth (FMD) had been confirmed in pigs at Cheale Meats abattoir, Essex.

That was shocking enough. But what nobody knew at the time was that the virus had already spread into sheep, almost certainly from the Northumberland pig farm where it is thought to have originated, and across the country via a series of transactions at markets.

The reality dawned over the next few days as more and more cases emerged, despite a belated national movement ban.

What was initially a farming problem rapidly became a national crisis as the Government appeared clueless and powerless in its response.

For farmers, the trauma was endless - the on-farm slaughter of millions of animals, the vast funeral pyres, the inability to move or trade stock, the bitter row over vaccination and the slaughter policy, and, above all, the uncertainty about when it would end.

Beyond farming, the countryside was effectively closed, a General Election was postponed and major international events were cancelled.

It did officially end on September 30, when the last case was confirmed. By the start of 2002, the UK was FMD-free but for many farmers the process of rebuilding their lives was only just beginning.

Bovine TB crisis

England and Wales’ bovine TB problem got worse and worse as the decade wore on.

It was in 2002, when testing resumed after it had been suspended due to FMD in 2001, that the number of cases really exploded.

Since then, the disease has continued to spread relentlessly, with a heavy toll on cattle numbers, farm businesses, and the emotional well-being of farming families, not to mention the health of badger populations.

Many affected farmers describe bTB as a more damaging disease than FMD because of the difficulty in getting free of its grasp.

Wales is now set, subject to legal challenge, to begin a badger cull next year. But Defra Secretary, Hilary Benn, announced in 2008 he would not introduce a cull as it ‘might not work’. He announced further investment in vaccination and set up the industry-Defra TB Eradication Group.

Single Payment fiasco

As well as decoupling subsidies from production, Single Farm Payments were meant to simplify the CAP payments system.

While the historic payment-based schemes achieved that in Wales and Scotland, nothing could be further from the truth in England.

The then Defra Secretary, Margaret Beckett, and Farming Minister, Lord Whitty, opted for an incredibly complex ‘dynamic hybrid’ system combining historic and area payments.

The combination of an unworkable system and an incompetent paying agency beset with IT problems, resulted in chaos. As Helen Ghosh, Defra’s Permanent Secretary famously put it, when the Rural Payment Agency finally switched the computer on in February 2006, the system simply ‘gummed up’.

Farmers suffered massive delays, well into the summer and beyond for some, while elsewhere in the UK and Europe most people had been paid in December. Many payments were also wrong.

Widespread flooding

IN 2007, the farming industry felt like it had been struck by the modern day equivalent of biblical plagues.

First came the floods. Farmers are used to winter flooding, but this was something else.

Initially the floods hit Yorkshire and much of the Midlands in June, but the bulk of the damage was done, particularly in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, in the second wave of heavy rain in July.

Millions of pounds-worth of crops for human and animal consumption were destroyed, thousands of animals were drowned or stranded and huge damage was inflicted on buildings and machinery. The effects continued for months after the water receded, for example, as farmers struggled to feed livestock.

Foot-and-mouth 2007

The unprecedented summer rainfall was the trigger for disaster number two.

Foot-and-mouth virus leaked out of the Pirbright laboratory site’s faulty drains after the site, occupied by the Institute of Animal Health and Merial Animal Health, became flooded.

Then, via the wheels of vehicles driven by contractors working, ironically on upgrading the facilities, it made its way on to local farms.

While the number of farms affected and the toll of slaughtered livestock was small compared with 2001, the impact on the wider English, Scottish and Welsh livestock industry was immense as a result of national movement restrictions and an export ban.

The sense of grievance was enormous, too. Pirbright was, after all, a Government-regulated site which had been allowed to continue operating, despite clearly sub-standard biosecurity arrangements.

Bluetongue disease

In the middle of the FMD drama, bluetongue arrived, blown over from the Continent in infected midges. For a short time in the autumn of 2007 there was a surreal situation where bluetongue movement zones overlapped with FMD zones, turning the nation into a patchwork of confused movement areas.

The number of detected cases of the BTV8 strain increased steadily over the remainder of the autumn.

However, it was the impact of movement restrictions through 2007 and 2008 that really hurt many farmers, particularly in the east and south of England, where the infection was focused.

By spring 2008, a bluetongue vaccine was available and the roll-out of a national vaccination policy enabled the country to trade as a single entity again.

Expectations of a more serious outbreak, akin to the devastation wreaked in northern Europe in 2007, never materialised, with no new UK outbreaks confirmed in 2008 or 2009.

Avian flu

All that was needed now was an outbreak of avian flu. It duly arrived in November, when the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain was confirmed in Suffolk, resulting in the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds at a series of linked premises.

It was the third H5N1 outbreak in the UK, the first of which occurred in wild birds in Cellardyke, Scotland, in 2006, and the second at a Bernard Matthews’ farm in Suffolk in February 2007. A fourth occurred in wild birds at a Dorset bird sanctuary in January 2008.

Food security

The availability and affordability of food had been taken for granted in the UK and other developed nations for most of the decade.

Then, in 2007, prices across the world started to creep up. By 2008, a full scale global

crisis was in motion, with soaring food prices sparking food riots in many countries and a re-think in attitudes towards food among Governments.

Even the UK Government, which had faced persistent accusations it had not taken food security seriously up to this point, got the message.

Climate change

Over the course of the decade, climate change has become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue facing the world’s politicians and people, culminating in this month’s Copenhagen summit.

It has also become one of the biggest facing farmers. Floods today and changes in climate in future affecting growing conditions, weather volatility and disease risk are only part of it.

Perhaps the biggest question is what to do about farming’s emissions, particularly methane from livestock. One solution put forward - including in a recent Government-backed report - is to cut meat consumption and livestock numbers.

The industry is looking at more realistic approaches.

Then there is the question of what farming can do for climate change, through, for example, storing carbon in the soil, or producing renewable fuels and energy.

Have your say

Please do not complete the following form field for security reasons.

Name

E-mail

Comment

Post as

Anonymously

Display name