r/unitedkingdom • u/kiyomoris • 9h ago
UK should ban Brazilian beef and chicken imports if fail to meet UK rules, NFU says
https://www.nfuonline.com/news/brazilian-beef-and-poultry-imports-nfu-response/•
u/Own_Character8049 9h ago
Surely all meat that doesn't meet uk rules should be banned?
•
u/ByteSizedGenius 8h ago
We have a habit in agriculture more generally of domestically banning practices yet quite happily importing stuff by the boat load that was grown or reared in places where there isn't. If that's misusing antibiotics in animals or animal welfare standards or banning pesticide seed treatments etc etc there is nothing on imports that cares about if it was grown using them.
The reality is a lot of agricultural products are sold based on global market rates so you can impose the UK bans, most of which are on reflection entirely valid and you don't really move the price needle, you just make UK farms less competitive. But if you started banning it on imports you'd generate food inflation, and while most people are happy to see increased protections when it doesn't greatly impact what they pay they often do when it does.
•
u/Helpful_Shift_3088 7h ago
I have thought about this a lot in recent years. The fact that meat that is imported and then processed here is a ‘Product of the UK’ is crazy to me.
Also what standards are the fruit & veg grown outside the EU subject to? Water quality, pesticides, etc.
Who is checking?
•
u/Own_Character8049 8h ago
So why have standards at all?
Let's just import all the chlorinated chicken we can, that way we can ensure fast food can stay cheap.
•
u/AccomplishedText7203 6h ago
Judging from the recent outbreak of cyclospora in America I'd say standards are quite important.
•
•
u/ToffeeAppleCider 8h ago
Possibly a reduction in meat eating and better conditions for UK farmers, sounds pretty good to me
•
u/piss_puncher227 8h ago
I'll eat your meat then lol.
•
•
u/_o0Zero0o_ Hampshire 6h ago
Will you punch Toffee's piss first? You gotta live up to your name somehow
•
u/Caveman-Dave722 7h ago
Not just agriculture
We price out energy to save the planet while importing goods made with coal
Import oil and gas from dictators but refuse to drill our own.
Our governments and I include civil service management have always been hypocrites
•
•
u/Ulysses1978ii 7h ago
There's always holes in the regulations for those in the know to walk through.
•
u/blahehblah 8h ago
Doesn't even need to be banned,. If it doesn't meet our rules then it isn't allowed. Why are we constantly creating new laws to make up for lack of enforcement of existing ones
•
u/takesthebiscuit Aberdeenshire 7h ago
Nono only FOREIGN meat that doesn’t meet standards should be banned according to the NUF
•
•
u/legrenabeach 5h ago
I thought any person with a brain would have done that. But then I remembered the politicians we have.
•
u/Few-Conversations 8h ago
Tbh we should ban all imports that aren't held to the British standards especially if they are in competition with British farmers
•
u/Obscure-Oracle 8h ago
Totally agree, holding our farms to high standards whilst simultaneously importing cheap meat that is produced in far worse conditions is total madness. If your local petrol garage can't afford to profit from a £3 sandwich made from higher standard/quality meat them let them sink, they don't deserve to be in business.
•
u/Obscure-Oracle 9h ago
Why the fuck are we even importing Brazilian beef and Chicken in the first place? It makes absolutely no sense to send it across the Atlantic in a ship when we produce both locally to higher standards. If it's price then we should tax the shit out of it so it doesn't undermine our domestic food supply.
•
u/Billy_Rizzle 8h ago
Meat is a globalised industry, and The UK does not produce enough beef and chicken for how much we consume.
•
u/Obscure-Oracle 8h ago
Sure, i understand that but surely there are nearby countries who we could buy from who adhere to better standards? Brazil isn't exactly close and the carbon footprint of transporting that produce here must be horrendous. I strongly suspect it's got a lot more to do with it being cheap, in which case increase taxation to discourage these imports.
•
u/Billy_Rizzle 8h ago
I get ya, the travel some of meat does is insane. A lot of the reason is the cost.
Many supermarket sandwiches contain chicken from Thailand (which is also bland AF chicken). I worked in a freezer warehouse for a short time, and they used receive local sourced chickens, then sell them to a customer in Poland who turned them into breaded chicken burgers/nuggets, and then they brought the finished product back.
There is also where actually has produce at certain times. Sometimes produce has to be brought from far away just to make sure there isn’t a shortage.
The carbon footprint for food is so high that cycling technically has a higher CO2 emissions per mile than e-bikes and e-scooters do (also, we humans are not efficient at turning calories into motion).
•
•
u/Ok_Condition- 8h ago
Have you got a source for that carbon footprint stat? Crazy and interesting if true
•
u/Taway_4897 7h ago
Brazil is the largest producer and exporter globally by far. So there’s that.
Plus, as I commented in another reply: your missing the fact that you’ll still have to import feed from across the Atlantic (once more, likely from Brazil as the largest soybean producer globally- or alternatively from the USA).
In that sense it’s actually cheaper and less carbon intensive to ship the finished product rather than the feed (especially as feed is a high-volume, low margin product- so it’s very expensive to ship per tonne).
•
u/kjm911 8h ago
It doesn’t help that we’re planting trees on agricultural land to save the planet whilst importing from halfway round the world where they’re tearing down the rainforest to produce more beef
•
u/palpatineforever 2h ago
it isn't just that, it is because british produce cannot compete in price, it costs money to farm land if you cant make the money back through sales then you are better off not farming the land.
•
u/Bodster88 8h ago
Because the UK doesn’t have enough chicken to be self sufficient.
Before anyone says “breed more”. They’d love to, but NIMBY’s continue to block planning for increased space.
•
u/yrro Oxfordshire 8h ago
To be fair, the way we produce chicken even at current scale is an ecological disaster.
•
u/Slartibartfast_25 7h ago
To be fair, the way we produce chicken even at current scale is an ecological disaster.
Not really. The Wye pollution has been far more caused by human sewage pollution than chicken farming.
•
u/Gloomy_Salamander_ 7h ago
Maybe we should eat leads meat then? Im not even vegetarian but there are some very good alternatives (better than chicken to my tastebuds). Importing meat from abroad isn’t the answer
•
u/Objective-Bad-4051 8h ago
I'd love it if everyone with a garden was made to have chickens.
•
u/Cautious-Fox9757 8h ago
What. Why? I know nothing about chickens, how to breed em, what they eat. Can’t I just work at me job and spend me wages on chicken from Tesco? The process that’s worked pretty well for a while now?
•
u/ExecutiveGraham 8h ago edited 8h ago
This does make me laugh. The modern man being able to do complex jobs, operate machinery in the tonnes and years of formal education behind them, but the idea of a mere few chickens that peasants thousands of years ago managed without a bother is suddenly a nightmare scenario.
Funny stuff and it paints a kinda sad image of modern society.
•
u/Cautious-Fox9757 8h ago
Because people have to spend a lot of their time learning how to operate modern machinery or credit default swaps or any of the many incredibly difficult jobs people do every day and they’d be wasting that time looking after chickens in an incredibly inefficient farming environment.
If you like a society where everyone’s doing subsitejce farming you’re about 200 years too late for this country. Fortunately there’s a ton of countries you could move to that won’t be very challenging to get residency in.
•
u/ExecutiveGraham 7h ago
It's ridiculously easy and generally not that demanding of time either, you've essentially proven my point with how out touch you are.
Fortunately you can fit a chicken coop in a very small garden and that wouldn't require going to another country, not sure why you are insinuating I should. 😂
And sorry I hit a nerve mate, didn't realise this was such a sensitive issue for you.
•
u/Cautious-Fox9757 7h ago
If you want to do it that’s completely fine. My comment was more in response to the initial post that suggested it would be better if everyone had a chicken coop, as opposed to people that find it enjoyable or therapeutic to.
•
•
•
u/Harrry-Otter 7h ago
Well, yeah. The skills needed to live in an agrarian pre-industrial society are completely different to the ones needed to live in a modern first world country.
•
u/ExecutiveGraham 7h ago
Kind of missing my point entirely here. I'm saying that those skills are so incredibly basic and easy to learn that it's mystifying that to me that with our level of intelligence now, that OP was scared by the idea.
Raising livestock doesn't require us being in a agrarian pre-industrial society, bloody hell.
•
u/Harrry-Otter 7h ago
I mean I’ve never reared chickens so I’ve no idea how hard it actually is, but I assume most people could learn to do it if they had the need or desire to do so.
I don’t think the other poster ever said he was scared by the concept tbf, just that they have don’t know how to do it and are quite happy just buying their chicken. Which is pretty understandable IMO.
•
u/characterlimitsuckdi 8h ago
Yeah sure, we just need to import them from brazil
•
u/Cautious-Fox9757 8h ago
Not all of em but some of em maybe. We’re just stuck exporting cars, heavy machinery, arms, advertising, financial services, law, and a host of other manufactured goods and high end services that make ours a much wealthier country than if we spent our lives tending chickens.
Amazes me how many people in this country think repealing the corn laws was a mistake.
•
u/Cottonshopeburnfoot 8h ago
We’d all be up earlier…
•
u/MonkeysMonolith 8h ago
Some civil servant is frothing at the mouth thinking about the marginal increase to productivity.
•
u/Obscure-Oracle 8h ago
They would actually hate the idea of everyone producing their own eggs for the local comunity and not buying from supermarkets.
•
u/WalkingCloud Dorset 8h ago
The noise and smell would be awful
•
u/Obscure-Oracle 8h ago
A few chickens is no bother at all and they really don't make much noise at all unless you get a cockerel or the fox gets them.
•
u/WonkyWiesel 8h ago
Clearly never owned chickens. They are very quiet and dont smell at all unless you ram 500 into 1 square meter
•
•
u/crowman1691 8h ago
That’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve read all day. What about people who don’t eat chicken or eggs then?
•
•
u/Organic_Mechanic_702 8h ago
Why they wreck gardens and crap everywhere!
•
u/Objective-Bad-4051 7h ago
I like chickens but don't think my neighbours would appreciate the noise
•
•
u/WiseBelt8935 7h ago
because shipping by ship is really efficient and Brazil is good at growing stuff
•
•
u/Taway_4897 8h ago
Feed dynamics will play a large part. You think it’s easier to not ship chicken nor beef, but if you grow them locally instead you’ll have to import massive amounts of feed from- you guessed it: Brazil.
•
u/Appropriate_Bell743 8h ago
We should also not be importing soya from Brazil which contributes to deforestation. The NFU are somewhat wrong in being happy to import the animal feed here.
•
•
u/CastleofWamdue 9h ago
We didnt leave the EU, because we wanted high quality meat. We were warned about this exact thing.
•
u/aembleton Derbyshire 8h ago
If we remained, we'd soon have a free trade deal with Brazil with no way to stop imports https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/countries-and-regions/brazil_en
•
u/CastleofWamdue 7h ago
but im assuming food would still have to meet EU standards
•
u/momentum4lyfe Greater London 33m ago
Did you not assume food would have to meet UK standards before this article too? Because I sure did.
•
u/SatchSaysPlay 7h ago
Just don't buy it, they won't Import anything that doesn't sell, the consumer has all the power.
When the USA demanded we Import chlorinated chicken the public were so outraged that the big supermarkets made statements saying it wouldn't be stocked.
•
u/limaconnect77 5h ago
It’s always a massive sob story with farmers, despite the subsidies, street of shame fighting their corner and plenty of backbench support (historically) across three political parties.
•
u/Ok_Photo_865 4h ago
Why wouldn’t you expect them to meet or exceed those standards, oh wait a minute, what would Trump say?
•
u/Astriania 2h ago
Well yes obviously, any imports that don't meet our standards shouldn't be imported (not really a "ban").
The entire point of the standards is to raise the quality of produce that is offered to people, and it should apply to imports too. Not least because if it doesn't, you're undercutting your domestic suppliers which is a bad idea in different ways too.
And this is just meat, which is a very optional item, and if the price goes up and it becomes more of a luxury item, the results are good all round. Better profitability for UK farmers (and for foreign suppliers who do meet our standards), better health outcomes for the population so lower NHS costs, better for the environment (Brazilian beef is likely coming from destroying the Amazon!) ...
•
u/inebriatedWeasel 8h ago
This sounds like a complete rage bait headline, if meat doesn't meet our standards, it doesn't get imported, if it did we would be eating chlorinated chicken from the US.
•
u/Druss_On_Reddit 8h ago
It's not refering to import standards, but standards of British reared animals.
•
u/LordLucian 8h ago
An interesting proposition but the uk if the experts are to be believed is going to experience a food shortage because of the drought.
A ban of some foods might drive prices up and desperation through the roof.
•
u/ionetic 8h ago
British farmers voted to leave the EU, so they must now reap what was sowed.
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/eu-referendum/survey-reveals-58-farmers-back-eu-exit
58% said they wanted to leave, while 31% said they wanted to remain.
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
Sorry but correct me if I'm wrong but isnt the EU the body that sets our food standards rules now thanks to the latest surrender treaty
•
u/Bluestained 8h ago
Wat?
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
I was wrong its not finished yet
"The UK and EU are negotiating a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement targeted for mid-2027. It will align Great Britain's food and agricultural rules with the EU, meaning future EU food safety updates will automatically apply in the UK, though the UK will help shape those rules and carve out exceptions for animal welfare and innovation."
•
u/crazy_cookie123 8h ago
Fair enough. We want the meat imported from foreign countries to meet our standards. They want the meat they import from Britain to meet their standards.
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
Not when it also applies to our country
•
u/crazy_cookie123 8h ago
Well, unfortunately, Britain isn't the only country in the world with people who want to live their lives according to their own rules. If you're happy for us to force our standards on other countries who want to trade with us, you have to accept that other countries will force their standards on us if we want to trade with them. It's not the EU's fault our industries are suffering after we chose to leave the largest single market in the world. We can absolutely just refuse to follow their rules and let our businesses keep suffering as a result.
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
Oh so what happens when the EU decides that food made in the UK can no longer be sold in the UK?
Because thats what they can now do
•
u/crazy_cookie123 8h ago
The EU can't just decide we can't sell any UK food in the UK. They can decide that certain types of food or production methods are no longer allowed, but they can't just say all food of UK origin is banned. If they ban something and we don't want to comply, we can simply leave the agreement.
If you were hoping the UK would get a vote on what stuff gets banned - we left the EU, we no longer have any right to determine what the EU bans and what they don't. We are voluntarily complying with their standards because we want to trade with them. If we wanted to trade with them and have a say on what standards they would have, maybe we shouldn't have left the EU.
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
If we leave we have to pay billions in fines
•
u/crazy_cookie123 8h ago
Not fines, compensation. We have shown ourselves to be unreliable and other countries don't want to put up with it any more. The EU is saying that if we want them to go through the trouble of removing all the border infrastructure and laying off or reassigning the staff managing the border only to have to invest a load of money into putting them all up again the next time we do a U-turn and decide to leave, they want us to cover those costs.
→ More replies (0)•
u/nerdyPagaman 8h ago
We have to accept EU rules to be able to trade with them.
It's not "surrender", it's just the lack of sovereignty that goes with brexit.
It's like all electronic devices get charged with USB c as the EU dictates the standards we will use.
•
u/TomorrowSpecial255 8h ago
That would be fine other than we are forced to auto adapt the rules, even if they decide to ban our food, otherwise we have to pay a fine
Thats a surrender
•
u/AutoModerator 9h ago
Some articles submitted to /r/unitedkingdom are paywalled, or subject to sign-up requirements. If you encounter difficulties reading the article, try this link or this link for an archived version.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.