Saturday, February 18, 2023
A looming food scandal?
I think that 'we told you so' is an appropriate response to this article in the Guardian, which quotes the leader of the UK’s biggest farming organisation warning that Britain is in danger of a “disastrous” food scandal, owing to lax post-Brexit border controls on agricultural imports.
Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, accused ministers of a “dereliction of duty” in failing to ensure food and other agricultural imports were safe. She said the government had failed to learn the lessons of the horsemeat scandal of 2013.
“We are seeing little to no checks on imports that are coming in from the EU,” she said. “We have the massive risk of African swine fever in Europe, and to not be investing in our defences for keeping our biosecurity and animal and plant health safe, I think is just a dereliction of duty.”
After the horsemeat scandal, in which products such as burgers and lasagne purporting to contain 100% beef were found to show traces of horsemeat, stricter controls were put in place on many food systems.
But Batters said those controls were being eroded, with “so little checks” on imports, and pointed to recent findings that many lorries entering the UK contained fraudulent meat. “If there was a food scare from Europe, it would be very difficult to trace it right now,” she said.
“Many in [food] retail, processing and manufacturing would say that on the back of ‘horsegate’ we developed the safest, most secure food supply chain in the world. There was massive investment in safety and security and short supply chains,” she said.
“I think there’s a real risk 10 years on that we forget those lessons of the past, and there’s nothing that will bring this country to a standstill quicker than a food scare. That would be disastrous, and we want to do everything possible to avoid that. But unless the checks are put in place, and if we can’t trace everything, then of course we are at threat.”
The threat could grow much worse under trade deals with non-EU nations, she added. The vast majority of food imports are still from the EU, where controls on food are similar to those in the UK. But under trade deals with Australia and New Zealand that will soon come into force, and under potential future deals with countries such as India and Latin America, food could soon be arriving from regions with very different rules and standards.
Unfit food can pose a health threat to humans, which Batters said was “the biggest worry”, but farmers also face additional concerns about disease. The African swine fever virus has killed more than 100 million pigs globally since 2018, and is spreading in parts of Europe. “For the national pig herd, the threat of African swine fever coming here will be keeping them awake at night,” she said.
Avian influenza is also a growing fear, with some scientists warning of a likely spring outbreak among wild birds, and infections found in species from minks, otters and seals to foxes. Batters said the poultry sector was already in a weakened state, having shrunk by about 12%, mainly under the impact of inflationary pressures.
It is not a cheerful thought, in fact it is enough to make one go vegetarian, but at least in the EU we had some protections, much of which have now been abandoned in pursuit of Brexit purity and the need for trade deals to try and justify leaving the single market in the first place.
Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, accused ministers of a “dereliction of duty” in failing to ensure food and other agricultural imports were safe. She said the government had failed to learn the lessons of the horsemeat scandal of 2013.
“We are seeing little to no checks on imports that are coming in from the EU,” she said. “We have the massive risk of African swine fever in Europe, and to not be investing in our defences for keeping our biosecurity and animal and plant health safe, I think is just a dereliction of duty.”
After the horsemeat scandal, in which products such as burgers and lasagne purporting to contain 100% beef were found to show traces of horsemeat, stricter controls were put in place on many food systems.
But Batters said those controls were being eroded, with “so little checks” on imports, and pointed to recent findings that many lorries entering the UK contained fraudulent meat. “If there was a food scare from Europe, it would be very difficult to trace it right now,” she said.
“Many in [food] retail, processing and manufacturing would say that on the back of ‘horsegate’ we developed the safest, most secure food supply chain in the world. There was massive investment in safety and security and short supply chains,” she said.
“I think there’s a real risk 10 years on that we forget those lessons of the past, and there’s nothing that will bring this country to a standstill quicker than a food scare. That would be disastrous, and we want to do everything possible to avoid that. But unless the checks are put in place, and if we can’t trace everything, then of course we are at threat.”
The threat could grow much worse under trade deals with non-EU nations, she added. The vast majority of food imports are still from the EU, where controls on food are similar to those in the UK. But under trade deals with Australia and New Zealand that will soon come into force, and under potential future deals with countries such as India and Latin America, food could soon be arriving from regions with very different rules and standards.
Unfit food can pose a health threat to humans, which Batters said was “the biggest worry”, but farmers also face additional concerns about disease. The African swine fever virus has killed more than 100 million pigs globally since 2018, and is spreading in parts of Europe. “For the national pig herd, the threat of African swine fever coming here will be keeping them awake at night,” she said.
Avian influenza is also a growing fear, with some scientists warning of a likely spring outbreak among wild birds, and infections found in species from minks, otters and seals to foxes. Batters said the poultry sector was already in a weakened state, having shrunk by about 12%, mainly under the impact of inflationary pressures.
It is not a cheerful thought, in fact it is enough to make one go vegetarian, but at least in the EU we had some protections, much of which have now been abandoned in pursuit of Brexit purity and the need for trade deals to try and justify leaving the single market in the first place.
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The party has to campaign on things that will affect the voter. Food security and the risks that may appear from overseas products can be pointed out via the disasters of Brexit lowering standards.
> it is enough to make one go vegetarian
Even that is no guarantee when it comes to processed food. And spices are a particular weak spot. For instance, is that jar of turmeric 100% pure or has it been filled out with sawdust and the like?
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Even that is no guarantee when it comes to processed food. And spices are a particular weak spot. For instance, is that jar of turmeric 100% pure or has it been filled out with sawdust and the like?
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