The Silence of Green

“Mass murder! That's what it is: a mass murder” shouts a farmer interviewed by Andreas Horvath when, at the beginning of 2001, the aphthous fever epidemic provides daily images of revolting carcasses for the media. The British agricultural world is in a state of shock. Officially, four million animals have been put down, but some farmers suppose higher figures: six, maybe nine million… The “silence” in the title is the one falling on the green pastures of Yorkshire after this indiscriminate slaughter. Like cosmonauts, the government veterinary surgeons carry out the sacrifice methodically, tirelessly. The farmers conjecture that there has been some international intrigue, a tribute to pay to the European Union, a way to make the milk quotas respected. With a poetic and contemplative approach, Horvath insists on the beauty of the landscape, similar to a rural painting. On September 2001 the Ministry of Agriculture figured out that only a fourth of the killed animals had been certainly infected, the others were put down as a precautionary measure.