Reality Cheques - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 65

animals, and 30 per cent for domestic pets and horses. Only one fifth of
the antibiotics and other antimicrobials that are used in modern agriculture
are for therapeutic treatment of clinical diseases, with four-fifths for
prophylactic use and growth promotion. The US Centres for Disease
Control say: 'antimicrobial resistance is a serious clinical and public health problem in
the US' , and one estimate from the Institute of Medicine suggests that such
resistance costs US$30 million per year. A UK House of Lords select
committee enquiry was even more alarmed, recently stating: 'There is a
continuing threat to human health from the imprudent use of antibiotics in animals. . .
we may face the dire prospect of revisiting the pre-antibiotic era.' 36
In both Europe and North America, the most common forms of
antimicrobial resistance are to strains of antibiotics used in treating
animals, and these are transferred to human patients. Some antibiotics,
such as fluoroquinones and avoparcin (used to treat infections in poultry
and as growth promoters), are now associated with dramatic increases in
resistant diseases in humans. Fluoroquinone resistance is thought to be
the main factor why Campylobacter infections have become so common in
the Netherlands. As the WHO puts it: 'Campylobacter species are now the
commonest cause of bacterial gasteroenteritis is developed countries, and cases are
predominantly associated with consumption of poultry.' 37 There is no such thing as
a cheap chicken.
Putting a Monetary Value on
Agricultural Landscapes
Landscapes are culturally valuable, and the aesthetic value we gain from
them owes much to their emergence from agricultural practices. They are,
of course, almost impossible to value in monetary terms. However, many
proxies can be used, including how much governments are willing to pay
farmers to produce certain habitats or landscapes, how often the public
visits the countryside, and how much they spend when they get there. In
the UK, several studies of agri-environmental policies have sought to put
a value on positive environmental and landscape outcomes. 38 These
schemes have attempted to restore some of the habitats and other positive
countryside attributes that were lost during intensification, as well as to
protect those attributes not yet lost.
UK agri-environmental schemes have been designed to deliver benefits
in several forms, including biodiversity, landscape patterns, water quality,
archaeological sites, and enhanced access. Benefits may accrue to those in
the immediate area of a scheme, to visitors from outside the area, and to