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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 WorldPoultry
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