ABSTRACT
For a ministry that many blamed for the BSE crisis, foot and mouth was the final straw for MAFF. The dreaded ministry was replaced by Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Agriculture had been consigned to the dustbin whilst environment, food and rural affairs had risen to the fore. There were rumours that ‘Food’ had only been added at the last minute to the department’s name, an oversight that cost £20,000.3 The government said it would ‘spearhead a major new drive on green issues and the countryside’.4
