Of Badgers and Boycotts
I start from the position that both the supporters and the critics of the government's badger cull programme appear to have more evidence on their side than hardliners on the other side are willing to grant them.
It didn't go down too well during a European election hustings meeting when I said on a different subject that real life is "messy" but it is true nevertheless. The evidence does not always, or even often, form a neat clear-cut preponderance on one side of an argument thereby proving that side of the debate to be right and the other wrong.
Some animal welfare groups have publicised the problems with the badger cull and if one is trying to look at the matter impartially there do appear to be some serious issues with the practicality and effectiveness of the cull. However, this is only one side of the story.
Controlling TB is important on both animal welfare and economic grounds and that includes the welfare of the badger population as a whole and other wild animals as well as that of cattle. Badgers with TB are expelled from their setts and die a slow and most unpleasant death. There are a number of serious problems with trying to vaccinate badgers, such as the fact that it is ineffective against animals which already have the disease.
A BCG vaccine for cattle exists, but it is not legal to use as there is no licensed diagnostic test to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals, and under EU law it is illegal to sell infected animals. A more effective alternative is also in development, and there is movement towards licensing a "diva" test – differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals – which would overcome the diagnosis problem, but is still years away. If either or both of these developments is successful, vaccinating cattle may become a better option but at the moment it is completely unworkable.
So I would not endorse every word in West Country farmer Oliver Edwards' article in the Daily Mail when he talks about the arguments for the cull, but on one major point I am 100% certain that he is absolutely right: the attempt to bully companies into refusing to buy milk from certain areas is ridiculous and unjust and companies which give in to it - such as Cafe Nero - are wrong to do so.
Rightly or wrongly many farmers have lobbied for the badger cull, but not all of them. It does not appear to be possible to distinguish between milk produced by farmers who have supported or taken part in the cull and those which have not. So these lunatic so-called "activists" have been lobbying for a boycott of all milk from the counties where the government has been conducting a badger cull.
Even if you think that such a boycott is appropriate in principle, which I don't, in practice it is going to hit not just those farmers who lobbied for or supported the cull but also those who did not do anything of the kind. This is manifestly a serious injustice - and may tip the balance against viability for those farms, which could easily drive farmers in both categories out of business, creating rural unemployment at what is already a very difficult time.
Café Nero should reconsider their decision. Sainsburys and anyone else who comes under such pressure should resist it.
It didn't go down too well during a European election hustings meeting when I said on a different subject that real life is "messy" but it is true nevertheless. The evidence does not always, or even often, form a neat clear-cut preponderance on one side of an argument thereby proving that side of the debate to be right and the other wrong.
Some animal welfare groups have publicised the problems with the badger cull and if one is trying to look at the matter impartially there do appear to be some serious issues with the practicality and effectiveness of the cull. However, this is only one side of the story.
Controlling TB is important on both animal welfare and economic grounds and that includes the welfare of the badger population as a whole and other wild animals as well as that of cattle. Badgers with TB are expelled from their setts and die a slow and most unpleasant death. There are a number of serious problems with trying to vaccinate badgers, such as the fact that it is ineffective against animals which already have the disease.
A BCG vaccine for cattle exists, but it is not legal to use as there is no licensed diagnostic test to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals, and under EU law it is illegal to sell infected animals. A more effective alternative is also in development, and there is movement towards licensing a "diva" test – differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals – which would overcome the diagnosis problem, but is still years away. If either or both of these developments is successful, vaccinating cattle may become a better option but at the moment it is completely unworkable.
So I would not endorse every word in West Country farmer Oliver Edwards' article in the Daily Mail when he talks about the arguments for the cull, but on one major point I am 100% certain that he is absolutely right: the attempt to bully companies into refusing to buy milk from certain areas is ridiculous and unjust and companies which give in to it - such as Cafe Nero - are wrong to do so.
Rightly or wrongly many farmers have lobbied for the badger cull, but not all of them. It does not appear to be possible to distinguish between milk produced by farmers who have supported or taken part in the cull and those which have not. So these lunatic so-called "activists" have been lobbying for a boycott of all milk from the counties where the government has been conducting a badger cull.
Even if you think that such a boycott is appropriate in principle, which I don't, in practice it is going to hit not just those farmers who lobbied for or supported the cull but also those who did not do anything of the kind. This is manifestly a serious injustice - and may tip the balance against viability for those farms, which could easily drive farmers in both categories out of business, creating rural unemployment at what is already a very difficult time.
Café Nero should reconsider their decision. Sainsburys and anyone else who comes under such pressure should resist it.
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