This article is from page 38 of the 2007-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
IRISH beef farmers struggling to remove potentially dangerous and sub-par Brazilian beef from the EU market received a timely boost this week from an unlikely source.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed to the IFA last week that, based on sci- entific assessments, the USDA con- sider the risks too high and are not prepared to import fresh beef from Brazil.
Both Brazilian and Argentine beef has been underfire in recent times because of doubts over the safety of production methods as well as the documented foot and mouth problem in the region.
IFA National Livestock Chairman John Bryan last week contrasted this strong position of the USDA with that of the EU Commission which adopts the opposite policy on risk and imports 331,000 tonnes of beef from Brazil.
The IFA livestock leader had just returned from a visit to the USDA head office in Washington where he met with senior policy and veterinary experts to discuss the US approach
in not accepting fresh beef imports from Brazil.
“It is clear the USDA have a strong and robust policy when it comes to food safety and animal health risk assessment,’ he said.
‘They are not prepared to take un- necessary risks with their consumers and livestock sector. The US do not import fresh beef from Brazil be- cause they consider it too high a risk to take, both from a consumer and livestock point of view. We simply cannot afford to risk allowing fresh beef imports from Brazil into the ON ie
The IFA Livestock leader said the USDA are very proud of their robust policy on risk assessment and point to the fact that they have not had an outbreak of FMD since 1926. They put this down to not accepting fresh beef imports from Brazil and other abhcd eto Wh) ere Busts
He said the EU Commission must reassess its policy on imports from high-risk regions such as Brazil, where there are FMD outbreaks on a continuing basis related to the lack of standards and controls, particularly a lack of traceability and an absence of movement and border controls.