http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF30Ak02.html

We still need them to prevent Monty Python’s “Crunchy Frog” sketch from becoming reality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU

But what we don’t need is them becoming a Government endorsed group of “Food Nazi’s” like the ones being campaigned against on this American website:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/

At least this year they’ve FINALLY replaced the traditional paper licenses (which were getting a bit too big, even when folded) with a card like thing similar to what the Conservative party give you when you join.

Though according to my sources on some of the UK’s leading fishing websites, it’s not often you’ll find EA officers (or Police officers either for that matter) going round checking licenses…. you’ll see 2 or 3 of them going round Commercial coarse & trout fisheries checking them, but other Anglers (mostly those who fish Rivers & Canals) claim they haven’t been checked for years (but do have their licenses on them).

Similarly, Animal Health as it is now called is seriously underfunded, with insuffient large animal vets to cope if there is an outbreak of something nasty. The 2001 FMD holocaust stretched the government vets to breaking point and beyond. It is now even worse, because they have even fewer professional staff who know what they are doing. My last visit from an official vet demonstrated that he too had spent far too long in the clutches of bureaucracy, for that is what he had become. He didn’t know how to condition score my cattle, neither did know whether a minor skin condition was caused by mites or lice. Fortunately, my own vet knew what she was doing.

I really despair that so many good people have to spend their time covering their own arses, when in fact they should be getting doing the job that the taxpayer asks of them.

Their website says the following independent committees, working groups and forums advise the Food Standards Agency: General Advisory Committee on Science, Social Science Research Committee, ACAF, Better Regulation Advisory Group, ACNFP, Stakeholder Meeting on Animal Feed Issues, ACMSF, COT, Committee on Carcinogenicity, Committee on Mutagenicity, Spongiform Encephalopathy Committee, Committee on Nutrition, Working Party on Food Contact Materials, Working Party on Food Additives, Advisory Committee on Pesticides, Pesticide Residues Committee, Veterinary Products Committee, FSA Expert Group on Testing of Milk for Antibiotic Residues, Veterinary Residues Committee, Consultative Group on Campylobacter and Salmonella in Chickens, Foodborne Disease Strategy Consultative Group, Enforcement Liaison Group, Advisory Body for the Delivery of Official Controls, Meat Hygiene Policy Forum, Red Tape Working Group, Enforcement Forum, Framework Agreement Sub Group, Food Incidents Task Force, Food Standards Sampling Co-ordination Working Group, Additives and Authenticity Methodology Working Group , Food and Drink Advertising and Promotion Forum, Nutrition Strategy Steering Group, Animal Feed Law Enforcement Liaison Group, Scottish Food Enforcement Liaison Committee, Independent panel on the controls on infant formula and follow-on formula and the UK-Wide Scores on the Doors Steering Group.

Almost forgot the Consumer Stakeholder Forum, which enables “stakeholders” (i.e. pressure groups, not the consumers themselves, obviously) to express opinions about the Agency’s work.

Takes me back to when I worked for the old MAFF/ADAS set-up. The vet diagnostic labs were occupied by many keen enthusiastic staff, vets and technicians (including me), but were always being looked down on by administrators and being “trimmed” at various intervals for “cost-efficiency”. Invariably we used to lose good scientific staff around the country, to be replaced by pen-pushers or nothing at all. British agriculture deserves better. So much has changed since I left, I can’t keep up with it all any more….