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GM feed in 90% imported meat
GM feed varieties which have not been approved in the
EU can be found in 90% of meat imported to the EU.
According to EU figures, the current price difference between GMO and
non-GMO feed is around £50 per tonne.
Consumers have no
idea
“It is a great irony that we import poultry, pig and beef meat
from outside the EU from animals fed on products we deny our own farmers. This
helps no-one, consumers have no idea whether their meat has been fed on GM and
farmers have to pay through the nose for feed,†said Neil Parish, chairman of
the European Parliament agriculture committee.
Parish has asked the
Commission to relook and review its GM zero-tolerance standpoint on imported
feed.
“I am not suggesting a free for all on GM, but we must ensure
that any threshold is fair and achievable for non GM feed. With new varieties of
GM soya being planted around the world, it will be virtually impossible to
guarantee that any shipment into the EU is truly GM-free. I doubt anyone will
bother sending GM-free shipments to the EU as a result and this will make non-GM
feed even scarcer and more expensive for our farmers,†said
Parish.
Urges Commission to speed up GM
approval
Parish has also urged the Commission to speed up its GM
approvals process, which is currently lagging years behind the rest of the world
- a situation that is placing UK farmers at a huge competitive
disadvantage.
Feed prices are currently crippling the British
livestock sector, it has been reported.
Editor PigProgress
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