Star comment: Badger cull starts, as do the questions

First, a very basic and indisputable fact. Bovine TB has brought misery to farmers, leaving some of them so demoralised that they have thrown in the towel. Unless something effective is done, others will be joining the queue to the door marked exit.

Facts and figures released by Defra show that 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in England last year because of TB and it estimates that half of herd infections in high risk areas are attributable to badgers. It also claims that vaccination is not a realistic alternative to culling and that the cost of dealing with TB over the next decade will be £1 billion if no action is taken. And it throws in that 50,000 badgers are killed on British roads every year, no doubt to put the culls in perspective. These are the stakes in the pilot culls. If they work – and to carry public opinion their effectiveness will need to be demonstrable – they will point the way to a vital tool in tackling a disease which is causing devastation in the farming industry. It is important to bear in mind that the culls are experiments. We have all heard the claims that have been made. Now we shall discover whether the culls will live up to their billing or, as the critics and opponents say, kill a lot of badgers for no good reason. The culls will not end the arguments. New ones will be generated and there will be differing interpretations of the results. That is for the future. For the present, in supporting the culls, Owen Paterson has reassured those in the industry that he is prepared to stick his neck out to be the farmers' champion. Bovine TB is a worsening crisis. These culls are a proportionate step. The do-nothing option has had its day.