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 Nightmares of the holocaust of 2001 are coming back to haunt us with a new outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease, investigations made a link between problems with drainage and the possible actions, accidental or deliberate, of Merial employees who may own or use land near to the farm at Pirbright where the outbreak began.
These allegations may seem far-fetched, but such a conspiracy theory does put a finger on an essential truth: the vulnerability to viruses of a complex modern society. The foot-and-mouth epidemic has shown to the British public and the world at large the drawbacks of modern agriculture. This is not just the fault of the government or supermarkets but the consumer whose insatiable appetite for cheap meat has driven agribusiness down this road to ruin.  Where will the crisis end? The mass slaughter and burning of livestock seems more symbolic than scientific. Why kill an animals suspected of carrying a virus that is not lethal and from which they eventually recover, if the disease is left to run its course perhaps animals would become more resistant.
The consumer need not worry though as a ready a plentiful supply of beef fattened on decimated rainforests is on its way from Argentina. Are you "Lovin' ItTM"? (NB: This years Melplash Show is still on).
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