But his concern for the welfare of the industry has propelled him to the
But his concern for the welfare of the industry has propelled him to the forefront of its deliberative bodies: he is chairman of the National Farmers Union's livestock committee, day a day member of the Beef and Lamb Council, and the NFU's beef farming representative on the board of Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb, an organisation dedicated to raising the standards of meat sold in shops. Why bother with such tasks? "I'd like them to be able to put on my tombstone that the industry was safe extcal php?year=2010&month=3&day=20 in my hands," he says. As far as php?year=2010&month=3&day=20 Mr Burtt is concerned, the Armageddon of industry meltdown is still a subject reserved for nightmares, not for sober daytime contemplation "There is concern but not modules panic. extcal The last thing we want is panic."But five years ago, during the extcal last modules BSE scare, demand for beef fell 20 per cent and consumption levels have php?year=2010&month=3&day=20 only just day recovered. The resurgence of day php?year=2010&month=3&day=20 BSE-related fears gives Mr Burtt "frustration modules extcal and annoyance", he says, modules "the same modules extcal as many other farmers. The media's day php?year=2010&month=3&day=20 been harping on about BSE with a very slanted point of view.
The other side isn't getting put."The "other side" is what farmers have been reiterating since the ban in November 1989 on the use of "specified offal" - bits of cattle including brain and spinal cord - in products for human consumption."Since the offal ban," Mr Burtt says, "if procedures are carried out correctly in the slaughterhouse, there is no risk. I have no doubt whatsoever that beef is perfectly safe and nutritious."Yet the doubts remain. And research into the problem limps from year to year: in his recent Budget, Ken Clarke announced that the Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh, one of the key research bodies, is to have its funding cut. The next year I went on to break the world hour record, which is the blue riband record - the four-minute mile equivalent in cycling, on a completely different bike. I was the common denominator."I suggested to Boardman that if you asked people which was the most demanding sport of all, they would probably say the marathon. So I did feel rather cheated if you like, because it just didn't turn out to be like that."A common image, and certainly my own impression of his Olympic triumph, was of the bike itself - the bit of machinery that had somehow done the trick for him. Was he unduly concerned that many people consider the bike synonymous with that gold?"Not desperately.
There was a lot of hype about the bike, because a lot of the media don't understand cycling - it was easy to jump on the technology side It became christened The Superbike It certainly looked the part. We probably wouldn't have got a fifth of the publicity without that bike. The bike played its part, but it was a much smaller part than people gave it credit for. But that was OK by me, because in cycling, the Olympic Games, oddly enough, isn't the top.