Latest wheeze from our friends at the MHS. Oops, sorry, of course, not the MHS anymore is it? I mean its replacement, the FSA Operations Group. Same people, different title, typical bureaucracy, same outcome. FSA are boasting about a £2 million saving. Well done them, but, needless to say, it does not make a scrap of difference to charges on the shop floor. Still heading in the direction of £4k per week, a partly subsidised fee that Government pays back to the FSA to keep its bloated workforce in place.

Oh yes, the latest wheeze from FSAOG. I've recently received a letter from yet another Business Manager to inform me of yet another bright idea. Verification of post mortem inspection!!! Three full time inspectors are obviously not enough to deal with the incredibly complex, bug ridden, life threatening role of a meat inspector inspecting fresh meat and offals in an abattoir!!!..........Comments on this farce remain unprintable. (Great word for a penpusher, don't you think?-verification).

This latest offering brought home to me a sad thought on where I, as an abattoir operator actually stand nowadays. All my thoughts have to focus on planning on how my business can survive the the FSAOP, its charging regime and whatever gimmick they dream up in the future. With two keen sons in the business, future investment in slaughterhouse plant, modernisation, environmental improvements,etc, should surely be high on my agenda. Unfortunately, that's the last thing on my mind at the moment. I'm having to introduce a 4-day week for my slaughtering staff and generally rationalize costs to survive.

To survive the global financial crisis? To survive a downturn in meat consumption? To survive competition out there in the real world? Its none of these things. Its facing upto the gradual introduction of full cost recovery of a morally and scientifically bankrupt government-led meat inspection system. Simples.

As it stands, there is no real future.



Toby Baker (Don Quixote)