Letters: Could Mycoplasma bovis be manna from heaven?

Down on the farm. Could the M. bovis outbreak and eradication attempts be the first glimmers of twilight for our dairy industry? Photo / File

According to official sources: "While M. bovis is a production-limiting disease, it poses no threat to human health or food safety.

"Fortunately, this disease is unlikely to impact on international trade as the disease is not a risk in animal products.

"Every other country in the world has M. bovis in their cattle herds. Evidence from overseas indicates this is unlikely to present a significant management problem for most farmers running extensive production systems."

Okay, not great, but that seems easily manageable to me. I am only a farmer though.

Apparently eradication could take 10 years, and cost around $500 million — and containment is equally pricey. Include the impact to the economy, it could be $1 billion.

Those of a conspiratorial nature may wonder why a government is happy to take a billion-dollar hit for something that can be farmed with and adapted to.

What makes us so different?

It's these kind of events that governments no doubt relish. They have a disaster they can control, aiding political control.

At a cost, new bureaucratic government committees and groups will be constructed. They have the reason to make laws and regulations that cripple the small farmer, and hand control of the food production system to the corporates.

They can legally dispose of a huge chunk of the dairy cow industry, something the Greens will be ecstatic over.

Or, I wonder, is there something in this M. bovis strain that is particularly nasty?

I wonder how many farms will be sold for housing. Nonsense on the surface, but what lies underneath?

Of course, if it all goes terribly wrong for the Government, they can always blame the farmers.

SIMPLE COUNTRY LAD
Awanui