British farmers have endured "mad cow" disease, swine fever and widespread winter floods. Now comes the Fourth Horseman of this agricultural Apocalypse: foot-and-mouth disease. With the added woes of rock-bottom livestock prices and the strong pound hurting exports, farm incomes have plummeted nearly 90% over the last five years, according to accountants Deloitte & Touche. Says Ian Frood, whose beef and sheep farm sits within a quarantine zone just 12 km from the abattoir where Britain's first foot-and-mouth outbreak in two decades was discovered last week: "Things just seem to go from bad to worse."
