Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is releasing Euro 18 million over the next five years to improve the quality and safety of organic food in the European Union (EU), by boosting standards in farming, manufacture, transportation and retail. Funded by the EU’s sixth framework programme on research, the ‘QualityLowInputFood’ project will develop new technologies for pork and poultry production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has scotched rumours the accession of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Union in May will lead to their citizens being banned from privately slaughtering pigs for home consumption. Brussels says the rule only covers pork sold commercially, branding the claim a Euro-myth, such as EU laws insisting on straight cucumbers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW electronic European Union (EU) livestock tracing system will hold data on the movement of animals across the entire EU. The TRACES system will cost Euro 2.2 million to rollout this year, and replaces the existing ANIMO and SHIFT computer systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Green Party has kicked off its June 10 European election campaign, which will focus on food safety and preventing repeats of the BSE and salmonella scares that have damaged the European Union (EU) meat industry in recent years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN researchers studying sheep behaviour during breeding season have discovered that 8-10 per cent rams are biologically gay. Brain samples showed distinct differences between “gay” and “straight” sheep. Oregon Health and Science University researchers found densely-packed cell clusters in the hypothalamus were “significantly larger” in rams preferring ewes compared with rams favouring (unprofitable – for farmers) sexual relations with other males.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is examining whether the European Union’s (EU) beef labelling system identifying relevant slaughterhouses and farms, should be reformed to enable beef to be stamped ‘made in the EU’. Under the current EU system, countries of origin are named, causing, claims the Commission in a report, some “re-nationalisation” of the beef trade, especially in retail.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has extended health import controls to certain wild and domesticated hoofed species that were previously not fully covered by such rules (such as horses), to ensure they do not carry illnesses such as classical swine fever and foot and mouth disease into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) last weekend are on course to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. His confident declaration masks a series of problems, however, leading to many temporary exemptions and special measures, giving the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Malta, and Slovenia; the countries between three months and three years extra time to ensure slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should have been in place on May 1.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGRCULCTURAL subsidies to the rich member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were US$318 billion in 2002, of which US$148 billion came from high prices due to tariffs and export subsidies, says the think tank.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned that the number of domesticated livestock breeds worldwide is declining sharply, with 1,350 of the roughly 6,300 FAO registered breeds threatened by extinction or already extinct. The problem has been discussed by a special FAO meeting of national coordinators on animal genetic resources, which is developing a global plan to halt their disappearance.…