Agriculture

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:42 pm on 28 October 1999.

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Photo of Tim Yeo Tim Yeo Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2:42, 28 October 1999

My hon. Friend anticipates me. However, I fear that, after two months in the job, the Minister suffers from two shortcomings. The first is that he no longer enjoys the support of the Prime Minister. The second is that, for all his decency and charm, he does not seem to be strong enough to do the job and stand up for British consumers and farmers who look to him for a lead. Recent events have made both shortcomings painfully apparent.

In our debate eight days ago, the feeding practices of French livestock farmers were not mentioned because hardly anyone in Britain was aware of them. Last Friday, however, we learned that some French cattle, chickens and pigs had been fed with sewage sludge. So that the House is in no doubt, let me explain that the term "sewage sludge" includes the solid waste removed by filters, material resulting from the chemical and physical processing of waste water and residues resulting from the biological treatment of waste water.

The European Commission inspectors found that in some French plants, not only animal and industrial waste but human waste was incorporated into the sewage sludge subsequently used in animal feed. The existence of that practice was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of Health or 10 June 1999. In the four months that followed, Ministers took no action whatever to warn consumers in Britain that French chicken, pork and beef sold here had come from animals fed in that way.