THE HEADLINES in daily newspapers warning of antibiotic resistance and blaming farming as a major cause, could not be further from the truth.

In fact, the agricultural industry – especially here in the UK – has done more than any to stem the rising tide of such resistance. It has played its part and gone a long way towards curbing the mis-use of antibiotics – by hitting Government set targets of lower use two years early.

There has been a persistent – and no doubt expensive – television advertising campaign aimed at the general public asking them to curb their use of antibiotics. What a complete waste of money this is – the general public cannot prescribe themselves 'prescription only' drugs and, if they are obtaining them illegally, then telling them 'not to do it' will have little effect. Only those who prescribe the drugs in the first place – ie doctors and vets – have it within their gift to actively reduce their use.

Such money would be better spent on research in finding new actives to fight disease in humans and animals. And, finding a new, more definitive test for bovine tuberculosis would also go a long way towards reducing the 'cost to the nation' figure so often bandied about.

Gove's curve ball

FARMING WAS hit by a bit of a curve ball this past week, with the public outing of Michael Gove's wish for ag and fish to leave the confines of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy by 2019.

This casts the industry into deep waters. While it removes somewhat the threat of being used as a bargaining tool for Brexit agreement against other industries, it worryingly exposes it to the whims and desires of a UK government which has, until now, been like a fish out of water in talks with the rest of Europe – and little said about farming. It often seems that it pays lip service to the value of the colossal input that the industry has to the greater economy, but little in the way of comfort in terms of supporting it through what will be an upheaval of enormous proportions, both physically and financially.

If this week's political machinations are anything to go by, then it might be better if MPs and MSPs beefed up their policy making, rather than touching up their staff!