Seanad debates

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Food Safety Standards: Statements.

 

7:00 am

Photo of Feargal QuinnFeargal Quinn (Independent)

It is traditional to welcome a Minister on his first visit to the House and I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Shane McEntee. I am in bad humour tonight because we guillotined a Bill in the House in order to discuss food safety. In the past 18 years that I have been in this House we seldom guillotined a Bill, but at 6.45 p.m. we guillotined a Bill on civil law in order to discuss food safety.

The Minister of State has told the House what he does and has spoken about many topics, greyhound racing, forestry, betting taxes, but I do not think he mentioned the consumer once, but perhaps he did, but I did not see it. I am quite concerned. I was willing to put up with a guillotine on the previous Bill because we were going to discuss the important subject of how we are to achieve food safety. Yes, the Minister of State touched on it, but I hardly saw it.

I am exercised by the topic of a ministry for food and agriculture. Back in 1994, I was on the committee that established Bord Bia. However I had a minority report, which was to state that Bord Bia should be established but it should be in any Department but the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I believe there is a clash between the interests of agriculture production and food. There is a significant opportunity for food in Ireland, but that should not be mixed up with agriculture. It could well be that we use Irish agricultural products to produce our food, but if we are to create a food business and succeed in a food business we should ensure it is not being driven by agriculture alone. There should be two different hats. Today, one of the few times that the Minister of State spoke about the retail trade, what did he say? Let me quote:

I agree entirely with the action groups conclusion and recommendations in creating a more level playing field in the retail sector and I have written to their Minister to emphasise the importance of greater statutory oversight on retail multiples because of their negative impact on the industry and I have asked him to give serious considerations to the issues raised by the action group, which are farmers who want to control the nasty supermarkets

I believe the supermarket business has been achieving major success in bringing good food to the Irish people in years past, whether it is from Ireland or not. I believe there is a clash between farmers on the one side and the consumers on the other. Farmers must be driven by the consumer. I remember being a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Food when the then European Commissioner for Agriculture, Herr Franz Fischler, addressed the committee for 20 minutes and never mentioned the consumer once in his speech.

We need a discussion on food safety. The Government plans to ban the sale of raw milk in Ireland. Legislation has been drafted without public consultation and it could be become law in autumn 2011. This statement was made by the slow food group. We would welcome and encourage regulations on the sale of raw milk as with any other food product, regulation is necessary and correct. At present the sale of raw milk is legal because of a 2007 EU directive, four years later the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has not introduced guidelines or imposed regulations on the sale of raw milk, but I gather the intention is to ban the sale of raw milk. With the volume of raw milk that is used in cheese and other products, it is possible to have regulations. Sheridans Cheesemongers, a very well-know cheese producer states they have been selling raw milk from David Tiernan's farm in Dunleer, County Louth in their shops since November 2010 and have had a fantastic response from customers. They are also aware of two other producers in Ireland selling raw milk. Darina Allen has written a seven page letter, in which she suggests the establishment of a register of licensed producers who undertake an agreed greater than normal surveillance of herd health and milk quality. Best practice in other jurisdictions can be used as a model for such a protocol which with mandatory labelling for instance stating 'may contain pathogens'. They have regulations in Britain. They have not banned the sale of raw milk but have regulations so that they control it. We could ensure that we control it in that way. I believe that is what we should be discussing.

The Minister of State referred to technology in his address and I wish to comment further on it. There are major opportunities in science. There are 6 billion people in the world and it is estimated that the population will grow to 9 billion in 2050. How will we feed the world unless we use modern science? Modern science can do it. We have practically banned genetically modified organisms in Ireland. We should be the ones who are saying at least, lets investigate it, let us see what we can do. The developments in science are wonderful. One of my heroes was a man called Norman Borlaug, who died last year at the age of 95 years. He won the Nobel prize in 1970 for creating a change in wheat and maize product that saved the lives of thousands of people. He was able to create and save it. We are not moving in the direction of doing it. We are very fortunate to have the Institute of Food and Health in UCD and they have a very impressive programme. They have a very strong link with the China Agricultural University, CAU, and have an exchange programme and people come to Ireland and some have gone over to that university There is a very strong link between the exchange and what we can achieve. Let me tell a story. In 1989, I was on a customer panel in one of our supermarkets and a customer told me they had been talking about the advertisements on the radio about the product for cattle with the slogan "it is a queer name but it is great stuff", an injection for cattle. They were worried about the meat they were eating and asked me to put their minds at rest. We put a traceability scheme in place and later when we had it established, we were able to show a photograph of the farmer whose meat was being supplied in the supermarkets that day and for the week. Four years later, on 26 March 1996, when the House of Commons announced a link between CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, the sale of beef dropped dramatically almost everywhere. At the time Bord Bia told us we were one of the few companies where sales jumped because we were one of the few who had achieved a traceability system, although it was not fool-proof.

Since then, Trinity College Dublin developed a new scheme, Identigen, which is not paper based, but is able to trace a sliver from each beast as it is killed. It means one can trace back not just to the farm but to the actual animal and every single beast. In that case it is cattle but the scheme is now capable of being applied to other animals. It is a Trinity College Dublin invention and it is now being sold in the US. It manages to establish traceability that is not based on paper, which can be fiddled with on that basis.

There are huge opportunities to get things done. It will not work unless we recognise that we need somebody to protect consumers, that is, somebody whose job it is to make sure that people who buy Irish food, whether in Ireland or exported, that they are able to get a product they know is way ahead of anything else.

The pigmeat scandal in recent years arose not because of bad husbandry but from feed. It damaged the pigmeat business over one weekend and did huge harm. That is where the Food Safety Authority of Ireland is working very hard and is doing a very good job. Let us make sure that continues to happen. If we are to succeed, we must ensure that what happened never happens again. What happened to the Spanish cucumber growers and the bean sprout growers in France and northern Germany can happen so easily to us here.

We have got to ensure that somebody is wearing the hat of protecting Irish consumers and the Irish food industry. I urge the Minister to concentrate his attention on ensuring that happens rather than necessarily blaming the big supermarkets because the farmers have told him they are at fault. There will always be a blame clash between the two. There will have to be some way of protecting the Irish consumers by ensuring they are getting the very best food. I know the Minister's heart is in the right place. If I am cross today, it is not just because of the previous Bill but because of this aspect also.

Comments

bob pallet
Posted on 6 Jul 2011 8:56 pm (Report this comment)

With respect - since when is sheridans cheesemonger a well known producer of cheese, and when does a reseller of a product become an expert? While I agree with allowing the sale of raw milk I think that the objections put forward by these so called experts only puts the movement back a step

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