In the week that the government confirmed a link between BSE and CJD...<p>
<i>
Among the winners will, as ever be the farmers.They will demand compensation for
having stuffed their livestock with rancid and possibly poisonous detritus and
then sold it to us. No other industry would get this treatment. Would
we compensate Mars of they sold us poisonous chocolate bars? Or Ford if the
brakes failed on their cars?<br>
The time may come when we ask whether we really need mass agriculture. Almost
all food can be produced more cheaply elsewhere. We could convert the
pairies of England back to meadows and hedgerows, with a few country parks
and golf courses. We'd save a fortune and the country would be much better off.
</i><p>
Simon Hoggart in The Guardian, March 28 1996.