26: Foot & Mouth Disease. Agricultures Armageddon?

Foot & Mouth Disease. Is it Australian agricultures $80 bn armageddon?Richard Norton, a beef producer and ex-CEO of Meat & Livestock Australia is one of Australia's best positioned experts to discuss the reality versus the hysteria. Many describe a situation where all $30 bn plus meat export markets are instantly lost with just one case of foot & mouth disease. Vivid descriptions of cattle being killed and a $80 bn economic hit to our rural communities are published daily in the media. Richard describes the preparations previously set up to minimise any foot & mouth disease incursion, our largest export markets desperate need for protein that may induce them not to instantly ban our export meat and the delicacy of our relationship with Indonesia, our largest total beef export market and also the home to the foot & mouth outbreak which currently threatens Australia.