Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-05-Speech-4-012"
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"en.20010405.2.4-012"2
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"Mr President, Commissioners, the European Parliament this week is not a million miles removed from the government of Rameses II, the pharaoh who, in antiquity, refused to let the Jewish people leave Egypt. I can imagine that, in the cabinet of that pharaoh, the plagues affecting the country were discussed on a daily basis, much like here in Strasbourg this week, where first foot-and-mouth disease was discussed, and now the effects of BSE are on this morning’s agenda.
Of course, Europe is not holding a people against its will, but we cannot simply skim over the plagues which are hitting our agriculture. We need to take stock of our agricultural policy and reconsider the standards on which the policy is based. I have stated in the foot-and-mouth debate that animals, as God’s creatures, are more than production units. I repeat this statement in the light of the fact that we have fed herbivores, in other words plant eaters, their own species. We have turned them into cannibals.
Mr Graefe zu Baringdorf was right to comment in his report that farmers are entitled to accurate information on the ingredients in cattle feed. The Council wants to leave the labelling to the feedingstuffs industry. Meanwhile, he suggests that farmers, upon request, are entitled to comprehensive information from the industry. That is completely ambiguous, if the farmer is entitled to comprehensive feedingstuffs information, it is only logical that this information should reach him without any obstacles.
‘From stable to table’ is translated freely into Dutch as ‘from farmer to plate’. In that translation, the liability for the food process is emphatically placed with the farmer. In order to be able to bear that liability, the farmer must be able to avail himself – without any beating about the bush – of information on the cattle feed which he feeds his animals.
The ban on the use of meat meal in cattle feed, which has been in place since December 2000, leads to a shortage in the protein supply in cattle feed. Alternatives for animal protein include soybean and other oilseed crops rich in protein. In the findings of research into alternatives, which Commissioner Fischler outlined here this morning, the recommendation is made that soybean should be imported from the global market. Other alternatives are being described as too expensive and leading to distortion. A real problem with the import of soybean is the fact that we have no insight into the production method. I very much doubt whether we are really better off if we feed our animals genetically modified soybean instead of meat meal.
The BSE crisis poses new dilemmas. The excuse that the European Union should not extend its acreage of oilseed crops due to WTO agreements is untenable. All the more reason for abandoning these WTO rules. I regret the ease with which the Commission rejects the growing of oilseed and protein-rich crops on fallow agricultural land. It is clear that the reason for leaving land untilled is in order to reduce the production of cereals, among other things. Less clear, however, is why the production of protein has to be reduced too in the light of an increase in demand on the European market."@en1
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