Poetic Justice? Rural policy clashes with rural poetry in the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK

In 2001, the foot and mouth disease epidemic in the UK gave rise to widespread individual and community trauma and has had negative health, economic and social impacts on the people who live in affected rural areas. Many found strength by sharing their experiences with friends and relatives; others expressed their feelings in poems and art. Using insights from linguistics, cultural studies and rural studies, this paper analyses three poems written by a former farmer, a poet and a vet from the three most affected regions: Devon, Northumberland and Cumbria. It examines how an analysis of this type of ‘grounded poetry’ can provide new insights into individual and community trauma, how it can complement other work on FMD in rural studies and how it can be used to improve social policy decisions regarding future outbreaks of animal disease.