The Trust

This has been a traumatic year for rural communities the world over, not least in the UK where the full impact of the Foot and Mouth epidemic and its control are only now becoming evident. Even the farm of Arkleton where the Trust was founded in 1977 did not escape collateral impact, being within five miles of infected stocks, and all of the hefted flock of Cheviots had to be destroyed.

One thing the Foot and Mouth epidemic highlighted is the scale and pace of rural transformation over the past two or three decades, changes which reflect those throughout Europe, if in varying degrees. A recent report by the Countryside Agency [1] confirmed that the outbreak affected 40% of businesses in the region of Cumbria in NW England, and that these were mainly tourist, service, agricultural supply and other land based firms but "everyone from car hire companies to decorators, brewers, charities, outdoor pursuit centres, anglers, foresters, traders, craft people and shopkeepers had suffered". The worst hit was the tourist industry that suffered losses of over £4 billion [2].

In addition to the economic losses, many inside and outside the farming industry "suffered mental health and well-being problems", and "the viability of some voluntary organisations" was undermined. Yet, in the 1960's, at the time of the last Foot and Mouth epidemic in Britain, a government cost-benefit analysis to assess policy choices only considered the impacts on farming, and this caused no controversy.

Thinking about what has changed in that period surely justifies the founding focus of the Trust on the whole rural economy and society, and on the broader aspects of rural education and training, rather than agriculture as a single and, in fact, diminishing sector within rural areas. We can but ask, where were the Ministries of Agriculture when we took this path, and why were they so very slow to change? The Foot and Mouth epidemic also revealed the weakness of the 'evidence-base' for rural policy making, a point which has not, it seems, been lost on all concerned.

During the year, the Trust agreed to help an 18-month joint project led by Professor Michael Winter and funded by the RDA and West Devon Borough Council. The project is addressing the economic and social consequences of Foot and Mouth disease in West Devon.

1 www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth; www.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth; report in the Guardian, 30/8/01. The Countryside Agency was formed in 1999 by combining the English Rural Development Commission with the Countryside Commission, and is in effect the Rural Development Agency for England.

2 Farmers had so far received over £1 bn in compensation for capital losses.