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"Mother Nature never farms without animals" - Albert Howard

"Unholy mess: Britain should take lessons from India on how to deal with the
problem of foot and mouth disease, argues Vandana Shiva
By Vandana Shiva
Manchester Guardian
Wednesday April 4, 2001

In Britain, we see the army mobilised to kill a million or more farm
animals and bury them in mass graves merely because of a suspicion that
they might be carrying a disease that is neither fatal to humans nor
animals. In India, the cow is held sacred, and from my philosophical and
religious perspective, parallels can be drawn with ethnic cleansing in
Serbia and the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in
Afghanistan. This war against farm animals reflects the insanity of those
who promote globalised, industrialised food systems which create, promote
and spread disease, but who simultaneously want a "disease free national
herd".

This zero tolerance for disease has led to a zero tolerance for animals.
Farm animals and farmers have been made the "endemic" enemy. The
countryside has been turned into a war zone. Just as the silent Buddhas had
to be demolished for a false sense of security and pride by the Taliban, so
our hoofed neighbours are being slaughtered and burnt for a false sense of
security and safety by the British government. Animals are killed on the
basis of unjustified exaggeration of the impact of foot and mouth disease,
which has been called a "fearful plague", "a demon", "a serial killer" and
a predator at large.

But, as we know, FMD is actually quite harmless, though highly contagious.
It does not harm humans, and it only rarely kills animals. The virus takes
a toll on productivity, but not generally of life. The disease lowers milk
production and reduces the working ability of animals. In a month they
recover. Animals can, however, die of other diseases like haemorrhagic
septicaemia when their immunity has been lowered by FMD. In India, 400
animals have died in the past couple of months not of FMD but haemorrhagic
septicaemia, which infects the throat and blocks the respiratory tract.

FMD is endemic to India, and used to be in Europe. It has been
traditionally treated through indigenous veterinary medicine. Vaccines are
also available and have been used. Nowhere in the world have entire herds
been exterminated.

In India, we hold cattle sacred, because without them we could not renew
our soil fertility.

Ecologically, the cow has been central to Indian civilisation. Both
materially and conceptually, Indian agriculture has built its
sustainability on maintaining the integrity of the cow, considering her
inviolable and sacred, seeing her as the mother of the prosperity of food
systems.

The integration of livestock with farming has been the secret of
sustainable agriculture. Livestock perform a critical function in the food
chain by converting organic matter into a form that can be easily used by
plants. Can you imagine a British agricultural minister saying, as KM
Munshi, India's first agriculture minister after independence, did: "The
mother cow and the Nandi are not worshipped in vain. They are the primeval
agents who enrich the soil -nature's great land transformers - who supply
organic matter which, after treatment, becomes nutrient matter of the
greatest importance. In India, tradition, religious sentiment and economic
needs have tried to maintain a cattle population large enough to maintain
the cycle, only if we know it."

The sanctity of the cow as a source of prosperity in agriculture was linked
to the need for conserving its integration with crop production. By using
crop wastes and uncultivated land, indigenous cattle do not compete with
man for food; rather, they provide organic fertiliser for fields and thus
enhance food productivity. Within the sacredness of the cow therefore, lies
this ecological rationale and conservation imperative.

There are three aspects to the reaction of the FMD epidemic that make me
terribly uneasy.

First, while it is clear that globalisation of trade and increased movement
of animals has spread the disease, the UK government continues to support
increased liberalisation of agricultural trade in the World Trade
Organisation. The half million livestock being killed are a ritual
sacrifice to the gods of global markets. Shutting the countryside down
while keeping borders open to trade will not prevent spread of disease -
either coming in through imports or going out through exports.

Second, the export obsession that is an intrinsic part of globalisation
also leads to a blindness to the welfare of animals and farmers. Thousands
of livestock can be annihilated, hundreds of farmers ruined to maintain the
"vaccine free" status of exports. Neither the farmers nor farm animals
count in the calculus of free trade. That is why farmers are committing
suicide in thousands in India, and animals are being killed in thousands in
the UK.

Third, the same agencies that refuse to act in the public interest on
issues of food safety related to GMOs are willing to cull farm animals
infected by a non-fatal disease.

These are double standards. On the basis of the precautionary principle,
the UK government should ban GMOs instead of killing harmless animals if it
is concerned about safety of food and agriculture.

The crisis in the UK should make us all think more seriously about
globalisation of food and agriculture. We need to explore what is the most
reliable way to produce safe food, protect human and animal health, build
immunity and resilience in our farming. The crisis needs a systems
response, not military operations.

The problem is not the occurrence of disease and infection, but
vulnerability to it. The very idea of disease-free animals and disease-free
people fuels the appetite for genetic engineering. It decreases our levels
of tolerance and resilience. It breeds fear, anxiety and paranoia - the
kind of fear that is moving the military might of Britain to declare a war
against its hoofed inhabitants.

This paranoia suits the genetic engineering industry perfectly. By
exterminating farm animals, the option of small organic farms is eroded. By
creating a fear of disease, a new market is created for Dolly, and Polly
and Tracy and all their clones.

We should stop this war against farm animals. Without them we will never be
able to build a sustainable farming future.

Dr Vandana Shiva, a physicist and ecologist, has in India established
Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights.