Nicholson supports Love Beef Week by encouraging consumers to buy Local Produce first
Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has said that Love Beef Week – an initiative by the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) to highlight Northern Ireland’s exceptional Farm Quality Assured (FQA) beef – reminds us how important it is to support local farmers by buying local produce first. Northern Ireland’s first Love Beef Week has been running from Monday and ends this Saturday (3rd November).
Mr Nicholson also called for more transparent and rigorous food labelling, which shows clearly where the origin of the produce is.
In a statement Mr Nicholson said,
“Over the past year I have been campaigning hard to get the European Commission to ban imports of Brazilian beef to the EU. Time and time again, it has been independently proven to be of a sub – standard nature. Cheap imports of food from South America and South East Asia, which are not produced to the highest of European standards, have done tremendous damage to the local beef and lamb industry.
“However, the Love Beef Week campaign, which has been running all week, provides all of us with a stark reminder of how important it is to support local farmers by purchasing local produce first.
“The long term interest of the agri – food industry is best served by Northern Ireland’s consumers demanding quality local produce. Buying local first strengthens the local economy and also helps the environment. When moving produce around the world we must consider how many food miles the produce has travelled and the environmental impact of moving produce such a large distance.
“To help consumers make an informed choice to buy local produce first, they need more rigorous and transparent food labelling. Inadequate and misleading labelling prevents consumers from being able to make that informed choice.
”In many cases food can be imported to Northern Ireland, processed here, and then labelled in a way that suggests it is genuinely British. This misleading practice must come to an end.”