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Vink stressed the need for a quick solution to the mounting crisis. She pointed out that over 40 percent of farmers in The Netherlands already qualified for social welfare support. "Many will have to give up farming. There is no future for them," she said.

Farmers whose animals were suffering from the disease urgently needed pastoral support, Vink said. She also called for reflection on the development of an agricultural system that was fair to the environment and animals and also provided adequate income for farmers.

The Network on Churches and Agriculture, in which the Uniting Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic Church are represented, was set up in 1997 when The Netherlands was in the grip of swine fever.

Opposition to the mass culling of animals is growing throughout The Netherlands, according to media reports. With the mass destruction of healthy animals and animals stricken by an infection from which most would recover, "Western Europe has crossed the boundary of civilized behavior," a leading, national daily newspaper, Trouw, declared on March 22. The newspaper urged European governments to take up vaccination.

"Hopefully [Europe] will not wait until we are a few million carcasses down the track."

A Dutch Reformed clergyman T. de Jong, from Staphorst, a village renowned for its conservative Christianity, has caused controversy by describing the outbreak of foot-and-mouth as a judgment of God on The Netherlands. "We do not want to see God's hand or recognize God's action," De Jong wrote in a conservative Reformed publication, Het Gekrookte Riet (The Crooked Reed), of which he is executive editor.

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

Christianity Today has also covered the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the U.K.

As noted in yesterday's Weblog, recent stories about churches and foot and mouth include:

Churches are forced to cancel services | Special arrangements being planned for Palm Sunday and Easter. (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Churches called on to resurrect plague hymn | "All Creation Groans and Travails" was written by famous hymnwriter John Mason Neale during the Great Cattle Plague of 1866. (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Church bells will ring out to show their support for farmers | Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has published three prayers for foot-and-month-oriented services. (The Daily Telegraph, London)

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45