Burnham must protect Scottish farmers (and our health) against cheap Brazilian beef – Alistair Carmichael
Brazilian producers are known to use antibiotics to promote growth in cattle, a practice that is contributing to the rise of ‘superbugs’ that are resistant to modern drugs
Before Keir Starmer eventually made his exit, there were few who wished for this more fervently than Labour MPs representing rural communities. The catastrophic misjudgment of changing the rules around agricultural relief in inheritance tax left many of them despairing.
Surely, the thinking went, anyone that was not Starmer must be an improvement. Time will tell the extent to which this was correct but for these same Labour MPs, the early signs are worrying.
On Friday the European Union will close their market to beef imported from Brazil. Their reasoning is that Brazilian producers are known to use antibiotics to promote growth in cattle – a practice that has been denied to UK and EU farmers for at least 20 years.
Throwing farmers under the bus
There are good reasons for this. The problem of antimicrobial resistance is a growing one which has serious issues for human health. If we get to the point where antibiotics stop working for us, then we are in real trouble.
That China, the USA and Norway are likely to follow the EU should offer some corroboration of their concerns. In the absence of any coherent rebuttal by Brazil, the precautionary approach is to close your borders.
Apparently, however, the Burnham government takes a different view. There is, apparently, no need for this sort of protectionism (the Prime Minister’s term, not mine). Even as a liberal whose default is to support free trade, I don’t think guarding against the growth of antimicrobial resistance is a bad thing.
It is far from clear why the UK is taking this position. Our willingness to throw agriculture and fisheries (just about our last primary industries) under any passing bus is far from novel but past governments have at least given the appearance of caring more about public health than this.
The cynic’s view is that the UK is currently in the process of negotiating a trade deal with Brazil and a ban at this time would be awkward. There is a brutal logic to the argument. If we are going to open our market to all this stuff eventually, then is there any point in stopping it now?
High price of cheap food
For our nation’s farmers, it is another blow. Beef prices have been better in last couple of years. The shrinking size of our national herd may have brought us to the point where we risk losing its critical mass but the laws of supply and demand have at least pushed prices up. The Brazilian practice cuts the cost of production so, by leaving our market open when others are closed, we risk becoming the dumping ground of choice for a product that undercuts our own on price and standards.
Don’t expect to see much of this beef on your supermarket shelves (although it is always sensible to read the small print on the label). Instead, it is likely that it will find its way into the food services industry. Labelling matters much less in most bars and restaurants and even less in prison, schools, hospitals and care homes where every penny is already a prisoner.
Cheap food today could carry a high price in the future. Let us hope that someone explains this to our new Prime Minister before it is too late.
Alistair Carmichael is Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
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