"THERE is no risk-free option." Ah well, since it is bubonic plague that we are faced with, I suppose we must just hope that the open-air burning of a million or so animal carcasses isn't dousing Britain in cancer-causing nasties.

Government ministers, like environment supremo Michael Meacher, quoted above, tell us that disposal is impossible without risk - and so that's that.

Except, of course, that it is not bubonic plague or anything remotely as sinister and deadly that we are combating. Only a relatively mild animal disease that presents no threat to human health. A disease we have the medical means to prevent. And from which, even if we choose not to prevent it, the vast majority of infected animals recover fairly quickly, with little loss of productive value. Against the public health fears now being raised, it would be hard to conceive a crazier scenario.

We will have to wait 30 years, almost certainly too long for me, for the full truth of this fiasco-fast-becoming-a-scandal to be revealed with the release of Cabinet papers. They will almost certainly confirm, in shocking detail, the already apparent total rout of the Government by the NFU.

And just think - we were supposed to have seen the last of beer and sandwiches at No 10. Who could have imagined that the one "union" to put the screws on a Labour government would be a Tory union - forcing the (reportedly) reluctant Cabinet to persist with the medieval mass-slaughter.

It's worth emphasising that only 40 per cent of farmers belong to the NFU. But if it is true that most farmers still oppose vaccination then they are bound to forfeit a good deal of public sympathy.

It's my belief that when this was applied, the Government had little idea of the devastation it would cause. Government ministers are not noted as users of the countryside. It took almost balls and chains to keep them here over Easter. But to the millions who enjoy our countryside, or provide for those who do, the catastrophe inherent in closure was obvious immediately.

Despite the NFU's perverse hostility to it, vaccination, in full or part, looks certain to be re-instituted by the EU when this crisis is over. A new study of 60 foot-and-mouth outbreaks across the world by scientists at Edinburgh University has established that slaughter works only when outbreaks are small and localised: surprise, surprise. In Taiwan, which experienced an outbreak similar to Britain's in 1992, vaccination had to be adopted after the army had slaughtered 3.8 million animals without gaining control. Argentina now vaccinates routinely - and much of its vaccinated beef ends up on British tables. To prefer the control method of mass slaughter - killing many healthy animals and creating scenes straight out of Dante's inferno - over medication is to turn "progress" on its head. Where available, medication should be the first resort, not the last.

Even after it ditched vaccination in 1992, the EU turned to it immediately when there was a foot-and-mouth outbreak in neighbouring Albania in 1996. Fearing infection might cross the border, it rushed in vaccines, which saw off the disease in 12 weeks.

According to some estimates, foot and mouth has already cost Britain £20bn. The horse industry alone is losing £29m a week. And about 3,000 people employed in the marquee business have lost their jobs. Incidentally, marquee manufacture and hire turns over £350m a year, about the same as the earnings from animal exports that are the sacred cow (sorry) in this national disaster-cum-debacle.

Sadly, there is little evidence of serious concern among the farming community for the damage imposed on others. But there is some. Calling for mass vaccination the other day, a Lockerbie farmer wrote: "Tourism can't be made to suffer much longer, and ancillary businesses must not be pushed into bankruptcy. Farmers cannot condone the unnecessary deaths of healthy animals. We cannot condone the suffering of animals unable to move from muddy fields. We cannot condone the forced killing of domesticated goats, sheep or pigs. We cannot condone the inhumane slaughtering of some (hopefully few) animals."

A civilised voice. When will we hear one from the Government or the NFU?

Published: 25/04/01