TheMeatSite Newsletter - 9 March 2011

Wednesday 9th March 2011

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: European Fears over Brazilian Beef Continue

Concerns about the Brazilian beef industry have been raised on two fronts over the last week - the environmental and the financial.

A new report says that increased exports of Brazilian beef indirectly lead to deforestation in the Amazon.

The research from Chalmers and SIK that was recently published in Environmental Science & Technology shows that impact on the climate is much greater than current estimates indicate.

The researchers are now demanding that indirect effect on land be included when determining a product’s carbon footprint.

At the same time concern has been raised among some European farming communities over the European Commission's trade negotiations with Mercosur countries.

There were fears that the European market could be flooded with cheap substandard products that do not meet EU regulations.

Copa-Cogeca published an EU study revealing that an agreement in the trade liberalising talks between the EU and the Latin American Trade Bloc Mercosur would lead to a total collapse of the EU beef sector.

However the fears, particularly from the Irish Farmers' Association, were partially quelled when the European Parliament adopted a report calling on the commission to stop making concessions that adversely affect European farmers.

In Iowa in the US, a bill has been placed before the state legislature that will ban activists secretly making films on farms and in processing plants.

The bill, HF 431, has been introduced by Iowa State Representative Annette Sweeney.

In Australia, ABARE has painted a promising outlook for the beef sector in the coming year, while UK beef exports are increasing in value and US cattle prices continue to surge on prospect of production reaching 25.5 billion pounds over the coming year.

Chris Harris

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 4 new features this week:

Nutritional Composition of Forage-Fed Ruminant Meat
A major analysis of the, sometimes contradictory, scientific evidence by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) concluded that high red meat consumption increases the risk of bowel cancer, while high white meat consumption does not, the Soil Association state in the appendix to a briefing on "The Role of Livestock in Sustainable Food Systems".

US Farm Economy in 2011: What's in Store?
Prospects for the US farm economy appear bright, but the sharp rise in crop prices has created some anxiety Dr Joseph W. Glauber, Chief Economist of the US Department of Agriculture told the 2011 Agricultural Outlook Forum, writes Rachel Ralte, Junior Editor for TheMeatSite.

Index Input Costs in French Agriculture
The new president of the national federation of farmers' unions (FNSEA), Xavier Beulin has advocated indexing input costs as a buffer against such phenomena as soaring cereal prices, reports Peter Crosskey.

Oceania Sheep Trade Sees Strong Start to 2011
The sheep meat trade in Oceania has started the year strongly with prices in both New Zealand and Australia continuing to strengthen in response to tightening domestic and global supplies, firm demand from export markets coupled with favourable exchange rate movements, according to Peter Duggan, Strategic Information Services, Bord Bia.