Brexit Beef Cancer Risks – Pascal Molliere

Brexit Beef Photo by Pascal Molliere

Pascal Molliere - If the UK finally does leave the EU, the risk of much lower food standards will be sacrificed in trade agreements with non-EU states such as the USA.Hormone-treated beef, which is permitted in the US, but not in the EU, raises very serious concerns. The EU currently refuses to import food which it considers unsafe anda threat to human health. The World Trade Organisation has accepted the EU’s refusal to import hormone-reared beef.

While the EU has the power, united strength and resources to refuse such trade with the World’s largest economy, and to enforce its decision to reject hormone-treated beef, there is no doubt that the UK, acting alone, would have any such strength or leverage to refuse USA trade power.

The report shows that at least one of the hormones routinely used in US beef production, is currently banned under EU law. It has been judged to be a significant cancer risk by the EU.

There are five other hormones used in the US (which are not used in the UK or the EU)and no evidence exists that demonstrates that their use is acceptably safe.
The UK Government could ensure that our food safety standards remain aligned with prevailing EU rules, or raise them even higher, however the report warns of the risks and the choices this case, and others like it, pose for the UK.

Trade agreements with powerful countries such as the USA will be a matter of fact, if the UK crashes out of the EU and thus loses the protection it currently enjoys. 

Brexit Beef Photo by Pascal Molliere

Despite the rhetoric of free trade, the UK could easily become a ‘rule taker’ rather than a ‘rule maker’, in which case the UK must decide whose rules it will take: those of the EU (where it will no longer have a say in the development of standards), the USA or the WTO.

The report recommends that:

• After Brexit, the UK Government should ensure either that food standards remain fully aligned with EU standards, or that we adopt higher standards. Food standards should not be weakened, especially not sacrificed to facilitate trade in undesirable and/or unsafe products.
• The UK consumer movement should strongly resist moves to weaken current levels of consumer protection as part of future trade deals.
• UK food and farming industries should publicly commit themselves to producing and selling only beef from cattle never treated with synthetic hormones.
• The retail industry (supermarket chains, independent stores and butchers) should advise their members, customers and MPs to tell the UK Government that they will not sell synthetic hormone-reared beef.
• The UK Government should explicitly acknowledge that any weakening of UK food standards, such as permitting the sale of hormone-reared beef, will result in barriers to UK food companies wishing to export their products to the EU’s Single Market.
• UK NGOs, researchers and public health professionals should maintain a vigilant watch on hormones policy and practice in the UK and EU, and other countries with which the UK trades, taking particular note of new scientific or policy signals emerging from official bodies and the ‘national competent authorities.

Photography and Article by - Pascal Molliere