25 years ago, the UK was in the grip of a devastating foot and mouth outbreak. The countryside was locked down, vast numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs were being destroyed, television screens filled with distressing scenes showing piles of carcasses and burning pyres, and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and other rural businesses faced ruin.
The crisis eventually led to the culling of more than 6 million farm animals, and cost the economy more than £8 billion. As the AGtivist has reported before, the risks of another major outbreak of foot and mouth, or other livestock diseases, are all too real.
Indeed, in the last few weeks, Cyprus reported foot and mouth cases in cattle and sheep, following outbreaks in Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. And late last year, an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Spain sparked widespread concern. Both diseases can be carried in meat, dairy or other food products, as well as livestock themselves, and for this reason, as a precaution, personal imports of many foodstuffs into the UK are currently banned.
Given this, it was all the more remarkable (and worrying) when the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee got in touch this week to say it was publishing new data which highlighted how a “significant number” of commercial consignments of imported meat and dairy products were being allowed to come into the UK without being checked for dangerous diseases.
The Committee had found that lorries arriving at the Port of Dover with potentially unsafe imports were not showing up for hygiene checks at the dedicated border control post (BPC) at Sevington, near Ashford in Kent, twenty two miles inland from the port itself, exposing a major flaw in the UK’s post-Brexit biosecurity defences.
Government data provided to the Committee had revealed that some 18 per cent of all consignments selected for inspection in November of last year failed to be checked after drivers didn’t turn up at the BPC. The number of such “drive-bys”, as the government classifies them, appears to have increased, the Committee said, with figures from August last year showing lower numbers of incidents.
In an EFRA evidence session held this week, DEFRA officials told the Committee that “follow up” checks on vehicles that do not attend for inspection are carried out. But, according to the Committee, they did not explain how frequently this happens or how they are undertaken as they do not hold data.
Only last September, EFRA published a damning report highlighting how the Sevington BPC was “inadequate” because it relied on drivers acting in good faith by taking consignments for checking, with little risk of enforcement if they failed to do so. This week, the Committee said it had become clear “that many flout this requirement and continue driving to their delivery destination, and there remains the opportunity to unload consignments prior to presenting at Sevington itself.”
Alistair Carmichael MP, the Committee’s chair, said: “This new evidence paints a picture of a dysfunctional system. Unchecked meat and plant products carrying potentially devastating diseases are being let in through the front door. The risks to our livestock […] are grave and very real. The Government has put all its eggs in the Sevington basket and it needs to make this system work at least until a new system can be agreed with the EU.”
This latest failing follows a string of enquiries and investigations last year which highlighted widespread holes in the UK’s overall defenses against animal diseases, both at the country’s borders and in domestic livestock tracing systems. A quarter of a century on from the 2011 foot and mouth disaster, this is clearly unacceptable. One farming source told the AGtivist it amounted to “a scandal” that would “come back to haunt [us] all”.
Given the devastation that would be caused if another foot and mouth outbreak was to occur, all farmers, and indeed anyone who cares about the UK’s countryside and food supply, should be very angry indeed that this has been allowed to happen.
Image courtesy of We Animals
The AGtivist is an investigative journalist who has been reporting on food and agriculture for 20+ years. The new AGtivist column at Wicked Leeks aims to shine a light on the key issues around intensive farming, Big Ag, Big Food, food safety, and the environmental impacts of intensive agribusiness.
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