A new film, Death on a plate: TTIP, meat inspections and your food, launched today (26 November) by UNISON and War on Want, lays bare the grave threat a new trade deal poses to the food we eat.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is currently being negotiated by the EU and the US. As part of the trade deal, the EU wants to end port inspections of imported meat products – even when lives are threatened by new outbreaks of BSE, e-coli, salmonella, and other fatal diseases, say War on Want and Unison.
At the same time, the EU is planning to put an end to independent meat inspections in Britain and other European countries, despite fears this will lead to new outbreaks of food poisoning and thousands of food-related deaths.
John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want, said“Millions of people across Britain will be put at risk of eating contaminated food if new rules on meat production are brought in by Brussels. Using TTIP to scrap port inspections of imported meat is a threat to people’s lives.
“It is no secret big business sees EU food standards as a barrier to profits, yet it is these standards that protect public health and animal welfare. It is time politicians listened to the 3.3 million Europeans who are calling for an end to TTIP negotiations. Food safety is a matter of life and death.”
Paul Bell, National Officer at UNISON, said: We are hugely concerned at the public health implications of ending independent meat inspections.
“Removing contamination from meat saves lives. Given the many instances of contaminated meat found by independent meat inspectors each year, we should be raising standards, not lowering them. This is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”
* Death on a plate: TTIP, meat inspections and your food https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kYxIfHqjhBg
* War on Want http://www.waronwant.org/
* Unison https://www.unison.org.uk/
[Ekk/4]
Diaspora*
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Technorati
StumbleUpon