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CALENDAR Sunday 6 February: Fifth Sunday of the Year (Year A) Monday 7 February: Feria Tuesday 8 February: Feria or St Jerome Emiliani or St Josephine Bakhita, Virgin Wednesday 9 February: Feria Thursday 10 February: St Scholastica, Virgin Friday 11 February: Feria or Our Lady of Lourdes Saturday 12 February: Feria Sunday 13 February: Sixth Sunday of the Year


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Independently audited certified average circulation per issue of THE TABLET for issues distri buted between 1 January and


30 June 2010 is 22,000. Volume 265 No. 8881 ISSN: 0039 8837


THE ETHICAL KITCHEN


Waste not wanted ROSE PRINCE


IT SEEMSimpossible that it is 10 years since the daily TV news bulletins featured hideous burning pyres of animal carcasses. But 19 February marks the day when in 2001 foot- and-mouth disease was discovered in an Essex abattoir. Over the next seven months, 2,000 further cases were reported. The Government estimated that four mil- lion sheep, cows and pigs were slaughtered in a contiguous cull, but the Meat and Livestock Commission later said the cull might have been closer to 10 million. The cost of the outbreak to Britain was £8 billion, a figure that took into account compensation to farmers, the “clean-up” and loss of tourism revenue. Now government officials at Defra – the


Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – are confident. Were the dis- ease to break out again in the United Kingdom, they believe it could be more quickly contained. They have also acknowledged that the custom of trucking livestock all over the UK contributed to the disaster.


At the time, a debate raged over the possi-


bility that vaccination could halt the spread of the disease. The Government decided against it, under pressure from the National Farmers’ Union which warned that this might lose the UK £592 million in exports revenue, because meat from vaccinated animals could not be sold abroad. As I see it, Defra judged that the food industry – whose transport activ- ity contributed to the disaster – could not afford to lose half a billion pounds, so the taxpayer had to cough up £8bn instead; part of which was used to compensate the food industry. I sat through enough talks by virologists at the time to conclude that had calls for vacci- nation been heeded earlier it might have been possible to ring-fence the outbreak. But the Government fiddled, and livestock burned.


“They say they can’t afford to vaccinate them, but they can afford to kill ’em,” a Cumbrian farmer said to me, searching for the logic. How right she was. Earlier this week, Defra said that vaccination would be considered in a future outbreak – then added that this might jeop- ardise the exports industry. The shame is that individual consumers learned much from foot- and-mouth in 2001. Local sourcing, farmers’ markets and farm shops have flourished as a result – but big industry and the British Government still only have eyes for each other. We’ve also changed the way we eat in the last 10 years with greater interest in not wast- ing food. This smooth soup made with broth and barley is a delicious way to use up left- over lamb.


A comforting soup for February Serves 4


2 tbsp olive oil or butter 1 onion, finely chopped 1 carrot, finely chopped 1 tsp ground coriander seed 200g pearl barley 1.2 litres lamb stock 4 tbsp cold roast lamb, cut into small dice salt and black pepper


To serve: flat-leaf parsley, chopped


Heat the fat in a pan and add the onion, coriander and pearl barley. Stir over the heat for a minute or two until the onion softens, then add the carrots, stock and the diced lamb. Bring to the boil and cook for 15-20 minutes until the pearl barley is just tender. Do not boil too vigorously or the liquid will evaporate. Season to taste, then add chopped parsley to each bowlful just before you eat.


Glimpses of Eden


WOKEN BYthe heat of the stage lights, the moth flew drowsily around the musi- cians. Drawn to the amber flame of the lute, the insect


fluttered round the wide neck and gut strings of the seventeenth-century instrument. Wilder and wilder it danced, flickering round each plucked arpeggio, until the sudden ecstasy of a mournful, strummed cadence sent it reel- ing behind a pillar. The other instruments played by the ensem- ble in the Anglican village church were also old: a harpsichord, recorders, and a viol de gamba, whose carved head stared intensely at us from the depths of the French baroque. Just like the trees from which they come, instru-


ments improve with age, and come to each new player brimming not only with music but sto- ries too. When listening to my son playing his fiddle, I often wonder whose fingers preceded his. According to the ink-stamp inside the sound box, it was made in Germany in 1888. During its long life, many others must have played it, in many different places. Perhaps they too loved music, or maybe for them it was a chore. Did those other hands grasp joy, or were they silenced by tragedy? How did this instrument come to be hanging in the Hexham Violin Shop two years ago when we walked in? What tales, I wonder, woken by the heat of melody, will flutter unseen about yourhead when you next listen to a violin?


Jonathan Tulloch 36 | THE TABLET | 5 February 2011


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