The Transport_and_Society Network
A photo journal of foot and mouth,
Britain April 2001.
This web site records the photojourney of Stephen Little, Senior Lecturer in Knowledge Management, Open University Business School and Margaret Grieco, Professor of Transport and Society, Napier University, through the foot and mouth infected regions of Scotland and Cumbria, England. The journey was undertaken in early April.
On the outskirts of Edinburgh: stone dykes and sheep.
Stone dykes were a traditional technology for separating herds. On our journey through foot and mouth infected areas we noted that many dykes had fallen into disrepair. Dyke building was a labour intensive technology: in previous epochs, the annual repair and maintenance of dykes would have been a routine activity.
The countryside is open to the public: the limits of modern barriers
In many locations, the traditional dykes have disappeared and been replaced with modern barbed wire fencing. Such fencing is enough to inhibit the movement of persons into the field and animals onto the road but there was evidence of food litter along the countryside roads next to and even into at risk fields.
Smoke screens and fire scapes: a burning countryside
As we travelled from Edinburgh to Manchester through the infected areas of Scotland and Cumbria, the fires were in evidence everywhere. A line of fires along the Cumbrian banks of the Solway Firth were particularly evocative. The contrast between wind farms and burning livestock provided a powerful tension around modern farming logistics and environmental practices.
"Blair fiddles, while Cumbria burns": a road side message
Political posters protesting the countryside's plight were in evidence in many locations: both home made and commercially produced. Interestingly, the focus fell on the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and not upon the Agricultural Minister, Nick Brown, as the focus of the discontent.
Fowl traffic: the intersection between tourism and farming
In a lake district location close to disinfectant facilities for traffic and humans, these ducks roamed free their feet undipped. It raised for us at least the question of how cohesive the disinfectant measures could be rendered given the intersection between tourism and farming.
Convoys and carcasses: traffic, trips and sensitive loads
On our journey we passed solitary trucks in rural areas which seemed likely to have been involved in disposal of carcasses. There was, however, one group of trucks which appeared to be travelling together and forming a convoy. The use of private hauliers to perform the function of carcasss disposal leaves the farmer without a ready way of identifying the business of traffic passing close to his fields.
On line materials on foot and mouth disease
Social and political action around foot and mouth disease
This site is managed by Margaret Grieco,
Professor of Transport and
Society,
Napier University
Edinburgh
m.grieco@napier.ac.uk
and
Stephen Little
Senior Lecturer in Knowledge Management
Open
University Business School
Milton Keynes, U.K.
s.e.little@open.ac.uk