Return of a Dread Disease
by Ridge Shinn

We are both saddened and alarmed that foot-and-mouth disease has reappeared in English cattle, specifically on two farms in Surrey. This is a very contagious disease, as we recall from the outbreak of 2001. As a recent editorial in The New York Times noted, "It is really worth hoping that this outbreak is contained and its cause discovered as quickly as possible. The rural economy of Britain suffered a horrifying blow from mad-cow disease in the 1990s, followed, with surprising swiftness, by an equally horrifying blow from foot-and-mouth disease. Those two diseases changed the agricultural landscape and, especially, how people felt about it."

Click here to read the complete August 8, 2007 editorial here (printed in PDF format).