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- The question mark over the safety of French food grew
last night as the boycott by British shoppers spread.
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- New evidence emerged that a
vast proportion of meat produced
by French farmers contains banned
drugs.
-
- The
revelation will infuriate consumers already outraged
at the way the
French have defied a Europe-wide ruling that British beef
is safe and
Friday's disclosure that French livestock has been raised on
sewage
mixed with mud and sludge from septic tanks.
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- Now French farmers have
admitted that their animals are
routinely fed hormones and antibiotics
banned under EU regulations. The
growth drugs are banned throughout
Europe because EU scientists have yet
to be convinced they are not
linked to cancer and there are worries that
widespread use of
antibiotics can lead to dangerous microbe resistance
to treatment for
infections.
-
- Until now French farming unions have boasted of their
'100 per
cent hormone-free' beef. But last night a senior official of the
French
farming union broke ranks to destroy that claim.
-
- Jean-Claude Depoil, a regional
boss of the FDSEA ñ
the equivalent of Britain's National Farmers
Union ñ said: 'Eighty
per cent of industrially produced meat in
France is tainted with illegal
drugs, hormones, growth activators or
anti-biotics. We know this because
of tests carried out by farming
union scientists independently.
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- 'Most of these drugs are supplied secretly by farm vets.
They pocket a backhander from the farmer and keep quiet about it. They
can make a bit of extra cash this way and the farmers can keep producing
bigger and bigger animals.' He was backed by farming expert Dr Yves
Fournier,
of Bordeaux University, who said the French government knew
the problem
was rife.
-
- 'The government does not have the motivation to put in
place a rigorous system of cattle random drugs testing,' he said.
-
- And M. Depoil added:
'The technology is available for
all meat to be automatically tested
using DNA technology before it reaches
the shops and also have the
piece of meat traced right back to that farmer
who raised it.
-
- 'Sadly France lacks
the political will to put this measure
into place.'
-
- In Britain, Tim Yeo,
the Shadow Agriculture Secretary,
said: 'It's a startling new example
of French hypocrisy. As far as I know
the EU law has been very
rigorously observed here and there should now
be an EU inspection to
establish whether this evidence of it being broken
in France is
substantiated.'
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