Parliamentarians demand compensation for Pigswill Processors
04/03/05

MPs Boris Johnson and George Howarth launch Commons Motion

Senior politicians last night called on the Government to compensate swill processors whose industry they shut down during foot and mouth disease (FMD) in 2001. At an event organised by the Country Land & Business Association (CLA) in Parliament yesterday (3 March), Labour MP George Howarth and Conservative MP Boris Johnson launched an Early Day Motion1 demanding compensation for the 62 members of the Association of Swill Users (ASU).

The £40 million swill processing industry was closed down after it was alleged FMD spread from swill used on a single pig farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall owned by the Waugh brothers. Bobby Waugh did not process waste himself, he was only licensed to feed swill to pigs and no evidence of FMD was found at any other farms processing swill. The Government vet who carried out the last inspection of that farm before FMD broke out, has since admitted that he should have been more rigorous, and that the Waugh's practices were, “patently deficient”. Now the food waste that processors once handled (1.7 million tones per year) goes to landfill sites.

Speaking at the event George Howarth MP said, “We want the Government to accept that they have taken away people's livelihoods as a result of Defra's failure to supervise one farm.”

Boris Johnson MP commented that “The whole of a British industry was destroyed at the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen”.

David Fursdon, CLA Deputy President who chaired the event said, “This was a heavily regulated industry and no swill processor was actually prosecuted in relation to the outbreak of FMD, so why haven't they received compensation like other groups whose businesses were banned by governments - for example mink farmers?”

Jason Podmore, who was bankrupted by the ban, spoke of the dramatic change to his circumstances: “I went from making a good living to receiving a letter stating that we had ten days to pack up swill processing.”

Keith Ineson, an agricultural chaplain who counsels ex-swill users, some of whom are suffering with severe depression, commented, “Compensation would give them back their dignity and help remove the stigma of blame from swill processors who were carrying out their jobs legally and correctly.”