Tainted Meat public health scares aren't a farmers only worry

NCD News: Farm Insurance - 07.12.08

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Tainted Meat public health scares aren't a farmers only worry: We have reported in several articles how modern farming is far from its portrayal in 19th Century literature: an idyllic pastime with slow but sure income. In fact, UK farmers now face incredibly large and broad risks, a few of which we detail below.

Animal Pandemics

In 2002, the eyes of the world were upon the British Isles, as it became the "Foot and Mouth" capital of the world. The final figures released by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) advised that over 2,000 cases were confirmed, resulting in the slaughter of 600,000 cattle, 3.3 million sheep and 140,000 pigs?Ø¬ø¬?along with an additional 4,000 miscellaneous livestock.

The countryside was ablaze with improvised crematoriums during the 11-month outbreak, decimating the farming community at all levels. Reports suggested the total cost to the farming industry alone stood at ?Ø¬ø¬?2.4 billion although the final estimate - when combined with the loss of tourism and other rural business - brought the cost closer to ?Ø¬ø¬?8 billion.

In 2007, the virus resurfaced briefly in the Home Counties as a research laboratory leached the deadly bacteria into a watercourse, which subsequently found its way onto a neighbouring farm. Although the authorities were quick to stop the disease from spreading any further, the cost still exceeded ?Ø¬ø¬?80 million due to lost export revenues that hit farmers as far north as Scotland.

Even whilst compiling this article, media reports note that supermarkets across the UK are hastily withdrawing all Irish pork products as tests on the slaughtered pigs showed that some products contained up to 200 times more dioxin - Poly Chlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) - than the recognised safety limit. The estimated cost is set to severely impact the annual ?Ø¬ø¬?260 million the industry turns over through exports alone.

Natural Disasters (Crop Impact)

Images of flooded land have become commonplace over the last decade as harvest after harvest is lost or damaged due to excessive rain. For many farmers this represents a year's work ruined in a matter of days and whatever is salvageable will not sell for the best price.

Theoretically, it is possible to plant a Genetically Modified (GM) crop that will withstand the most vicious weather, but as the Evening Standard reported not one of the top five farming underwriters is willing to insure farmers against accidental contamination through GM crops. They point to precedents such as Asbestos and Thalidomide, where it took years to fully comprehend the risks, and the fact that the scale of a public health disaster involving GM crops renders it uninsurable.

Theft & Vandalism

Whilst disease and flooding are almost a part of everyday farm life, farmers are now facing a problem that is symptomatic of the economic downturn - theft and vandalism.

A survey by the Farmers Union of Wales showed that sheep theft has dramatically increased over the past few years, with 3,000 sheep worth ?Ø¬ø¬?200,000 being stolen from Powys County alone. Worst hit was the village Llangynidr, near Crickhowell, which reported 1,000 stolen sheep in a 12-month period.

Elsewhere in Britain cases have been reported in the West Country, where the largest recent thefts have been 50 sheep from Stokeinteignhead, near Teignmouth and 200 lambs in Ledbury.

Wildbourclough on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border reported the remains of eight butchered sheep being thrown over a bridge. More notably a highly organised team operating between Northumberland and County Durham have been dubbed the "A68 Gang" due to the frequency of their raids. Other hotspots include parts of southern Scotland and the Lake District.

Farm Risk Management Solutions

What can farmers do? The first step is to acknowledge that farming is a business with risks just like any other: the ones we noted above are just a fraction of them. That being the case, like a business a farm needs to protect its major assets (i.e. animals, equipment) and personnel.

The good news is that farmers have more choice than ever. Beyond the traditional specialist farm insurers like Tower Gate Lloyd and White, there are now specialist insurance comparison websites like farmweb and farm-insurance.net. Their selection is smaller than general sites like moneysupermarket, but they may grow as UK farmers come to appreciate the risks they face and the more mainstream insurers come to offer them insurance. †