news20091229gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News >UK news > Food safety]
Sheep farmers still stuck under a Chernobyl cloud
Ever since radiation from Chernobyl rained down on the UK 23 years ago, sales of sheep in affected areas have been restricted. But frustrated farmers now claim the meat is safe – and that testing should stop
Leo Hickman
The Guardian, Tuesday 29 December 2009 Article history

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"We have no detailed knowledge of low-level impacts," he says. "For example, we have been surprised that technetium from Sellafield has been found in sea shells and seaweed off the Norwegian coast and has accumulated in lobsters. On a personal level, I'm not happy that this sheep meat is in the human food chain at all. So much is still unknown. Given what has happened before with various food scares, I have a healthy dose of caution."

Others take a less hardline approach, but still believe there are enough gaps in our knowledge for the testing regime to continue. Ian Fairlie is an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment who has advised various environmental NGOs and UK government agencies, as well as the European Parliament. He believes the FSA is not being too cautious.

"The caesium burden in the affected meat is too high for children to eat at the moment," he says. "Adults would be OK, but children are more sensitive to the ingestion of nuclides such as caesium. There is no published figure about what is an acceptable level of safety – 1,000 becquerels per kilo is just a guide. Working out safe doses is very complicated. They could be testing these sheep for decades yet."

Just a short journey south from the Lake District along the M6, Brenda Howard works as a radioecologist at Lancaster University's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. She has spent the last two decades studying the transfer of radionuclides to agricultural and wild animals, particularly the transfer of caesium-137 into Lakeland sheep. Rather than letting these sheep farmers continue to drift into an uncertain future, Howard believes it's time to look again at the methodology of the current testing regime.

"I think it's time for a re-evaluation," she says. "The actual dose on the plate for any consumer is going to be very small in the most part. The main issue is making sure the farmers who rear these sheep are not eating lots of contaminated meat themselves." (Ironically, Ellwood says he doesn't even like the taste of lamb and prefers beef.)

The FSA admits that caesium-137 will "remain biologically available for many years to come" in the affected uplands. But it says it will continue with its testing regime to assess if and when any farmer can qualify for derestriction.

"Our remit is food safety," says Terry Donohoe, head of strategy and policy at the FSA's food safety contaminants division. "On the evidence we have available to us at the moment, we feel we can't reduce the testing. We can understand the frustration farmers feel about compensation levels, but this is a decision for the agricultural departments of each regional government."

Since 1986, the government has paid out a total of £14.3m in compensation to the affected farmers. The total cost last year – both the compensation payments and the monitoring – came to £725,000, according to FSA estimates.

Once Pottinger has packed up his Geiger counter and handed over a certificate that allows Ellwood to sell his lambs, the farmer whistles for one of his five sheepdogs and sets off on foot towards a walled enclosure on the lower flank of Hesk Fell. As he steps through the grassy tufts and boggy peat, he shouts throaty commands to his dog. "Feeetch! Coomeerroound!"

Ellwood explains how his sheep "heft" to Hesk Fell, that they instinctively know which flock they were born into and never stray from the fell. As a result, Herdwicks can stay out largely untended throughout the winter months. It helps to keep the costs down, he says. Which is good, because the economics of sheep farming make little sense to any outsider. For example, last year Ellwood says he was getting just £9 an animal at auction, whereas this year it's up to nearer £30. Ellwood admits that he just about survives economically on government subsidy and compensation. He says other affected farmers are unhappy about the frozen levels of compensation, but are often reluctant to speak out about the subject for fear of driving down consumer demand for sheep meat.

Beatrix Potter, the children's author, was an expert Herdwick breeder and, on her death in 1943, she left the 14 sheep farms she owned to the National Trust. Her only stipulation was that Herdwicks must continue to be bred on them. Ellwood says the only real value of his sheep today is not what price they get at auction, but keeping the grass short on the fells so that the landscape is kept "looking a picture".

So, would he recommend sheep farming to any of his four children, who all grew up on the farm and are now aged between 17 and 23? "I would like them to do it, yes. But one's a joiner, one's an electrician and one's a chef. None of them wants to be a sheep farmer. When I retire – I'm 53 now – I expect the National Trust will have to rent it out again to someone new."