Farmers were alleged to have put profit before health and poisoned the food chain by making feed out of carcasses. But the tighter regulations introduced post-BSE have not hurt big business. On the contrary, they have put smaller herds and family abattoirs out of business, leaving the way clear for big business to take over. Environmentalism has also provided a rationale for the extensive retirement of land from agricultural production. With increased yields, less land produces more grain, so agribusiness needs land taken out of production to avoid a glut.
Conservation provides a convenient justification for governments to exclude land from farm use.
Pressure is on third world countries to earmark land 'for conservation' that actually just clears the way for first world agribusiness to clean up. Those who once hunted and farmed those lands are now a potential market for European and American agricultural surpluses. The environmentalists' argument for the use of 'appropriate technology' is particularly destructive. The implication is that advanced farming techniques are inappropriate for Africa or Asia. The effect is to shore up the West's monopoly over advanced technology - which is of course more 'appropriate' in white hands.