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‘Hands off’ and ‘hands on’ knowledge

 

The Health and Social Consequences of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Epidemic in North Cumbria
 
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‘Hands off’ and ‘hands on’ knowledge

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Many front line workers were local people whose livelihood had been severely curtailed by the FMD control strategies and who had practical knowledge of handling livestock; others were seconded from local government agencies or unrelated branches of the Civil Service:

……they were literally taking anybody on but some people had no knowledge of livestock whatsoever… . . .because, as far as they were concerned, we would be standing, in full waterproofs with a clipboard, at a gate directing traffic basically, licensing folk in and out, err, making sure they were disinfected properly, err, basically getting in the bloody road.
(Frontline worker, interview, 2002)

But being a Field Officer involved much more than paperwork:
I mean, in between all this [culling of cattle] I was keeping an eye on the sheep and I was lambing some of the sheep! I know it sounds completely silly, but I just couldn’t walk past and, and leave them.
(Frontline worker, interview,  2002 – the sheep were unlikely to be culled until the following day)

A Field Officer with milking experience recounts a slaughter team arriving for a large cull at 3.30pm:
…. and they had to be back up in Edinburgh for ten o’clock so they were going to stop at half past seven [. . .] I mean, we were going to shoot the little milkers first because I’d seen them suffering with not being milked and what have you…
(Frontline worker, interview,  2002)

Diaries written into 2003 suggest that ‘loss of control’ is now manifest in ongoing restrictions and regulations, many of which seem to panel members, to be driven by bureaucratic requirements rather than by common sense understanding of agricultural industries:
I would like to see some of these people in a field counting sheep because I don"t think they would know where to start. They expect every farm to have pens and runs and loading banks for sheep. Real life doesn"t work that way. Normal people don"t have the money.
(Agricultural related, diary, 2003, writing about a discrepancy on a form)

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