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Industrialisation
of Farming
cc. Disasters
that have befallen farming in Britain over recent years have been the result
of the economic distortions and enforced directives coming from Europe. Under
the hugely wasteful Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU, farming has
become more and more a business, with some 22,000 people a year leaving farming
in Britain. EU economics has treated farming like an industrial production
plant. As a result cattle have become genetically weaker with the additional
risk of cross-contamination in industrial-scale abattoirs. Under EU directive
91/497 and the enforced ‘hygiene’ rules on Britain’s smaller local abattoirs,
half of the 800 abattoirs that existed in 1990 are now closed and out of
business, which means that animals these days are transported over great
distances increasing the danger of spreading disease.
The competence
and morale of vets has been underminded for many years under both Conservative
and Labour governments by reducing the starting salary for newly qualified
vets from £24,000 to £18,000. The reduced number of younger vets
failed to confirm foot and mouth disease quickly enough, which contributed
massively to the rapid spread of the disease. EU membership has removed Britain’s
national democratic control over agricultural issues. This control now rests
in the hands of unaccountable eurocrats whereby our farming and industrial
structures are being phased out. The EU plans for Britain are as a provider
of financial service industries, as well as for the production of pharmaceuticals.
In 1998, an EU meeting of Agricultural Ministers was told of
the European Commission’s long-term plans to abolish livestock farming in
the UK and convert it to an area of arable farming only. This statement has
been verified in strict anonymity by someone who was at the meeting concerned.
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