The Tracing Paper

Just when it all seemed to be mercifully over, foot and mouth disease has returned in the UK.

The government had declared August’s outbreak over, the restrictions on livestock movements were lifted, farming and the meat industry were getting back to normal business at a busy time of year, the reports on August’s outbreak had been even published. Now all the fear and uncertainty is back.

Debate about whether it’s time to vaccinate is intensifying. Many consider vaccination long overdue and point to the new outbreak as tragic evidence. The case is presented convincingly at Warmwell, where it’s also reported that the government is considering vaccination.

Defra, for the time being at least, remains opposed to vaccination on the grounds of the risk of spread of the disease and the impact on trade in meat, though they have ordered 300,000 doses.

Keeping up with foot and mouth developments

Warmwell remains the best source of in-depth discussion and examination of foot and mouth disease, the arguments for vaccination, the impact on farmers and more.

Defra has a page on the latest situation, with links to detailed pages on the restrictions etc.

The Guardian’s Newsblog has regularly updated postings of events as they happen(ed) and views as they’re aired on the 13th September, 12th September. Matthew Weaver combines concise reporting of the facts as they emerge with discussion of postings on blogs and even FaceBook groups.

Finally, I’ve posted a constantly updated summary of blog postings about foot and mouth at FeedReel.

FeedReel - finest quality food and drink writing on the web

The Tracing Paper has been a little neglected recently as I’ve been concentrating on developing a new site, FeedReel on Food and Drink, exploring the range of food and drink writing on the web.

Earlier posts here (particulary the UK Food Blog Search) have touched on this, but it’s really a subject that goes beyond The Tracing Paper’s professed interest in the origins of our food (on which more will follow soon, honest).

For anyone with an interest in food and drink (isn’t that everyone?), the web is an increasingly exciting source of ideas, stimulation and information.

Every day, over 30 fresh articles are posted on over 100 UK food blogs, with over a dozen more on 20-odd UK beer, wine and cider blogs. Numerous specialist websites are constantly adding new content and much of the old mainstream media’s writing on food is also available online.

The only problem is keeping up. It’s all too easy to miss an article on your favourite food and all too difficult tracking down the best information when you’re looking for a particular recipe or the low-down on a restaurant.

This is where FeedReel hopes to help, keeping a close eye on all the latest posts on UK food blogs and websites, collating constantly updated summaries of the latest food and drink writing and news.

And if you’re looking for something specific, FeedReel offers a thorough Food Search, indexing over 200 carefully chosen UK food blogs and websites.