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Viva!
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14 September 2001 Farm Aid cancelled due to lack of support Viva! is delighted to announce that Farm Aid - Michael Eavis’ benefit concert for farmers affected by foot-and-mouth - has just been cancelled. The event was due to be held at Cardiff Millennium Stadium on October 27th but apparently did not receive sufficient support. Viva! last week called for a boycott of Farm Aid - saying that farmers already receive huge subsidy payments from the government. The vegetarian organisation believes that farmers brought the foot-and-mouth disease crisis upon themselves because of the filthy, overcrowded conditions on factory farms and the vast distances which animals are made to travel from farm to market to slaughter. It described the "Live Aid-style" concept as "sickening", saying that many farmers have made healthy profits from the disease due to the generous government payments for slaughtered animals and farm clean-up operations. Viva! wrote to the bands lined up to play at Farm Aid - which allegedly included Coldplay, Morcheeba, Reef and Toploader - and asked them not to support the event. Morcheeba replied that they, "never wanted to play the stupid gig for farmers." Early reports that Paul McCartney was due to play the gig were also confirmed by the ex-Beatle’s office to be totally untrue. "We wonder whether Mr Eavis had actually managed to gain any support from bands at all," says Viva!’s senior campaigner Becky Smith. Viva! believes that Farm Aid’s cancellation is a symbolic victory which shows the huge level of support for an end to modern, intensive farming methods. "People simply aren’t buying
into this ‘poor farmer’ agenda," says Ms Smith. "They have realised
that farmers need to face up to the facts and take responsibility for
their own industry without being continually bailed out by the taxpayer.
We’ve seen one disease outbreak after another over the past decade - BSE,
swine fever, the creation of antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella,
EColi and campylobacter and now foot-and-mouth. Industrialised agriculture
- which also causes incalculable suffering to the animals - is directly
to blame. Farm Aid’s cancellation proves that the British public has had
enough." More information from Becky Smith
on 0117 944 1000
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