Should the European Union stop importing Brazilian beef?
YES:
The report vindicates IFA's own findings and our insistence that there should be a total ban on all Brazilian beef imports into Europe. In fact, if the Department of Agriculture found the Brazilian failures on an Irish farm, the animals would be destroyed and removed from the food chain. The farmer could face court proceedings, and a possible jail sentence.
Last month in the European Parliament, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou stated that if the situation in Brazil did not improve, then "the EU will take the necessary action including the implementation of a ban on beef imports by the end of this year".
Commissioner Kyprianou now has the detailed evidence of serious deficiencies in Brazilian controls from his own veterinary experts. He cannot continue to expose the EU to unnecessary risks. The Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan has repeatedly said that "Brazil must meet EU standards". With the publication of the FVO report, she clearly has no option but to press for a total ban on Brazilian beef at European level.
Let us look closely at what the EU vets found. Brazil's first line of defence against FMD is meant to be vaccination. The FVO report stated "the absence of a programme to monitor the efficacy of vaccination in 2007 jeopardises future certification of beef". It added that the shortcomings identified in 2006 "have not been satisfactorily addressed" and warned "it cannot be excluded that such outbreaks (of FMD) are under-reported". The report highlighted that the vaccination scheme recommended was not followed.
A key concern for EU consumers is traceability for all animals destined for the European market. At several holdings visited by the FVO in Brazil, more animals were registered in the official database than were present on the holdings. The quality of ear tags was inadequate, individual identification was illegible and a high percentage of ear tags were lost. Clearly, Brazil does not provide the assurances European consumers expect.
Regionalisation in Brazil is central to the controls the EU depends on to prevent FMD-infected meat entering Europe. The FVO found that animals from a non-EU approved state went to a farm in an EU-approved state and were then sent for slaughter without respecting the EU's 90-day residency requirement. In addition, the FVO found "meat from an animal declared non-EU eligible formed part of a consignment exported to the EU".
In Brazil, the EU only requires animals to be present in an EU-approved state for 90 days and on the farm of dispatch for 40 days prior to slaughter. In Europe, the EU accepts nothing less than full traceability from birth to slaughter. The deficiencies found in the traceability and movement controls in Brazil led the FVO to "call into question the reliability of the 40 days' residence of all cattle on those holdings and 90 days' residency in EU-approved areas."
This is an alarming finding and makes a mockery of the EU's so-called regionalisation policy. Assessing the risk posed by Brazilian beef imports, the eminent academic and consultant veterinary surgeon, Dr Kevin Dodd, stated "the EU Commission's assessment of the risks involved in the importation of Brazilian beef is flawed and inadequate . . . The importation of meat from Brazil involves unnecessary risk and should be discontinued".
The EU's exposure to FMD literally came home to commissioner Kyprianou just two weeks ago with an outbreak of the highly-infectious virus in his native Cyprus.
Europe's policy is out of line with best practice in other developed countries. The US has not had an FMD outbreak since 1929. This is precisely because the US adopts a much stricter bio-security approach and refuses to accept high-risk fresh beef imports from Brazil. A number of countries, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, insist on these high standards.
The reality is that the EU has dropped its defences and this is placing the European livestock sector and the economies of member-states at unnecessary risk. The 2001 FMD epidemic in Britain originated in imported meat and cost the UK alone €13 billion.
The social and environmental damage associated with Brazilian beef production is totally ignored by those promoting this trade, including retailers, but it is clearly documented. The UN Commission on Human Rights has reported on the worker exploitation and slave labour problem on Brazilian ranches.
Environmentalists have linked the five-fold increase in beef exports from Brazil in recent years with the rapid destruction of the rainforests in the Pantanal and Amazon regions, which is a major cause of global climate change.
Brazilian beef fails to meet EU standards. It fails to meet the standards demanded and expected by European consumers.
It exposes Europe to the unnecessary risk of foot and mouth disease. The evidence requires that it be banned.
Pádraig Walshe is president of the Irish Farmers Association
