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Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones: The speech of the hon. Member for North Dorset (Mr. Walter) made the case for devolution better than any argument that I have ever heard. It was paternalistic and arrogant, and the hon. Gentleman failed to understand the concept of devolution. It is little wonder that his party's vote collapsed in Wales during the recent elections to the National Assembly. On that performance, it will never rise again.
All that we seek to achieve through the amendments is to enable Wales to be treated in the same way as Scotland and Northern Ireland. I would have listened to the hon. Gentleman's remarks much more carefully if he had read the National Assembly's report on beef on the bone. He quoted selectively from the Western Mail, but he failed to tell the House that, in that same report, is a quote from the Conservative Member of the Committee, saying in terms that he accepted that the issue of lifting the beef-on-the-bone ban was not as simple as he had originally thought.
The National Assembly has decided not to abrogate its responsibility but to listen to the medical advice. When that becomes available in August, we shall reconsider the matter. The hon. Gentleman quotes extensively from some Assembly documents to support his case, but simply ignores others.
Having put on the record the correct position with regard to the National Assembly, I am sure that the Minister will be pleased to know that, on the basis that he accepts amendment No. 35 and that a quarter of a loaf is better than no loaf at all, I shall not press the three amendments that he was unable to accept, and that I also beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Motion and clause, by leave, withdrawn.
Mr. Chris Mullin (Sunderland, South):
I beg to move amendment No. 11, in page 3, line 19, at end insert--
The amendment would include among the agency's functions a duty to examine the effects on human health of farming systems with low standards of animal health
and welfare. It extends the agency's remit in three areas, each of which has implications for human health--first, the conditions in which animals raised for their meat are reared; secondly, the routine use of antibiotics for growth or the suppression of disease, and, thirdly, conditions in slaughterhouses. I shall deal with each in turn.
I make it clear at the outset that I do not wish to see the principal responsibility for the welfare of farm animals taken away from the animal welfare division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which, by and large, does a fine job. I simply argue that the Food Standards Agency needs to be able to address all the elements that jeopardise food safety, and those clearly include poor animal welfare.
I make it clear, too, that I do not suggest that intensive animal husbandry is responsible for all or even most of the threats to food safety. Obviously, there are many other factors, including the way in which food is stored and prepared in the catering industry and at home. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the growth of industrial farming has coincided with a dramatic increase in food poisoning--by more than 450 per cent. during the past 15 years. No doubt, there are many explanations for that, but I should be surprised if that was not in some way connected with the appalling conditions in which so many farm animals are reared.
Most pigs, chickens and turkeys are intensively farmed. Broilers--chickens reared for their meat--are kept for their entire lives in huge windowless sheds, which are so overcrowded that, as the birds grow, the floor is scarcely visible. The birds are kept on litter, usually wood shavings, which is often never changed throughout their short miserable lives. Those birds often literally live in their own excrement. It is hardly surprising that bacteria flourish in such conditions.
Three years ago, the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food concluded:
The second part of my amendment deals with the routine use of antibiotics artificially to suppress the diseases caused by intensive animal husbandry. That must also have implications for human health. For many factory farmers, antibiotics have become a substitute for hygiene and good practice and they are also used to promote growth. Quite apart from the moral issues involved, that gross misuse of drugs is bound to have implications
for human health. I am not a scientist, but it seems to me that one inevitable consequence of that will be the encouragement of the growth of bacteria that are resistant not only to antibiotics used on animals, but to those used by humans. In my view, human and animal welfare are inextricably linked.
When I intervened on my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on Second Reading, he told me that the use of antibiotics as growth promoters would be within the remit of the agency. My amendment makes that explicit and goes a little further: it would enable the agency to address the misuse of antibiotics for veterinary purposes--that is, as a substitute for humane conditions.
Finally, my amendment would give the agency power to take an interest in conditions in slaughterhouses, where they are relevant to human health. Modern abattoirs are capable of slaughtering as many as 300 pigs or 8,000 chickens an hour. At that rate, even with the best will in the world--that is not always present--it will be nigh on impossible to safeguard either the welfare of animals or the hygiene of the meat. I shall leave to one side for the purpose of this debate the unspeakable cruelty to which industrial killing on such a scale gives rise and focus instead solely on the implications for human health.
The 1996 report of the Advisory Committee onthe Microbiological Safety of Food identified slaughterhouses as a significant contributor to the high levels of salmonella and campylobacter found in poultrymeat. The Committee said:
Mr. Paice:
I want to put on record a few of the Opposition's thoughts on the amendment. We sympathise very much with a number of the points made by the hon. Member for Sunderland, South (Mr. Mullin) about the objective of ensuring that our food is humanely and hygienically reared and hygienically slaughtered and processed. However, we have some real doubts about some of those points and the way in which the amendment could operate.
First, the word "inadequate" appears twice in the amendment. I suggest that what is and is not inadequate welfare is a highly subjective matter, and that word in itself would cause major legal problems of interpretation. Secondly, I should put it on record that I think it is very unwise to suggest or imply that different systems of animal welfare automatically bring with them different hygiene and food safety issues. There will not necessarily be such a conjunction. The example of eggs was mentioned in Committee and there is evidence that eggs
produced in well-managed battery cages are probably more hygienic and less likely to carry salmonella than free-range eggs. The difference is not the system of welfare and of keeping animals, but the standard of husbandry, the management and the human aspect. The point is not whether chickens, pigs or whatever are kept in a particular system, but whether they are managed effectively.
'(1B) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Agency has the function of--
(a) investigating and monitoring the effect on food safety of--
(i) animal husbandry systems and practices with inadequate standards of animal health and welfare;
(ii) the routine use of antibiotics on farm animals for growth promotion or prophylactic purposes; and
(iii) slaughterhouse systems and practices with inadequate standards of hygiene and animal welfare; and
(b) developing policies relating to any matters identified during the investigation and monitoring mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) which the Agency considers have a significant effect on food safety.'.
"Poultry meat continues to be a significant route for the transmission of salmonella and campylobacter into industrial, domestic and catering environments."
The committee drew attention to a 1994 survey by the Public Health Laboratory Service, which found that 41 per cent. of UK-produced frozen chickens and one third of chilled chickens were infected with salmonella. Those figures may be coming down, but they are far too high. Supermarkets find that around 10 per cent. of the 720 million chickens slaughtered each year are infected--that is, 72 million chickens infected each year.
"Slaughter and processing operations give rise to a very wide range of practices which can have a serious effect on the spread of microbiological contamination".
My amendment would bring slaughterhouses within the remit of the agency. I appreciate that it may be argued that there are other agencies with responsibility for the regulation of factory farming and slaughterhouses. I wish them well in their work and I have no desire to diminish their powers. In the interests of joined-up government, which we are all in favour of these days, the Food Standards Agency will no doubt want to work closely with them in any case, but I do not see why slaughterhouses, where relevant, should not fall within the remit of the agency. I commend the amendment to the House.
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