Proposed badger cull - TB, cows...

[bunn]

Interesting blog here : http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2011/12/14/a-sad-day-for-badgers-and-for-farmers.aspx

There seems to be quite a consensus (in blogs that I read anyway) that vaccines (whether for badgers, or for cows) are the most effective & humane way to go with the TB problem, but I wonder if vaccine development is more difficult than it appears, given that it seems to have taken so long to develop one and we still don't seem to have a working vaccine.

Since something PWWBBIHHALJ said, I always wonder when I see badgers dead on the roadside, if they were really killed by traffic accidents, or if dropping the body by a busy road is a convenient way to dispose of the evidence...

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well, not just the slaughter - I think there is also quite an issue with raising of meat, particularly when imported. I understand that we have relatively strict regulations and generally pretty good welfare in the UK, but that doesn't help when people insist on eating meat regardless of what has been done to the animals that produce it, and therefore it gets imported as a cheapest-possible commodity. :-/

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

What depresses me is that vegetarianisn - and the desire to eat organic, humanely farmed meat - seems to be a mere fad, and one of the first things to be sacrificed when money gets tight. When these same people are happy to keep buying their gadgets, new cars, etc.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

You've come across people who have stopped being veggie as an *economy measure* ? That's SO WEIRD. Surely vegetarianism is much cheaper? I've always tended to go veggie (during times I've done that) for reasons of economy as much as anything else!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

It was probably my lousy writing... The vegetarianism isn't so dependant on economics, I suppose. But it does seem come in cycles.

Economics seems to be a major factor in determing whether people can 'afford' (or are willing to splash out on, more like...) to support organic farming.