DISGRUNTLED farmers from West Devon joined colleagues from around the county to protest at the Government's failure to police illegal meat imports.
The NFU, which organised the protest, believes illegal meat imports were probably responsible for bringing foot and mouth disease into Britain.
On Monday night, around 50 farmers handed out leaflets explaining the disease risks posed by illegal imports of meat and plant material to passengers arriving on car ferries at Millbay Docks, Plymouth. The farmers were seeking support in putting pressure on the Government to tighten
restrictions.
A similar event was held in Poole. The protests coincided with the presentation of a petition to DEFRA minister Lord Whitty calling for better import controls.
NFU South-West regional director Anthony Gibson commented: 'Farmers are fed up to the back teeth with being lectured by politicians on biosecurity, while all the time, the nation's biosecurity is being fatally compromised by the Government's own failure to police illegal imports of meat.
'The first and most obvious lesson of the FMD outbreak is that we must minimise the risk of disease being imported.'