There’s been a huge fallout from the publication of last week’s Irish Farmers Journal/Irish Farmers Association Brazilian investigation into the unregulated sale of antibiotics in Brazil.
News of the investigation has made its way across Europe with the story being picked up for coverage in many European countries. It’s also caused waves around the European Commission and European parliament.
Most of the Irish MEPs have also come out in force highlighting the findings of the investigation and the concerns they have around the upcoming approval of the Mercosur trade deal.
The findings of the second part of our investigation, published in this edition, are equally important. Medicine usage and a credible animal traceability system must go hand-in-hand for any country that is making food safety, antimicrobial resistance, animal health and traceability a high priority.
Brazil has tabled proposals and plans around the tagging of the national herd or parts of it for the last 20 years but has made very little progress on the ground. The large scale of the systems and huge numbers of animals involved across vast areas make it virtually impossible to implement the same type of system that is required of European farmers.
Animal identification and traceability in Europe is up there with the best system in the world. Irish farmers have embraced the system with tagging and recording movements.
Next level
The Irish system is taking animal identification and traceability to the next level with over one million calves in the national herd due to be DNA-registered in 2026.
The opportunities that this opens up are huge in terms of being first in class when it comes to tracing animals from birth to plate using blockchain technology.
All this wouldn’t happen without farmers taking on the extra requirements, which carry with them a significant added cost.
We have been told in the past that this is the level of detail that the modern consumer needs to make their purchasing decisions.
You can then begin to understand the level of frustration when Irish farmers see the Brazilian traceability system employed at some of the marts we visited.
A bucket of paint along with a branding iron to differentiate the animals as they entered the mart was about as far as it got.
Europe will argue that the feedlots that are slaughtering cattle for the European market have animals tagged before slaughter, but that pales into insignificance when it comes to the requirements placed on Irish farmers and their European counterparts.
It goes back to the similar standards and level playing field argument.
In my opinion, there simply aren’t similar standards being applied to Brazilian beef production, and getting them up to that level will be a long and laborious process.
One of the most frustrating factors that we found in the investigation was that farmers on the ground don’t want to move in the European direction.
Some smaller farm organisations in Brazil have also adopted this view. They highlighted the huge work involved with tagging at birth and recording movements as being a huge issue for them, with many pointing to the small amount of beef that is exported to Europe as a barrier to the upheaval of their system of farming.
In terms of small wins, the decision taken by the European Parliament not to fast track the Mercosur safeguard clauses through parliament is welcome. It’s understood that some member states would like to see amendments to the safeguard clauses before adopting a position on the deal.
While Irish MEPs are small in number in the parliament, the position they adopt is very important, as well as them aligning with other MEPs of a similar view.
Some of our Irish MEPs have been notably mute in the week following the Brazilian revelations, which is concerning, given the impact that the deal could have on our farmers.
Read more on Irish Farmers Journal Interactive
