51AVÊÓƵ

British agriculture was rocked to the core 25 years ago by the foot-and-mouth crisis. Have lessons been learnt at a time when the UK food supply chain is being compromised by illegal meat and cheap food imports?

Before his career in politics, Epping Forest MP Dr Neil Hudson was a veterinary inspector who was on the frontline of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001. Dr Hudson remembers the once bustling farms which became empty, the impact it had on the sector's mental health, and why the current Government should never take the UK's national biosecurity for granted

Milly Denning, 23, is from Bath in Somerset. She is currently studying an MSc in sustainable agriculture and food security at the Royal Agricultural University

Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn reflects on the outbreak 25 years ago, the heartbreaking conversations he had with farmers, the devastating open-air pyres of livestock being culled to stop the disease from spreading, and the determination of farmers to never let things become so bad again

This week from Farmers Guardian readers: Coun Alastair Redman, Argyll and Bute, encourages people to support local farmers and producers by highlighting the economic, environmental, and community benefits of buying local food

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker writes on what was a truly difficult time for farming and why it should serve as a stark reminder, 25 years later, for the Government to never take the UK's national biosecurity for granted

TFA policy adviser Lynette Steel writes on what farmers want from the Farming Roadmap, and how the Government can help to deliver postive change for the sector

Emma and her family farm in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, milking 100 pedigree Holsteins and selling raw milk from the farmgate. They also run 300 North Country Mules. Emma is Monmouthshire NFU chair and volunteers with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution

Kate is a fifth-generation farmer running the 750-hectare (1,853-acre) Hundleshope 51AVÊÓƵon the Haystoun Estate, Peebles, where the family have been tenants for 150 years. She runs the hill unit with her husband Ed and their four children. She is also a vet and chair of Quality Meat Scotland

This week's opinion from throughout the world of agriculture: Danny Chambers, vet and Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester