With 12 of their goats imported from Wales last month the couple have been ordered to destroy all 160 of their animals as alarm

With 12 of their goats imported from Wales last month, the couple have been ordered to destroy all 160 of their animals as alarm spreads about Britain’s foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Theirs is a small, organic farm producing goat’s milk cheese – just the sort of venture which ought to be prospering now. But a disease that spread rapidly through an intensive system of agriculture has even had an impact on this small outpost. “It has been 15 years work to make this business good,” says Mrs Devreese “If we have to kill the goats that is the end of the line. We would lose the farm; it would be the end of our livelihood.”A personal catastrophe for one farmer is symptomatic of a wholesale crisis for the continent’s agriculture, one which could eventually topple the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which has played such a crucial role in the development of the European Union.Britain’s foot and mouth outbreak comes just as Europe is battling against the effects of the BSE crisis and, with two diseases to combat, the central pillars of the 40-year-old CAP are beginning to crumble.According to Franz Fischler, the European Commissioner for agriculture, Europe now faces “the biggest crisis we have ever had in the agricultural sector. If foot-and-mouth disease makes things more difficult than they were with BSE it could be a disaster.” Mr Fischler is now prepared to admit publicly for the first time that the aims of the CAP, enshrined in the Treaty of Rome, are “not a good basis for future-oriented agriculture policy”.The CAP was founded in 1962 under an agreement in which German industry came to pay for French agriculture.

Memories of food rationing and war-time hunger were still alive in the minds of millions of Europeans, so the aim was simply to encourage farmers to produce more food.The objectives were laid down in the treaty: to boost agricultural productivity, secure the “availability of supplies” and provide a “fair standard of living for the agricultural community” Brussels would finance the policy out of its central budget. A single market was set up, the prices paid to farmers for beef, butter and key crops were to be fixed centrally every year, and they would be guaranteed, regardless of demand. High tariffs were raised like a drawbridge at Europe’s frontiers to keep out cheaper food from the rest of the world. At the heart of the CAP was the commitment to buy up and store surplus food which would eventually be released for sale or more commonly dumped on the Third World.Initially the policy worked: food became more plentiful all year round, the EU became self-sufficient in all but tropical fruits, and from the point of view of the most efficient farmers the CAP was a goldmine. But from the late-1970s the combination of guaranteed prices paid to farmers and “modern” factory methods started to generate food mountains that by the following decade looked obscene. Worst of all, 80 per cent of the money was ending up in the pockets of the biggest (and richest) 20 per cent of the farmers.The cost of generous support for 9 million farmers now exceeds a crippling 42bn euros (£27bn) a year, nearly half of the bloc’s entire budget.Brussels estimates that the BSE crisis this year will cost the CAP 1bn euros, based on the assumption that the demand for beef across the EU will fall by about 10 per cent.

That would leave a mountain of unwanted beef of around 785m tonnes Yet the actual slump in demand is 28 per cent. A cattle destruction scheme to dispose of 2 million cattle across Europe has had to be extended to include a further 1.2 million cows under a second plan which allows the storage of tested meat. Although France is slaughtering cattle under these rules, which force national capitals to share the compensation costs with Brussels, Germany is reluctant amid a debate over the ethics of such a cull.If this looming financial catastrophe was not enough, the European Commission is committed to paying half the eradication costs of foot-and-mouth. For this there is a budget of 40m euros – enough if the outbreak is confined to the UK, but woefully inadequate if it takes a grip on the Continent.There have been attempts at reforming the CAP, each time accompanied by howls of protest from the powerful continental farming lobbies, but European farm spending remains massive. Now a newly assertive Germany has decided to put its cheque book away, blocking calls for extra spending on BSE. This is only the beginning of such a process of change.The appointment of a new green agriculture minister in Berlin, Renate Kunast, underlines the shift in thinking away from intensive farming methods towards organic and sustainable small-scale agriculture.In Brussels, officials are drawing up plans for a shake-up that could shift spending from guaranteeing prices, which takes up 90 per cent of the budget, to direct grants for organic and sustainable smallholders.

Crucially, the grants will have to be matched by member states.Although the plan may sound like heresy in France it may ultimately make sense there, too. The EU is due to admit a clutch of eastern European countries around 2004, something which could change for ever France’s role as the biggest beneficiary from the CAP. In Poland, nearly a quarter of the labour force is employed on the land and much of agriculture is still at the horse and cart stage. A reform which restricts EU payments to thousands of Polish farmers may be in the interests of Paris as well as advocates of sustainable agriculture.Back on the Belgian coast the politics of CAP reform remain a world away for Mr and Mrs Devreese who expect to be back in court on Monday in an attempt to stop the slaughter of their goats. Any boost for small-scale organic farming may come too late for them, and Mrs Devreese says she is preparing for the worst. “We are,” she says, “still fighting, not only for ourselves but for other little farmers.”. Ireland

Ireland
South Armagh gave the foot-and-mouth outbreak its own unique coloration yesterday, with allegations that smuggling and shady dealings have continued despite the danger of spreading disease.The allegation is that some in the area, which has for decades been saddled with the unwelcome nickname of “bandit country,” are resisting the efforts of the authorities to freeze animal movements there.But locals counter-claim that the authorities have actually been too lax in imposing restrictions.

As the dispute continues, authorities on both sides of the border have been paying more attention to the district.In Dublin the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said that more troops were to be sent in to border areas: there will be at least 1,000 troops and police on patrol.Traffic tailbacks were again in evidence at the border as officials in the republic checked vehicles on their way south.Yesterday, as rumours were sweeping the south Armagh area of illicit animal movements, the authorities confirmed that two trucks laden with a shipment had been intercepted by the security forces.John Fee, a local Social Democratic and Labour Party representative, blamed “former republicans”. He said: “There are individuals in the south Armagh area who are actively hampering the operation to seal off the contaminated area. There have been threats against Agriculture Department personnel, local individuals and the police in relation to their presence in south Armagh.”Conor Murphy, a Sinn Fein representative, said he had met agriculture officials and had not been told of any intimidation or threats. He called on Mr Fee to provide evidence.Hundreds of sports, political, cultural and community meetings and events to be staged in both parts of Ireland this weekend have been called off. The Northern Ireland executive held an emergency meeting yesterday, and an interdepartmental committee, set up to co-ordinate efforts to combat the disease, will meet today to look at measures.GermanyGermany begins the mass slaughter today of all sheep, goats and even deer imported from Britain in the past month, in the latest of a set of measures against the disease.As experts warned of a “high risk” of the outbreak spreading to Europe, the government issued an emergency decree authorising the destruction of thousands of sheep, while an animal welfare organisation called for an immediate halt to the transport of livestock.Scientists and politicians disagreed over the threat facing German farmers.