The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has called for a cross-government biosecurity plan and sufficient investment to counter the increased biosecurity risks facing the UK.
Former minister of state at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and chairperson of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Lord Rooker, is supporting the NFU’s call.
Lord Rooker was minister of state with Defra during the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the UK,
The NFU has said that a total of 10t of illegal meat was removed from the UK’s food chain in January.
E.g., in Northern Ireland, 600kg of illegal meat was discovered after it entered the UK originally through the port of Dover.
In the same month, Germany reported an outbreak of FMD and there has been several more confirmed cases since in Hungary and Slovakia.
The NFU said, with the current high risk of animal and plant disease, it is asking for a clear plan and investment to protect domestic food production.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said outbreaks of plant or animal disease posed a significant threat to the UK’s food security, which the government has repeatedly stated is critical to national security.
He said: “As an island nation we have a natural advantage, but this means nothing without fit-for-purpose import controls which address the needs and concerns of different sectors.
“This government has repeatedly said that food security is national security, and we can’t have food security without biosecurity.
“The recent outbreaks of FMD – a disease which still haunts the memories of so many in our sector – across Europe are hugely worrying for British farmers, and we must do everything to prevent it crossing the [English] Channel.”
Lord Rooker added: “Food is the UK’s biggest manufacturing sector and if one part of the sector is damaged by a disease outbreak, it can destroy the public’s confidence in the rest of it.
The FSA chair noted that it has been 25 years since the conception of the agency, which was created to address the collapse of food confidence in the UK following the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
“The FSA restored people’s confidence in food and that must be maintained at all costs,” Lord Rooker said.
“This government has a habit of ignoring countryside issues, but this is not a countryside issue, it’s an economic one.
“If our food manufacturing sector is damaged, then the effect on the rest of the economy is enormous.”
