The Economist

20 years of UK Food
The most significant factors which Secretary of State for Health, Stephen
have influenced change in the UK Dorrell said that:"The most likely
Food Chain in the past 20 years explanation is that these cases [of
CJD] are linked to exposure to BSE
In the last 20 years many
before the offal ban in 1989" that the
controversies have plagued the food
catastrophe began.
market in the UK. First there was the
Those damning words sparked
BSE crisis in the late 1990s, then foot
a total export ban on British Beef, and
and mouth in the early 2000's. On a
cost the industry almost £3.5bn. As the
more positive note though there has
industry lost public confidence it near
been the rise in demand of Organic
collapsed and has only really
Food.
recovered in the last 5 years.

As I was growing up I
remember not being able to eat beef
with my family. On a Sunday we would
have chicken, pork, lamb, even the
odd venison, but never beef. When I
enquired why, my father would always
say it was not worth the risk. Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopath, commonly
known as Mad Cow Disease had been
prevalent in UK cattle since the middle
1980's.
So why was BSE, a disease
that affected cattle, such a big deal? It
is believed that BSE originally came Infected cows probably did not look like this
from Scrapie as disease which had
occurred in sheep for centuries. It was More bad luck for livestock
similar to CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Once this ordeal was over it
Disease), a fatal neurodegenerative was thought that finally cattle and
disorder which occurred in humans livestock farmers were in the clear,
though there had been no proof of a until rather suspicious import of
link between the two, and the Argentinean beef in 2001 caused a
government supported a position of no new uproar.
connection. The foot and mouth outbreak
However it was not until had a huge influence on the UK food
Wednesday 20th of March 1996 that chain when it erupted at the turn of the
the virtual collapse of the British cattle century. Starting in Essex early 2001 it
market began. It was when the then quickly spread throughout the country.
Within two days the EU had imposed a
worldwide ban on exports of British
livestock, meat and animal products.
At the time I lived on a farm with a half
mile drive. Due to Foot and mouth we
had to park the car at the end of the
drive, walk through straw soaked with
disinfectant then walk the remaining
half a mile up the drive.
The government handling of the
crises came under close scrutiny as
stories abounded of the army shooting
livestock from helicopters in the name
of "containment" and government
workers skewering prize bulls on fork
lift trucks. One of the most tragic things
about the disaster was that about 80%
of the livestock culled were not
infected.
The whole affair cost the UK
farming industry £2.4bn and 10 million
sheep and cattle. The catastrophe cost
thousands of farmers their livelihoods
and many were driven to suicide.
Surely this had one of the most
significant effects on British Farming
since the BSE Crisis, or even before.
A more positive story
Not everything has been such a
disaster for the UK food chain
however. One of the fastest growing
markets in the world is that of Organic
Food, and currently 5% of the UKs
total agricultural area (excluding
common grazing). In fact organic food
has been around in the UK since the
early 1930’s, however it wasn’t until
the late 1940’s with the establishment
of the Soil Association and publishing
of Lady Balfours “The Living Soil” that
it gained any coherence.
With the demand for organic
produce having risen so considerably it
has had a significant influence on the
UK food chain. Although it has high
production costs and takes up
considerably more land, the demand is
such that farmers can afford to put
high premiums on it and still make a
healthy profit.
Although there has been a
dramatic fall in demand since the
economic downturn, organic farming is
providing the UK food market with a
more suitable form of production.
Organic food is beneficial to the
environment, supports local
ecosystems and is arguably healthier
than the conventional alternatives.
Organic food farming
encourages responsible farming
practices and care of the environment.
It also provides an alternative
assurance system to the much
despised British Farming Standard
(BFS). As the soil association has its
own regulations, auditing and
certification, Organic farming has
much to offer.
Although it is heavily regulated,
less efficient than regular methods and
has a conversion rate of three years, it
could strongly benefit the UK food
chain. As British agriculture is already
heavily subsidised and the majority of
food is imported, perhaps the
premiums provided by the organic food
market could help boost the countries
declining industry.
Aidan Gill