Ban Brazilian Beef - EU Chairman
UK - A Westcountry politician is demanding a ban on the import of Brazilian beef to the UK after the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
13 August 2007
2 minute read
Neil Parish MEP, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, has called for a ban on the import of beef from Brazil because he believes beef from the South American country cannot be properly traced.
it is wrong both to consumers and farmers to force our own producers to comply with these standards while turning a blind eye to substandard products from Brazil.
Neil Parish MEP, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee
His comments follow two confirmed outbreaks of the disease in Surrey. The Pirbright research centre, about four miles from where the disease was found in cattle, is at the centre of an investigation into the source of the outbreak.
Beef exports have been banned from three states in Brazil where foot and mouth disease is endemic. And the US has banned beef imports from all of Brazil because of traceability issues.
Mr Parish said: "Defra has applied strict measures in Britain following the latest outbreak, in stark contrast to the lapse procedures being employed on many Brazilian farms.
"The meticulous traceability standards we expect of our own farmers are being flouted by Brazil and it is wrong both to consumers and farmers to force our own producers to comply with these standards while turning a blind eye to substandard products from Brazil.
"The European Union can break a country into regions when an outbreak occurs to avoid a total ban on the entire country; but this regionalisation policy cannot apply to Brazil because we have no idea whether the beef is being smuggled from one region to another, or even across Brazil's long border."
Source: The Cornishman
