Yet again the curse of Tescofication has hit farmers. Obviously Tesco is not to blame for the latest outbreak of foot and mouth, much though stroppy Guardian readers might like to lay the blame on them.
But the painful impacts of foot and mouth are going to be felt worst by the farmers which have followed the dictates of the supermarket chains and gone in for intensive farming - huge herds of cattle, or acres and acres of cabbages, or gallons and gallons and gallons of white foaming milk. After a summer which has already been disastrous for British farmers thanks to the floods of rain which wiped out an entire month's worth of crops the industry is reeling in disbelief. "It's been floods and pestilence," as Gareth Jones at the National Farmers' Retail and Markets Assocation put it: "It'll be famine next" .
But for those farmers who have begun to diversify into cheese or cider or jam, who have regular stalls at their local farmers' market, or who have a sturdy service providing fruit and veg boxes to a local wholefood shop, or have set up a farm shop, a café, a restaurant, there is already a lifeline in place. Just as biodiversity in nature is its own safety mechanism, diversification in farming offers some protection from, say, an outbreak of foot and mouth, or the failure of one of their crops.
Now farmers need our support: it's more important than ever to buy local, to buy whatever you can that may help your local farmer survive, whether it's their wonderful pickle, or their faintly experimental goats cheese. The National Farmers' Union stresses the fact that although the movement of cattle is restricted, the farms are still open: "the countryside is open for business".
So next time you're due to go to the supermarket, find your nearest farmers market or farm shop through Farma instead. And then go there, and buy their frozen sausages, buy the boxes of redcurrants and the homemade quiches and the delicious fresh apple juice and the unpasteurized milk (due to loophole in law you can still buy unpasteurized milk in farm shops - it is absolutely delicious) and the fresh bread. It may not be the hardest bit of campaigning you'll ever have to do, but it could make all the difference.
