NFU fears animal feed prices are set to rocket

Feb 18 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal

THE NATIONAL Farmers Union in England has said it is very concerned about the possibility of huge increases in animal feed over the next 12 months which, it is feared, could be as much as 600%.

The Union was reacting to the news that the Scottish NFU has written to Scotland’s MEPs drawing their attention to a report by the European Commission’s Agricultural Directorate last year.

This predicts rises in animal feed prices of as much as 600% and a major reduction in EU livestock production.

England NFU chief science adviser Helen Ferrier said: “We are also very concerned about the situation of feed supplies and the impact the slow EU authorisations of GM have on the livestock sector.

“The figures in the recent DG agri report are very clear about the significant impact on livestock industry.

“The NFU has written to Commissioners in Brussels and to the FSA on this matter. All the concerns expressed in the NFU’s Press release are ours, too.

“The figures published from the ISAAA this week, ie increasing acreage of GM crops, including in countries from which we import essential protein feed products, and the projections of further growth in the GM sector, demonstrate this problem will get worse unless the EU addresses the asynchronous approvals problem.”

The main problem is the EU’s slow GM authorisation process, where a new variety takes on average two and a half years to be approved, but can take as long as a decade. This compares to only 15 months in the United States, meaning some GM varieties have been approved but cannot be imported into Europe.

The result is a reduction in the amount of non-GM feed potentially available for import into the EU and which can be accessed by livestock farmers in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

So far the impact of this has been negligible but that situation could be about to change.

The US is cultivating a variety of GM maize and is expected to very shortly start growing a GM variety of soybean, the main ingredient of animal feed used in the UK.

Brazil and Argentina are also considering switching to new GM varieties due to the emergence of China as a major importer of the product.

If they do so before the varieties have been approved in the EU, vast increases in feed prices have been predicted.

The Scottish NFU predicts that rising feed prices could cause the loss of a third of the EU pig sector, half the poultry sector, a huge rise in meat imports and the effective end of meat exports.

However, Friends of the Earth have challenged the need for GM crops to exist at all in its report ‘Who benefits from GM crops?’, which was published this week.

According to the environmentalist activists, GM crops have led to a large increase in pesticide use worldwide and have failed to increase yields or tackle world hunger.