Cutting the Cake of Science and Policy

Abstract

The publication of the Krebs review in 1997—shortly after the election of the New Labour government—marked a crucial turning point in British debates over badgers and bTB. Not only was it authored by a senior ecologist, it advocated a different organising principle for government research into bTB—that of the randomised controlled trial. These arguments were congruent with political ideas about ‘evidence-based policy’, resulting in the commissioning of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT). This chapter will investigate the ‘backstage’ of bTB policy up to, during and in the ongoing aftermath of the RBCT. It will also explain the post-2010 return of government to badger culling in terms of behind the scenes epistemic rivalries between the worlds of animal health, disease ecology and badger protection.