their food. A community already suffering from so much was also held at the mercy
of poorly exercised and executed measures from bodies such as MAFF, of which
even Prime Minister Tony Blair held reservations against their competency. These all
added to the cost of human suffering. With simple measures of conveying
information, which communities themselves had been able to do through the new
rising social medium of the internet, much could have been alleviated. The scope of
the FMD disaster must also not only be seen as an agricultural disaster either. In
some areas, tourism was even harder hit than the agricultural industry. However,
more detached from the direct results of FMD, such as culling this sector, was also
at the mercy of poorly organised government bodies. The opening of Watchtree
Nature Reserve has shown that official bodies can work with the community to find
solutions. Perhaps this will be the most important lesson learned from the 2001 FMD
outbreak.
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