One way in which small food producers have been systematically put out of business is through excessive hygiene regulation only satisfied through costly machinery or processes. See 'The Ecologist 'How Bogus Hygiene Regulation are killing Real Food' in 'Reports and Articles' section.

These regulations were initially drawn up in 1995 by the WTO and were designed to ensure that food production conforms to the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Limit (HACCP), a standard originally designed by Pillsbury, the multinational food company that markets Haagen Daz and Burger King, at the request of NASA who wanted to ensure the purity of its astronauts' food. It is also the standard used by Codex Alimentarius, the corporate-dominated UN body that regulates food standards.

Thirty years ago, there were slaughterhouses in most small country towns and even some villages. Since joining the EU in 1973, however, more than 70% of licensed red meat abattoirs have been closed due to the overzealous British interpretation of EU regulations. The result, of course, has been higher costs to the farmer and more stress on animals being transported to the few remaining slaughterhouses.

Health and safety regulations have called cheeses made in the farmhouse kitchen and sold directly to the consumer a 'health risk', and two week old processed yoghurt in a supermarket chiller cabinet, 'safe'. In Britain, less than 1% of food poisonings are caused by dairy products, yet some of the most stringent regulations relate to it. The EU suggests keeping cheeses at temperatures that will not endanger human health. Whilst Scotland keeps to that wording, in England this is interpreted as being kept below 8 degrees C. This requires installing costly refrigerators. Such laws have destroyed small artisan cheese makers.

Evidence tells us that the recent increase in food poisonings and animal diseases are the consequence of the industrial farming and processing system, not the practices of small farmers.

In particular, one could note the health risks of contracting human variant CJD from Mechanically Recovered Meat (MRM), the meat slurry made from spraying meat off the bone with a high pressure hose, that goes into cheap burgers.

Other (unlabelled) by-products of the beef industry include vitamin pills encased in gelatine, and bovine serum derived from British cows and used in the polio vaccine at the height of the BSE crisis, as well as in other common vaccines until 1993.