Ulverston open meeting

Originally from: Kittra
                        
Cumbria County Council News Release:

15 May 2002
Look forward, farmers urged

Farmers talked of looking for ways forward for agriculture when they met members of Cumbria's Independent Foot and Mouth Inquiry Panel at a public meeting last night. Members of the panel, headed by chairman Professor Phil Thomas, listened as members of the 35-strong gathering at Ulverston Coronation Hall recounted their experiences during last year's outbreak. Much of the meeting -- one of a series across the county this week – was taken up with agricultural issues.

Many speakers complained of anomalies in the way MAFF, the then Ministry of Agriculture, now the Department for Rural Affairs, handled the crisis. One example was of a farm being culled out and its fields being restocked within a month, to the concern of neighbouring farmers. Others criticised the flow of information and the complicated documentation from MAFF, with numerous examples of foot-and-mouth workers out in the field not aware of official information which farmers had picked up from the radio.

The meeting ended with Professor Thomas leading an extensive discussion on the scale of change that farming and agriculture businesses needed to make in order to stay viable. He told the meeting that farmers had to explore ways of diversifying and of adding value to their produce, by direct sales, for example. Professor Thomas said that farmers could wait a long time for the Government to respond on these issues and there was a need for local initiatives.

The meeting was one of four open to the public being held by the Inquiry Panel members as they go round Cumbria this week. Another is being held tonight (Wednesday May 15 ) at Appleby Public Hall. The final public meeting is tomorrow (Thursday) at Longtown Memorial Hall. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
                        

Originally from: Mary Critchley
                        
Farmers Weekly seems to have been to a different meeting. ....

Virus probe visits Ulverston

By Craig Wilson in Cumbria

CUMBRIAN farmers at a public meeting in Ulverston have attacked the government's handling of last year's foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Feelings ran high at the event attended by around 40 people on Tuesday evening (14 May) as part of the Cumbrian inquiry into the outbreak.

Charlotte Thexton, of Sayles Farm, Lowick Bridge, said she had challenged a request to cull their sheep, but was pressured to give into the slaughter.

She said: "We were told we could only delay it a few days and legal steps would be taken to enforce the slaughter.

"It was point blank: 'You're being slaughtered. Don't fight the government because we will win'."

She told the inquiry that an official disinfectant team was "useless" and she and her husband had had to clean the farm themselves after the cull.

She was also scathing at the lack of information from the Ministry of Agriculture, now the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

"I think Defra would have been better named MI5," she said. "Communication was non-existent. You couldn't get any information out of them."

Josephine Baxter, who farms at Blawith, said she received a follow-up letter from Defra after stock belonging to another farmer were culled on their land.

"Its first line was 'owing to foot-and-mouth on your farm, all your stock have been culled'. I mean, did somebody think we'd gone to sleep and missed it?"

Vet Rick Brown, who worked at Defra's field office in Broughton, said there was enormous pressure to kill stock to try and get on top of the outbreak.

"The view was that it didn't get under control because they weren't killing quickly enough," he said. "It was pressure, pressure, pressure to kill quickly."

Inquiry chairman Phil Thomas asked the audience what could be done to restore their confidence in Defra and government officials.

Told that Defra simply did not understand farming, he said he wouldn't disagree and added that there were very few agriculturalists in the department.

Professor Thomas said farmers may be able to access funding from sources such as the Rural Action Zone scheme to secure their livelihoods.

But he stressed that they needed to grasp the opportunity themselves and not wait for the government to sort out the problems of agriculture.

The inquiry continues with two further public meetings this week, followed by another four-day hearing in Carlisle from 28–31 May.

A final report is expected to be made to Cumbria County Council on 25 July.

Mary